iPhone users, potential users, and admirers will surely be happy to know that Apple took a big step toward creating a development community for the iPhone this week by announcing a Software Development Kit (SDK) for the iPhone. From the words of Mr. Jobs himself:
We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.
Apple’s original stance on application development for the iPhone came in the form of a suggestion: create web-based applications that can be accessed through the iPhone’s Safari web browser. This was disappointing news to developers of mobile applications who are used to having much more access. Palm, for example, has had a large developer community for years. One could certainly argue that the level of growth they achieved would not have been possible without third party software development.
In yesterday’s press release, Jobs said the SDK will not be available until February of 2008 because they want to open up the platform while keeping the device safe from viruses.
This is no easy task. …As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target. … We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones.
So what does this mean for DataViz, you ask? Hard to say at this point (after all, the SDK was only announced yesterday and won’t be available for a few months), but imagine Exchange ActiveSync access to your email, editing Office files, and having all of your PINs and passwords encrypted and easily accessed on your new iPhone!
We’ve been getting more and more requests each day asking us - begging, in some cases - to bring our applications to the iPhone, specifically Documents To Go, RoadSync, and Passwords Plus. Thanks to this announcement, we’ll be able to give this serious consideration. You can bet we’ll have our hands on this SDK as soon as possible. I can’t guarantee anything, but please, if you are interested in having DataViz software on your iPhone, let us know!
A touch screen cell phone is certainly nothing new. Symbian UIQ devices have been touch based for some time and the iPhone seemingly redefined the technology over the last few months. Now it looks like Nokia’s Series 60 devices will be next in line.
Nokia demonstrated their new touch screen interface for S60 devices at the Symbian Smartphone Show in London today. All About Symbian has reported that the new OS will be designed to support both stylus and finger based input. And, in addition to standard touch screen sensors, the new interface will include proximity and light sensors as well, giving Nokia’s development community plenty of new toys to work with for future apps.
It seems the two key takeaways here are that current S60 apps will not need to be modified for the touch screen devices and the touch sensor will be equipped to provide tactile feedback, negating a common complaint for those new to the touch screen world. In Nokia’s words from their press release:
S60 touch user interface comes with support for tactile feedback, which means that there is a physical pulse and feedback when the user taps on the screen. This provides better awareness of the device's response improving the user experience.
Hard to tell when these devices will hit the market; all Nokia has said thus far is that they will be available in 2008.
We have some folks at the Smartphone Show this week and I’m sure they’ve taken a close look at the new interface. Hopefully I’ll be able to post some updated info and first impressions when they get back!
Well, another summer has come and gone - although you wouldn’t know it by the recent string of warm days we’ve had here in the Northeast.
Each year we like to celebrate (or mourn, depending on your point of view) the changing of the seasons with an end of summer company picnic. A few days ago we spent an afternoon at a local park barbecuing, playing games, and socializing. We wanted to let you all in on a little of the fun so we thought we’d share some of our pictures. Enjoy!
]]>This year’s Handango Champion Award winners were announced this week at the seventh annual Handango Partner Summit. DataViz was honored with two ‘Best Industry Application’ awards; one for RoadSync for UIQ and the other for Documents To Go for Windows Mobile Smartphone. Also, DataViz was recognized as Handango’s Developer of the Year for the Windows Mobile Smartphone operating system!
"Receiving this award is a noteworthy honor as the winners are our customers' favorite applications and the companies that create them are leading the way to making mobile content more accessible to the growing population of smartphone users." - Randy Eisenman, CEO, Handango
You can see the complete list of winners on Handango.com.
In addition to our free viewer for Microsoft Office files, DataViz has now released the Exchange ActiveSync client, RoadSync, for the MOTO Z8. RoadSync will give this UIQ 3.1 kick-slider from Motorola some enterprise email functionality to go along with its monstrous media capabilities.
