Death By Email Blog

Motorola Droid vs. iPhone vs. BlackBerry for Email Around The Clock

2009-11-07T12:41:28-05:00

Verizon, Motorola and Google got together to create a new wireless device/smart phone to take on the Apple iPhone. Is it the long promised iPhone killer? Absolutely not. Is it the smartest device for creating emails? I actually think the Motorola Droid has taken the crown away from my once beloved BlackBerry.

Let's get some perspective. I have been using the Droid for a little more than 24 hours. Not a lot of experience. But, I have also used all of the following devices at one time or another as my primary wireless email machine:

Palm VII
Danger (T-Mobile) Sidekick
Palm Treo, Treo 650 and Centro
BlackBerry 7100, BlackBerry 7200, BlackBerry Curve 8320
Apple iPod Touch
BlackBerry Storm, but only casually in a store -- never my primary device

So, I think I have some experience with how the devices work for email. Until yesterday, I would have said that the BlackBerry Curve was the best device that I have used. My guess is that the BlackBerry Tour would be my highest ranking device.

But now, I am passing the crown to the Motorola Droid. There are still some things that it could learn from the BlackBerry. But, overall, it is easy to use and has the best features for creating an email.

KEYBOARD FOR CREATING EMAIL:

it is easier to type on this device than any of the other ones I have tried. Let's put it into perspective:

Palm Treo 680 - Nice keys, easily defined, a little cramped.
Palm Centro - Probably the world's most cramped physical keyboard in a commercial product. Horrible.
BlackBerry Curve - Great physcial keyboard. But, no on-screen error correction. I was prone to typos.
BlackBerry Storm - Do I really need to press down so hard? I made lots of errors.
Apple iPhone / iPod Touch - Really nice on-screen keyboard. But, the word suggesting feature makes one guess. Touch it and it keeps the bad word and not the correction.

So, lets talk about the Motorola Droid and entering text. There are three reasons to love keyboarding on the Droid:

1. You have four keyboards to choose from. It really matters:

The first two keyboard are on-screen keyboards that are every bit as good as those on the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. One is vertical and the other is horizontal. The spacing is beautiful and the letters appear significantly above the key stroke. (I have two complaints about typing with the BlackBerry Storm and Storm 2: (a) The on-screen keys are good, but they glow when you type. It is hard to see which key you actually hit. (b) You need to use a degree of force when you type, which slows down the typing process.)

The third is a physical keyboard that slides out from under the screen. The keys are terrible for touch typing or using thumbs because they are not well defined. But, they work very well for typing with an index finger. And, it has the advantage of letting you see the full screen while tying because it does not use space on the screen.

The fourth is an on-screen vertical keyboard similar to the small BlackBerry unit in which each key handles more than one letter. I am not a fan of this style of keyboard and I have not used it much.

2. The haptic feedback creates a small vibration in the device when you type a key with the on-screen keyboard. This feedback gives you a real confirmation that you have "depressed" a key, even when you have not actually pushed on anything. It is a great feeling. It is also better than the BlackBerry implementation for which you must actually depress the glass plate.

3. The Motorola Droid actively suggests a list of words to complete what you are typing. Look at the image to the left. As I typed the word app, there is a list of words that I only need to touch to complete typing. It pulls words from its dictionary and also from my contact list, so names of people appear in the choices.

I cannot overstate the value of this list of words. I often find that I can complete typing in a fraction of the time it takes to normally type a sentence. It is better than my Curve, which does not suggest anything as I type. It is also better than the Apple iPhone that suggests one word.

EMAIL NOTIFICATION

Unfortunately, the Motorola Droid is the laggard in the pack when it comes to email notification.

I believe that the BlackBerry leads the pack because of its TODAY screen. I am not shocked by this as BlackBerry was designed to be an email device from the beginning. However, I believe the fix for the Android may be a simple widget.

The BlackBerry TODAY screen wins because it shows the sender and subject of the most recent email messages on the main screen. It is easy to see it arrive. One simple push opens the right email application. The native email application has a combined inbox. That application and the Gmail application both show an asterisk when new mail is received. It will also flash an LED with new messages. In my opinion, this works best.

