Maybe they were thinking they can administer the device without installing itunes?
BTW, verizon is releasing 3 new Windows Mobile phones in November.
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008...-leaked-samsung-omnia-and-saga-htc-touch-pro/
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On having to give up my iPhone...
- Thread starter xraydoc
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Maybe they were thinking they can administer the device without installing itunes?
BTW, verizon is releasing 3 new Windows Mobile phones in November.
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008...-leaked-samsung-omnia-and-saga-htc-touch-pro/
Just because they would have Wi-Fi in the hospital, doens't necessitate that they will be transfering medical files over it.
I've been in hospitals that offer free Wi-Fi as a courtesy for their employees and visitors.
But they are two different networks.
I work at a car dealership. We have to cover our asses on the same laws that affect hospitals. We have a protected, wired, network, that we use for business, and a second, wireless, network that we provide for customer convenience.
Uhhh... Did you read his post? He said that they won't allow Blackberry either.
While definitely not the most elegant solution, here's what I'm going to do starting Monday (since I'll be out of town for a few days).
Since I can access my hospital's Outlook email from home via Citrix, I've installed Jaadu VNC on my iPhone and turned on Screen Sharing on my Mac. I tested it from a restaurant tonight at dinner. I can VNC into my Mac and start a Citrix session on my Mac, reading my email that way. Actually works reasonably well over 3G (and very well over wifi).
Its quasi-secure I suppose, since VNC is only sending screen images and no actual mail text, nor is anything stored on my phone should I lose it.
I'll give it a try for a few days and see how manageable it is. Doesn't help the lack of cellphone signal at work, but would at least give me access to my email when I'm not at home or the office (or with my laptop someplace with a wifi network). I'll play with it until the new WM phones come out at Verizon in a few weeks.
Kind of like a stay of execution.
Since I can access my hospital's Outlook email from home via Citrix, I've installed Jaadu VNC on my iPhone and turned on Screen Sharing on my Mac. I tested it from a restaurant tonight at dinner. I can VNC into my Mac and start a Citrix session on my Mac, reading my email that way. Actually works reasonably well over 3G (and very well over wifi).
Its quasi-secure I suppose, since VNC is only sending screen images and no actual mail text, nor is anything stored on my phone should I lose it.
I'll give it a try for a few days and see how manageable it is. Doesn't help the lack of cellphone signal at work, but would at least give me access to my email when I'm not at home or the office (or with my laptop someplace with a wifi network). I'll play with it until the new WM phones come out at Verizon in a few weeks.
Kind of like a stay of execution.
Some follow up for anyone who cares to read. At least its therapeutic for me... so ignore if you must.
I spent a lot of time looking at the phones that are currently available as well as the rumored upcoming Verizon phones. The contenders were the Sprint HTC Touch Diamond, Touch Pro and Palm Treo 800w, and on Verizon it would be the as-yet unreleased Touch Pro (rumored to be coming this month) or Samsung Omnia (which I heard was delayed again). Current rumors speculate the Verizon version of the HTC Touch Pro (aka VX6850) will have locked-down GPS to force a VZ Nav subscription fee and possibly less RAM as compared to the Sprint version. AT&T will also be carrying it as the AT&T Fuze, but since I can't get AT&T service inside the buildings at work, that option is out.
And I need a touchscreen device instead of a non-touchscreen Windows Mobile device as the mobile version of Citrix doesn't support Win Mobile 6 Standard (i.e., non-touchscreen devices). So things like the Blackjack, Moto Q, Samsung Ace, etc., are out.
So I really only have 4, maybe 5 options - 3 on Sprint and one to two on Verizon.
So, I ordered the Sprint HTC Touch Pro; its shipped and will arrive on Tuesday according to UPS tracking. I spent over an hour with the phone at the Sprint store going though everything very carefully. While at heart its still a Windows Mobile phone, at least the TouchFlo 3D interface glued on top does a decent job of hiding much of it and handling app launching, and the Opera Mobile web browser should actually be a reasonable functional replacement for Mobile Safari. It supports full HTML rendering like the iPhone, double tap gesture to zoom, finger scroll/pan, multiple tabs (separate pages like on the iPhone), etc. And at the Touch Pro's VGA 640x480 resolution, the pages are rendered quite nicely. Way, way better than Mobile IE for damn sure. And WinMobile 6.1 has come a long way from my pre-iPhone Moto Q.
The slide-out full Qwerty keyboard should be nice for typing out longer emails (and of course posts to MacRumors forums). The screen looks really, really sharp, especially movies. But the phone is a chunk compared to the iPhone. Shorter and narrower, but thicker. Not horribly so compared to other non-iPhone smartphones, but chubby nonetheless. The phone has a silver/chrome/black motif, so it looks very professional. Even more so than the all-black plastic european GSM version.
