We've deployed over 50 handhelds (soon to be 600) with a mixture of 8310 Curves and 8800 and 8820s through our BES 4.1.4.26 server running w/Exchange 2003.

These are the OS versions:

8310-4.2.2.170
8800-4.2.1.72
8820-4.2.2.169

We will be standardizing on the Curves.

Now, we find that we need these devices to support Chinese characters.
So if we needed to update any of the OSs on these handhelds, are we pretty much SOL because the only way to update these devices would be to recall them and physically attach them to a machine running Desktop Manager?

So my questions are, if we needed to upgrade the OS on the handhelds to support Chinese:

1. How could we efficiently upgrade each of these handheld OSs? Do we need to recall them from each user?
2. If we cannot upgrade these devices efficiently, then is there an alternative?

Thanks for any input...
Moogeboo

At the moment there is no way to upgrade via the BES. OTA upgrades are coming in the future but will require OS 4.3/4.5 to already be on the device. You'll have to have the end users upgrade them then reactivate or recall the devices and do it on your end.

Acutally I've been doing this utilizing Web Desktop manager. Just need to install all the OS updates on your BES and point to their location. I have the policy set for 3 grace connections before the update is forced down.

Still requires the end user to visit the web loader site and kick it off but it's the best way at the moment.

OTA upgrade will also require WI-FI support on the device

Will the upgrade have to be performed over WiFi?

That's what I was told in the Admin class i just took. The instructor said there was no way they were going to send OS upgrades over the wireless networks. Too much risk of dropped signal and costs would be too high for those without unlimited data packages

This whole feature was designed to be fault tolerant to work over the carrier networks. I suspect your instructor was simply misinformed or stating his own personal opinion.

^^ that's what I'm hoping too.