Outlook

[joan3]

Hi,

Please excuse my ignorance, but I've never had a smart phone of any kind, and I'm considering getting a Casio Commando (I'm a geologist and work in rivers, so any non-rugged phone won't really work for me).

After reading through many forums about the issues on other Android phones syncing with Outlook e-mails, I want to be sure I understand if this phone has similar challenges. I use Outlook for my business (small business, no Exchange server). I have 2 e-mail accounts that are POP/SMTP and feed into Outlook. From what I understand, it is not possible with any phone running the Android OS to sync e-mails with non-Exchange based Outlook, even through 3rd party software, which means that I would not be able to sync my e-mails between this phone and the Outlook on my PC. Is this correct or am I missing something?

Will it be possible to look at any new e-mails with this phone while I'm away from my PC (assuming the PC is off, so not collecting e-mails) by directly checking the 2 e-mail accounts?

My son has suggested setting up a g-mail account, which would be fine if it was for personal use, but this is for my business so I really can't go switching e-mails.

Thanks for any help, and again, sorry if I am asking silly questions or seem confused (I am!!) I just want to make sure I know how this will (or won't) work as I'm trying to decide if I will purchase it or not. I'm on AT&T right now, and I don't believe they have any rugged smart phones. I guess what I really need is a rugged phone with a Windows operating system!

P.S. One more question. The specs on the phone say it has a standby time of 11 days, but the reviews on this forum say they have to charge it every day? I guess I don't understand that either.

[Graymayre]

See if your email server supports IMAP. It works kind of like sync, whatever happens in one email client will happen in the rest.
They do support POP as well. And it is just as easy to configure as Outlook.
You can also set up as many accounts as you want with a consolidated inbox. Very functional and flexible. You may never need Outlook again.
PM me if you get it and want help setting it up.

And standby time refers to screen off in your pocket. Not voice or data usage. It just means it can last that long. It rarely ever will, though.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using DroidForums

[jb419]

Joan3...i had same problem installing outlook on any stock email client. I use POP3 with our company email and found that the K9 email app works wonders.

[Bear in NM]

Joan,

You may want to consider the Gmail account for syncing your phone for contacts and applications, alone. The following is based on Android on my D1, not a commando, but Android is android to some exenet.

I have my Outlook express set up to link to my Gmail account. Likewise, my Gmail account polls my Outlook express server. This allows my work emails to go to Gmail where they are then pushed/synced to my phone. I can set my phone to poll my Pop3 Outlook express, but as my phone is already syncing with google, it is not needed, and saves a lot of battery. I do not have sensitive work email by and large, so I am ok with them going through the cloud (google). Your mileage may vary here. And I do have to deal with the same emails in two places, but it is not hard to erase the google stuff as it comes in.

And you may have a little trial and error in setting up a pop3 or imap on the phone with your current email provider. If it is one of the bigger names, you should be able to find the settings needed. My small town provider had to take a couple of stabs at the account settings to get things to work.

Craig

[crabbybahstid]

I'm using K9 on a POP account just fine. You can go into the settings and have it check (they call it "polling") at whatever frequency you want. I didn't care much for GMail, but the interface was nice. The resident email app that comes on the phone is crap. (and is permanently locked up on my device )

[Tim24]

Joan,

I just receive my Commando a few days ago. I used a Droid 2 Global for several months and have been receiving my small business email flawlessly on both droids. My clients and friends just send email to my business email and they never know it has been forwarded to my new Gmail account automatically. Forwarding is a simple setting as is setting it to use your business email name when I reply or send email from my droid phone using my new gmail account. The only thing you may find a bit annoying is that your business email does not get updated as Read/Unread, so you will have to open your email on your PC too.
All your contacts will move to Google Contacts easily too. If you want syncing both directions from Outlook to your Droid, I use gsyncit which syncs my Outlook with Google. It does a very good job allowing me to add contacts etc. on my droid and in Outlook on my PC knowing I will have the information in both locations when I need it.

I now like the functionality of Dropbox.com and use it in place of many Outlook features I previously relied on when i used Windows Mobile smartphones for several years before my Droid 2 Global. Dropbox provides very easy and free access to 2 GB of data.

And by the way, I love my Commando. It arrived Friday afternoon and I was kayaking with it early Saturday morning getting it wet and taking pictures on the water!
I was concerned about the speed of the Commando with an 800 processor compared to the Droid Global 2's 1.2 GHZ processor. From a practical viewpoint, and from using both phones, I find no dicernable difference in speed. I love the Commando!!

Sent from my C771 using DroidForums

[joan3]

Thanks everyone for the helpful ideas. I have spent many hours since my original post looking at different options for syncing e-mail based on your suggestions and internet searches. I think I may end up with Google Apps for Business because that would allow me (as far as I can tell) to sync with Outlook e-mail, contacts, and calendar (on my desktop PC), my Commando (which I hope to order tomorrow!) and my laptop (which I use when traveling). It's $50/year, but I consider it part of the cost of doing business these days, and would be worth it if it all works seamlessly and easily. After lots of reading, I think you could probably do something similar with the free Google Apps and set up Outlook to check the gmail as IMAP, but I'm not totally confident, and I'm not sure I would be able to pull my existing thousands of work e-mails onto the gmail so I could access those from anywhere; $50 seems worth it to me.

(P.S. Tim24 - Hope you had fun kayaking - I got out twice last week, but now the weather has turned nasty again - we've had the coldest/wettest Spring I can remember)