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Posts Tagged ‘email’

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The INQ 1- Student Perspective Part 2

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

Last week I covered the basics of the INQ1 now I am going to be looking in depth at the applications in particular the social networking ones.

Facebook
Let’s be honest, this is probably the reason why you bought this phone. When you first start the phone you are asked to pop in your Facebook log in details, it then asks you if you want to sync your contacts with Facebook. It then pretty quickly pulled my 500+ friends from Facebook, including their last status update and Facebook profile picture. What it does not do sadly, (which I think is restricted to the Facebook API) is pull down mobile numbers from their profile. I will be talking about the Social Phonebook in more detail later. Like Jonathan I found it was behind my browser version, and I found the application was constantly updating. This I found to be a constant pain, I really hope they implement options so the user can choose options ie update every 30 minutes. I really did not understand the need for the constant updating and I am sure this had an effect on battery life as well. Will this bring Facebook do your normobs? Yes it will in a big way, no pointing to the mobile Facebook URL etc just there one simply quick from your dock or the menu. The integration for new messages again I found this good something another manufacturer has never done before, any new messages, pokes or requests appear as a new alert in the messaging tab. I again found this to be slow, and behind the web version, which meant on occasions it said I had a new Facebook message when I had already read it. I think the issue is that none of the pokes, messages are stored on the device so if you cannot get online you cannot read your inbox. I think this is again possibly due to Facebook API restrictions.

Windows Live Messenger
Quite possibly the best application on the phone, it allows you to minimise and you can receive IM alerts in the back ground. Three have always had a good relationship in WLM and in the INQ 1 this really shows. Top Marks to the INQ 1 this application brings WLM to your mobile, anyone who has used messenger on their computer will be able to use this application.

Email on 3
Three have done it again with this application, 4 clicks and you have email set up. This has got all the standard email services set up Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and a whole range of ISP emails. If you have one of the pre defined email services as your provider you are laughing.

Skype
Please read my opinion on Skype here. I do not use Skype; I don’t see the point in it. I never used the application so I could not tell you my thoughts on it.

Last FM
This is a very small add on however it integrates with the music player, on a Nokia you would need to download an add on such as Mobbler to allow your track to be scrobbled, however the INQ chaps have got this in built all you need to do is put your username and password in.

Camera
The phone has a 3.2 mega pixel camera which is acceptable there is no flash, which is a real shame however you can shoot video as well. There are also options to send your pictures by MMS, Bluetooth, email and Facebook. It was a little bit sad to see that Flickr was not an option; however it was nice to see some ShoZu-like elements had been integrated into the handset.

Internet Modem Capability
This was a feature that we saw on the Skype Phone 2, where all you need to is plug in your INQ and it has all the drivers on bored to install a modem. This allows you to browse the web on your laptop in a matter of two minutes; the process is very quick and simple.

The Social Phonebook
If there is one feature in my opinion that the INQ1 will be remembered by it is this feature. All of the social networks allow you to download your contacts to your handset. The handset then allows you to merge all the contacts together, and then when scrolling the phonebook you can see in real time if that person is available on Skype, WLM or Facebook. An example is if Ewan is one of my contacts I have him on my WLM and Facebook. If I went down to his entry, I can choose to send him an Instant Message, Call, SMS, MMS, Email, Facebook Message or Facebook Poke. The other really clever feature is that for example if I did not have his number I can click straight through to his Facebook Profile and call him straight from there (providing he has his number made visible). When Ewan calls me, his current Facebook Profile Picture does pops up; some of you may say well you can do that on any handset which is true. However it is not as simple as putting your Facebook details in when you get the phone.

Summary
So what are my final thoughts on this handset? I feel that INQ have rushed this device, and there are some issues that I have highlighted over the past two weeks that have annoyed me. The main one being the constant refreshing of the Facebook Application, this is extremely frustrating and a battery killer. I am really looking forward to INQ bringing out some new handsets this year, there are rumours of a keyboard (a possible G1 or N97 rival) variant and hopefully a touch screen version as well. If INQ make social networking this easy, I believe we will see a massive increase in the amount of social networking done from a mobile in the future especially as some of the networks (here in the UK at least) have some good value data packages!

