Office Mobility Blog

And it comes with Documents To Go!

Last week Verizon launched Motorola's next generation Q, known formally as the Motorola MOTO Q music 9m (referred to as the Q9m from here on).

Since the sleek design of the original Q was a pretty big hit with consumers, the Q9m has essentially the same design, although it has been ‘prettied up’ a bit (curved edges, improved QWERTY keypad, larger talk & end keys).

As the name suggests, the Q9m is heavy on the music/multimedia features. It supports Version’s VCast service and has a home screen designed specfically with multimedia use in mind.

The Q9m runs the Windows Mobile 6 operating system. However, rather than going with the Mobile Office suite from Microsoft, Moto decided to include the DataViz Documents To Go suite. This gives users the ability to view, edit and create Office files on their Q9m. It also includes PDF and ZIP file support.

If you have a Q9m you can register Documents To Go and check for updates or upgrades on our website. And, as always, if you've picked up a Q9m for yourself we’d love to know what you think!

Posted by Jason Coup at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The most common issues we see/hear/read about when it comes to setting up E-Mail synchronization on a smartphone are related to security certificates, specifically custom or 'self-signed' certificates. Certificates are important because they help create a secure connection with your server, but installing them is not always the easiest thing to accomplish (and with some devices you can't do it at all). If you do get your certificate installed, you'll also want to make sure your device 'trusts' it, which can be tricky as well.

To help make sense of this, I enlisted some members of the RoadSync development team to compile their thoughts on troubleshooting certificate issues. Most of this information is specific to Nokia's S60 devices, but if you're having problems with a certificate on any mobile device, this could help (you can also find this information posted in the N95users.com forum).

Whether custom or self-signed certificates will be supported or “trusted” on a Nokia N95 (or any mobile device) comes down to whether or not the certificate manager on the device recognizes the certificate as trusted, and is not related to the specific Exchange ActiveSync client which is synchronizing the data. This can be verified by trying to access your Exchange Server data via OWA on the device (through the standard web browser). If you receive an error notification regarding the certificate when accessing your information in this way, you will also encounter the message when trying to use an Exchange ActiveSync client. If this is the case, the first things you will want to do are confirm and check the following:

• Date and time on the phone are correct
• The certificate is properly added to the device and therefore is displaying in the Certificate Manager on the device
• Accessed through Settings -> Configuration -> Security -> Certificate Manager
• If the certificate is not displaying in this section, Nokia did create a PDF document which provides S60 device users with steps on installing the certificate to the device. From what I have read on different forums and blogs, the steps which are in section 3.2.1 about importing a non-CA certificate seem to be important.
• The certificate says that it is valid on the device
• View details of the certificate and confirm that is shows it is valid
• The certificate is trusted for secure networking on the device
• View Trust Settings for the certificate and confirm that it is set to “Yes”
• The certificate is the Root certificate from the server. The steps below will help to obtain the Root certificate:
• On your desktop computer access your OMA (/OMA) address through Internet Explorer.
• Double click on the lock icon in the bottom right hand corner of the PC screen.
• This will bring up the certificate information for the CA used on this site.
• Go to the "Certificate Path" tab. This will show a tree of certificates.
• Highlight the top level certificate. This is considered the Root certificate.
• Click "View Certificate."
• On the window that appears, once again go to the "Certificate Path" tab. Confirm that you have the Root Level certificate selected.
• Go to the Details tab and choose the "Copy to File" button. This will start the export process.
• Export the file as a DER encoded binary (the default).
• After you do this, please try sending this file to the N95 via IR and accessing it through the Messaging application.

In some cases the Exchange Server may not be set up in a way where you can obtain the appropriate certificate by following the steps above. In these cases, it is recommended that you contact your IT Administrator to request this certificate. If you are the Exchange Administrator, you can try the following:

• Recreating the Root Certificate Authority following the Windows Component Wizard for an Enterprise Root CA.
• Exporting the certificate again through the Certificate Export Wizard as a DER encoded binary X.509 (.CER)

If you are still experiencing a problem after reviewing and confirming the information above, you could try the following (although these are only recommendations and cannot be guaranteed to help resolve the problem):

• Download the latest firmware for your device.
• Contact the phone manufacturer to find out why the device is not accepting the certificate as trusted.
• Purchase a certificate from a Public Certification Authority (i.e. VeriSign, Thawte, Equifax, etc)

Hopefully with the information above (and maybe a little help from your IT guy) you'll be able to get your custom certificate installed without too much trouble. Good luck!

