Blackberry Review, EMail
See also Samsung i600 EMail
Capabilities
For users of an "enterprise" mail server (Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes), the Blackberry acts like an extension of your mail client (Outlook). Messages can be received, sent, deleted, and moved.
With the Desktop Redirector running on your office computer all the time, all or some email messages are sent to the Blackberry and you can send mail from the Blackberry which looks like it came from your Exchange account. When cradled, mail messages can be synchronized different ways.
Your whole folder structure is downloaded when mail is first reconciled via the serial connection. Messages can be "filed" (moved) to different folders on the Blackberry. That doesn't do anything until mail is reconciled again, then those messages are moved to the mail folder (on your server) that you picked on the Blackberry.
How It Works
It isn't just another mail client, but more like an extension of your mail system. If you are used to having Outlook open on several computers and each one always presents the same picture of your mail on the server, this will be different.
Receiving Messages
The Desktop Redirector connects your Exchange server and receives notices of new messages to your Inbox (there is an option to select a personal folder, which is local). It compares the message to a list of filters and forwards a copy of the message to the Blackberry; the status of the message on the Exchange server doesn't change.
Redirection is automatically turned off when the device is cradled.
Sending Messages
You can reply to any message or compose a new message just like any mail client. The message is sent as an attachment to your Exchange account. The Redirector then picks it up and sends it to the recipients just as if you sent it from Outlook. If you have Outlook open, you may see the "flycatcher" message show up for a split second.
Organizing Messages
There are a couple options for moving and deleting messages when the handheld is cradled. Documentation is thin and unclear. However, messages deleted or moved on the Blackberry can cause the same thing to happen on the Exchange server when you reconcile email via Intellisync. If you want messages deleted from the Blackberry to be deleted from Exchange, then the message option on the Blackberry to "delete from both handheld and desktop" needs to be set. To have messages moved to different folders, the Intellisync Email Configuration "Synchronize moves and deletes" has to be selected. Note that messages not originating from your Exchange account (SMS, phone call logs, other mail accounts) are not affected.
Ease of Use
The initial setup of the Desktop Manager and Redirector works well for Outlook/Exchange. It finds out everything from your saved Outlook settings, and you don't have to tell it your server name, account or anything else. Sending and receiving mail works well right away. Filters are easy to setup. A nice surprise was filters setup on a laptop showed up when the Redirector was installed on another machine; they must be saved on the Exchange server.
Figuring out how you want your mail synchronized is more difficult. The documentation and help screens are very inadequate, but a little experimentation should result in what you want to do. For example, I wanted "Filed" messages to be deleted from the handheld when mail is reconciled and those messages are successfully moved, but didn't find any option in Intellisync help; it is an option found under the Options menu in the message list on the Blackberry. They aren't deleted but they are hidden. Wonder when they are deleted?
Options
Redirector Settings are changed via the Desktop Manager (odd); there are options to NOT redirect messages to the handheld, disable redirection when it is cradled, add a signature to mail sent from the handheld (which goes through the redirector, so the setting is there are not on the Blackberry), and filter messages. Filter files can be saved and loaded, conceivably allowing sharing filters among users.
Problems
One major complaint I have is that the message list shows the date/time a message arrived to the device, not the date/time from the message header. If you are out of range and have no signal for a significant amount of time, as I am often, when you get a GPRS connection your mail comes flooding in, all with approximately the same timestamp, including those that may have been sent to you days or weeks ago.
Beginning Fall, 2003 I am using a spam filter to move spam out of my InBox; this is running on a different desktop machine than the Blackberry Desktop Redirector. The Redirector sees the spam before it is moved, and forwards it to the Blackberry; it would be really nice if there was an option to tell the Redirector to wait a minute before forwarding a message found in the Inbox.
A third and most important limitation is that mail forwarded by the Desktop Manager is "uni-directional". You can delete or move messages, but those changes aren't made to your mail account until the unit is docked and synchronized at your desktop machine. If you are reading mail on several different computers, say a laptop and a desktop, this become very inconvenient.
Comparisons
Compared to a Smartphone or Pocket PC (i.e., Windows Mobile) using IMAP or Exchange ActiveSync, with which changes (deletes, moves, replies) are made to the server's copy of your messages over the air, email to the Blackberry via the Desktop Redirector might be considered primitive. (I would like to see how the Blackberry Information Server, a plug-in for Exchange, works, but RIM doesn't offer a demo of the expensive software.)
The Blackberry does have an advantage with its persistent data connection; if it loses the data connection it automatically restores it when it can, and mail is pushed to the phone very quickly.
Settings for IMAP on a Windows Mobile device can be made to connect manually or at some interval, but the minimum time is 15 minutes. If you are using Exchange ActiveSync, there is a setting to get new messages and changes to your calendar and contacts "immediately"; this is done by the Exchange server sending an SMS message to your phone; the phone sees the message automatically and initiates a data connection to get the new mail. This works fairly well unless you have a weak signal.
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This page was last modified: 10/12/2004 9:51:32 AM.