iPad email with Exchange Activesync - Different/improved from iPhone?

Question

Level 1

0 points

iPad email with Exchange Activesync - Different/improved from iPhone?

A question to those lucky enough to have an iPad already - is exchange email exactly the same as that on the iPhone? Or has it been improved?

The reason I ask is that there are a number of current shortcomings on exchange implementation which I would dearly like to see resolved on future iPhone f/w and current iPad:

1. Smart Reply/Smart Forward - iPhone OS 3.0 does not implement the smart reply/smart forward verbs so that if you want to forward an email with an attachment, iPhone has to download the whole attachment and then upload it again - it can't just set the email to forward on the server-side to save time/data.

2. support for attached emails in the .eml and .msg format.

3. The ability to control email downloading so that the amount of text downloaded can be limited or attachments can be set not to download automatically.

3. The ability to force the mail app to reflow the text or present in plain text - I sometimes get email on my iPhone which presents as tiny tiny tiny text and extremely long lines due to some quirk of the HTML formatting, making the email next to impossible to read.

Any advice or updates on the above (particularly no.1) would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks

MBP

Posted on Apr 3, 2010 12:06 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Apr 3, 2010 11:54 PM in response to klmac

Responses to your questions with my limited usage so far:

#1: You get prompted to Include or Not Include attachments when forwarding, so it still appears to me that it has to download all the attachments first..

#2: Tried a .msg attachment and it still is viewed as a mime-attachment, and I get the "Mail Cannot Open This Attachment" error when trying to open it.

#3: No new options on the device that I have seen.. Can't say if it honors any possible server side ActiveSync settings..

#4: Haven't notice any HTML formatting issues so far, but know what you mean.. 🙂 BTW, I did notice that in the new iPad Calendar app it doesn't hyperlink at all the "TEL:" or regular phone numbers. Just thinking this could be nice if using Line2, Skype or another VoIP solution on a iPad..

Cheers,

Marco..

Reply

Answer 2

klmac Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 4, 2010 3:40 AM in response to marconielsen

Thanks very much for taking the time to answer my questions.

It seems like such a shame that Apple didn't use this opportunity to sort some of these issues out with corporate mail. Makes it impossible for my company to allow it's employees to ditch their blackberrys in favour of another fruit!

Reply

Answer 3

Apr 24, 2010 1:28 PM in response to klmac

Our company would switch to iPhones if the OS would support SmartReply/SmartForward. It's such a shame Apple left out this great feature of ActiveSync and supports SendMail only. We will have to upgrade from Windows Mobile to Android to have mobile devices with SmartReply/SmartForward. Our company has to handle big attachments and dl/ul 2x15MB just to forward an mp3 is a no go when it comes to mobile communication.
If only Apple would allow 3rd party apps to fill the gap. Documents To Go Premium has a build in e-mail client with SmartReply/SmartForward, but it only displays e-mails when they have office document attachments.
On Android there are several full feature Exchange clients.

BTW: iPhone OS 4.0 beta has an improved support of exchange, but guess what... no SmartReply/SmartForward. 😟

Reply

Answer 4

klmac Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 9, 2010 8:04 AM in response to Sebastian Wolter

Bad news....

It seems that not only does the new iOS 4 definitely not support smartforward or smartreply (from having tried it), Documents To Go are going to discontinue their syncing system as word/excel attachments can now be opened from the mail app straight into DocsToGo - This means even the limited 3rd party support is going!

I've tried emailing Apple Dev support the past few months to get this issue resolved and they've done nothing. It's such a fundamental feature - If you receive an email you want to be able to forward it from your mobile device (a) quickly and (b) without destroying all the formatting. SmartForward is the only way to deal with this. My work won't allow Android so we're stuck with either BlackBerry or iPhone but no-one wants an iPhone in our 1000 person company as it's rubbish for email compared to RIM. Shame - it's so good in every other respect. C'mon Apple...

Reply

Answer 5

rl67

Level 1

0 points

Jun 14, 2010 3:12 PM in response to klmac

actually there is worse - some EMails with large attachments cause the Inbox to "crash" so that it has to reload everything

same problem with iPhone Mail.app - its seems like Apple has just changed the user interface for the iPad but its still got the same bugs and limitations as the iPhone version ....

Reply

Answer 6

Jun 22, 2010 7:50 PM in response to klmac

Opening .msg attachments on the iPhone using iOS 4 works, but has some major issues. Previously you would only see an icon for a MIME attachment that you could not open using older versions of iOS. Now, the nested .MSG attachments are all displayed as a single continous message. However, there are no message headers (To, From, Subject, Date) to break up the messages. This can be very misleading as you might not realize the start of the attached .MSG message is from a different person.

To reacreate the problem, using Outlook (I'm on Outlook 2007 with Exchange 2007) forward a message as an attachment. Open that message on the iPhone with iOS 4.

Reply

Answer 7

klmac Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 23, 2010 3:18 AM in response to John Kuttler

I know - what's just as bad is that it now completely screws up forward formatting so that anything sent on is jumbled, with a bunch of att files attached. I just don't understand why Apple has failed to address this extraordinarily basic problem. I gave consistent feedback throughout the developer period and was told repeatedly "we are aware of this issue" but nothing has been done. Apple can't be serious about Enterprise if it can't even support basic Enterprise functionality that BlackBerrys have been carrying out for years.

No offline foldering or delete (or queuing of the same), no smart-reply/forward, and no attachment control or proper .msg handling. My new 32gb iP4 arrives tomorrow and I am pretty sure I will sell it on before I even open it now. Android can do this stuff - I just need to persuade my office to allow me to have a Google phone. Such a shame as I have always been a fan of Apple's work but they really fall short when it comes to Enterprise in iOS.

Reply

Answer 8

mbpage

Level 1

0 points

Nov 5, 2010 7:54 AM in response to klmac

Having just set up activesync for a client I can't hide my own disapointment at the lack of support for smart-forward, smart-reply status syncs. Renders the whole thing worthless imo. What's more researching this I find the issue has been known for 2 years yet apple has still not resolved it.

Whoose going to choose iPhone over Blackberry/Android etc. for business without some something as essential as knowing whether or not you've replied to a message? Come on Apple get this to the top of the list and get it sorted.

MP

Reply

Answer 9

varjak paw

Level 10

170,200 points

Nov 5, 2010 10:01 AM in response to mbpage

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

Reply