Posted by Jason Coup at 02:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

And Palm’s CEO Responds!

Suggesting that Palm has not been the most innovative company in recent years has been done before, but never quite like this. Some of the guys from Engadget tried to light a fire under the management team at Palm by listing their suggestions to turn things around in an open letter to Palm. They certainly had no trouble expressing their true feelings in this letter:

“Your stock is tumbling, the lowest it's been in months; your customers have lost faith, and those buying Treos seem to be just going through the motions; your efforts to expand your business have gone unfulfilled, and perhaps most importantly, your consumers are unhappy and looking for the next great thing -- that you're not providing.”

Some of Engadget’s suggestions included:

-Thinner devices
-Higher quality displays
-Revamped OS
-New advertising
-And plenty more

In what seemed to be a shock to Engadget writers and readers alike, Palm responded in the form of a post on their blog from CEO Ed Colligan. Colligan’s response was brief, but might be enough to give the Palm faithful hope that they are on the right track for the future:

“Although I can’t say I agree with every point, many are right on. We are attacking almost every challenge you noted, so stay tuned.” – Ed Colligan, CEO, Palm Inc.

Personally I love this move by Colligan. You have to pick your battles carefully when responding to blog posts that are less than enthusiastic about your company or products, but Engadget has enough clout that a response was definitely the right call. Hopefully Palm will back this up with some new and exciting things in the coming months. As Colligan said, “…stay tuned.”

Quotes via Engadget and The Official Palm Blog.

Posted by Jason Coup at 01:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When utilizing a service like push e-mail I think it’s nice to have some level of understanding of what’s going on behind the scenes. Sadly, a lot of people who use it every day don’t really understand how push e-mail (via Exchange ActiveSync) works. I remember attending 3GSM about two years ago and trying to explain to people what RoadSync is and how it works. The idea of having your e-mail ‘pushed’ to your phone without the use of a middleware server or a desktop redirector was a bit foreign back then. People are much more accepting of the idea of Exchange ActiveSync now (thanks, Microsoft!) but there are still plenty who don’t get it.

Microsoft MVP Clinton Fitch wrote a post recently about how Exchange ActiveSync push e-mail works. This type of post has been written before; the difference is Clinton doesn’t get overly technical and still manages to get the idea across quite well. His article, How Microsoft “Push” Mail Really Works, gives a great, top level overview of how ActiveSync connects to your phone and ‘pushes’ e-mail and other PIM data to it. I definitely recommend taking a look at this if you use push e-mail; it might help you use it more efficiently or troubleshoot if something goes awry (or, at the very least, it’ll make you sound smart around your friends and coworkers).

Posted by Jason Coup at 04:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Not much to do with Office mobility here, but important stuff nonetheless. If you own a Nokia phone be advised that there’s a product advisory out for the Nokia BL-5C battery. From Nokia’s website:

Nokia has identified that in very rare cases the affected batteries could potentially experience over heating initiated by a short circuit while charging, causing the battery to dislodge. Nokia is working closely with relevant local authorities to investigate this situation.

There’s a long list of phones that may have shipped with this battery so this page is worth a quick look. If you’re one of the unlucky ones who have the BL-5C battery, don’t worry: they’ll replace it for free.

Posted by Jason Coup at 03:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

And will it be 3G?

It’s been slow going for Nokia’s Series 60 lineup in the US. Consumers and carriers alike have been a bit slow on the uptake when it comes to Symbian devices. And you could argue that the S60 devices that carriers have adpoted are not the top of the line, flagship devices that could make a big dent in the US market.

That could be changing soon, however, as it is rumored (via Engadget) that Nokia’s powerful N95 could be available in the US as early as next month.

Last week the reports of a 3G N95 for the US began, and now (thanks to Symbian-Guru and Darla Mack) we have pictures to go along with the rumors.

It seems the stateside version of the N95 will have 3G, a larger battery, new colors, a slightly adapted camera, and some other minor changes.

From what I can tell, there doesn’t appear to be any obvious carrier branding. It should be interesting to see which, if any, US carriers are delivering this. Or, if it launches sans carrier, will US consumers pay $700+ for a phone (even with all those extras)? We’ll keep you up to date as we learn more.

Posted by Jason Coup at 01:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)