With the race to provide the all inclusive user interface which consumers demand, Good Technology is really breaking out the big guns.  Due out later this month in the form of a functional limited release program, Good Technology will be gracing the iPhone in all (well almost all) of it’s enterprise class messaging glory.  The early features will utilize the push notifications and maintain a completely separate and quite useable UI.

What  really gets this blogger is that Good Technology will officially have the three major platforms which have generated an imense buzz in the technology world, even more than BlackBerry and their dated technology.  WebOS, iPhone, and Android will all be officially supported by the enterprise messaging underdog.  Their current client server model which bests RIM’s BES in a major way featuring the positive acknowledgement message delivery should remain unchanged in their upcoming server release which will be the backbone supporting the new device operating systems.

Here’s to the future!..take that BlackBerry

via Forbes

Now this may not be the type of news the apple fanboys or RIM junkies are looking for, but for those power users still rocking their Fuzes or dare I say Titans… this is great news.  From my experience with the cooked Omnia and HTC ROMS sporting WinMo 6.5 I have to report this as being a total UI revitalization. Still after using the devices for a while you reveal the core of the OS… the CE 5.0 Kernel.  What I’m most excited about is that this puts us one step closer to the Zunesque type devices coming in the near future with WINMO 7… Microsoft’s finally getting the hint that most users don’t RTFM and want their device to just work.

the iphone.  Now while selection in this category is quite limited, it has a significant share of the market’s profits with only 3% of the market.   Still the experience is lacking when compared to workstation or Good Messaging, or even BES.  Message delivery is tempermental (but that could possibly be attributed to Sprint), Flag For Follup Up is missing (but BES doesn’t even have that yet either), GAL lookups are slow… in short, not quite there.  Admins should be delighted to know that Good Messaging Version 6 SR 1 or higher will support the Pre and the iPhone.  Somewhere towards the end of this year…  Users should rejoice because now when they break it, Admins can actually fix it.  Let’s have a party!

With the ever changing world of wireless smartphones why has RIM released a device which again, doesn’t bring anything new to the table.  The BlackBerry Tour, which has been heavily marketed by Verizon Wireless and Sprint, has demonstrated RIM’s lack of ingenuity in the wireless marketplace.  Keep it up RIM and you’ll end up like Motorola… So why is the public so blind when it comes to the re-packaging of the same old crap?  Actually, it’s even crappier considering it lacks wifi.  The device does have a nice form factor and all, but us true “mobile warriors” can see right through all the smoke and mirrors to reveal the same old boring device… a whole 1+ years after the initial boring devices were released. (bold and storm)  Join the revolution!!!

Something you 24/7 BES and Good Admins are probably wishing you had is the ability to perform basic tasks when remote.  Well, thanks to the advanced browser rendering of the iphone, and the Good Administration Center this is possible.  Your organization would have to publish the url for the GAC over the internet, but it is in fact possible.  Now there was rumors of a handheld client coming to Good Mobile Messaging for BlackBerry devices, but I don’t think that will happen.  Instead, what the future holds for organizations that run a split BES/GMM/EAS environment is a tool to be able to manage your wireless users from a centralized GUI.  Now how about that for simplicity!  Did this functionality come as part of the settlement RIM made with Visto Corporation?  Whatever it was, it’s nice… and the idea of being able to add a user to the BES or GMM server while sitting on a beach really makes me jump for joy!

Unlock the Lock

It’s pretty simple, really. Just like every other phone out now, the iPhone allows you enter a 4 digit pass code to lock the phone whenever the screen goes blank. This is quite useful in order to keep prying eyes and hands out of, say, some “personal” photos you took of yourself in the shower after manscaping, or risque emails, or whatever other sick things you do with you phone. However it’s also supposed to act a deterrent against someone who randomly picks up your from keeping because it would otherwise be useless to the. Thanks to the advent of voice operation in the somewhat new 3GS we are easily able to circumvent this protection with just a long and steady hold of the Home button. It should be noted that you can only do a few things with Voice Control, it won’t let you launch any apps or see the Spring Board. However you can dial any number you want or play music, albeit randomly. It’s a dilemma, you want to be able to access voice control without having to unlock (or look at) your phone to do so. However, one would assume that you want the lock to actually serve it’s purpose. I wonder if anyone can thing of a better way of skinning this cat.

Another hot tidbit is that GMM is officially in the roadmap for Good Mobile Messaging support.  The enterprise class messaging platform is initially going to use the push notifications currently in use by select iPhone applications.  One amazing feature of this will be the ability to have two… count ‘em 1+1… enterprise based messaging suites.  One will utilize Good and the other will use Exchange ActiveSync.  Who should this be huge news for?  IT admins who need to monitor a test environment as well as their production environment, sniveling assistants who manage their master’s contacts, calendar, and mailbox size, and plain old people who might be running a home/personal exchange server but also need access to their corporate mailbox.

Now for a feature request if I may… How about Good Messaging integrating a client which has the ability to sync only one aspect of the mailbox, ie, calendar only…  This way, the super busy executive won’t have to compromise their mail to have some one wirelessly manage their calendar.

Ok, so patching any server is never just a walk in the park… but it’s not supposed to be the sort of thing which has to be attempted more than once.  Each failed attempt makes “higher ups” more and more wary of the competency of the IT staff.  So what types of concerns are there with the BES patch process?Well it’s not so much the process… actually, it’s not the post-patch issues.  Once patching has occurred, the BES needs to make connection with each and every device to push out new service books and “re-scan” the users’ mailboxes.  While this process really isn’t all that complicated, the time it takes to re-connect with each device is significant.  This time is increased exponentially when there’s a hefty amount of users.

Let’s just say an organization has about 2000 users on a single BES which they’d like to patch to say 4.1.6 or 5.0.  As it stands, post-patching connectivity would probably take in the neighborhood of about a day or two.  What self-respecting business has that much time to have users without connectivity?  So as a word of advice… When implimenting a new BES environment, go with the highest possible version to delay having to patch.

Incident for BlackBerry PIN to PIN service for subscribers of “The Americas

Network”

Impact: BlackBerry subscribers may experience delays in receiving PIN

messages and may receive an “x” when sending PIN messages.

Incident Window Start Date and Time: 23 July 2009 14:46:00 (EDT).

Duration: Ongoing

Seems like BlackBerry’s PIN messaging went down for a short while last night.  This would affect all those users wishing to send super-secrect messages…  Sorry guys, but it looks like you’ll have to learn how to use good ol email to communicate.  RIM still seems to be ironing out some kinks with their Network Operations.  Several system wide outages over the past few months could mean nothing or everything depending on how your organization uses their services.  It can be easy to get lured into the ease of deployment, the all-in-one solution, the ease of troubleshooting ect… But when you throw an outage here, an outage there… it quickly becomes an IT nightmare.  One unexpected outage can easily become 50-100 phone calls and emails.  As for other enterprise class wireless messaging solutions, I have yet to see the same sort of security issues.