Anyway, I should have it by Tuesday and I'll give it the 30 day trial and see how it goes. I'm actually kind of hoping that corporate email access sucks, so I can forget the whole thing and keep the iPhone. We'll see.
I spent a lot of time looking at the phones that are currently available as well as the rumored upcoming Verizon phones. The contenders were the Sprint HTC Touch Diamond, Touch Pro and Palm Treo 800w, and on Verizon it would be the as-yet unreleased Touch Pro (rumored to be coming this month) or Samsung Omnia (which I heard was delayed again). Current rumors speculate the Verizon version of the HTC Touch Pro (aka VX6850) will have locked-down GPS to force a VZ Nav subscription fee and possibly less RAM as compared to the Sprint version. AT&T will also be carrying it as the AT&T Fuze, but since I can't get AT&T service inside the buildings at work, that option is out.
And I need a touchscreen device instead of a non-touchscreen Windows Mobile device as the mobile version of Citrix doesn't support Win Mobile 6 Standard (i.e., non-touchscreen devices). So things like the Blackjack, Moto Q, Samsung Ace, etc., are out.
So I really only have 4, maybe 5 options - 3 on Sprint and one to two on Verizon.
So, I ordered the Sprint HTC Touch Pro; its shipped and will arrive on Tuesday according to UPS tracking. I spent over an hour with the phone at the Sprint store going though everything very carefully. While at heart its still a Windows Mobile phone, at least the TouchFlo 3D interface glued on top does a decent job of hiding much of it and handling app launching, and the Opera Mobile web browser should actually be a reasonable functional replacement for Mobile Safari. It supports full HTML rendering like the iPhone, double tap gesture to zoom, finger scroll/pan, multiple tabs (separate pages like on the iPhone), etc. And at the Touch Pro's VGA 640x480 resolution, the pages are rendered quite nicely. Way, way better than Mobile IE for damn sure. And WinMobile 6.1 has come a long way from my pre-iPhone Moto Q.
The slide-out full Qwerty keyboard should be nice for typing out longer emails (and of course posts to MacRumors forums). The screen looks really, really sharp, especially movies. But the phone is a chunk compared to the iPhone. Shorter and narrower, but thicker. Not horribly so compared to other non-iPhone smartphones, but chubby nonetheless. The phone has a silver/chrome/black motif, so it looks very professional. Even more so than the all-black plastic european GSM version.
Anyway, I should have it by Tuesday and I'll give it the 30 day trial and see how it goes. I'm actually kind of hoping that corporate email access sucks, so I can forget the whole thing and keep the iPhone. We'll see.
What are they using for email on the Windows Mobile phones? If they are using the standard Exchange Activesync, your iPhone should work just fine.
If they are using another application like Goodlink, then you're stuck.
Not that it really matters since you don't have signal... but figured I'd ask.
If they are using another application like Goodlink, then you're stuck.
Not that it really matters since you don't have signal... but figured I'd ask.
I'm not entirely sure - I guess I'll find out soon enough. And while I know the iPhone will work fine, apparently there is some "security" issue that prevents them from approving the iPhone for use. And since they know all the passwords, Exchange server IP addresses, etc., I'm at their mercy.
Had to give up my iphone just a week or so ago also. Wife is living in an area where there is no ATT coverage, only roaming partners. Since all her calls over the past few months have been off ATT network they put a roaming restriction on our account so her iphone became useless.
We were able to cancel the service with no ETF and they also gave us $200 ($100 each) credit for our iPhone. We now have Verizon, only service they offer where she is. We had to go with VZ cause we have to have mobile to mobile. All their phones suck the big one. I have the Voyager currently, but am waiting til the Blackberry Storm comes out to exchange for that.
We were able to cancel the service with no ETF and they also gave us $200 ($100 each) credit for our iPhone. We now have Verizon, only service they offer where she is. We had to go with VZ cause we have to have mobile to mobile. All their phones suck the big one. I have the Voyager currently, but am waiting til the Blackberry Storm comes out to exchange for that.
If they are using OMA (over the air Exchange Activesync), the device is irrelevant, as long as it is compatible with the technology, which the iPhone is). The security policy is set on the server and the device will comply. The iPhone is compatible with OMA and supports SSL, just as Window Mobile devices do.
If indeed they are using OMA, I'd gather they simply don't want to support the iPhone. If they use Goodlink (you'd know it once you see the application), then the iPhone is not compatible.
Long story short, if they set up a WinMo device for you, you have all the settings to set up the iPhone if they are using OMA.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)
I'd be happy if that were true; it would solve one of my problems. But if that's the case, I wonder why iPhone support was tested and rejected then.
