Notices

Hi everybody,
I've got some question about the usage of new Nokia 900 for business. I'm coming from Windows Mobile experience (the worst one, a digital nightmare which I'm anxious to exit ) and I want to understand if Nokia 900 is could be the right choice to replace my old HTC.


Outlook integration
Even if my collegues and I works and deploy applications on linux, or company desktop client are still Windows based so the first question is if at present Maemo/N900 is able to sync Contacts, Calendar, Messages, ToDo and Notes with Outlook. Specially I mean Outlook stand-alone syncronization (not only the Exchange infrastructure). ActiveSync was one of the most buggy program I ever used but I'd like to have for the nokia N900 those features are supposed to offer.
Before fall into the Windows Mobile nightmare I was using Nokia devices syncing data with Outlook using "Nokia PC Suite": that was even worse than ActiveSync! I really hated PC Suite and it was the reason I switched to Pocket PC. One for all:
I was continuosly missing informations. I don't remember details but PC Suite supported a subset of data model so with every sync I was loosing data. (For example, suppose PC Sync is not supporting fieldA: when you sync a contact outlook > nokia on your phone you haven't of course fieldA. When the contact is synced back nokia > outlook, PC Suite destroy the fieldA because he doesn't know it!). So what about syncing Maemo N900 using PC Suite? Will I have the same nightmare?


Mobile Email client
N900 has an impressive internet navigation feature with mozilla but I wasn't able to understand what kind of support it has for email management. Have you got information of email client and how is it powerfull?
Is it possibile to manage multiple accounts via pop3, smtp, imap protocols? Of course I'm not referring to Nokia push notification service, I want to understand how can I manage email directly.

Thank you in advance
handrea

Good questions, as I'm also considering this for business. You might also want to check thread http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=31309

Can someone merge these threads?

if you want great outlook integration, i think your best bet would be to stay with windows mobile. windows mobile 6.5 is coming out soon...all the samsung omnia's as well as the new bigass htc phone will be getting wm6.5 which hopefully will be much better than wm 6.1.

It's using Modest.

http://modest.garage.maemo.org/

Or, grep for "modest maemo" on youtube.

Compared to Modest on Diablo, it has gone through a complete UI overhaul, and of course received tons of non-ui-related backend improvements. Those are not secret either, you can view the git logs since the fremantle version has already been open sourced.

Definitely. It also has an open plugin system that allows adding your own account providers if you feel like coding one ;-).

The Ovi Suite should, I think, provide this functionality once it adds support for n900. Still, I'd wait until the thing is out to make sure...

Of course, If you hated the previous PC suite, I don't think this is going to be much better experience

Well, I don't think its a good idea to suggest WinMo to this gentleman since he already expressed his disdain for it. Since this IS a Maemo forum, I suggest you go ahead with the N900, but rely on your old WinMo device for corporate email and syncing until the community creates a solution. Since those are common tasks for most IT heads and geeks, I expect a solution to be forthcoming pretty quickly.

If you get a new WinMo device, you'll be stuck with it for the 18-24 months until the next upgrade. Instead, just get the N900 and have faith in the community. You aren't the only one wanting those features, and this community is designed to fulfill the needs of the OS and its users. From what I've seen, it works pretty well.

I look forward to great syncing apps for the N900 very soon.

@christ: what an interesting advice coming from someone who hasn't used any maemo devices

imho, it would be best for someone to buy the device when they can be 100% sure that the features and functionalities they expect are already implemented on the device well.

there's no point to tell them to get on board maemo\n900 by promising them the world, only to disappoint them in the future if it's not fulfilled (are you personally in the position to help them fulfill it?).

Maybe in the recent weeks he has found tremendous faith in the Maemo communities ability to deliver world class solutions. Anyway I believe the Nokia N900 supports PIM synchronization via PC-Suite that should help with business users until the community creates new solutions, ports existing solutions etc.

Normally I would say that if there is a big demand, then capitalism will take over and someone will want to create a better solution to sell. Somehow I think the more acceptable description for this forum is that someone will find issue with the existing functionality in their own work and will build a better solution to fix the issues they are facing, once done they will share it with the world.

I haven't seen anything on the Exchange Active Sync support to fully understand what it's bringing to the table. If it's a port of the S60 Mail for Exchange app then I hope that it's the new client with improved integration. They finally bring subfolder support to Mail for Exchange with an improved interface. If it's a port of the S60v5 app then it's going to leave something to be desired. Lack of subfolder support at this point is pretty unacceptable. And there may be those that think that since it isn't targeted for the corporate market that this is okay... It's not. If you're going to advertise a feature, do it correctly.

As to PC Suite sync, you are correct about the field differentials between Nokia devices and Outlook. I've lost all kinds of numbers because of field differentials. They've improved it a bit but the real rule of thumb that I've followed to stay safe is to ALWAYS enter your contact information into Outlook and sync it to the device and not the other way around. This helps to maintain your data and prevent loss.

@chris Are you kidding........



The worst thing you can do as a fan boy is to tell someone to go drop a huge chunk of change on something that currently doesn't work they way they want and then have them disappointed!!!!!

One guy walking around saying 'I bought this piece of **** and it doesn't do this or that' is far greater loss than can be replaced my many people being positive.

I usually trust advice more from people that are willing to look at other options rather than blindly keep propping something that they think is right.

@handrea, @pelago

If outlook support is the big stumbling block I would sit back and watch a little while. People may be able to port this type functionality but I don't think its going to be high on the list.

Epi