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Future Shop offers trade-in credit for HD DVD players, will donate old decks to charity
Slowly but surely, we're seeing retailer after retailer conjure up its own trade-in / exchange program to deal with the finality of the format war. Canada's Future Shop, however, has certainly put an interesting twist on things. First off, it'll accept standalone HD DVD players purchased from anywhere until April 3rd. In exchange, you'll receive $100 off the purchase of an LG or Samsung Blu-ray / HD DVD combo player, but not a standalone Blu-ray player of any kind. Unfortunately, that means your options are pretty limited, but we can certainly understand the retailer's desire to wash its hands of anything with an HD DVD logo on it. Better still, Future Shop will be donating all of the returned HD DVD players to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada "for use in their after-school and evening programs." Now if that's not a reason to trade-up, we don't know what is. [Thanks, Josh]
Apple/Microsoft in talks for ActiveSync before iPhone launched
Exchange support in the iPhone has been rumored almost as long as the iPhone itself was rumored to exist. Much as the iPhone turned out to be real, so has ActiveSync on the iPhone. Microsoft released an interview with Terry Myerson, corporate vice president for Exchange, which includes a very interesting tidbit. Mr. Myserson says that Apple and Microsoft were in talks about licensing ActiveSync before the iPhone was announced. Furthermore, he was in daily contact with Apple VP Phil Schiller (when Schiller wasn't making up Apple rumors, of course) for two weeks while they set the details of the agreement between the two tech giants.This isn't a revelation, since it stands to reason that a company in the business of selling a smart phone and another company in the business of selling technology for smart phones would work together but it is interesting nonetheless.
Apple licenses ActiveSync for the iPhone
Today Apple announced that they have licensed ActiveSync from Microsoft to enable full Exchange integration with the iPhone. The first thing you think of with ActiveSync is Push Email (that's when email is sent to your iPhone as soon as it is received, as opposed to on a schedule like every 15 minutes). ActiveSync includes that as well as: Wireless calendar syncing Wireless contact syncing Remote wipe of the device if it is lost This goes way beyond simple email, folks. This only works when you're connected to an Exchange backend though, so don't be afraid that someone can randomly wipe all the data from your iPhone.ActiveSync will be included in the iPhone 2.0 software, available sometime in late June.
iPhone gets ActiveSync support for Exchange
As was hinted at some days ago, the Cupertino crew decided that the iPhone was finally ready for prime time in belt clips around the nation. Well, great news friends, Enterprise to Apple means Microsoft Exchange and ActiveSync support. We can expect features like Push mail and Contacts, Global Address List, Cisco IPsec VPN, authentication via certificate, and even remote wipe. Also on the table is Salesforce.com's Sales Force Automation CRM Application (SFA) and they've even thrown in support for maps. When can we get our greedy little hands on this you ask? As soon as the next iPhone firmware update rolls out, that's when.
Circuit City quietly accepting HD DVD player trade-ins
Did you get stuck on the losing end of the format war, and are now cursing that HD DVD player as it stares mockingly at you? Does your rage meter go to 11 when you hear of consumers living abroad getting treated to some trade-in value on HD DVD players? Well, our friends over at Format War Central have gotten word that Circuit City is quietly offering a trade-in program to consumers who jumped into the HD DVD pool within three months of Toshiba's fateful announcement. Apparently, you'll be able to trade in your player, at full purchase price, towards a Blu-ray player or a gift card. Nice move, Circuit City! Three words of advice if you're affected and go to cash in on this deal -- "calm but firm." Let us know if you have any luck in switching out equipment in the comments, too!
Entourage Exchange Accounts Optimizer 1.0
Just the other day a co-worker of mine wondered if there was a way to have Entourage (she's using 2008) automatically archive messages like Outlook does (we run Exchange on the job, which stores all your messages on the server; you run the risk of going over your quota if you don't archive things to a local mail store from time to time). I had to report that Entourage does not automatically archive (though it really should), and sadly I knew of no other automatic solution for her.I now have a much better answer for her: Entourage Exchange Accounts Optimizer 1.0. It gives Entourage (2004 or 2008) the auto-archiving features that should be built in. You launch EEAO and tell it how old messages should be before they are archived, where to archive said messages to, and if you want it to run on a schedule. That's it.Entourage Exchange Accounts Optimizer costs $10, though a free demo is available.
