FlexMail 2007 Review

[Jerry Raia]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://mobilitytoday.com/articles/windows_mobile_6_part_2.html' target='_blank'>http://mobilitytoday.com/articles/windows_mobile_6_part_2.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Now some of you may be thinking, “is this the same old FlexMail that caused me all those problems a year ago?” Well, it is the same app, but it’s a new version, has added Windows Mobile Smartphone support, and has undergone a ton of testing over the last several months. In fact, all of the testing for FlexMail is the reason this article has trailed so far behind the first part."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Raia-042307-.gif" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/><br /><br />Once again a new version of FlexMail appears. Once again I download it in the hopes that this will be the version that really works. Once again I am disappointed. Once installed I was suddenly unable to send any text messages. FlexMail removed, problem solved. I honestly didn't bother to go any further than that. If you give it a try please let us know your experience.<br /><br />Update: SMS issue solved in latest build. :)

[alex_kac]

jerry - a few things. You missed the whole point of FM which is IMAP/POP3.

1) You don't need to uninstall FM to fix your problem. Unlike Rev 1 on the Pocket PC, Flexmail no longer overwrites the built in SMS software on a Pocket PC or SmartPhone. Just don't make FM the default SMS app. When you make Fm the default SMS app we simply write a registry entry to make FM launch on SMS Send commands - and that's it. Built in Messaging is still there and I see no problems using that for SMS/ActiveSync and FM for IMAP/POP3. That's really the best scenario at this point. There is no benefit to using FM for SMS or ActiveSync.

2) The issue with sending SMS is a known issue. Its not reproducible by any of our engineers - but its a known issue in that we got feedback on it. The way we actually SEND SMS messages now is very different. In Rev 2 we actually create a message programmatically in the built in Messaging app and then start it in the background and tell it to "sync". Technically speaking its supposed to be identical to you creating and sending SMS from the messaging app itself - just programmatically instead of via the UI.

Finally, FlexMail is #1 an IMAP/POP3 app. We also support MAPI clients (SMS/ActiveSync/HotMail), but that support - while there and a ton better than before - is not optimal mainly because MAPI is not the best of Microsoft's APIs and we've found it to be extremely tempermental. If you are going to do a review, do a review for what the app is for.

[alex_kac]

I should add - I can SMS from my Treo 700wx and from a Samsung i320 all day long using FM. All get sent just fine. We've tested this under WM5, WM6, both under real devices, smartphones, and more. It simply cannot be reproduced in any of our tests.

I'd LOVE to find what this issue is. Especially since we never saw it in private beta with some really hard hitting folk, but we did see it in public beta and we made a threading change which fixed it for some people (we turned off threading on SMS sending), but not others.

I still wonder if something in FM is threading that sending and that is causing the issue, but so far no luck getting enough info on the problem.

[alex_kac]

And my last thought on this. We released FM even with this being a known issue simply because we had a very extensive public beta and even with 5000 downloads for the release candidate we only had a handful of reports of this. Considering it was not reproducible and you can use the built in app for SMSing (and on the Smartphone especially, that's probably still the best bet since this is the first FM release on the Smartphone and we know we have more work to do for SP integration like home screen plugin and such), it was not considered a "stop the presses" issue.

[Jerry Raia]

Alex, I have wanted this application to work probably as much as you. I can't stand the limitations of the built in mail functions. I have no idea what you are up against trying to make this work. I haven't written code code in decades. I tried FlexMail when it was in its original beta years ago. I was frustrated with it then but I keep trying it. Trust me, I am your biggest fan. I have reached a point with Windows Mobile where if things don't work out of the box I blow a gasket. I was just disappointed that the promise of something better still can't be delivered.

[alex_kac]

Alex, I have wanted this application to work probably as much as you. I can't stand the limitations of the built in mail functions. I have no idea what you are up against trying to make this work. I haven't written code code in decades. I tried FlexMail when it was in its original beta years ago. I was frustrated with it then but I keep trying it. Trust me, I am your biggest fan. I have reached a point with Windows Mobile where if things don't work out of the box I blow a gasket. I was just disappointed that the promise of something better still can't be delivered.

I understand that :) Now consider this too - we don't mention SMS anywhere on the product pages. Sure we support it AND we do try to make sure its bulletproof, but the focus of the app is IMAP/POP3. So try that. In fact, IMAP IDLE is the real beauty of FlexMail now. That is our primary focus. BTW, when we fix the SMS issue - you'll be the first to know :)

Now I'm very bad with analogies so don't crucify me on this one. Imagine if a reviewer panned a Ferrari because the glovebox didn't open well. Sure its something to be noted and such but you don't pan the Ferrari for that :)

[chaznet]

Sounds like things are still in the 'workaround' stage...

