The future of Windows Mobile

An interesting article over at www.coolsmartphone.com got me thinking. Unfortunately I think the problem is that new versions of Windows Mobile don't come with enough new features, and don't offer me enough new, useful features as an IT professional. Who cares about the general consumer? As long as companies such as HTC refuse to concentrate on features such as cameras (with flash?!) then there's no point MS bothering on about consumer grade devices.

Comparing my SPV M600 to my new HTC Touch it's clear that the majority of improvements are with the HTC interface. In fact been as I used to have Remote Desktop support and now don't, it's easy to see why people get a bit miffed with MS. And MSN Messenger on my phone - why must it add all my MSN contacts into my Outlook contacts list? That's just crap.

Ok there are plenty of reasons under the hood no doubt that contribute as improvements over previous versions of Windows Mobile but I can think of loads of easily implementable features that could be added to the system that would make it better. I want to see a colleagues' calendar for instance. And i'd also like to tightly control my phone status (silent, aeroplane mode etc) based on more customised calendar settings rather than just the generic appointment options.

Microsoft are doing a great job - but could do better...

Mobile Device Manager goodness!

Usually i'd ignore Microsoft's emails that pop into my inbox but the latest one was a gem. They are introducing the new Microsoft System Centre Mobile Device Centre, which allows for excellent corporate control over Windows Mobile Devices which include remote wipe, remote restrictions of device capabilities (such as disabling Wifi, BlueTooth or the camera on the device), and it's all controlled through Active Directory policies.

What I found most interesting about the software was the new "mobile optimized" IPsec VPN connectivity that allows the device to connect to the HQ and allow the user to have access to "behind the firewall" services and applications. It's certainly no easy task at the moment to start using push email on these devices without accidentally putting a big hole in your security! For instance on our site, an engineer enabled access to our Outlook Web Access but also at the same time managed to allow unsecured access to Sharepoint because it was a Microsoft Small Business Server. This engineer was subsequently bundled into the trunk of a car and has not been seen since...

So the System Centre Mobile Device Manager provides a nice way of providing access to email through a secure VPN tunnel, and uses the following extra nice features:

• Authentication
• Session Persistence
• Fast Reconnect
• Internetwork roaming
• Standards based MobIKE, IKEv2 and IPSEC tunnel mode

This software is out mid 2008 apparently, but at the moment only three devices are supported at the moment. I got all excited when I first saw this, but then realised the software isn't out yet, and my lowly Orange E650v isn't supported yet anyway...

• TYTN II (Tilt)
• Samsung i600
• Palm Treo 750

Go here for the Microsoft site, and watch the Webcast!