Edion does the unthinkable: allows swapping of HD DVD players for Blu-ray decks
Shortly after hearing that the relatively unknown studio HDScape cranked up a HD DVD / Blu-ray exchange program, along comes Edion to show the world how this ordeal should really be handled. Said firm owns several chains of electronics stores in Japan, and reportedly, it's allowing customers who purchased one of seven HD DVD players to return them for Blu-ray decks. Apparently, it's allowing them to put the purchase price of the HD DVD unit towards the Blu-ray player, and if their player was somehow more expensive than the BD player they're eying, a refund for the difference will actually be doled out. We'll be honest -- this does seem a bit too good to be true, but we are hearing that the courtesy expires at the end of March. 'Tis a shame this will never happen on this side of the world. [Warning: PDF / Japanese read link][Via Tech.co.uk, thanks Soven A.]
HDScape offers up HD DVD to Blu-ray exchange program
While early adopters won't see a single red cent from Toshiba now that HD DVD has bit the proverbial dust, HDScape movie owners looking to make the transition to Blu-ray may be happy to hear of its latest program. In a move that we can only hope other studios mimic, the firm is enabling customers that previously purchased flicks on HD DVD to exchange the paper casewraps they came in for an $11.95 BD version. Yep, this means you can keep your HD DVD case and disc, but you won't be able to use one casewrap to receive a discount on a different title. For step-by-step instructions on how to take HDScape up on its offer, head on down to the read link -- and for folks scouting stellar deals on the now-defunct red format, you can snag quite a few of its HD DVDs for just $6.95.
Kerio MailServer 6.5 poised to replace Exchange
Kerio Technologies announced version 6.5 of the Kerio MailServer -- 2 years in the making -- yesterday. We talked about version 6 recently, but this is their largest update yet and clearly shows their readiness to take a bite out of the Microsoft Exchange market. With version 6.5, Kerio is providing the groupware platform and tools needed to completely replace Exchange within a collaboration-centric organization. The release is compatible with both server and workstation flavors of OS X with full support for Leopard, in addition to being fully Microsoft certified for Vista and Redhat certified for Linux compatibility. 6.5 also includes enhanced support for Entourage 2008, making full use of message flags and "out of office" messages which are synced on both mobile and workstation clients. The biggest change of interest to Mac users is the addition of CalDAV support. Kerio users can look up information, share and subscribe to calendars and achieve 2-way sync whether they're on a Mac, an iPhone, a Palm or Windows Mobile handheld, a PC ... you get the idea. The server can provide a bridge between open and proprietary standards, making sure that you see the same data everywhere and allowing for smooth cross-platform interoperability. The other major improvement, definitely of interest to users in multi-platform environments, is an upgrade to the Outlook Connector with a complete rewrite of its underlying database structure. It allows for easy data access, online and offline, with current and older versions of Outlook. And its full-text search capabilities search across messages, contacts and calendar events with support for Google Desktop search. Not surprisingly, a release this big resulted in a pricing change. The standard package (10 users) now starts at $499 and adding additional users costs $20 per user. A version with integrated McAfee Anti-Virus for bi-directional scanning of all email starts at $599 and additional users are $24 each. Both versions include anti-spam, user management with authentication against Active Directory and Open Directory. Visit Kerio for more information. Update: The US Apple Store is now carrying a base server (10 user) license and install media for Kerio MailServer with McAfee.