The Apple iPhone and iPod Touch show the number of unread messages in the mail application, but it is the total number of messages across all mail platforms. There is not a combined inbox, which means it is necessary to switch between personal and work emails.

The Motorola Droid is the worst in the pack for email notification. There is not a today screen. (Anyone able to write the application?) It will, however, light an LED and make a noise, if requested.

READING THE EMAIL

The final criteria for an email client would be reading the email. Both the iPhone and the Motorola Droid do an excellent job of rendering emails. You get the full HTML and images. For example, I love seeing my Dilbert comics daily in full color. You can zoom in and out on the messages. They even turn to meet the width of a portrait or landscape mode. Attachments are attached and applications can be opened -- such as the music player for voice mail and Documents-to-Go for presentations.

I think the Droid and iPhone have a tie here. Some may quibble about multi-tasking and others may quibble about pinching the screen versus a zoom button. The bottom line is that they both work well.

Reading email is where I hate the BlackBerry device. They reformat the messages to fit on the screen and it removes some of the graphics. They layout of the original message is not preserved. As messages include more images and more HTML, the re-rendering is a problem. I also do not like that my BlackBerry does not download entire attachments until I tell it to. This is a left over from the days of narrow bandwidth.

CONCLUSION

Each device has pros and cons. But so far, I think I am going to say with my Droid. I score the categories as follows:

TYPING - slight edge to the Droid because of the list of words that complete my typing. It really speeds things up. But, I can make the BlackBerry and iPhone work.

EMAIL NOTIFICATION - BlackBerry is the clear winner. Droid needs new software.

READING MESSAGES - Droid and iPhone share the winner spot. BlackBerry needs a lot of changes here.

As I said, the Droid will stay. Fewer typos and properly rendered HTML matter the most. I am sure that an unread widget will be coming and then I will feel that the Droid is the clear winner in the email camp.

(I am going to write non-email related reviews of the Motorola Droid versus the Apple iPhone and the BlackBerry on a new blog, Droid Story. Feel free to follow it there.)

There Are 54 Email Archiving Vendors. How Do You Choose?

2009-11-02T13:40:44-05:00

Can you believe that there are 54 companies in the email archiving market? My product, InBoxer, of course. There are also names that you have heard of like Symantec EnterpriseVault, IBM Commonstore, Mimosa Systems Nearpoint, Google's Postini, Barracuda Networks, and so on.

It is so confusing, that it is hard to make sense of the differences.

So, I have taken a stab at discussing the critical issues in a new whitepaper entitled, "There Are 54 Email Archiving Vendors. How Do You Choose?" I am covering topics such as:

- Speed and accuracy of archive search
- Why Microsoft says stubs "should be avoided"
- How Microsoft Exchange 2010 archiving cuts storage costs
- Evaluating Exchange journaling versus MAPI or Exchange log files
- Importance of litigation hold techniques
- Legal reasons for real-time monitoring
- On-premises versus the cloud

I invite you to download it and to place your comments here. (I am sure that some competitors may want to express their point of view as well.) Please join in.

The Internet's 40th Anniversary - Today

2009-10-29T21:09:00-04:00

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." - First moon mission.

"Mr. Watson -- come here -- I want to see you." - First phone call.

“What hath God wrought!” - First telegraph message.

And, on October 29, 1969, what was the first word communicated from one computer to another computer across a long network?

This word was communicated from a small unknown lab at UCLA in Los Angeles to the Stanford Research Institute in Palo Alto, California. The computers were the size of a small apartment and had less processing power than your BlackBerry. Yet, the word that will stand up to all those other phrases was .....

"Lo"

Actually, the word was supposed to be "Login," but one of the machines crashed in the middle of the communication. So much for critical moments. The bug was fixed within minutes and the word "Login" was finished.

It is actually hard for us to remember -- or to imagine -- that in those days, computers were not interconnected. We did not have a digital telephone network. (Remember the acoustic coupler?) Computers were generally not even interactive. Most communication was via cards, paper tape, and a few terminals. So, sending a message from one machine to another was pretty radical.

