back to: Articles Archive
New Value Coming to Windows Mobile
By Dale Walls
Many times you’ve probably heard the statement similar to “…I don’t know how we made it without cell phones or email.” It’s kind of funny that as of late I’ve been hearing customers make the same claim regarding their Windows Mobile device. In 2006, Windows Mobile brought us real-time email, calendar, contact, and task communications to the palm of our hand. Probably the most proclaimed advantage of Windows Mobile was from Microsoft Exchange users who experience synchronization with their Office mailbox rather and a duplication of it.
Last year Microsoft experienced the adoption of the Windows Mobile platform with growth over 135% making it the world’s fastest growing mobile operating system. This year Redmond is shooting to keep the ball rolling with the launch of Windows Mobile 6 (WM6). The latest version of this mobile favorite is prepped to expand the existing conveniences to further increase your personal productivity.
Some of the new features will be available to all users regardless of their email server; others will find that coupled with Exchange 2007 server, WM6 will take you much deeper into options normally only available from your desk. Base improvements will include support for HTML e-mail, Contacts history tracking, improved security, and Internet sharing. With a world-wide adoption of marketing services such as Constant Contact (www.corsicatech.com/cctrial), we find ourselves inundated with emails with pictures, text, and web links. Current mobile platforms display these web formatted emails as undecipherable text rendering them useless while on the road. Windows Mobile 6 will allow users to view their HTML emails as originally intended.
Another great feature is the ability to track call history respective to your contacts. For example, now you can only view a chronological view of call history; in WM6 you’ll be able to reference call history respective to individual contacts. Security improvements include the ability to easily enroll internal certificates and enable storage card encryption. To put these features in context, imagine leaving your Windows Mobile phone in a restaurant, hotel, or taxi cab. Worse yet, imagine that it gets stolen. In the wrong hands, your valuable email and contact information could be maliciously accessed. Currently, Windows Mobile 5 devices operating with a Exchange 2003 SP2 server can be remotely erased by your server administrator. In WM6, you can be assured that your storage card information was encrypted and, with Exchange 2007, you could even log onto your Outlook Web Access portal and erase the device remotely yourself.
Beyond being able to remotely erase your device if it were lost or stolen, Exchange 2007 brings many more advanced features to your WM6 phone. One of the most sought after features finally making it to your mobile emails will be the ability to utilize the Follow-up flags. Many have been awaiting this functionality and with WM6 you’ll finally have it. Another convenient feature available through Exchange 2007 will be to configure Out of Office announcements from your WM6 phone. This option will allow you to retrieve, set, and change your Out of Office status and AutoReply message from your WM6 device.
Exchange 2007 and SharePoint users will be happy to learn that WM6 will allow for access to SharePoint documents via links listed in emails. Additionally Exchange e-mail Search functionality will allow a WM6 device to query for any email contained in your Exchange 2007 mailbox. This option is intended to align with Microsoft’s other Search initiatives found in Windows Vista and Office 2007 applications.
Other notable improvements are improved calendar viewing and attendee tracking, additional keyboard shortcuts, and Global Address List (GAL) access. The Internet sharing feature is designed to streamline access to the Internet via Bluetooth, wireless, or cable connections to your Windows Mobile phone.
With the thousands of online applications for Windows Mobile devices available, many have found useful tools or applications and added them to your phone. If you’ve purchased or utilize Windows Mobile 5 applications, Microsoft claims that these programs will be able to run on your WM6 device without any changes required.
Some devices are available from wireless phone providers now. So just when you though your favorite pocket gadget couldn’t get any better, now you can look forward to another long list of features that in a few years you’ll be wondering just how you did without.Dale Walls is President of Corsica Technologies, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner & Small Business providing complete IT Solutions for businesses, government, and home computing in Maryland, DC, and Virginia. Feel free to contact Dale at 443.262.9290, or by email at dale@corsicatech.com.
