Hi again! I thought I pretty much answered your question in my original email, but I'll maybe go a bit deeper and that might help.
I have a laptop that I have with me nearly always. I have used it productively not only to do "normal" computer stuff, but also to fill the time when waiting (for practically anything) by doing things offline (and often online, since wifi connections are everywhere), in large part processing the email that I receive in such volume. Now, with Exchange not only can I access all my Outlook data (email, calendar, contacts, tasks, notes) from any web-connected computer (using Outlook Web Access, a mechanism of Exchange Server that presents an Outlook-like interface in a browser window), but I can also, using Versamail, access my email, contacts and calendar on the Treo. Real time push, which the latest version of Versamail supports, makes sure that those data elements on the Treo are within a minute or two of being current, and often more current than what shows up on Outlook. Push, from my experience, uses less battery than pull, which you describe, and it happens invisibly in the background, all the time. Practically, what that means for me is that I know my Treo and Outlook calendars are in sync all the time, not just when I Hotsync. Further, I know that I can check for emails by pulling out my Treo which is much faster than accessing my laptop. I still do not compose really large emails on the Treo, the keyboard being a limiting factor, but it's very nice to be able to do a quick scan of emails, see if any demand an immediate response, all without either going to or opening up my laptop. At this point in time I would be focusing on OL2007, not 2003. Most hosted Exchange providers give you a license for Outlook as part of the package. 1and1, for example, gave me a license for OL2003 (which I already had, and hence didn't need), and they will be giving me a license for OL2007 in the next couple of weeks. If I were primarily a desktop computer user, Exchange would be even more important since it would allow me to take my email with me in a way a desktop computer can't - both on the Treo and using OWA. If I had an assistant or employees, Exchange would allow me to give them controlled access to my calendar, email or whatever, and changes they made would show up on my Treo in real time. If I had an enterprise with more than one physical location, Exchange would allow people in those multiple locations to share calendars, contacts, tasks, etc. It's really very powerful, and with the advent of hosted Exchange it is available to more than just employees of big corporations. Outlook was originally designed to be a client for Exchange, and only later morphed into an Internet email PIM, so it works very closely with Exchange. For example, when I set rules in Outlook for automatically moving emails into specific folders, those rules are communicated to Exchange, and the move happens there. Same with junk mail filtering -- it happens on the Exchange server. The benefit of that is that I don't ever see the junk on my Treo, since I only see the Inbox. It would be nice if Palm were to add multiple email folder support (right now only Inbox) and also tasks and notes to what gets sync'd (right now only calendar and contacts). They have demonstrated a commitment to improving this experience, however in two key ways: by adding calendar support for Versamail on the 700p (on the 650 it was only Contacts) and by acquiring Chatteremail (and its developer), a very capable email tool that supports multiple Exchange folders has other benefits. Does that help more? Cheers, Don -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of J Messeder Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2007 8:50 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Treo] Outlook/Exchange I'm so tempted to try OL2003 again. I worked a project back in the mid-80s with OpenWindows/Solaris/Unix and became enamored of two things: x-mouse (Microsoft responded with the appropriate PowerToy) and dragging emails to the calendar to set appointments. I don't use the latter enough to miss it, though. I'm usually on the phone with someone with whom I'm making an appointment. But this Exchange thing has me intrigued. I don't understand push at all, though I regularly see people who use it being deeply in love. I have a POP account with comcast, and my company has one with another provider. We recently installed software that has internal email, but it's a pretty simple messaging service the only purpose for which, so far, has been the younger folks sending ha-has to each other. I have my work email set up on my Treo680, 15 minute intervals during regular working hours, leave mail on the server so I can download it later to my work machine. I have my personal (Comcast) mail also available on the 680, but I use it only when I'm on a trip and it's more convenient than breaking out the laptop. Again, leave mail on server for later download and archiving. I also rarely send a fax -- so far I can get to a machine that has fax on it, transfer my document thereto, and I'm done. So what, from the point of view of someone who seems to be in the "deeply in love" category, does Exchange do, and why should I care? Is it something that could make my Treo more productive (I hate that word, but when it's the only one you've got ...)? I think I mentioned previously I'm not a Microsoft fan, but there is something to be said for compatibility, so I use Office 2003 - except for IE and OL. But I am eager to hear the merits of the case, and I'd bet there are some other folks on the list who just haven't asked the question. Don Ferguson wrote: > Well, here's my story: > > After leaving IBM (and Lotus Notes) I started using Outlook because it > made sense to me to have my address book in the same place my email is. > I can add information to the address book from email, and can email > anyone in my address book. Having one's address book separate from > one's email never really made sense to me. > > That's where I started. > > Other advantages I picked up along the way: > > Switching from one Palm device to the next (I very nearly buy 'em all) > is made much easier with Outlook since the data stays in Outlook even as > I uninstall and reinstall the Palm software. No worries about my .dat > files getting lost in the process: it's all in Outlook. > > I can drag an email to the task icon in OL2003 and create a task from an > email. Same for a calendar entry. > > There is all sorts of fiddling one can do with views of tasks to make > them fit one's preferences. > > The only thing I really haven't liked about Outlook is the Memos > function. It's modeled on yellow sticky notes and it sucks big time. > No scroll bars; no undo function, etc. etc. It's really inferior. It > could easily be improved. Perhaps it has been in OL2007? > > Enter the Treo 700p with Versamail that is capable of syncing with > Exchange not only email, but contacts and calendar. Someone recommended > I give it a try and I would never go back. OK, never say never, but > you'd have to twist my arm pretty hard to get me to go back. It's just > so darned handy to have those data elements sync over the air > automatically. No Hotsync required. And having push email turns out to > be handier than I'd've thought. > > That's probably a pretty sketchy summary, but it gives some of the > highlights of why I use Outlook, and am looking forward to using OL2007 > when my hosted Exchange company gives it to me for free, sometime in the > next couple of weeks. > > BTW, I'm using 1and1's hosted Exchange service, and aside from some > language difficulties with technical support I'm pretty happy with the > price performance ($7/month/mailox). > > Finally, and I know this is heresy in the Palm world (and with apologies > to CESD, whom I admire), but I've never really become enamored of > Datebkn. I think it's kinda like golf, which I also don't particularly > care for: everybody but me seems to just rave about Datebkn (like golf) > and get a great deal of benefit from it. But not me. It strikes me as > too hard to use and during the two brief times (most recently: > yesterday) I've tried it on my 700p it's crashed quite a bit -- > databases becoming corrupt and so on. I want to like it, like I want to > like golf, but I just don't -- so I can't help you there! > > Cheers, > Don > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of J > Messeder > Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2007 6:40 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Treo] Outlook/Exchange > > I changed the title because I have another question. If this isn't the > same as starting a new thread, is there an effective way other than > going to the Yahoo Group site? > > Now the question: I'm one of those who merely rebels at Microsoft owning > > my computer. On the other hand, I use MS Office 2003. On the other other > > hand, I also use Thunderbird and Firefox. I use IE7 at work and I hate > it, maybe because I'm not used to it, but there it is. > But I've had more empirical reasons for not using Outlook, having to > > do with the way it handled contacts, didn't allow for scheduled outgoing > > emails (I know T-bird doesn't either, but when I was trying Outlook I > was running Eudora). > So -- and this is a serious question: why would I, a guy who handles > > three POP accounts on the Treo, want to switch from the Palm Desktop to > Outlook/Exchange combo? What might be some of the advantages. > Short of loading the latest MS software from disk, I'm thinking this > > is a good way to find out. (Please tell me some of the DB6 functionality > > not available in Palm Desktop is available in Outlook -- that could be a > > big seller.) >
