|
|
April |
|
Newsletter | |
|
Issue 09 |
| Microsoft direct push email now a reality. |
|
Microsoft delays Windows Vista until 2007 |
We announced many months ago the new features included with Exchange 2003 SP2. One of these features was the Blackberry type push email to Windows enabled smartphones and PDA's. As is normal with Microsoft the hype sounded better than the reality and we were left waiting for the Microsoft Security and Feature Pack for Windows Mobile 5. Orange Mobile are one of the first to have available the feature pack for their Windows Mobile 5 devices and I have been lucky enough to have been testing one this week. I have been using the SPV C600, a mobile phone sized device.
This device is the smallest device offering Microsoft direct push email. My first impressions are that this is a more than capable mobile phone. Battery life is acceptable but not remarkable. The large colour display and easy to use software and navigation keys also make using the phone a pleasure. The most important thing to report is that push email really does work. After a little configuration, emails were arriving on my phone within seconds of being received on my desktop. Data entry on the phone is slow with only a number pad for input, although T9 (predictive text) does speed things up, there are also no built in readers for word, excel or pdf documents. Users that need access to their attachments and want to reply to emails using a real keyboard should consider the Orange SPV M5000. If you have considered a blackberry but were put off by the costs and hassle setting them up then as long as you have MS Exchange 2003 SP2 then your only a phone call away. For more details contact me on grantp@firststopit.com. By Grant Peck
|
Microsoft has delayed the release of its consumer Windows Vista operating system until January 2007. The application will be made available to enterprises in November this year. Jim Allchin, co-president of platform products and services at Microsoft, said in a conference call that the company decided to delay the consumer version of Vista because PC manufacturers required more time to test and prepare their systems. Windows Vista was hit by quality issues that caused the release to be pushed back "a few weeks". But this prompted manufacturers to ask Microsoft to delay the consumer version until 2007 because they had insufficient time to test and prepare their systems for availability this year. "Quality is the top-line message, and we needed just a few more weeks," said Allchin. "We will release to Windows Vista was originally promised for the second half of 2006, but delays have plagued the operating system throughout its development. |
|
|
| ||
|
WiFi for UK shops |
RIM pays $612m to settle BlackBerry case |
|
|
Nintendo teams up with BT WiFi has taken another step into the mainstream with shops across the UK getting hotspots provided by Nintendo and BT Shops to get the wireless transmission systems include GAME, HMV, Toys R Us and a number of other independent BT is carrying out the deployment in partnership with Nintendo, and will add to the 7,500 hotspots the games company Nintendo wants to use the transmitters to allow game players to download samples to its handheld gaming devices. Chris Bruce, BT's wireless broadband general manager says the deployment is proof of WiFi's move into the mainstream. 'We’ll really see Wi-Fi coming of age this year and this agreement is taking BT Openzone even further into the high Rollout will start today and is due to be completed by this summer. By James Brown
|
Research in Motion has settled its patent dispute with NTP. The BlackBerry maker has agreed to pay $612.5m which includes a perpetual licence on the patents at the centre of a prolonged legal battle between the two firms. The judge presiding over the case was expected to rule in NTP's favour and order a shutdown of the wireless email service in North America. NTP co-founder Donal Stout said in a statement: "We are pleased to have reached an amicable settlement with RIM. We believe that the settlement is in the best interests of all parties, including the US government and all other BlackBerry users in the US." |
|
|
| ||
|
3G gaps leave EDGE to deliver higher-speed mobile broadband to everybody else |
Bill seals up e-crime loophole |
|
|
Earlier this month, Orange became the only mobile operator in the UK to commit itself to upgrading its current GPRS packet data services to higher speed connections based on Enhanced Data-rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology. EDGE will provide roaming workers with an estimated 100-200kbit/s of mobile data bandwidth in the vast swathes of
Britain where faster third generation (3G) data services are currently unavailable. Whilst EDGE services should "The general rule of thumb is to take vendor/operator top bit rates and halve them," warned John Delaney, principal Whatever the speed, the faster data rates will cost no extra than current GPRS services, according to Orange spokesperson Stuart Jackson, whilst availability will expand from 300 base stations to 1,500 by the end of 2006. To prevent customers enjoying the benefits of lower cost mobile broadband all the time, however, EDGE connections will not be available in areas already covered by Orange’s 3G network, only where a 3G signal is unavailable. “The 3G rollout is still the main focus for Orange. EDGE is an add-on for customers, which we knew we could do quickly, and pushes further into rural locations that aren’t currently covered by 3G and are unlikely to be for some time,” said Jackson. By Martin Courtney |
The financial services industry has welcomed the government’s attempt to close a legal loophole that could allow criminals to get away with chip-and-PIN and cash machine fraud. Attorney General Lord Goldsmith has added a clause to the Fraud Bill to make deceiving a computer a criminal offence. Lord Goldsmith says there is uncertainty about prosecuting fraudsters for deception if they use a stolen PIN at a cash machine or on a retailer’s chip-and-PIN device, on the grounds that you cannot deceive a machine. Sales assistants play no active role in many chip-and-PIN transactions and therefore are not being deceived in the same way as they are when signatures are forged, he says. ‘We do not want law enforcers to face unreasonable technical choices in making charges and we consider the Bill should make it clear that a false representation should be an offence whether made to a machine or person,’ said Lord Goldsmith. |
|
|
|
|
