I had a helpful chat with Nate Stowell of ATT Wireless Services who helped me get the POP mail client on the Nokia 3650 phone to work. Thank you, Nate. That said, it's become clear that the 3650 has a number of deficiencies which make it less than useful to me as an email device.
The Nokia POP client doesn't support authentication so I can't use it with my main mail account. It also doesn't allow retrieval of a small, fixed part of a message. The combination of receiving some large messages, slow-to-medium retrieval speed, and all or nothing retrieval of messages is a showstopper.
Please don't tell me I should use IMAP to retrieve mail or I will be forced to explain why I don't use IMAP and won't until I find (or design) an IMAP client that works properly. IMAP is a complex protocol and not easy to support well.
Really what I want is something to replace my Blackberry which adds the things it doesn't have without taking away the things it does superbly well. I'll keep looking.
I want a portable device which has automatically pushed to it all of my email as it arrives. Push is important. I don't want to have to check mail; I just want it to be there.
I don't want to have to maintain a server or have my organization have to maintain a server. Mail for the portable device should come from the cloud.
It should be able to receive and view common forms of attachments: Word documents, PDF's, HTML. This is getting to be quite commonplace in portable devices.
It needs a keyboard. We've won the keyboard battle. At first the Blackberry was the oddball, but the adoption of keyboards by Palm was a turning point.
It needs a phone, and not as an after-thought.
A color screen would be nice.
It should conveniently be able to synchronize with a variety of personal computer PIM's.
Ideally, updates to the calendar can be sent and received wirelessly.
Any predictions out there on when such a device will come to market?
Mitch - you are ahead of the curve with your 'I want', 'I do not want'. That is exactly the reason why "Chandler" is so much needed. What about speeding up the work of OSAF?
Posted by: DaniGro at July 26, 2003 12:12 PM
Microsoft has an interesting technology that leverages SMS text to trigger connections to the server. Combine that with the Motorola device recently announced and you may have something in the PDC timeframe, I bet.
Posted by: Steve Gillmor at July 26, 2003 03:17 PM
Sounds like you want the Handspring Treo 600 which should be coming out sometime this fall. The only drawback I can see with that device is its relatively small & lo-res screen compared to the latest & greatest PDA's. Still, it should be a marked improvement over the Nokia.
Cheers,
-J
Posted by: Jake at July 26, 2003 08:16 PM
Mitch you need to get Active Mail from Cibenix -
http://www.cibenix.com/AM7650_index.html
It's my number one app on my 3650. From their webpage -
Convenience: Active Mail is designed to execute automated mail download and processing tasks in an unattended mode. Through Active Mail’s scheduling capabilities and mail processing rules engine, you can configure Active Mail to download important e-mails and keep your mailbox as up to date as desired (for example, schedule updates every 15 minutes, or once per day).
Always connected: The Active Mail Notifications Manager allows you to automatically connect to your e-mail service. When a new mail notification (via SMS) is received on the phone Active Mail will automatically download new e-mails based on the rules you define. In this way you are virtually always connected to your e-mail service for urgent e-mails.
Posted by: Jim Corbett at July 27, 2003 04:16 AM
I take it you've considered the new color, tri-band BlackBerry phone? In what ways was it unsatisfactory?
Posted by: Todd Smith at July 27, 2003 07:22 AM
The Color Sidekick (http://danger.com/) does most of what you want:
-- fetches POP mail (it has authentication, but I think you're talking about authentication above and beyond POP "auth" which it doesn't have)
-- displays Word, PDF, HTML, and image attachments
-- has the largest keyboard of any handheld device
-- integrated phone
-- does not yet sync with PIMs but does sync wireless with T-Mobile web-based desktop (calendar, addresses, to do, notes, etc. all sync wirelessly and automatically
- Austin
Posted by: Austin S. Lin at July 27, 2003 05:29 PM
The new Sony Clié (http://mac.against.org/space/PEG-UX50) should do most of what you require, except for the phone functions.
Since its Palm OS-based, it supports Network Hotsync and (directly or indirectly) all the data formats you outline above.
Sure, it's likely to have a few drawbacks, but it's only a suggestion.
Posted by: Rui Carmo at July 28, 2003 02:38 AM
And it has to run Linux and sync up beautifully with my Linux box. I have a little hierarchical notes program that I use a lot (KnowIt) on my SuSE 8.2 box. I keep technical notes, etc. on it and it would be great to have that info on a handheld when I was at a client's fixing their computer. So I'd like to run KnowIt on the Magic Device - yes, with a keyboard!
Posted by: Malke at July 28, 2003 07:46 AM
On the Danger Sidekick (which I have, use, and love):
>[Sidekick] does not yet sync with PIMs...
Don't hold your breath. Danger apparently intends to make money by locking people's data into their closed system, so that users will be stuck in whatever service plan the carrier deigns to provide. So far the plans are not cheap, for the amount of minutes you get. For data they are good, though.
I just don't like the idea of having use of, and access to, my own personal PIM data be subject to a license.
*** It's MY data, I want access to it without a license! ***
Although the Sidekick is great, I will jump ship in a heartbeat as soon as I find equivalent functionality and a more open data model.
Palm devices may be a better bet, if they ever solve the screen resolution and web browser problem.
PS Mitch, it would be great to hear why you have rejected various solutions that have been mentioned here: Treo, RIM, Sidekick.
Posted by: Yip Conner at July 28, 2003 08:54 AM
Personally, I'm waiting for the same. Unfortunately, it will be another 6-9 months before we see the first batch of "really useful" all-in-one PDAs.
Right now, I'm waiting for the Tungsten C and the Tungsten W to meld into one (a PDA with WiFi + GSM): http://www.palm.com/us/products/handhelds/
OR
The Sony Clie PEG-UX50 to add phone capabilities (a truly beautiful device): http://www.palminfocenter.com/print.asp?ID=5666&s=1
Posted by: Elias Ladopoulos at July 28, 2003 09:30 AM
I'm not sure what you mean by not being able to have 'retrieval of a small, fixed part of a message'. The 3650 just downloads the headers when you connect to your mailbox (only new ones take time and bandwith). You can then option mark messages for full download (with or without attachements).
Somone has already mentioned Active Mail. You can view Word file using QuickWord or similar, view PDF use Pdf+ (www.mbrainsoftware.com) and HTML using the Opera web browser (or one of the other web browsers).
PocketTop are working on drivers for Series 60 for thier IR keyboard. In my opion a proper keyboard like this is better than the thumb ones.
I assume you've looked at syncML for receieving claendar, contacts etc wirelessly?
Hope this helps, feel free to contact me.
Posted by: Rafe at July 29, 2003 03:25 AM
You probably do not want to know about another cool new wireless phone, Mitch, but my Sony Ericsson T610 is awesome. Setting the email up, syncing contacts, calendar and task items, using the camera and networking with Bluetooth was all easy and EVERYTHING is customizable.
I hope you continue to enjoy your Nokia 3650 until your fantasy device is available.
Posted by: John K. Davis at July 30, 2003 05:24 PM
I'm curious as to why the Palm Tungsten W doesn't fit the bill. I rejected it because I was on tmobile and didn't want to switch #'s (that's a rant unto itself) and it doesn't support bluetooth for a headset (which, if it did, would make it fantastic in my book). as i haven't played with it, i don't know if it handles authentication. While it's not a Palm 5.0 device, there's a lot of shareware and I think that it fits most of what you're looking for. That said, the 3650 is more a phone which appealed slightly more to me and maybe that was the key for you. For me, if they bluetoothed the W, it could swing me.
Posted by: Jiri Nechleba at August 6, 2003 08:26 PM