Office 11.4.0 update squashes nasty Entourage data loss bug
Among the security patches delivered with Microsoft's 11.4.0 update to Office 2004 this week, there was a fix for a subtle and deeply irritating bug that's been nipping at Exchange users for a long time. Under certain rare circumstances, Entourage users could unexpectedly and unexplainedly lose days or weeks worth of email, poof! I've personally seen this happen a handful of times over the past three years, and it's always a challenging conversation when the affected user asks "What the hell happened?" and the official reply is "Um... let me check the backups for you, mmmkay?"TUAW reader Vermyndax, who worked with Microsoft support to track down the bug, blogged about the cause and resolution of the issue today:The bug occurs due to a bad logic assumption. Entourage 2004 treats its local database as authoritative to the mail stored in your mailbox. As such, if the Exchange server happens to be virus-scanning your mailbox when you synchronize your mail, Exchange will refuse to allow Entourage access to the items being scanned. Since Entourage receives no information on the existence of those items, it will mark them for deletion in its local database. On the next sync, you lose all of those items in the mailbox too. In cases we noted, users were losing large swaths of email at once (on the order of 2-3 weeks' worth all at once). Yech. While you could recover the mail from Outlook/OWA "Deleted Items," it was a pain -- and worse if you didn't notice the problem until after your retention deadline had passed. Upgrading to 11.4.0, assuming you aren't quite ready to make the leap to Office 2008, is sounding better all the time. Thanks Vermyndax!
Microsoft's "Vista for privacy" offer still on?
Details are still fuzzy at this point, but according to an e-mail received by numerous tipsters, Microsoft is indeed offering up a free copy of Vista in exchange for their privacy. Yeah, even though it claimed otherwise late last year. According to the note, Redmond is viewing these folks as "registered members" of the Windows Feedback Program, and if they keep their guard down for the remainder of a three month period, they will seemingly receive a copy of its latest OS gratis. So, any others out there finding an unexpected message from the Big M regarding said offer? Let us know in comments below, particularly if you get any free wares or previously analyzed keylogging reports.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Kerio MailServer provides Leopard-compatible groupware
When I posted about the Zimbra collaboration suite a little while ago, it was noted in the comments that, while the Zimbra client is now working in Safari 3, the server isn't yet Leopard-compatible. Kerio MailServer offers a Safari 3 and Leopard-compatible alternative with a lot of groupware functionality. Kerio's Safari 3 compatibility stems mostly from the fact that it doesn't have a rich text editor in the client, but it works flawlessly for plain text email and the interface is as smooth and AJAXy as Zimbra's. Kerio has had a Mac version of the server since 2003, with drop-in Exchange replacement capability and the ability to sync contacts, calendars and email without the need for an external client. Kerio has even had iPhone sync since last Fall. Kerio's pricing structure is slightly different from Zimbra's, but competitive; there's no open source Kerio version, as there is with Zimbra. But if you're in the market for a Leopard-based mail server and collaboration solution, Kerio seems to be a pretty good choice.
Apple is looking for an Exchange QA staffer for iPhone
Even if iPhones are further into the enterprise market than some might think (or desire), the lack of native non-IMAP support for Exchange accounts on the device has given some users and their IT departments pause. While there are some solid third-party options coming along (Visto and SyncML among others), only an Apple-blessed solution is going to satisfy in the end. Is there progress on the home front? Chadwick sent along a link via ModMyiPhone.com to an Apple job posting for a QA engineer: The iPhone Quality team is looking for a motivated, highly-technical Exchange test/sync engineer with excellent problem solving and communication skills. You will join a dynamic team responsible for qualifying the latest iPhone products. Your focus will be testing Exchange and Outlook functionality with Apple's innovative new phone. The successful candidate will complete both documented and adhoc testing to ensure high quality releases. Hiring a QA engineer implies that the Exchange connector code under development is getting ready for testing and release. Could an Exchange hookup for the iPhone be coming in time for Macworld Expo? Dee-lightful. Thanks, Chadwick.
Apple looking to push ActiveSync onto iPhone?
