After 5 restarts of outlook, one crash and lots of minutes crossing fingers while the outlook was not responding, it looks like working now. Faster than before.  

FWIW, Xobni includes some refreshing ideas and scores very high for usability (one example below)

Example of usable message

BlackBerry, ready to call 911

At any rate, thinking about usability and MMI, this should not happen.

Last week, Assaf asked  how to judge securitysolutions/systems/products. In my opinion, those different nouns should not be connected together in the context of this question, even though there might be a problem that can be solved by a specific solution or some kind of a system or using someone’s product. They are not equal and should not be compared as such. Just like the iPhone is an excellent lifestyle solution and poor outbound email product, the my old BlackBerry offers poor entertainment capabilities but it excels as a handheld email terminal. 

You might be asking yourself what’s the context. What is he trying to tell us?

Sometimes, poor design of a single feature might stain the entire product. Using the BlackBerry example: I’m sure that product management had good intentions, but the emergency call feature is damaging. iPhone has its own limitations. BTW, today, the Wall Street Journal told us that “lots of people want iPhones, but a relatively small percentage go through with buying one, based on Nielsen data that the company will be releasing in a report later this week.”  

Well, maybe they are looking for something that the iPhone can’t deliver in a cost effective manner that would make the expense or the move to a new carrier worthwhile. 

I’m still in the market, looking for this one phone that will be good enough for my needs, but better than my current BlackBerry.

Similar to my phone

Trying to looks trendier, I decided that it’s about time to upgrade my not-so-new Blackberry. I just need to get ‘em to stare at my device, I thought to myself. My standards are not too high. I don’t need a camera, movies, mp3, sliders, voices or anything like it. It just need to be cool, trendy, light and above all, attune to my email habits. The first device that I tested was the iPhone 3G. I asked the doctor to land me his phone and after installing active sync server and protecting it with the SE, I was ready to go.

The good things:

The device is sexy and cool. The UI is simple to use (I do not read manuals) and intuitive. The app store is amazing. I will not be the first nor the last person to say that Apple changed the world with this application. Two big thumbs up for the idea and execution. Web surfing is great: it works fine in multiple languages, handles dynamic content well. Attachment management works well as well.

But sadly I report that the iPhone is almost unusable when it comes to handling my emails. Here’s why:

I like email. I like to send and receive. I like to be updated by email: I receive more than 200 emails per day to my inbox. This number does not include automatic notifications (e.g. content updates, log etc), regular support calls, spam, general information inquires etc. I send more than 100 emails per day. Most of them are one or two liners with some call for action. To make a long story short, I need my email-phone to be more of an email tool than a phone.

I also like to web. I read the links that are sent to me. If there’s a link embedded into an email, I’m gonna read it. my email-phone, should be capable to handle the web properly. To be Sharon worthy, the iPhone should have the following issues fixed:

• I need to search my emails.
• I need to be able to click fast, without looking on the keyboard. It looks like jagged keyboard allows me to type faster, with less mistakes. True, the built-in error correction is very nice, but it will not compensate for time.
• I need more characters in my keyboard, without the need to switch between alphanumeric, numeric and sign keyboards.
• I need more space. Make the screen rotate like the browser.

I’ll wait to see what the Android can do for me.

My bikes

There are things that we just can’t forget: like riding a bicycle or even driving a car. I was accompanying one of our sales engineers the other day at a customer sites and felt the urge to configure a layer 4-7 switch. If my memory serves me right, the last time that I was doing something similar was in 2000. Yet, one stare at the Access User Verification prompt and my memory was loaded.

I’m sure that somewhere, someone is studying why there are things that we can not forget. I am more interested in the opposite question. Why did I remember how to configure this switch? No, it was not a Cisco switch. However since Cisco’s IOS, style has been widely copied by other networking products (including the one I was configuring), it was very similar.  ? show run conf t ena always work somehow in a networking environment. Like seeing a friendly face in a “networking” cocktail party before the conference is a bout to begin…

Thinking about my own experience, the networking instinct is smiler to the the bicycle instinct: Both were developed over time after many trails (including errors. Some were painful). The basic instinct to keep up balance is similar to the IT instinct to keep systems up and running. Bicycle manufacturers, like networking switch vendors are using a very similar “CLI” to operate the device. the only differentiators exist with the value added features (security, voip, routing, layer 4-7 filtering etc).

Is there a conclusion? Sure. If you want a networking device, make sure that it’ll use the common CLI verbage.

Memory Leaks

My operating system and me are going to separate soon. Expect some updates soon.