[chucky.egg]

Imagine if a reviewer panned a Ferrari because the glovebox didn't open well

Whilst I wouldn't presume to answer for Jerry, for me that answer isn't quite good enough.

If I buy a bit of software I expect it to work, and just as importantly I expect it not to break other things.

I can understand that SMS isn't the focus of your app, but the fact remains that it does "touch" that aspect of a device, and in Jerry's case appeared to break it. Now maybe it was a setting that Jerry chose and (no offence) didn't fully understand. But at the end of the day it (allegedly, don't sue me!) broke it.

Fleximail isn't an application I would need, so I have no issue with the application or your company, but the principal of "good enough is good enough" is one that, as a consumer of smartphone software, makes me wary of installing even the best commercial applications.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who holds his breath when installing apps, wondering whether my device is going to function properly afterwards?

[chriswren]

Had some nice features but with 300 mails in my inbox it was unusable.......... it ran so slow that the screen would never show all the mails and syncing with new mails would fail time and time again.

I used sync with exchange server which does not use Flexmails database as far as I understand so how come the standard email program can load this easily within seconds but flexmail craps out ??!?

I also tried the same mailbox on the exchange server but connecting using pop3 instead of exchange sync, same problems.

Stay away from this software untill it works properly.

I loved the idea of search facility and turning mails in to caladar appointments or tasks but just can't cope with more than 10 mails at a time.

[cinimod1000]

Sorry, FlexMail, but I have to side with Jerry and others. When I purchase software, especially from the bigger software houses, I expect them to work completely, and definately not break something else.....
I have purchased too many programs in the past that do not fully work as advertised, and this now makes me extremely wary of loading anything on my WM device..........
It really is a pain to have to Sprite before trying ANYTHING nowadays; but if some bug shows up in private or public beta testing, then it needs to be fixed before release, or you will earn yourself even more disgruntled customers (or not, as is the case with me).

[alex_kac]

But that's the point: FlexMail 2007 Rev 2 does NOT break anything. I can guarantee that. Nothing in FlexMail touches the system in terms of affecting anything. Jerry never said that it broke SMS from the built in SMS app.

I guarantee anyone $500 - right now and here via check UPSed to them if they prove me wrong - that FlexMail Rev 2 does not break existing functionality. You can install FlexMail Rev 2 and even if you make FM the default Mail/SMS - you can go into \WINDOWS and launch tmail.exe directly and everything will work perfectly. That is because FM does not overwrite existing code, it does not replace existing files, and it does not interfere with existing apps. The most it does on the Smartphone is change the launch app registry setting for the SMS client.

The ONLY issue Jerry had was sending SMS within FlexMail itself. And I believe we found the issue. Some devices (not the ones we have obviously) implement SMS sending for MAPI a bit differently. We think we found the issue and we are putting up a build with this one change (its one field diff).

http://www.pocketinformant.com/Forums/index.php?showtopic=11137

[alex_kac]

Had some nice features but with 300 mails in my inbox it was unusable.......... it ran so slow that the screen would never show all the mails and syncing with new mails would fail time and time again.

I used sync with exchange server which does not use Flexmails database as far as I understand so how come the standard email program can load this easily within seconds but flexmail craps out ??!?

I also tried the same mailbox on the exchange server but connecting using pop3 instead of exchange sync, same problems.

Stay away from this software untill it works properly.

I loved the idea of search facility and turning mails in to caladar appointments or tasks but just can't cope with more than 10 mails at a time.

FlexMail is a memory user. We have users with multiple email accounts and hundreds of email. I use it that way on my Treo 700wx. However I never could on my 700w.

If you are downloading 300 messages - is it headers only? Full messages? That includes attachments too. FlexMail is ready for prime time - but you have to understand that its not going to handle 2GB of mail on a device with 30MB free RAM. The built in app does handle memory better than us right now as it only loads the message data it needs and we load the message data for each folder entirely right now.

[Jerry Raia]

Alex, the latest build has indeed solved my SMS problem. I will use FlexMail exclusively and see how it goes.

[alex_kac]

So you want to know what the issue was? Fun stuff.

We created the MAPI SMS message using the PIMPR_BODY property which worked on our phones and carriers. We changed it to the PIMPR_SUBJECT and we saw that worked as well on our carriers/phones but now it also works on others.

We'll probably re-release FlexMail with this bug fixed today if we get more positive reports.

I also want to mention - if you have any BUGS (not support) - feel free to post them to http://bugz.webis.net/ That way we can track them.