We've reported rumors about this should-have-been-in-the-initial-offering feature since well before the iPhone's launch date and here we are, half a year down the road from iPhone day and we're still kludging along with IMAP support. All that may be set to change with Apple's recent job posting looking for an "iPhone Windows Outlook/Exchange QA Eng" in Cupertino. Of course, this new position may simply exist to help bolster the team working on the IMAP features in its "ongoing effort to improve your mobile mail experience" -- but we hope not. We're hoping that this will usher in the era of real push mail from Exchange on iPhone, and we'd be willing to bet the proverbial farm that there are a ton of others out there thinking the same.[Via AppleInsider]
Microsoft pulls Vista from snooping offer
Yesterday, we told you about an offer wherein you could completely sacrifice your privacy for a free software bundle from Microsoft which included Windows Vista Ultimate and Office Ultimate '07, amongst others. Well, apparently the big M has decided to pull the offer of free software -- but still wants to track your digital footsteps and pry into your private dealings. Here's Redmond's official line to those inquiring about the discontinued offer: "Thank you for your interest in the feedback program. Due to high volume, we have reached our 'while supplies last' limit and have closed our free product incentive on 12/11/2007 at 2pm." Needless to say, they'd still love to have a look at your browser history, emails, IM logs, crash reports, and blood type.[Thanks, Jerry]
Visto Mobile does Exchange, Lotus Notes for iPhone
It's not the first product to tout enterprise email integration for the iPhone, but Visto Mobile has announced a solution of its own, promising secure access to Exchange and Domino servers without any software install on the iPhone -- a good thing, we'd say, considering that most IT departments frown on having to hack their fleet of mobile devices to set them up. Unlike Synchronica's solution which games Exchange's Outlook Web Access feature to avoid having to expose POP or IMAP servers to the world, Visto Mobile actually does require that admins open up a secure IMAP port and publishes the corporate directory to a Safari-friendly web page. Many IT departments frown on all that, too, so if you're planning on pitching this lil' solution to your own IT peeps, know full well that you may be turned away brokenhearted. Individual users can get in on the action for a one-time fee of $39 plus $10 per month, while companies are looking at $799 plus $199 per year plus $10 per month per user. Whew, patent suits must not be cheap, huh?Update: Turns out Visto uses port 443 -- typically used for secure HTTP -- to do its IMAP thing, so your IT department should calm down a bit when they find out they don't need to open special holes in the firewall just for your iPhone-totin' behind.
Nokia ups Mail for Exchange to version 2
Symbian and Windows Mobile might be sworn enemies, but to play ball in the corporate space, Nokia has little option but to support the 800-pound email gorilla that is Exchange. To that end, Espoo has loosed version 2 of its Mail for Exchange client, tightening integration with Microsoft's Exchange Server 2007 (while still supporting 2003) and enabling full attachment handling and meeting management directly from Nokia's Eseries devices. Who'da thunk they'd be rocking ActiveSync from their E62? Get it now, free of charge, for the entire Eseries line along with the N73, N76, and N95.
Ask TUAW: Slowing MBP, iSyncing Verizon, DIY .Mac and more
This week we've got a wide variety of questions in Ask TUAW. We go from choosing hard drives, syncing iCal with Exchange, and troubleshooting a slow MacBook Pro to rolling your own .mac, a keyboard recommendation, finding an iSyncing Verizon phone and much more. As always, please leave your questions for next week in the comments.Now on to the show!
Synchronica's Mobile Gateway 3.0 trial for iPhone starts next week
If you've been dying without access to your Exchange mail account -- and come on, how many business types just need this? -- from iPhone, fear not, Synchronica's trial for Mobile Gateway 3.0 starts next week. While we've heard some people have had some success using Outlook Web Access (OWA) on iPhone, many haven't and if your IT group won't open the firewall for IMAP, you're out of luck. Synchronica's Gateway works by connecting to OWA, grabbing the mail and then making it available to your iPhone -- and many other types of phones -- via IMAP. So, if you haven't jumped onboard for this trial, we suggest you hop over to the site and get signed up.
Ocean gets Exchange ActiveSync -- for a price
Exchange using Helio members, your time is now: the Ocean's finally getting that Exchange ActiveSync support (for Contacts, Calendar, and email with Exchange Server 2003 SP2+) promised users, as well as bumped new version of Helio File Viewer (supporting .doc, .ppt, .xls and .pdf). But, as always, there is a catch. Although the first 60 days of use during the beta period will be free, the final version of Helio EAS + File Viewer will set you back an addition $10 per month for all-in users. If that still sounds workable with your expense account, jump on that Ocean right now and download the app that gets the corporate collaboration wheels moving. One more shot after the break.