Charley Kline, who was at UCLA, and Bill Duvall, his SRI counterpart, gave a special presentation at the Computer Museum to mark the 40th anniversary. They have a video that describes the moment and shows pictures of the equipment like what they used.

It wasn't exactly and email message. As a matter of fact, I doubt that they even imagined email at the time. But, this is the anniversary of a fundamental building block of what makes email possible. Happy Anniversary.

Gartner Sued For $1.7B Over Email Archiving Magic Quadrant

2009-10-22T07:07:00-04:00

Tomorrow, a $1.7-billion complaint filed by ZL Technologies against leading research analyst firm Gartner, Inc. (ZL Technologies Inc. v. Gartner Group Inc. and Carolyn DiCenzo) goes in front of the U.S. District Court in San Jose, CA. It alleges that Gartner was spreading libelous reports that failed to position ZL Technologies as a leader in the Magic Quadrant report. Specifically, the complaint alleges: defamation; trade libel; false advertising; unfair competition; and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage.

Gartner is asking for a dismissal of the suit on First Amendment grounds.

Gartner, Inc.'s Magic Quadrant may be the single most influential evaluation for enterprise buyers. Companies have been made and reportedly broken based on their position as market leader in a 2 dimensional graphical matrix as to who is a visionary and who has the best ability to execute. The email archiving magic quadrant has shown Symantec as a leader for years.

"ZL claims that Gartner’s use of their proprietary “Magic Quadrant” is misleading and favors large vendors with large sales and marketing budgets over smaller innovators such as ZL that have developed higher performing products," reads a letter from Kon Leong, President & CEO of ZL Technologies, published on the ZL web site.

Some of the points made by Leong include:

Fair Disclosure on Conflicts of Interest – Gartner generates its revenues from payments made by the same vendors whose products it evaluates.
Fair Disclosure on Evaluation Scores – ... Gartner (should be) required to disclose more data in its evaluation process and disclose component scores ... Currently, there is zero disclosure, which can lead to arbitrary placement, with no recourse and no basis for appeal.
Better Oversight – Gartner currently has an employee act as ombudsman to handle disagreements. The conflict of interest is self-evident in the way ZL’s concerns were summarily dismissed with little supporting evidence.

“Since 2005, Gartner has placed the ZL in the bottom portions of the lower left-hand quadrant in the MQ Reports, as Niche Player (the “MQ Placements”). These MQ Placements were, and are, derogatory because they are understood by technology purchasers as a warning, by Gartner, that ZL and the ZL Products are not good choices for enterprise email archive applications,” reads the complaint. (Full text of complaint.)

While the First Amendment does allow anyone to express their opinions, the First Amendment does not protect a firm from libel suits. However, libel laws protect the subjects of the speech from false statements. It is not libel if it is the truth, even if the truth hurts. So, could the court case come down to simply stating that when I express my opinion it is by definition true because it is my opinion? Can ZL show that Gartner had a process that did not use true statements when the scores used to build the Magic Quadrant are cloaked in secrecy.

“It would be nice to know, of the vendors rated, how much money did they spend on Gartner? That factor is very similar to what the SEC enforced on Wall Street ratings agencies," Leond said to Software Development Times. "This way the reader can say, 'I can factor that into my assessment.'"

Whatever happens, ZL Technologies is raising an important issue about the power of rating agencies and the transparency of their operations. I hope that we get to see some of the inside workings.

In full disclosure, InBoxer is an email archiving product that has never been selected to be reviewed by Gartner. Our company also does not subscribe to any Gartner services.

Can You Trust Your Email to Web-based Mail Services?

2009-10-20T07:32:00-04:00

BusinessWeek just published Arik Hesseldahl article, "Web-Based E-Mail: Businesses Beware." The subtitle: "Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, and lots of others offer these free or low-cost services, but if there's a snafu or e-mails with essential information are lost, you're likely to be out of luck."

