[Mobilepartners] Which mobile devices?

[Andrew Yu]

Greetings!

Thanks again for joining the Mobile Partners User Group. We now have more than 30 members, and I thought I would start using this list to solicit input from all of you.

Questions for this week:
What devices do you see being used by your clients/customers at MIT? And, what devices do you get request for support?

Just to give you an update on what I have been up to... I have been meeting/contacting with clients, end-users, and vendors (carriers, software/hardware manufacturers). I hope to be able to post some of my interesting findings through the website (yet to be announced) in the near future. Until then, here are couple of highlights:

Currently, one of the biggest challenges seems to revolve around synchronization of TechTime calendar entries with Palm OS devices (mostly Treo's). This topic can be very convoluted as there are many different potential points of failure. So far, the most promising (and simplified) solution is to utilize SyncML client. It's been working well on most of the users that I tested so far (except for one user that I found yesterday using Verizon Wireless Treo 650). Incidentally, SyncML on Windows Mobile devices (both Smartphone and Pocket PC devices) has been working well, and I am currently evaluating similar solution for BlackBerry devices.

On a different note, I have been in contact with all four carriers (Verizon Wireless, Sprint/Nextel, T-Mobile, and Cingular). MIT has recently established relationship with T-Mobile and Cingular (kudos to Joan Cyr). In my meeting with T-Mobile, I found out that they plan to include wi-fi with all new smartphone devices (this is already the case with their Window Mobile devices). This might be an interesting option to some users on campus that do not want to pay for the data plan and rely on the ubiquitous wi-fi network at MIT.

Please feel free to use this list to discuss any of these topics or ask questions.

Cheers,

Andrew

_______________________________________
Andrew J. Yu
Mobile Devices Platform Coordinator
Software Release Team
Information Services and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Building W92-140B
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307

Phone: 617-324-8985
Fax: 617-258-8736
Email: AndrewYu at mit.edu
http://web.mit.edu/swrt