“It is of great value to UIQ Technology to have such a strong partner creating software that answers the demands for mobilizing email and more in a UIQ environment. We are pleased to see that DataViz has developed an Exchange ActiveSync client that meets the Push E-mail needs of a continuously expanding market segment for UIQ-based mobile phones.” - Carina Lindberg, Head of Partner Programs, UIQ Technology
If you own a Z8, you can check out the free 30 day trial of RoadSync or buy it for $49.99. Every purchase of RoadSync for the MOTO Z8 will also include the free Documents To Go viewer edition.
Read the press release.
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Earlier today DataViz released an update to Documents To Go for Windows Mobile. What’s new, you ask? Documents To Go is now the first and only commercially available office suite that supports editing of Office 2007 files and attachments on your smartphone.
“This version addresses our top customer request for full Office 2007 file support for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. After many months of hard work and effort we are proud to produce a solution that stays true to the new XML-based Office 2007 file structure by retaining all file formatting through the use of our very own InTact Technology.” - Danny Tu, Documents To Go Product Manager, DataViz Inc.
Along with the ability to edit and create Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 files, Documents To Go also includes:
- Compression and decompression (ZIP) capabilities
- Native Adobe PDF support
- Support for password protected files
- Versions available in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German
Documents To Go supports Windows Mobile 5 for Smartphones and Windows Mobile 6 Standard. If you already own Documents To Go v. 3, you can download this update at no additional charge. If you don’t already own it, you can download a 30 day trial or buy it for $29.99 from the DataViz website.
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As many of you have surely heard, Palm announced last week that they have cancelled the Linux-based Foleo mobile companion which was expected to be available for purchase very soon. Our President & CEO, Dick Fontana, wanted to share his thoughts on Palm's decision and what it may mean for the future.
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!
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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).
]]>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.
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).
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.
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 Palm released a Palm Desktop update (Beta, v6.2). This is the first Palm Desktop that is compatible with Windows Vista.
As most Palm users know, in order to use Documents To Go to sync Office files to your Palm handheld you must have a compatible version of Palm Desktop installed on your desktop/laptop. This means, until now, Documents To Go users who are using the Vista operating system have not been able to install properly or sync Office files to their handhelds.
Over the years we have made a point to not update our software based on a beta version of another application. However, due to the thousands of feedback requests we’ve received from customers patiently waiting for Vista support, we made the decision to release a Documents To Go update that works with Palm Desktop v6.2 Beta 1 and thus will allow you to sync with Windows Vista. However, there are a few things to make note of before installing the Palm Desktop and Documents To Go updates:
- The Palm Desktop Beta supports only the following Palm handhelds: Treo’s 755p, 700p, 680, and 650 as well as the TX, Z22, and Tungsten E2
- The Palm Desktop Beta is designed for Windows Vista ONLY. Palm suggests that you do not install this on other Windows operating systems such as XP or 2000. You must also uninstall any previous versions of Palm Desktop before installing the Beta.
- Note the following statement from Palm’s website regarding Palm Desktop v6.2 Beta:
This software is intended to provide a Windows Vista-compatible version of the Palm Desktop software. Please note that the use of the software is at your sole risk, and it is provided "AS IS" and without warranty of any kind.Due to the fact that this Beta is required to use Documents To Go with Vista, syncing Documents To Go with Vista is also at your sole risk. When Palm has an official release of this version of Palm Desktop, we’ll update Documents To Go (if necessary).
If you already own v10 of Documents To Go, you can login to our website download this update at no additional charge.
Since its release in March, Helio has said that the Ocean will support Exchange ActiveSync. Those of you who have been waiting for this will be glad to know that today Helio announced the availability of ‘Mail for Microsoft Exchange’ (not to be confused with Mail for Exchange). It will set you back an extra $10/month, but ‘Mail for Microsoft Exchange’ will get you your email, calendar and contacts on your Ocean. On top of that you’ll also get a new version of Helio File Viewer for your office files.
No word yet on Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 mobility features like Direct Push, remote wipe and GAL lookup with this new ActiveSync client. If you have a chance to try this out let us know what you think.
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