Suddenly Seeking Business Contacts for Smart Phone
From the “Day Late, Dollar Short” department…
Business Contacts for Smart Phone was just released yesterday.
Offering support for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 Smart Phone devices, this add-in allows users of those devices to synchronize contacts and a bit of history information from their Business Contact Manager database to their previously unsupported devices.
Let the BlackJack users rejoice!
Such impeccable timing for Microsoft, what with the recent shellacking put on its older brother, Business Contacts for Pocket PC, right here at the Funcave.
To be fair, this Smart Phone release addresses at least three of the complaints I voiced regarding the Pocket PC version. Obviously, one of those would be the utter lack of support for Smart Phone/Standard devices.
The second issue would be the reliance on touchscreen taps in the Pocket PC release, which absolutely kills it for one-handed use.
Since Smart Phone/Standard devices, by definition, don’t have touchscreens, it stands to reason that the interface for this new version would have to take key and directional pad input all the way through, which I was able to confirm using DEmu 2.0 with a WM6 Standard image.
Here’s hoping MS puts shows the PPC version a little of that one-handed love.
They also added the ability to edit a contact without drilling all the way into it. Yet another feature that would be nice to see in an updated version for PPC. Such changes still synchronize just like you’d expect, via cable anyway
But the history is still limited, and read-only. I don’t expect that to change.
More than anything tho, it’s the little things that stand out. It’s deliciously ironic how MS immediately violates its very own “easier, more understandable” naming convention for Windows Mobile 6 devices with this release by using the older “Smart Phone” name, rather than the inscrutable “Standard” moniker.
And here’s more proof of the TQM on display with this release here:
Sure, it’s a spit and polish kinda thing. But that hints at a level of attention that doesn’t instill a whole lot of confidence.
In fact, the hoops I had to go through to get this app installed under DEmu 2.0 to test was absolutely insane. Which is yet another blog post.
Maybe tho, just maybe…MS will issue a more polished PPC version of Business Contacts Mobile. Which would receive a second look here at the Funcave.
Even so, I won’t hold my breath.
UPDATE: Hey, the BCM team finally got around to blogging about BCM for Smart Phone today. Pretty much your standard announcement, but you can check it out here if you want.
|| posted by chris under business, freebie, mobility || comments (7) || ||
My BCM wont work on my smartphone
Everything is set up fine as all my email, contacts, calendar, tasks, mobile
favourites, files and onenote mobile (separate download) items sync just fine.
If I click on Business Contacts then the sync always errors. I have turned
on verbose logging and the log file from the device shows this
2007-06-22 00:38:02 SyncBegin
2007-06-22 00:38:03 SendStatus SyncBegin, hr=0×0
2007-06-22 00:38:04 EngineBegin desktop {8AD3A4E7-61AE-40F2-BC7F-D66613568C62}
2007-06-22 00:38:04 ConnInfo Failed (0×80004005)
2007-06-22 00:38:05 RadioInf Dormant mode on [Ping]
2007-06-22 00:38:06 RadioInf Dormant mode on [Ping]
2007-06-22 00:39:07 EngineEnd hr=0×0
2007-06-22 00:39:07 SyncEnd
2007-06-22 00:39:07 AutdMode old=2, new=2, hr=0×0
2007-06-22 00:39:07 Scheduled 2007-06-22 00:44:07, handle=0×3f000050, hr=0×0
2007-06-22 00:39:07 SendStatus SyncEnd, hr=0×0
Cant find anything useful out on the web to help describe this error code 0×80004005 in relation to active sync which is also a pretty vague error code.
Anyone with any ideas?
Cheers
Mike
comment by Michael Bryett — June 22, 2007 @ 3:28 am
@ Mike:
The code 0×80004005 you mention usually points to a single-item sync failure. That is, a single item of a given type (in this case, the BCM data) is causing the entire type to fail. Unfortunately, the error log won’t help pinpoint the item causing the failure.