[Mike Temporale]

Alex, the latest build has indeed solved my SMS problem. I will use FlexMail exclusively and see how it goes.

I've just downloaded it as well and will make the switch over the next day or so. I'm pretty interested in this IMAP IDLE thing. :D

[chaznet]

Installed the latest build onto my T-Mobile Dash; looks nice and SMS worked fine when I tried it. Some other stuff I noticed:

Search was >very&lt; slow; I use Exchange, and it seems like the message search function is searching the server? If so, that's great. It would be nice to have the option to just search locally stored message bodies and/or headers.

In the search results window, a listing by folder would be useful. None of the columns contain the folder info, which would be better than no folder info. Ideally, the list would be more like:

Folder A
-Message 1
-Message 2
Folder B
-Message 1
-Message 2

When in the search results screen, if I scroll down to the message listing, I can't scroll back up to the text entry field to start a new search. Have to close the search window, and start a new one.

The contact pictures don't display in either the SMS or my Exchange messages. One of those things you don't miss until it's gone...

[onlydarksets]

Being too lazy to investigate this myself, can somebody tell me if this works with Exchange? That is, does FM use its own datastore, or can I use it to view HTML messages on my Exchange server?

Thanks!

[alex_kac]

Being too lazy to investigate this myself, can somebody tell me if this works with Exchange? That is, does FM use its own datastore, or can I use it to view HTML messages on my Exchange server?

Thanks!

Thats far more complex a question. The answer is - depends on how you hook up to Exchange. If you use ActiveSync or ActiveSync Exchange, then you are limited by that conduit. On Wm5 and below, that provides plain text. It does this at the server or desktop. No HTML email ever comes in to the Pocket PC. So through those data stores, you will not get any feature improvements in using FlexMail besides the UI. You are limited by ActiveSync.

if you connect via IMAP - then yes, you will get HTML email. FlexMail is designed as standalone email app that also "by the way" can access the built in ActiveSync/SMS data stores. It is not designed to be a replacement for Messaging for ActiveSync. You will never find a better ActiveSync client than Messaging. But you will not find a better IMAP/POP3 client than FlexMail.

[alex_kac]

Installed the latest build onto my T-Mobile Dash; looks nice and SMS worked fine when I tried it. Some other stuff I noticed:

Search was >very&lt; slow; I use Exchange, and it seems like the message search function is searching the server? If so, that's great. It would be nice to have the option to just search locally stored message bodies and/or headers.

I assume you are searching ActiveSync email. That is very slow. Searching FlexMail's native database for POP3/IMAP is faster.

In the search results window, a listing by folder would be useful. None of the columns contain the folder info, which would be better than no folder info. Ideally, the list would be more like:

Folder A
-Message 1
-Message 2
Folder B
-Message 1
-Message 2

When in the search results screen, if I scroll down to the message listing, I can't scroll back up to the text entry field to start a new search. Have to close the search window, and start a new one.


Please add that as a feature request in http://bugz.webis.net/


The contact pictures don't display in either the SMS or my Exchange messages. One of those things you don't miss until it's gone...
Yes, I think we're adding that in Rev 3.

[cvdbl]

Tried it yesterday. In fact I have tried every version of FlexMail since 1.0.

I used to have the SMS issue on my MDA w TMobile.

With this version, on my new TMO Dash, things worked fine. However the performance make the app essentially unusable for me. I sync my work email using MS Direct Push. Filing a message into a another folder takes 8 full minutes every time to load up the list of folders. Just unusable.

I also found the UI to have too many sub-menus. I should not have to go through 3 level of indirections to do a simple task.

Other than that the interface is nice and it has very nice improvement over pocket inbox. Just wished the tool requirements would have been thought more thoroughly

C.

[chaznet]

My Exchange service also has IMAP settings, so I tried them out.

Not all HTML messages were loading properly.

The sync settings per folder were a little confusing. For some I wanted to download headers only, and others headers and bodies w/attachments. Didn't see options for this.

Settings screens in general were inconsistent. Navigation didn't work so well between fields in a screen. Couldn't scroll down a screen always in some of the settings screens, when according to the scrollbar, there was more to see.

Looking good though, a couple version number changes away from my credit card :)

[myrampar]

Alex-

I downloaded and installed the new version of Flexmail over the top of the old one and I have no problems so far. Right now, I just use it for POP email and it seems to work fine for my needs.

But I do have a few questions for you.

1. I am using PhoneAlarm and it has an icon on the Today Screen for new email. Even though FlexMail is my default email client, when I receive new mail this icon doesn't indicate this. Is there a setting somewhere that I am missing or perhaps a registry key I can change to make this work?