INQ is definitely a manufacturer we will be watching here at Mobile Industry Review I have a feeling they have some impressive handsets ahead.

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Posted in Mobile, Operators, Three | Comments

Teamer uses text & email to organise sports teams

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

I’ve been waiting for one of these. For a long time I’ve met lots of different people who have been working on the concept of designing a system that will help sports team managers organise games and player availability.

I’ve never been a sports manager — in fact I haven’t actually ever played in a sports team during my adult life. But I know lots of folk who have — and I know one or two who are tasked with sorting it all out — and it’s a total arse.

Teamer sorts it all out. Stick in the names of all the possible players and Teamer will query their availability by text and email and help you send immediate announcements to teams. So even if you’re sat in New York on business on Monday morning, you can confirm your availability for Friday’s match.

Smart.

It’s entirely free to use in the UK but there are some fees applicable for the US and Australia.

If you’re a sports team manager or you know someone that is, check out Teamer and let me know how you get on.

(Thanks for the link, Michael)

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Posted in SMS | Comments

Email dictation on your Blackberry with MyCaption

Monday, October 27th, 2008

Reader Jeremy emailed me in details about MyCaption — a service offering the ability to dictate email messages via voice.

All you have to do is (for example) click on the “Reply (MyCaption)” menu link and speak. When you’re finished, the MyCaption service will insert the dictated text into your typing window.

I think this is a great concept — my problem is that voice-to-text is ridiculously rubbish with my accent (which is a mix between Scottish and Londonish).

Provided you’ve got an accept that works well with these types of services, you could be on to a winner. I like the idea of being able to dictate my email messages.

Much like SpinVox, this service is available for $9.95/month by PayPal — and that includes 20 standard message dictations. (Standard = 1 minute length).

Stump up $24.95 and you can have unlimited standard messages and up to 30 3 minute messages per month. Or pay as you go — $10 gets you 20 standard messages to use when you wish.

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Posted in Applications | Comments

The Ultimate Mobile Email System: Does it exist?

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

I have, for a long time, been hunting for the ultimate mobile email system.

It doesn’t exist, as far as I am concerned, yet.

There are some brilliant possibilities for normobs. For example, last night I watched as Honour Pearson of Momail described in 20 seconds how Jonathan MacDonald’s wife could get mobile email setup on her Sony Ericsson.

Momail is a brilliantly eloquent solution for mobile email.

Good Mobile Messaging absolutely rocks.

Blackberry’s own mail system works beautifully with Exchange.

My problem is that I use Google Applications. We use it for Mobile Industry Review for a number of reasons. First I need my assistants and team to be able to access each others’ accounts — and mine, in particular, on a regular basis. I don’t want them using some tuppence-ha’penny rubbish web client. I need them to have immediate 2-second query access to my entire 15 gig MIR email archive.

Outlook, even 2007, just can’t handle the volume of email. Apple Mail is particularly useless, as is Entourage — in fact any client that I can think of comes creaking to a halt after you thrown in a few gig of mail and want to try and search it quickly.

Whatever tools or technical gubbins that you throw at me (“Outlook email search, anyone?”) it’s simply not good enough for me.

So we use Google Apps.

I can get IMAP access. But that’s shit. It’s rubbish. It’s like being back in the dark ages. But I can’t get my contacts. I can’t search it. I can use Google’s various clients. Not good enough. Again, they’re brilliant for the normobs. But when I need real time access to my mail — and we use our mail accounts here at MIR as business critical tools, I can’t be arsing about doing send-and-receives or trying to navigate stupid IMAP folder structures.

Often I use the mobile mail version of Google Apps. Or I use my Blackberry on IMAP. Or currently, I’m using the Motorola Q9’s windows mobile messaging inbox — checking my email by IMAP.

Again, highly, highly stupid. I actually have to hit send-and-receive. Crazy. Back in the dark ages. Turn on the check-every-five-minutes option and the battery is dead — and I mean KAPUT — within 6 hours.

Fooking rubbish.

Flocking useless.

What do I do?

I like to have real time messaging. I like the ability to be able to query my knowledge base — my inbox — quickly and swiftly.

