Mr Lube Goes High Tech - Sort of

The other day I stopped by my local Mr Lube to have a quick oil change on my car. Now, the store I stopped at is only a couple years old, and for the record, they did a great job all around. Being the geek that I am, I couldn’t help but notice that the attendant was using a Pocket PC based device to scan my cars VIN. To be exact, they were using an Intermec CN2B. For those of you who might not know, Intermec is a manufacturer of ruggedized mobile computers. Their devices are typically running Windows Mobile or even Windows CE. This particular device is a small unit with a built in bar code scanner, QVGA screen, 64MB RAM, 64MB ROM, a 400MHz xScale processor, and WiFi. All in all, a pretty good device for a small shop like Mr Lube.

I talked a little with the attendant about this device and how they used it in their workplace (I always like to see how others are using technology to improve efficiency). As it turns out, these devices are pretty new and the whole system is a recent addition. Overall he seemed pleased with the process and software, but he did seem to have some issues getting the device to scan the barcode correctly, but nothing special. It wasn’t until later that day when I looked up the full specs on this device and noticed something really interesting. The CN2B runs Windows Mobile 2003. That’s right, it’s running an OS that’s 4 versions old – 5 if you count the MSFP (Messaging and Security Feature Pack) that was released a couple years ago. So Mr Lube is rolling out a new system to all their stores that’s running on a mobile operating system from 5 years ago!

Now, I don’t know the reasons why they selected this device, or the reasons they decided to use such an old operating system for their project. I guess they must have their reason. What I really don’t understand is why a manufacturer is selling a device running such an old version of Windows Mobile? The only advantage I can think of for doing this is a small cost savings on the licensing fees from Microsoft. But when a customer is paying upwards of $2,000 for a ruggedized handheld, I would expect the manufacturer could spring a little extra cash for the latest version of Windows Mobile. Perhaps even 1 version out of date. But 5 years/4 versions?! It won’t be long and they’re going to start having problems managing and developing for those devices because all the tools have evolved beyond that old mobile OS. If you’re planning a deployment, it’s always good to spend a little more now for a current device/OS that will last for a number of years and allow you to maximize your ROI. Starting out with something that’s already old and outdated isn’t really the best approach. At least not in my opinion.

Managing Mobile Email with Exchange ActiveSync - Suggestions on Hosting Companies?

Mobile email on a Windows Mobile device really needs an Exchange backend to make it shine. Sure, you can sync mail from your desktop Outlook via ActiveSync and then reply and compose messages from the device, but you have to wait until the next time you connect to that computer before the message actually get sent. So that’s not really useful. There’s another option of setting up the account to connect directly from the device over the air to a backend server. This is a pretty nice solution, but it doesn’t sync contacts or calendar. It’s only good for sending and receiving email. Exchange is the only solution that provides access to email over the air and will sync your contacts and calendar at the same time. So your desktop is the same as your phone - all the time.

For the longest time I have been using the second option - syncing email directly from the device against a backend mail server. The reason I’ve been using this option is partly due to the fact that I can only have one Exchange account per device and I have a couple accounts that I check from my phone making it hard to pick which account is the most important and needs the direct push / always on functionality offered by Exchange. The other reason I haven’t been using Exchange is that I’ve been planning to setup my own server and go the do-it-yourself route. That’s been the plan for a couple years now. Unfortunately, there’s always something that got in the way and I’m still no where near ready to setup and manage my own server. Enough is enough - it’s time to get on the Exchange wagon.

So now the question becomes which hosting provider should I go with? There’s a number of companies offering hosted Exchange service for a small monthly fee. Perhaps on of the more popular companies is 4Smartphone, but there are plenty of others like 1and1, Exchange Mail Hosting, SherWeb, Mail2Web, and so many more. With so many providers, it’s hard to get a good idea of which one has the best offering and the best service. Does anyone have any recommendations on which provider to go with, or which one to avoid?