As reported in this blog, there are many stories of companies and individuals losing all of their email history and important records. One major ISP reportedly lost the emails of 14,000 customers, and offered them a $50 credit as an apology. Would $50 make up for your lost email history?

(I should point out that I was quoted twice in the article and that BusinessWeek specifically mentioned InBoxer and the DeathByEmail blog. What did I say? ---- If e-mail is crucial for your business, no matter how small, then it's too important to entrust to a free Web-mail service, says Roger Matus, CEO of Inboxer, an e-mail archiving gear company, who also blogs frequently on e-mail issues at deathbyemail.com. E-mail accounts, he says, aren't only for communication but are now virtual filing cabinets containing important documents, contact information, sales leads, and other crucial business information. "Everything important that happens to a company these days, happens in e-mail," he says. "It's like your crown jewels, so you want to be careful in handing them over to someone else.)

My advice to you, and to everyone that uses a hosted email service, download a copy of your messages to your local hard disk as a back-up. Free applications, like Mozilla Thunderbird, make it easy to download and keep messages. Like me, you may prefer the web based interface for convenience and fast search. But, back up your data to your local disk in case of catastrophe. It won't cost you a cent.

Office 2010 is Coming

2009-10-19T07:43:00-04:00

Last week, I mentioned that Microsoft Exchange 2010 is rumored to be released next month. Well, it looks like Microsoft Office 2010 with Microsoft Outlook 2010 is about to come. A new Microsoft web page previews the product and gives you a chance to sign up for the Microsoft Office 2010 beta.

A new feature that believe I believe was most needed is Conversation View. Those of us who used Google Mail know that conversations that go back and forth are clustered in one place. This capability is now part of Outlook 2010. But, it goes a step further, with a couple of new features that are not in Google Mail:

Clean Up Conversation removes all of the redundant replies.
Ignore deletes the conversation and automatically deletes all new replies to the conversation.
Single click action allows you to categories all messages in the conversation, such as make it personal, and gives the same categorization to all new replies.

Another new feature is QuickSteps. The video shows a number of them: "To Manager," "Forward: FYI," "Meeting Reply," "Team E-Mail: Reply & Delete," and "Team Meeting." But, users can define their own one click short-cuts.

The video talks about support for MailTips, which I discussed earlier in the blog. It is intended as a way to eliminate some common mistakes. For example, a MailTip may remind a sender that he is about to send a large document to an external domain -- just in case it is a proprietary document or one too large for the mail server.

It looks as if 2010 will be an excellent year for new productivity products.

By the way, if you have not moved to Windows 7, I really recommend it. I have been using it for months and it really is the product that Vista should have been.

"Most impressive phone we’ve used since the iPhone"

2009-10-18T21:21:00-04:00

The next 30 days are looking to be exciting for those of us looking for a Smartphone to read wireless email that is not on AT&T. Yes, I know that people who love their iPhone cannot believe that we would read our email on anything else. But, some of us are in the Verizon Wireless world. And, it looks like an incredible line-up of phones is happening:

Windows Mobile devices
Blackberry Storm 2
Motorola Droid
Palm Pre (next year)

If you are not following these devices, then you will have a lot of catching up to do as the commercials roll out.

Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 is probably the least exciting of the bunch. (Sorry, Redmond.) A collection of them have been shown in public with names like HTC Touch 2, LG GM730 and Samsung Omnia II. They are running an updated version of the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system.

The amazing thing is how excited we would have been about the new design and capabilities just two years ago. But, the iPhone makes Windows Mobile look slow and unfriendly. I could not believe that a stylus would be required for many functions and that there is a scroll bar on the right of the screen. (It is now counter-intuitive to flick up to scroll down.)

"It's widely acknowledged by users, media, and even Steve Ballmer himself that Windows Mobile is in dire need of a ground-up revamp, and it's happening -- but not quite yet. That's Windows Mobile 7 you're looking for, and realistically, it's not going to be in your pocket for at least another year. That leaves Microsoft in a bit of a pickle: how do you facelift version 6.1 -- which is already a facelift of 6, which in turn was a facelift of 5 -- just enough to eke another year or two of life out of it? Is it even possible?," the Engadget blog reports.