Yesterday I was talking to Carl from Trutap. I said he should talk to the chaps who setup ping.fm and see if they could do a deal of sorts. Somewhere deep in my inbox is an errant email or mention of the ping.fm chap’s contact information.

I took one look at my device and apologised to Carl.

“I’ll, er, need to send that to you later.”

I wasn’t about to bring up the Q9’s shite web browser, login to Google Apps Mail and start searching it. I didn’t want to use up 10 minutes of Carl’s valuable time whilst we both stared into space, waiting for my infrastructure to perform.

I’ll tell you what I’d really like though.

I know how it looks. Mobile Email Nirvana.

It’s Good Mobile Messaging, crossed with Google Mail.

And that’s me. I’d be done.

If you’ve never checked out Good Mobile, take a bit of time to evaluate it. It’s a super, super interface into Exchange (or Lotus Rubbish). It works on Nokia, it works on Windows Mobile. It looks the same on either platform. BUT it only works with Exchange. ONLY.

There are hints. There are murmerings. There are slight, small, did-you-catch-that rumours that perhaps Good Mobile Messaging may well plug into Google Apps.

If they did, they’d have a customer in me. I’d love to be able to get real time email on my device of choice along with the ability to query my entire inbox and do all the kinds of things that Google Mail offers (archival and so on). And I’d like it to work with the Google Apps calendars, contacts and documents. I’d pay good money for this.

The challenge is whether or not other people would. I recognise that I’m a bit of a special case. For most folk, a mobilised Exchange account works fine. If other folk don’t need it, then there’s limited amount of value in developing the system.

One bright light could be Android. If some smart chaps knock up the mobile equivalent of Mailplane and hook your Google contacts/calendar into that of your Android device, we could be rocking.

Until then. Gahhh.

Any suggestions?

Oooh.

I suppose I could <i>try</i> and get a developer to create a hybrid for me?

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Posted in Mobile Applications | Comments

Mobile Email – A response

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

We just got this in from Lars, Vice President of Marketing over at Momail.
—

Hi,

The thought’s in todays article is very, very right!

The hurdles described are some of the ones we at Momail and quite successfully are trying to solve.

Momail’s focus is consumer email and we focus on:

Ease of use – Simple registration, then just accept an sms and all of your mobile data and email settings are done. Now downloads or installation needed.

Device support – supports 1100+ different mobiles, so it will probably work on your already existing mobile.

Optimization to better fit the mobile channel and specific device – auto optimization of all emails and attachments for each mobile model sent to, saves up to 99,9% of the traffic making much faster transmission and cheaper bills (lower mobile data cost)

Your mobile postman – auto collect and aggregating of all emails to the mobile inbox, includes dynamic sender so that answers will arrive from the right email account address (nice if you aggregate many as I do).

Spam and virus protection – included. I almost “accept” spam on my pc but NOT on my mobile, it washes all emails from all accounts before hitting the mobile, so I successfully use Momail just to wash my emails from some accounts where I get a lot of spam.

So,

Momail together with a fixed low mobile data plan and you don’t have to wait 18 months. Try it now for free at www.momail.co.uk (or www.momail.com for other countries).

Comments and need of more info?

Just contact me.

Regards

Lars

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Posted in Mobile | Comments

Email your photos to your WiFi Photo Frame

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

This is almost what our staffer, James Whatley, is gagging for:

SMS Text News Screenshot

PicWing.com — buy a WiFi photo frame that you can email photos to. Genius idea. Absolute genius.

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Posted in Devices | Comments

Malcolm Murphy – Why is mobile email still not right?

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

I became aware of Nokia’s latest email offering recently, and being both an email junkie and S60 phone user I quickly installed it and had a play with it. I was intending to write a full review for this article, but I found that I kept wanting to talk about Nokia email in the context of mobile email in general, so I decided instead to write about mobile email in general. Thoughts on the Nokia offering will come later…

I can’t remember how long I have had email on my phone and/or PDA. I’m pretty sure it was no later than 1997, and definitely by 1999 I had more than one working solution. Back then, operators had dial-up numbers to send SMS, so it was a simple (!) matter of connecting my mail server to a modem and sending the text of the messages in SMS. Admittedly, it was a bit Heath Robinson, but it did work. It certainly wasn’t a mass market solution though.

