[WinPartners] Limited Support for the Apple iPhone Now Available

[Andrew Yu]

Greetings,

Based on the results of an Apple iPhone Release Project completed in  
January 2008 and carried out in collaboration with the MIT community,  
Information Services & Technology (IS&T) now provides limited support  
for  MIT email and MIT's Wi-Fi setup on Apple iPhones.  Detailed  
support information is available at: http://itinfo.mit.edu/ 
product.php?vid=780

It’s important to note that iPod functions represent a significant  
portion of the cost of the iPhone. While it’s not the intent of IS&T  
to determine for any department whether this is a legitimate business  
expense, IS&T encourages the MIT community to carefully consider cost  
when deciding which mobile device to purchase.

For those interested in purchasing the iPhone as a business device,  
AT&T recently announced the availability of iPhone business accounts.  
Previously, iPhone service was only available as a personal account  
and users were required to sign up as an individual rather than as a  
business customer.   More information about the iPhone business  
account is available at:
https://wikis.mit.edu/confluence/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=12192022

NOTABLE FEATURES
*************************************************
The iPhone contains a number of breakthrough technologies that will  
interest many mobile device users in the MIT environment. These include:
-  Extensive web browsing capability
- A robust email client
- A multi-touch user interface
For more information on Apple's iPhone, visit:
http://www.apple.com/iphone

KNOWN ISSUES
*************************************************
As is true with most first-generation devices, the iPhone needs  
improvements in several areas. At this time, Apple does not support  
the following MIT-critical features for the iPhone:
- Personal certificates (to access secured MIT websites)
- Over-the-air synchronization of calendar data (expected to be  
addressed in the first quarter of 2008 with the availability of the  
iPhone software development kit)
In addition, because the iPhone is only available through AT&T,  
iPhone network coverage at MIT is limited.

A full list of known issues can be found at:
http://itinfo.mit.edu/article.php?id=8740

Note: To read the full evaluation report from October 2007, see the  
iPhone Evaluation Project Notebook at:
http://web.mit.edu/swrt/releases/iphone-eval/

SUPPORT FOR OTHER MOBILE DEVICES
*************************************************
IS&T provides support for Palm OS, Windows Mobile devices, and the  
iPhone. Limited support for World BlackBerry devices is expected to  
become available during the first quarter of 2008.
To learn more about mobile devices at MIT, visit:
http://web.mit.edu/ist/topics/pda/.

If you have questions or comments, please contact the iPhone Release  
Project team via email at mobile-release at mit.edu.

Andrew

________________________________
Andrew J. Yu
Mobile Devices Platform Coordinator
Information Services and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, N42-250i
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307

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