I must confess that I once had a Windows Mobile device from a few generations ago. I turned it back in for a Palm Treo. So, I am not a fan and will not be getting one of these.

The RIM Blackberry Storm 2 is going to be more exciting, if you believe all of the reports. It is a full-screen BlackBerry that is a vast improvement over the small screens that I had become used to.

"If you're a Verizon or Vodafone customer jonesing for a new touchscreen smartphone, you'll want to line up the day the BlackBerry Storm2 goes on sale and get one. Period.," exclaims the Crackberry web site in its extremely detailed review.

I currently use a BlackBerry because it is the best email device, in my opinion. It is even easier than the iPhone (or, in my case, my iPod Touch) to go through mail quickly. I think it is the best device for text email out there.

But, it falls apart with HTML mail and anything that requires a browser. And, it would appear that the new BlackBerry does not improve on it.

"Web browsing isn't one of the Storm2's strong suits," reports PC Magazine. "Its HTML browser renders desktop sites well, but slowly (even in 3G). It also streams audio and video but lacks Flash and two-finger zoom. Scrolling around Web pages felt jerky. Plus, the bottom icon bar was finicky; it didn't always appear on cue. Safari on iPhone, Android, and Opera Mobile all offer better mobile browsing experiences."

That leads me to something that I am getting excited about, the Motorola Droid. I saw the first television commercials last night -- the so-called iDon't campaign. The campaign is about all the things that the iPhone does not do. Click to watch the video:

So, what is the Motorola Droid? The reports say it is the name for a new smartphone running Google's Android operating system on Motorola hardware with the Verizon Wireless network.

It is clear that these powerhouse companies are planning to attack Apple head on. It is hard to be more confrontational than the video on the right.

The very first reviews have been outstanding and, if correct, could make it an ideal wireless email device. The first hands-report came from the Boy Genius Report web site. They exclaim that it is the "most impressive phone we’ve used since the iPhone." Here is a feature list from Boy Genius:

It’s running Android 2.0. Duh.
It’s thin. Just slightly thicker than an iPhone 3GS and the thinnest QWERTY-slider we’ve ever seen.
It is the fastest Android device we’ve ever used. (It’s running a TI OMAP3430 processor)
The feel of the device is very reminiscent of the OQO 02 model computer. Just smaller. It’s metal with a non-spring-assisted slide, very sturdy, and half soft-touch plastic.
Awesome capacitive display. Plus it’s huge. Easily the best screen we’ve ever seen on an Android handset, and an amazing screen overall.
The QWERTY keyboard is actually pretty usable and has a soft-touch rubberized finish. We’ve been told the keyboard design isn’t final on this unit, thus the two no-shows.
Have we mentioned this phone flies? It’s the Android device to beat, and easily the most impressive. From what we’ve been told, Google had a direct hand in the Motorola Droid. Something to the point of almost dictating every move Motorola made when designing and making the phone. Interesting, huh?
There’s a desktop cradle/charger that will ship with the Motorola Droid that we’ve been playing around with. It turns your Droid into a “multimedia station” and displays local weather, the time, etc.
No one wants to listen, but it makes the CLIQ looks like a child’s toy (partly because it is, and partly because the Droid, even in its non-final form, is the most impressive phone we’ve used since the iPhone. It’s positively amazing).

I am looking foward to trying the mail integration based on Google software. Will it be as good as the BlackBerry for email?

I do want to give a passing mention to the PalmPre. The phone is impressive. And, if it was on Verizon Wireless, I would have gotten it months ago. But, it looks like these new devices will take the thunder out of the Palm. (No, that was not intended to be a BlackBerry Storm pun.)

So, the next 30 days ought to be pretty exciting over at the Verizon Wireless store. Which device, if any, interests you?

Exchange 2010 Launch Reported For November 9

2009-10-16T07:07:00-04:00

"We are happy to announce that Exchange 2010 is Code Complete! Our senior leadership team has signed off on the final code, and it has been sent to our early adopters for one final look before its public release. This Release to Manufacturing (RTM) milestone means we are on our way to general availability and the launch at Tech·Ed Europe 2009 (http://www.microsoft.com/europe/teched/) in early November," began the blog posting from Sumeeth Evans.