Then, around about 2000, the operators in the UK all launched their own email services. You got your very own @operator.net email address, together with all the instructions you needed to configure the email client on your phone. Fantastic. Millions of pounds were spent on building those services, which, by and large, completely failed to enthuse the market. I think it’s fair to say that all of those services flopped. There were several reasons for that:
Getting a new email address is inconvenient – people already have email addresses and want to be able to use those. Forwarding mail from my email account to my mobile email is a bit of a hassle
And when I read the forwarded email on my handset, I still have to process the mail on my PC when I get back to it
If I send a mail from my mobile, it would have the @operator.net address rather than my “real” address
Of course, all this assumes that I manage to configure GPRS (or WAP dial-up, remember that?) and the email client on my phone
Data wasn’t cheap back then
So, you had people like me running my own mail server smugly getting email on my phone, and the rest of the world getting along quite happily without it, thank you.

Fast forward to today, and no self-respecting email junkie is seen in public without their Blackberry. If you want your email on the go, the answer’s Blackberry. Now that the Blackberry is firmly entrenched in the corporate email space, it is trying to make the transition into the consumer space. Time will tell if it will be successful, but I have my doubts. These doubts come from the device – I just don’t believe enough people will be willing to swap their Nokia, Sony Ericsson or Samsung for a Blackberry. Those three are massive consumer brands, and even before you consider the camera and music functions that we all need on our phones these days, branding alone puts RIM on the back foot. They’re also on the back foot because unless you have a corporate email server with Blackberry, you don’t get the seamless experience: you have to read the email on the device and on your PC.

To be fair, this last point breaks a lot of so-called consumer email solutions, not just Blackberry. And it arises because the mobile operator is collecting the email from my ISP and offering a separate service. The best solution from that point of view is Gmail – you can read, process, delete an email on the mobile client and never have to see it on the PC. Which is what I want. There are other drawbacks to Gmail, but they have this point nailed.

For some reason, we instinctively look to our mobile providers for mobile email. But there’s another player; the email provider. Google offers me the best access to the email because they’re the email provider, and mobile is another channel to stand alongside web and PC client access. So why aren’t more ISPs offering mobility as an add on to their offering? There’s no simple answer to that, but I think a lot of things that have previously held ISPs back on mobile are changing – most notably the availability of free or cheap data bundles. The really interesting opportunity is for the guys who have both ISP and mobile businesses (for example Virgin, CPW, Orange in the UK) to tightly bundle the two and create a genuinely compelling mobile email story. (As an aside, if anyone from one of these companies is reading this and wants to discuss further with me, get in touch).

To come back to what prompted this article, there is also a third player here, the handset manufacturer. The mobile application sits on the handset, so there is an opportunity for the manufacturer to provide a higher value service. It’s a fine line, because there’s a big difference between shifting consumer electronics and running consumer services, as even Apple found out recently, and also because the operators may not take kindly to being reduced to a bit part in this scenario.

Nokia’s service is positioned as a beta, and that’s how I found it. It isn’t good enough right now for my day-to-day email requirements, but it is a promising sign of intent.

I’m really optimistic that somewhere between the mobile operator, the ISP, and the handset manufacturers, we’ll see some excellent mobile email offerings in the next 18 months or so.

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Posted in Mobile | Comments

Synchronica snaps up AxisMobile

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

British mobile email and synchronisation company Synchronica has gone shopping, buying consumer mobile email outfit AxisMobile for $4.9 million in shares, bringing the provider new capabilities like email-to-SMS gateway and open up Synchronica’s service to lower end devices.

And that’s just the start of it: the company’s just announced that its raised another $10 million in funding from investors, bringing its total financing this year to $18 million. Synchronica says it will be using the new funds to “accelerate product integration and fuel the growth of the combined business in emerging markets, such as China, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Latin America”.

Good news for Synchronica and great timing all around – it looks like there’s good prospects ahead for the company.

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Posted in Mobile Applications | Comments

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