Sync Your World: Get an Exchange Hosted Account

[Brandon Miniman]

Imagine this: you’re working in Outlook in your home office or kitchen, just as you do several times per day, and you add a new contact, then mfake an appointment with the new contact for a meeting later. It’s time to head out for the afternoon, so you grab your Smartphone in the other room, look down at the screen, and see that your meeting already shows up on the screen. Since your device has just sync’ed with Outlook over-the-air, the new contact is also on your phone, so you give him a call, and ask him for directions.

That’s how an Exchange account works, and it’s not just for those in a corporate environment anymore who have spent thousands to set up an Exchange server. With a hosted exchange account, you can get all of your email, contacts, appointments, and tasks, sync’ed almost instantly among your laptop, desktop, and Windows Mobile device.

The cost? It’s MUCH cheaper than you think! Several of us here at pocketnow.com use 4Smartphone (http://www.4smartphone.net/Affiliates.aspx?go=referral&ref=BM56140), including myself, and they have plans starting at just $4 per month, which provides you with 500MB of email storage space, Outlook web access, and all those other goodies that your corporate buddies are enjoying.

If you've got a Windows Mobile phone device, use Outlook for PIM, and want to get the most out of your newfound mobility, you need an Exchange hosted account. To take a look at [url=http://www.4smartphone.net/Affiliates.aspx?go=referral&ref=BM56140]4Smartphone’s offerings, click here. I can’t live without out it (or, I’d be out of sync!).

[Pony99CA]

And now, the contrarian view.... :D

Imagine this: you’re working in Outlook in your home office or kitchen, just as you do several times per day, and you add a new contact, then mfake an appointment with the new contact for a meeting later. It’s time to head out for the afternoon, so you grab your Smartphone in the other room, look down at the screen, and see that your meeting already shows up on the screen. Since your device has just sync’ed with Outlook over-the-air, the new contact is also on your phone, so you give him a call, and ask him for directions.
Imagine this: I've got my Smartphone connected via USB to my PC. When I add a contact, it gets synchronized immediately. When I add an appointment, it also gets synchronized immediately. When I have to head out, I disconnect my Smartphone and everything is already there.

With Bluetooth synchronization, you might not even have to keep your PDA in the same room.

That’s how an Exchange account works, and it’s not just for those in a corporate environment anymore who have spent thousands to set up an Exchange server. With a hosted exchange account, you can get all of your email, contacts, appointments, and tasks, sync’ed almost instantly among your laptop, desktop, and Windows Mobile device.
I guess one downside of the basic sync is that multiple computers won't be kept in sync. However, I generally only use one PC at home, so it's a moot point.

The cost? It’s MUCH cheaper than you think! Several of us here at pocketnow.com use 4Smartphone (http://www.4smartphone.net/Affiliates.aspx?go=referral&ref=BM56140), including myself, and they have plans starting at just $4 per month, which provides you with 500MB of email storage space, Outlook web access, and all those other goodies that your corporate buddies are enjoying.
The price of my solution starts (and tops out) at $0 per month. :D True, I won't have Outlook Web access, but why do I need it if I have my Smartphone with me all the time?

If I really want Web access to my data, I can sync Outlook with Yahoo Calendar (http://calendar.yahoo.com) and Yahoo Address Book (http://address.yahoo.com/). Sure, I might have to synchronize them manually, and they might not be kept in sync if I make changes on my PDA, but I can live with that.

As for 500 MB of E-mail storage, many free services offer more than that, although I might have to give out a new E-mail address.

Of course, what good is 500 MB of E-mail anyway for a mobile device. No Windows Mobile device that I know of can store that much E-mail because E-mail has to be stored in main memory. If you get a lot of large attachments, and can store the attachments on a memory card, maybe you could use 500 MB of E-mail storage, but how many people really do that?

If you've got a Windows Mobile phone device, use Outlook for PIM, and want to get the most out of your newfound mobility, you need an Exchange hosted account. To take a look at 4Smartphone’s offerings (http://www.4smartphone.net/Affiliates.aspx?go=referral&ref=BM56140), click here. I can’t live without out it (or, I’d be out of sync!).
I use Outlook for PIM (but not personal E-mail). While I'm away from my computer, nobody is adding contacts or appointments to Outlook. E-mail may arrive, but I can access that on my Smartphone via POP3. It's not push E-mail, of course, but every 15 minutes is more than enough for me. If I have a lot of E-mail going back and forth with somebody, I can just do a manual Send/Receive.

Now, for small businesses that don't want to run Exchange Server, maybe this would be useful (if they can get the benefits of shared calendars). For individuals, I'm extremely skeptical. So what am I missing? Why would I want to pay money for this, especially on top of the money I'm paying my carrier for my data plan.

Steve

[dckiwi]

Just out of interest, has anyone tried Funambol?

http://www.funambol.com/product/overview.html

It claims to provide push email and pim sync, but looks like it involves installing a server on your local machine.

I would be interested to hear if anyone's had success with this.

[Brandon Miniman]

Thanks for raining on my parade, Steve :p. Just kidding. You make some good points, this expense can easily be avoided, but for those that are on the road that don't have time to sync their device, and for those who want true push-email so that they can be always up to date, an Exchange hosted account is what the doctor ordered.

[sooby77]

Mail2web.com (http://services.mail2web.com/FreeServices/m2wLive/) offers free push email which I have been using with my 9100 for some time now. Works great... for the cost of $0!

[Pony99CA]

Thanks for raining on my parade, Steve :p. Just kidding. You make some good points, this expense can easily be avoided, but for those that are on the road that don't have time to sync their device, and for those who want true push-email so that they can be always up to date, an Exchange hosted account is what the doctor ordered.
In a business where seconds matter (stock trading, IT systems management, etc.), I can understand why push E-mail is useful. For individuals, though, is push that important?

If somebody really has something so urgent that they need to get me right away, I think calling would be more appropriate.

I'm not saying push isn't a good thing, of course. I'm just saying that I don't think it's really necessary for most personal uses, and certainly not so important that I'd be willing to pay extra for it.

Steve

[Tim Adams]

Personally, I use 4Smartphone less for the push email (which I don't really need), and more for insuring that all my data is backed up, no matter where I am.