Exchange and iPhone.. A complete mess!

[serrano_yejo]

Exchange and iPhone.. A complete mess! @ Mobility Today


A full featured email device? We think not!

So I haven't said much about the iPhone 3G as I didn't think it was fair until I had some one on one time with the phone. One of the biggest areas I was looking forward to was the exchange support. Well... I am not sure where to start but I would like to point out some issues that I have seen so far.

* Viewing-
Apple has done a beautiful job with HTML viewing on the iPhone 2.0 software. Quite honestly I think its even better than the Windows Mobile version. Users can easily see their expanded folder list on their exchange server along with the capability of moving emails to folders. I did notice that there was a bug where if you have WiFi and 3G off you will be prompted with errors? Unfortunately Apple needs to fix this immediately.

* Out of Office-
Woops! Why can't I set my Out of Office to be turned on or off? Kind of strange why Apple completely forgot this also?

* Calendar Categories
During Steve Jobs presentation I noticed color tagging support within calendar and I was very excited in seeing it.. Unfortunately it looks as if it didn't make the 2.0 software because all of my calendar items are Grey with no categories?

* Global Address List-
On Windows Mobile I liked the capability to go to my Global Address List and look up a name which I can do on the iPhone. BUT... I can't add this person to my local address book? WHAAA? Another area Apple needs to fix asap!

* No Flag Support-
What in the world happened here? I noticed you cannot flag emails for followup? I immediately went up to my computer and looked at my flagged items and they didn't show up either? Once again Apple needs to implement this functionality as I would be shocked Steve Jobs never realized it!

* Calendar Invites-
Ok... Now you have me worried Apple. First of all why in the world did you completely screw up the invite process? My first sync was a complete nightmare as I had 23 invitations that I previously accepted that now said maybe? I noticed if I re-accepted this invite it would then duplicate on my iPhone? Also what about when you receive an invite you have to click on another location to accept the appt? Whew... This is a complete mess!!! Also how about giving us the opportunity to see other people's calendar to see if they are busy at a certain time when you schedule an appointment? Steve... fix this please asap!

* Tasks-
Not existent? Why? Apple employees dont use Tasks? My Windows Mobile device will sync my tasks? Boy... this list is getting long!

* Notes-
Ok if you don't give me tasks why wont you give a helping hand and give us note support in exchange?

I know many of you will call me an Apple iPhone hater and quite honestly I am not. I am liking this phone so much that I am willing to deal with the above bugs. Do I miss Windows Mobile exchange support? You better believe ya! Apple completely failed here and they should be embarrassed to tell their enterprise customers this is a full featured email device. Its not there yet Apple..

[test54]

well I think they would admit its not their, actually their CEO did just that a couple days ago. They have a number of improvements that they will get to. As I don;t use Exchange I have no idea about these but you make a good list to the problems.

[juwaack68]

Originally Posted by serrano_yejo

* No Flag Support-
What in the world happened here? I noticed you cannot flag emails for followup? I immediately went up to my computer and looked at my flagged items and they didn't show up either? Once again Apple needs to implement this functionality as I would be shocked Steve Jobs never realized it!

In all fairness, I can't flag items on my BlackBerry either....only in Outlook and the flag does not carry over.

[legacyb4]

Like any software product, first release of features is usually never spot on. I'll bet that we'll start to see those bug fixes rolling out over the next 6 months especially with this many units now live in the field...