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WM5 + MSFP: When Seconds Count - Direct Push Uncovered February 09, 2006 [Wireless (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ...)] | By Lutzh Haedrich. Since the beta of Windows Wobile 5 AKU2 has been leaked at xda-developers.com there's one question left: How fast is "The Messaging & Security Feature Pack for Windows Mobile 5.0" in combination with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP2 delivering messages to your Pocket PC and Windows Mobile Smartphone? msmobiles.com has the answer for you! 
by lutzh Realtime E-Mail was up to these days a real pain. Cost-intensive, unsecure and not available for most Windows Mobile devices. Because of a nearly monopol situation you had to bite the dust and eat those black berries if you wanted to stay up-to-date. But the horizon is getting blue - no more need of extra licences for a service that keeps you in touch with your companie's exchange server, no need for extra hardware in the server room nor in your pockets. Microsoft is calling it "Messaging & Security Feature Pack for Windows Mobile 5.0" . The Microsoft Fact Sheet for MSFP is pointing on the following features: - Enhanced Outlook Mobile Experience -- Windows Mobile direct push technology -- Wireless support for contact information - Better Management and Security -- Remotely enforced IT policy -- Local and remote device wipes -- Certificate-based authentication (we gonna talk about that later) - Scalable, Cost-Effective Mobile Solutions -- Use of existing Exchange Server 2003 investments -- Outlook Mobile data compression -- Broad device choice We don't want to bore you. If you want the full Fact Sheet, get it here! Now let's go and check out what all that means in reallity. Some words of warning first: Don't do it if you don't know what you do! This is an unreleased, unofficial beta rom! This is for testing only! Don't blame us, if you get lost, ruin your beloved Pocket PC or end up with an unusable device! We can't provide any support - prior and after installation! At first we grabbed the unofficial beta Qtek Rom for the HTC Wizard (= MDA Vario, XDA mini S, Qtek 9100, i-mate k-jam, VPA compact II, Orange SPV m3000) from xda-developers.com (get it here, registration is nessesary, download is available in English, French and - fancy - in Danish language). Before you can install this rom on your HTC Wizard at all, you'll have to unlock it (no, that has nothing to do with Sim- or Netlock!). You may already guess where you get information about how to unlock your device to get the so called Super-CID that allows you to install rom's from any other vendor than the one you've bought your device from: xda-developers.com. After that you simply install the new rom on your Wizard just like you do it with any other rom upgrade. After the restart, your Wizard will tell you with new version numbers above 2.XXX that he is up and running with AKU2 now.  You may ask what it can do now compared to the rom before. E.g. it supports the A2DP profile for wireless stereo via bluetooth to any bluetooth stereo headset (learn more about A2DP in our XDA Atom review HERE!). But more important: You can use Push Mail via Exchange, which means that you'll get any new mail in realtime to your mobile device! Setting it up is pretty simple: - Connect your Wizard via Active Sync with your computer, - When asked, add a "Server Source", - Type in your Exchange Server details (ask your system admin for details), - Setup the schedule in wich new mails, contacts, appointments should be delivered (on arrival, and in wich hours).  In some cases it is needed that you install a server certificate to your mobile device. Windows Mobile based Pocket PCs use Root Certificates to allow access to SSL-enabled applications (like Pocket Internet Explorer, Microsoft ActiveSync when it is configured to synchronize directly with Microsoft Exchange 2003 Server). Doing it is pretty simple: Your Outlook admin will provide you the certificate file, you copy it directly to the device.  On your mobile device you browse to the location you've put the certificate before, tap on it and press "Yes" when you are asked if you want to install it.  If you want to know more about certification - why, what and how - we recommend Daniel Petri's page! It helped us when we hit the ground regarding the question what to do with an certificate... Now we are set and ready to do the first real test of how the Microsoft Messaging & Security Feature Pack for Windows Mobile 5.0 performs in an all day inviroment. What we wanted to know is: How long does it take from sending a message from any desktop pc until it pops up on our Wizard (in our test it is a German MDA Vario, used in the German Vodafone network). Check out the little movie we shot to figure it out and all you have to do is watching the little clock in the lower right corner of your Windows Media Player to get the answer on the question how fast Windows Mobile direct push technology is! CLICK HERE FOR THE CLIP! As you can clearly see: just a few moments after the "Message Sent" popped up, the mail already came in on the Wizard! So from pressing the send button on the desktop to being able to open and read the mail there are only round about 10 seconds. Here comes another test: Setting up an appointment on a desktop and push the invitation over to someone on a mobile device: CLICK HERE FOR THE CLIP! And finally we attached an word document to an email. See how simple it gets - sending, receiving, downloading, opening: CLICK HERE FOR THE CLIP! In not much more than 40 seconds after sending you are able to edit a word document on your mobile device! Sorry guys, but I have to ask this: Can your Palm do that? Or your Symbian phone? In other words: The MSFP will extend your mobile experience like nothing before. We do not know when it will be released, or who will provide the AKU2 update first. But we do know that it will be another step ahead for Windows Mobile. If you have any question regarding our test or anything related to that story - feel free to post in our forum. We would really like to thank the guys from BINK for sharing their Exchange Server with Service Pack 2 with us to make that realtime test possible!  Post your comment (free registration is required to post, but if you register you can edit your posts later) [ 6 Comments ]
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