One potential fix is to completely delete the mobile device partnership on your PC, then re-set up the partnership.
If that doesn’t do it, you may have to roll up the sleeves and do some grunt work with your BCM data.
comment by chris — June 22, 2007 @ 7:06 am
Chris,
Does the new BCM Smartphone synch to a separate app on the device from where the regular Outlook contacts synch to or are they all together in the same app on the device?
comment by Tim — June 22, 2007 @ 6:05 pm
@ Tim
Installing BCM for Smartphone allows you to sync the Business Contacts tracked in Business Contact Manager for Outlook. Those Business Contacts are kept wholly and completely separate from the regular Outlook Contacts on the Smartphone (just like they are on the PC), and can be found under an application called Business Contacts on the Smartphone.
Key drawbacks to Business Contacts (no OTA sync, no Voice Command support, etc.) have been outlined in a previous post on BCM for PocketPC, available here: http://www.chrisrue.com/funcave/2007/06/a-mobile-app-gets-whacked.html
comment by chris — June 22, 2007 @ 6:50 pm
Hey there Chris,
I always enjoy checking into your site on occasion from up here in Denver, CO.
There is now great news for all of you mobile warriors such as myself who
have long lamented the lack of an easy way to synchronize your BCM Business
Contacts with your particular mobile device regardless of your mobile device
platform (WM, Palm, Blackberry, Symbian, etc.) Go to http://www.chapura.com and
check out their new “Folder Mirror” solution. This apparently graceful,
client side application maintains an ongoing, automatic, real-time synch
between all additional Outlook Calendar and Contact folders and the native
default Outlook Calendar and Contact folder which then flows through the
standard synch conduit to your device.
This will allow any platform of mobile device that already provides a synch
conduit to Outlook to be able to also synch with BCM. Because this works on
the PC client itself, it does not interfere with the particular device
manufacturer’s conduit synch software.
Chapura is top of the list in Outlook synchronization. They innovate and
their stuff actually works!
-THP
comment by Tim Peterson — August 1, 2007 @ 5:09 pm
Chris,
I took your advice from 8/1/2007 and installed the Folder Mirror application from Chapura. I have a Treo 700P and was able to load up my business contacts to the Treo but I can’t search them by the account names because they’re only listed under the contact names. Also, it did not transfer any e-mails, calendar events, etc. that are in the Account history” section. Am I doing something wrong or is this not possible using the Treo 700P with Outlook 2003. My whole goal with the Treo and Outlook BCM is to be able to view all Accounts and be able to display by Accounts and view any history of those accounts as well. I appreciate any advice you can give. Do I need to upgrade to a 755W ??? Thanks John
comment by john — December 31, 2007 @ 2:35 pm
@ John…
Issues of Palm OS and the depth of cross-platform functionality you can reasonably expect to see aside…
Even on Windows Mobile, Folder Mirror will only be able to do so much, since it is primarily a sync application/utility, and not a substitute (as in a more feature filled) version of Pocket BCM.
I’m able to get close to certain functions of BCM. On Windows Mobile, you can set Contacts to View by Company, and even set a Filter for a given Category (something like, say…Business Contacts) to mimic Pocket BCM’s excellent focus on biz contacts only. I’d be surprised if Palm OS didn’t offer this as well, but as I’d rather be shot in the head with a railgun than use a Palm OS device, I can’t say for sure.
Primary among the enhancements of using Folder Mirror has to be the ability to update Business Contact info OTA and in realtime.
Even with my original, manual sync method outlined in a previous blog post, certain info gets dumped, not the least of which is linked history items.
Folder Mirror simply won’t bring out everything that’s held in the BCM database, including linked history items.
Honestly, I have the exact same goal you have regarding the ability to take client data, including history, with me on my mobile device.
And as yet…I’m still coming up boxcars in that regard.
comment by chris — December 31, 2007 @ 4:31 pm