The long awaited release of Exchange 2010 appears to be coming to Tech-Ed Europe on November 9th in Berlin. The beta has been out for many months. But, this final version will be the first that many IT departments will look at. Actually, given the slow pace of adoption, the release of Exchange 2010 probably means that many companies will finally move from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 -- but that is another story.

The main benefits of Exchange 2010 are due to storage cost reductions and productivity features.

Exchange administrators "can archive Exchange data to cheaper DAS (direct-attached storage) rather than a more expensive SAN (storage area network). This will reduce email storage costs by up to 85 percent without sacrificing performance or reliability, according to Microsoft," reported AIIM Infonomics.

Email archiving companies, like mine at InBoxer, have been watching Exchange 2010 with great interest as the company touts archiving as one of the great new features. But, as Bob Spurzem, director of product marketing at Mimosa, notes in his blog:

Exchange 2010 does not move the archive email off of the Exchange Server.
Exchange 2010 (as well as all previous versions of Exchange) does not perform single instance storage across all of its Stores.
Exchange 2010 does not manage the archive data with full retention and read-only access.

That means that for email archiving, electronic discovery, and content monitoring, a product like InBoxer Anti-Risk Appliance remains necessary. Exchange 2010 archiving is an ideal way to handle personal archives and to reduce the need for PST files. It also enables lower cost storage.

(Tip of the hat to Email Tide.)

"Screw the shareholders!!’’

2009-10-15T11:40:00-04:00

"Screw You.," typed Bank of America Board Member Thomas May on January 15th to his friend and fellow Board Member Chad Gifford, during a teleconference among directors and executives.

"Unfortunately it’s screw the shareholders!!," was Gifford's retort. The timing of the response may not have been the best. The Bank just announced that the quarterly dividend to shareholders was being cut to just one cent from 32 cents.

"No trail," May replied to Gifford, it what apparently came as a reminder. But, it was too late. The email exchange was submitted to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo as part of ongoing investigations into the circumstances surrounding the Merrill deal. (Wall Street Journal has the full text of the email exchange.)

The entire exchange shows a rare insight into the relationships between high level Board members. But, it is now part of a current investigation into the Merrill deal. Did these guys make an innocent off-hand remark? Or did they know something about the deal that shareholders did not know about? The investigation as to intent will now begin.

IBM Beats Google Prices for Hosted Email

2009-10-12T19:22:59-04:00

Who would have thought it? IBM is offering a product for less than Google. IBM's new LotusLive iNotes is a comprehensive hosted email system with webmail, Outlook access, Notes access, calendaring and contacts. It competes head-on with Google Apps for Enterprises. (IBM Press Release)

How does it compare? Google Apps for the enterprise is $50 per mailbox per year. IBM's price is just $36 per mailbox per year. That $14 can add up quickly for a decent sized organization. Think of it, a 10,000 person enterprise would save $140,000.

One big difference that I have noticed is that LotusLive INotes comes with just 1GB of storage per user, while Google Apps paid version includes 25GB. Additional storage is available and few users actually exceed 1GB. (That is an interesting part of Google Apps pricing. If even 10% of the users need a feature from the $50/year service, all users must upgrade.)

LotusLive iNotes is part of a suite of new LotusLive cloud-based services from IBM, including collaboration tools and web conferencing. But, the company thinks that the best way to get attention and interest from enterprises is through email.

"Email and other collaboration services are the right entry point for many companies to realize the promise of cloud computing, but only if clients feel confident they're getting business-grade service from a trusted leader in enterprise services," said Bob Picciano, General Manager, IBM Lotus Software.

Do they have a chance of beating Google? IBM is already the second largest provider of email software to business, behind Microsoft Exchange. They already claim 18-million mailboxes under management by LotusLive. (Funny -- my spelling checker turned it into Lotus Love. Was that intentional?)

Now, to take on Google, IBM needs to find a way to be cool again.