A Better Email program for Exchange! (with signature support)

[swallman]

Hey everyone,

Was searching around the web for better Exchange solutions (due to some of the limitations of the built-in app) and found this thread:

HowardForums: Your Mobile Phone Community & Resource - Exchange on Droid w/ Signature! & More!

Someone pulled the "Work Email" app from the HTC Magic (I believe). I installed it on my Droid and it works great! Supports a signature and also GAL lookup.

The only issues I see so far is that it appears to maintain its own internal contact list (pulled from Exchange server) and it also doesn't have a built-in calendar. For the time being, I am leaving my sync settings to 1 day in the built-in email app so that I continue to get Contacts and Calendar entries sync'd.

Hope it helps someone!

[must_i_register]

Touchdown is fully operational, full featured and very slick. There is a 5 day, fully functional trial. Full version is $19.99 but worth every penny. Look for it in the app section.

[mjs31]

Touchdown is excellent for exchange. Well worth the $20.

[JBHorner]

Touchdown is fully operational, full featured and very slick. There is a 5 day, fully functional trial. Full version is $19.99 but worth every penny. Look for it in the app section.

I've found a number of bugs in Touchdown. Moving messages from the inbox to another folder often results in the inbox display changing to the target folder's display. Also, the actual movement of the messages was inconsistent in its results.

The application also has a memory problem in that it quickly went up to about 40MB of usage when it ran on my handset for awhile. It's also inefficient with the battery--eating up about 30% more than the Droid's included applications.

Joel

[Backnblack]

Touchdown is fully operational, full featured and very slick. There is a 5 day, fully functional trial. Full version is $19.99 but worth every penny. Look for it in the app section.

I've found a number of bugs in Touchdown. Moving messages from the inbox to another folder often results in the inbox display changing to the target folder's display. Also, the actual movement of the messages was inconsistent in its results.

The application also has a memory problem in that it quickly went up to about 40MB of usage when it ran on my handset for awhile. It's also inefficient with the battery--eating up about 30% more than the Droid's included applications.

Joel

Been using Touchdown since Nov 11. I have not seen any of these issues.
Have you emailed the developer, He's very responsive.

[must_i_register]

I've found a number of bugs in Touchdown. Moving messages from the inbox to another folder often results in the inbox display changing to the target folder's display. Also, the actual movement of the messages was inconsistent in its results.

The application also has a memory problem in that it quickly went up to about 40MB of usage when it ran on my handset for awhile. It's also inefficient with the battery--eating up about 30% more than the Droid's included applications.

Joel

Hmm, I've not had it long enough to have measured the battery draw. From what I've been able to discern, they are actively developing it based on user feedback so, hopefully, they will address this issue. The stock email client on the Droid was utterly worthless for how I use it (no signature?), perhaps Motorola can develop it to provide the same functionality as Touchdown without the energy usage.

[must_i_register]

Been using Touchdown since Nov 11. I have not seen any of these issues.
Have you emailed the developer, He's very responsive.

Having had it running since last night, the battery usage thing on the phone shows the Touchdown as 4% battery usage, which is negligible.

One question I have on it is with the voice feature. Their website shows that it has the ability to speak out an e-mail.

DROID ONLY : The following features are specific to Android 2.0 (e.g: Motorola Droid)

• Ability to speak out an email
• Ability to dictate individual sentences when composing emails
• More seamless contact-phonebook integration

How is this accessed? I cannot find this feature for reading e-mails, just for composing them. Thanks for any assistance.

[JBHorner]

I haven't emailed the developer, though a colleague did for another issue. (He was constantly having to re-register.) A beta was supplied to my colleague. I do believe the developer is responsive.

The battery usage is with "Automatic - Push" mode, rather than timed. When I use TouchDown (and disable the stock email application), my battery is at 40% by the end of the day. When I use the stock email application (disabling TouchDown), my battery is at 70% at the end of the day. My usage patterns with other applications is identical for both days that I've tested, as is my email volume. (~120 to 130 email messages per day) It is an unscientific test, to be sure.

I'm not saying TouchDown is a bad application at all. I wish that the stock application had support for folders (moving, etc.), and calendar acceptance in the inbox. (instead of having to go to the calendar to accept or decline).

Joel

[must_i_register]

The battery usage is with "Automatic - Push" mode, rather than timed. When I use TouchDown (and disable the stock email application), my battery is at 40% by the end of the day. When I use the stock email application (disabling TouchDown), my battery is at 70% at the end of the day. My usage patterns with other applications is identical for both days that I've tested, as is my email volume. (~120 to 130 email messages per day) It is an unscientific test, to be sure.

Oh, that clears it up. I also use the push for e-mail and am in the same range for volume unfortunately. My battery is toast by the end of a long day but, having come from a Pre, I got accustomed to sticking it on the Touchstone. With the Droid, I got two of the cradles and will let it rest on there while I'm in the office or at home. Absent a mid-day recharge, I doubt I'd make it from 7a to 10p as my phone usage is rather heavy. I haven't disabled the stock client as I have my Yahoo synched to that and it grabs e-mails every 5 minutes. The battery life on this is much better than the Pre was - even without a mid-day charge.

I just tried the dictation feature for the e-mail and it is uncanny how accurate it is. This'll be great for quick e-mails while at a red light.