I'd be happy if that were true; it would solve one of my problems. But if that's the case, I wonder why iPhone support was tested and rejected then.
Supporting numerous WinMo phones is basically supporting one device type. Helpdesk documentation, training, etc will apply to all the devices 99% of the time as far as a usability of email standpoint is concerned. The iPhone obviously has a different UI than WinMo so helping users would require new documentation and training.
Even if you are good to go on your iPhone, a peer will see you use it, want one, etc., etc., and then sooner or later, they're supporting the phone involuntarily.
If indeed they are using ActiveSync, you can try the 'give me the settings, I'll use my own device, but not bother you with support questions' angle and see how it works, but then again, you don't get signal in the building and being in your position, I wouldn't be bringing noisy GSM phones around medical equipment.
Just because the iPhone supports exchange doesn't mean it is exactly equal to another device in terms of security testing. They may be waiting for more bug fixes, or they may still need to test a few security scenarios. There's more to the phone than the exchange settings, and those may impact the decisions or policies of an IT dept. And if the IT dept is doing more than just supporting the iphone, then they may not have had the time to complete the security testing yet.
I'm in the same horrible ( or worse boat) that you are in -_______-
They refuse to allow us use of our iPhones due to security reasons. THE ONLY platform at that is supported is Palm OS ... you have to be kidding me.
I believe that some of the higher ups have a vested interest, currently i have been talking to the people at styletap.com but they say Apple is not allowing them to release their emulator
They refuse to allow us use of our iPhones due to security reasons. THE ONLY platform at that is supported is Palm OS ... you have to be kidding me.
I believe that some of the higher ups have a vested interest, currently i have been talking to the people at styletap.com but they say Apple is not allowing them to release their emulator
I'm a physician who works in a hospital. For me, there is nothing work-related I would be able to do on an iPhone that I wouldn't be able to do on a desktop computer. Our hospital is probably the same as yours in that finding a desktop computer to use is never a problem. And if you are a radiologist like the ones I work with, you definitely are within arms reach of a desktop 99% of the time.
So, xraydoc, you "need" e-mail on your phone so bad that you would be willing to give up the iPhone instead of using a desktop? If so, then bye-bye iPhone. As for having no signal in the hospital, that is a big problem. I have been at pt's bedsides before and needing a portable phone (since I can't leave bedside). Whipping out a cell phone in this situation is priceless.
We all have to balance the value of using our iPhone at work versus using it out of work. If you plan on using it for business only and rarely use it out of the work setting, then you'll have to ditch the iPhone. If your using it for mostly non-work stuff, then keep it. For me, I mostly use it for non-work stuff. All work-related things can usually wait until I'm sitting in front of a desktop.
So, xraydoc, you "need" e-mail on your phone so bad that you would be willing to give up the iPhone instead of using a desktop? If so, then bye-bye iPhone. As for having no signal in the hospital, that is a big problem. I have been at pt's bedsides before and needing a portable phone (since I can't leave bedside). Whipping out a cell phone in this situation is priceless.
We all have to balance the value of using our iPhone at work versus using it out of work. If you plan on using it for business only and rarely use it out of the work setting, then you'll have to ditch the iPhone. If your using it for mostly non-work stuff, then keep it. For me, I mostly use it for non-work stuff. All work-related things can usually wait until I'm sitting in front of a desktop.
I think you might be able to use your iPhone, if your hospital has a WiFi network, or if you could install one. This may not work however if your equipment effects the other hardware in the building, like other users have noted.
It seems to me that if you had a wireless network, you could use GMail encrypted, by having it receive your hospital email via WiFi and email forwarding, to your iPhone. Then, as everybody knows, you will then pickup your email on 3G, outside the hospital.
Then again i have know idea what your IT team, thinks is insecure about the iPhone.
It seems to me that if you had a wireless network, you could use GMail encrypted, by having it receive your hospital email via WiFi and email forwarding, to your iPhone. Then, as everybody knows, you will then pickup your email on 3G, outside the hospital.
Then again i have know idea what your IT team, thinks is insecure about the iPhone.
Many of you bring up good points.
First, when at work, I don't need email on my phone. But its when I'm out of the hospital - out of town, away for the weekend, etc., that it would come in very handy. Is it an absolute necessity? No. Desired? yes.
The second point/issue is the utter lack of GSM signal inside, while the two CDMA carrier's signals come in perfectly. Again, it's more substantia convinience than utter necessity.
So, the Sprint HTC Touch Pro I ordered from Sprint has arrived.
