This is a cross post from www.mickhuxley.com

The other week I managed to scam myself an iPad 2 from work for a few days for a test run.  I have always wondered weather I would use an iPad much, but before going out and dropping close to $1000AUD on one I figured a trail run for a few days would help me make up my mind.

To start I love the magnetic covers on the iPad 2.  These covers are functional and stylish.  The cover has groves which allow it to be bent to act as a stand propping the iPad at about a 30 degree angle.  It is also used to put the device to sleep when folded over the screen.  A really good idea in both senses.  Lets get down to the device itself and really it’s just a big iPhone 4 in my book.

The apps….

The apps in the Apple iStore are what sets it apart in the mobile landscape from Windows Phone, Android and Blackberry.  Although these stores are catching up, the range of apps in the iStore is a ...

Our workplace has deployed Blackberry phones to around 40% of its workforce. This is a pretty high figure for NSW Government agencies, I believe - if nothing else, a reasonable proportion of staff need to stay connected all the time. While my own IT team have moved on to Android devices, Blackberry continues to make a lot of sense for the general business, but power users like IT tend to get more benefit out of more fully featured smartphones.

Our Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) 5.02 deployment developed a fault where my team were unable to login to the Blackberry Administration Service (BAS) at all. Equally, the Blackberry Web Desktop Manager wouldn't work with AD logins. I'll plead some culpability in terms of configuring only AD logins to the server - you really should always have a BAS account defined for just such a reason.

That said, it was a problem which needed a solution, and having resolved it, it seemed like a good opportunity to share. 

Our BES is installed on a ...

Yes, it's totally true - with SCCM 2012 you can now reign in those pesky consumer mobile devices running rampant in your precious organisation, and stamp your mighty will upon them from on high. Yea, they shalt tremble and quake at thy new policy sets :-)

But first, you've got to actually get them into SCCM first.  Fortunately, it's pretty straightforward, so read on to see how it's done.

Last week Research in Motion announced plans to incorporate applications for the Android mobile operating system (developed by Google) into their Blackberry devices, which run their own, proprietary operating system.

I, for one, think this is an absolutely brilliant idea and something that the mobile phone sector is desperately going to need in years to come.

Having the ability to move applications between devices and operating systems is something that has been missing from the mobile phone sector since applications and mobile computing started to become all the rage for consumers a couple of years ago.

Currently, when a customer moves from one phone to another they basically lose everything that they had stored on their previous device; applications, contacts, notes, whatever.  All this information is (usually) stored in special formats that are only readable by devices from the same manufacturer and running the same operating system.  So when you change, you have to sta ...

Leading up to today I was hoping to post some good news and outcomes after taking my complaint to the Office of the CEO at Telstra.  But todays events have pissed me off even more and ponder the value and ability of the Telstra CEO to have any significant or beneficial impact in changing Telstra’s ways.  Far be it for me to expect customer service from the telco giant.

It starts with my blog post “Telstra, shitty Service and questionable data plan charges” http://www.autechheads.com/blogs/entryid/279/telstra-shitty-service-and-questionable-data-plan-charges

Last week I had received a response to my letter to the Office of the CEO and the outcome was having a case number a person that gave a commitment to address the issues and take ownership of my complaint and furnishing me with a daily update on the progress and outcomes.  One of the commitments and outcomes was that the account was being placed on hold, which means that no disconnection a ...

My Mozart experience has been surprising. Windows Phone 7 as an OS is by far nowhere near as bad as the memories of Windows Mobile x.x - but it's no iOS. That's likely an unfair comparison though, as Apple have had 4 years to get their OS to this stage and this is Microsoft's first iteration of WP7. Sure, there are some rough edges, but over the past two weeks it grew on me.

I couldn't abide the onscreen keyboard. My fat thumbs struggled to type on it accurately, and while the autocorrect built into WP7 is very slick... re-editing a tweet or e-mail afterwards is not what I want to have to do. I prefer it to be right first time 99% of the time. A friend suggested I should just type fast and it will catch up - and it did, mostly. I still found it hard to be looking at the keyboard and having letters next to the letter I want show up in words when I didn't want them to. Oh, teh lulz.

The gaming component of this WP7 device was pretty cool. Lots of great games, lots of cool gamer points to coll ...

The Marketplace implementation on Windows Phone 7 is actually pretty good – the apps are categorised in the first instance and also listed by in other formats (new, top, etc). The background changes to promote specific apps from visit to visit too, with the same ‘peek’ navigation style as employed with other WP7 natively designed apps. And there are some cracking apps too.

I’ve download a few apps, and a bunch of games(!). While I’ve had my share of hassles in downloading them – either through the app not wanting to download at all or not being able to purchase the app – that’s seemingly been atmospheric. Wait a few minutes and start again. Similar to the AAS (Apple App Store) the Marketplace will not allow you to download a massive app when you’re not on WiFi, with the aim being to minimise your telco data usage. This is necessary as some games are decidedly sizable and you could easily eat up your monthly data allowance by downloading a c ...

 I won't bore you with unboxing details or first impressions. Enough of the Social Review team have delivered that far more eloquently than I (damn there are some good writers in the group).

I've really been enjoying following the reviewers and hearing their successes and failures. Finding the common ground. Hearing their pain. A review like this takes balls on the part of Telstra (and Microsoft) and I applaud them for having a go and allowing 25 opinionated people loose with their gear to do with as they want and say what they want. Our opinions as reviewers are what they (and I'll assume you reading this) want to hear. So hang on...

I intentionally didn't read the manual as I figured most people won't. It bit me in the bum a little, as I had some questions that I'm sure people who'd read the manual wouldn't have asked. I'm a seasoned Windows Mobile user, having owned and used a number of devices for years. This couldn't be too much different. WRONG.

The Metro UI is ...

Yesterday, Telstra kicked off its social reviewer program for the HTC Mozart mobile phones. I'm not involved (although I recognise quite a few names as AuTechHeads members!) and have already given my thoughts on one that was purchased via work for the purpose of evaluation. I certainly wish the social reviewers all the best, and will read their own thoughts with considerable interest.

It did, however, get me thinking more on a train of thought that's already been at the back of my head, especially when seeing the first sets of comments and gripes about the phones flowing via Twitter. I'm talking about, for example, "I miss X app" or "I miss X feature". And here's where the fragmentation first becomes evident.

We used to have phones where the biggest concern, when switching, was making sure your contacts were copied to SIM or to your PC somehow. It was largely seamless to transition between Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, etc. Even with the advent of Pocket PC Phones and Smartphones fro ...

Yep. I applied here, and got selected! I'll be dropping my blog posts here at AuTechHeads and tweeting somewhat obsessively about the experience over at @themolk - and I'd love to know both what you think about the HTC Motzart running Windows Phone 7 (I willingly accept tips, hints & pointers) AND what you think about my experience using it...

It's not just me invovled, either. You can see the full list of people involved over here, and keep up with the goings-on from the social review and other Telstra Exchange blog happenings here. This is gonna be a lot of fun.