Corporate email gets downloaded to Pocket Outlook via Intellisync, so for now there's no chance of self-configuring an iPhone for access. The Missing Sync gets my PIM info into the phone well enough, so I'll try it for the next 30 days and see how it goes.
For a Win Mobile phone, its not bad. But its no iPhone.
First, when at work, I don't need email on my phone. But its when I'm out of the hospital - out of town, away for the weekend, etc., that it would come in very handy. Is it an absolute necessity? No. Desired? yes.
The second point/issue is the utter lack of GSM signal inside, while the two CDMA carrier's signals come in perfectly. Again, it's more substantia convinience than utter necessity.
So, the Sprint HTC Touch Pro I ordered from Sprint has arrived.
Corporate email gets downloaded to Pocket Outlook via Intellisync, so for now there's no chance of self-configuring an iPhone for access. The Missing Sync gets my PIM info into the phone well enough, so I'll try it for the next 30 days and see how it goes.
For a Win Mobile phone, its not bad. But its no iPhone.
I don't/can't access my work e-mail directly from my iPhone. But, there is an easy work-around. I signed up for a gmail account and have my work e-mail forwarded to this gmail account. Thus, I can check all my work e-mail from my gmail account, which can easily be accessed through the native e-mail app.
Well, this could be a problem. For me, I could not get my Sprint signal into the hospital and I am in the ER, which is relatively close to the outside world. But, I remember getting a fine Sprint signal at the last hospital I was at - except for when on the elevator. I haven't tried my iPhone in the hospital yet.
Good luck. From what I've read and by playing on it, you'll find that device a lot more configurable and flexible for doing what you want it to do, not what Steve wants it to do. Besides that, I really don't know about how well it'll work over the long term.
As for dealing with Sprint, I've already found out that AT&T are just as bad when it comes to customer service. But then again, I've never really had a problem with Sprint or their network, just their phone choice/quality (which is severely lacking).
Jesus. Welcome to 1995. Good luck with that.
That's a good way to get fired. Be careful.
So I'm still giving the Touch Pro the old college try. Its nice being able to use my cell at work now, and the communications department has configured the paging system so my numeric and text pages get sent to the phone as SMS, no no need to carry the beeper, too.
But, boy, I've forgotten how bad HTML email looks on WinMobile.
If I do end up keeping this phone, I will for sure need to keep my iPhone as well. The "media" features on this thing are next to useless.
At least Opera Mobile is very close in terms of useability to Safari on the iPhone.
I'd like to be able to check out the Samsung Omnia, but I'll need to make a keep/cancel decision on this first. Looks like Verizon's Touch Pro will be out Dec 1, so I just may cancel Sprint and go Verizon; then I'd have another 30 days to decide on the Touch Pro or not, and maybe the Omnia will be avail on Verizon before the 30 day trial is up (coming "soon"). Service on Verizon is a bit more $$ though, something to weigh if I plan to keep iPhone service, too.
But, boy, I've forgotten how bad HTML email looks on WinMobile.
If I do end up keeping this phone, I will for sure need to keep my iPhone as well. The "media" features on this thing are next to useless.
At least Opera Mobile is very close in terms of useability to Safari on the iPhone.
I'd like to be able to check out the Samsung Omnia, but I'll need to make a keep/cancel decision on this first. Looks like Verizon's Touch Pro will be out Dec 1, so I just may cancel Sprint and go Verizon; then I'd have another 30 days to decide on the Touch Pro or not, and maybe the Omnia will be avail on Verizon before the 30 day trial is up (coming "soon"). Service on Verizon is a bit more $$ though, something to weigh if I plan to keep iPhone service, too.
xraydoc-
try flexmail if you hate the pocket outlook html rendering. it should help at least a bit in making it prettier.
otherwise, have you thought about getting a very simple email centric smartphone and use the iphone like an ipod touch? there's also the samsung saga, also coming out on verizon. Rather than making windows mobile into an iphone, why not just use a phone that is messaging centric and solely use wm for that, and use the iphone for fun multimedia stuff? the saga will also be significantly smaller than the touch pro.
try flexmail if you hate the pocket outlook html rendering. it should help at least a bit in making it prettier.
otherwise, have you thought about getting a very simple email centric smartphone and use the iphone like an ipod touch? there's also the samsung saga, also coming out on verizon. Rather than making windows mobile into an iphone, why not just use a phone that is messaging centric and solely use wm for that, and use the iphone for fun multimedia stuff? the saga will also be significantly smaller than the touch pro.
didn't read the whole thread but why not just put your SIM into your windows mobile phone when you are at work and stick it in the iPhone when you are not working?
I would love to see them try to do that, especially when there is a doctor shortage in this country. This is my e-mail account, not theirs. Besides, this is how everyone else does it.