2. When I try to Send a web page link in PocketIE by choosing Menu-->Send Link via email, it seems to only work with Pocket Inbox and not FlexMail. What do I need to do so that the system uses Flexmail for these actions?

3. Do the mail notifications work better with the newly released Spb Phone Suite application. I am thinking about trying that to replace PhoneAlarm as I am a big Spb software fan.

I also agree with another poster about the complexity of the menus. I don't know where I stand as the 'typical' user, but I only have 1 email account in Flexmail (I've had 2 or three at one time in the past) and when I want to manually check for mail within the program, I need to click the Menu softkey, go down one to Send and Receive, go to the right to bring up another menu and then down one to my account just to refresh my inbox. Would it be possible in the future to customize the softkeys so one could be configured for Send/Recieve? Either that or just include a basic Send/Receive command in the first menu that pops up.

Thanks for any thoughts.

[alex_kac]

Tried it yesterday. In fact I have tried every version of FlexMail since 1.0.

I used to have the SMS issue on my MDA w TMobile.

With this version, on my new TMO Dash, things worked fine. However the performance make the app essentially unusable for me. I sync my work email using MS Direct Push. Filing a message into a another folder takes 8 full minutes every time to load up the list of folders. Just unusable.

That simply doesn't sound right. Now granted - as I've written thousands of times - FM is a IMAP/POP3 app primarily and we support ActiveSync more so on the side than in full which means that FM is MUCH faster with IMAP/POP3 than ActiveSync, but I don't know if we've seen that kind of slowness reported with AS folders before. Then again, that wasn't really an optimized/common action in our users.

How many folders did you have? I'm interested so we can put that into the test bin.


I also found the UI to have too many sub-menus. I should not have to go through 3 level of indirections to do a simple task.

The interface is designed still for Pocket PC far more than Smartphone. This is our first SP rev and it shows. I won't make any excuses for that. We did implement a tremendous amount of the feedback on the SP UI but simply put its not optimized for SP.

Also if you use the hotkeys, most things you don't have to go to the menus for. Press H or 0 to get to the hotkes.

Other than that the interface is nice and it has very nice improvement over pocket inbox. Just wished the tool requirements would have been thought more thoroughly

They were :) I know that most people on THIS site are going to be Exchange users and FM does have a lot of work put into it to make it a usable MAPI (ActiveSync/SMS/Hotmail) client. But that's not our focus because really there is not much you can do when those account types have severe limitations that simply cannot be written around. Our focus is business level email using standard protocols: IMAP and POP3.

I use Direct Push with Exchange, but I can tell you that the experience using FM with IMAP IDLE is superior to Exchange Direct Push and Messaging because of the per email notifications and frankly better controls. That's not to say we can't improve our support of AS accounts and all, but its not going to be our primary focus.

As I told Microsoft, our goal is not to compete with them on Exchange connectivity. I can't. Our goal is to provide a much better email experience for everyone else. And I think FM 2007 Rev 2 does that.

I think its a testament to the software's leap in quality, reliablility, and usability from Rev 1 and previous versions that the complaints we get are primarily with MAPI stuff. Even with the adolescent Smartphone UI (which is getting improved dramatically more in Rev 3 based on feedback we got during Rev 2 beta) that doesn't get mentioned as much because the software works very well for what its designed for: IMAP/POP3. Now that we've finally overcome the curse of previous versions on the core, I think we can start to expand on its abilities in MAPI and elsewhere.

[Mike Temporale]

Hey Alex, does the mail server need anything special to do IMAP IDLE? Or can any (or almost any) IMAP enabled mail server work with IDLE?

[cvdbl]

Tried it yesterday. In fact I have tried every version of FlexMail since 1.0.

I used to have the SMS issue on my MDA w TMobile.

With this version, on my new TMO Dash, things worked fine. However the performance make the app essentially unusable for me. I sync my work email using MS Direct Push. Filing a message into a another folder takes 8 full minutes every time to load up the list of folders. Just unusable.

That simply doesn't sound right. Now granted - as I've written thousands of times - FM is a IMAP/POP3 app primarily and we support ActiveSync more so on the side than in full which means that FM is MUCH faster with IMAP/POP3 than ActiveSync, but I don't know if we've seen that kind of slowness reported with AS folders before. Then again, that wasn't really an optimized/common action in our users.

How many folders did you have? I'm interested so we can put that into the test bin.


I also found the UI to have too many sub-menus. I should not have to go through 3 level of indirections to do a simple task.

The interface is designed still for Pocket PC far more than Smartphone. This is our first SP rev and it shows. I won't make any excuses for that. We did implement a tremendous amount of the feedback on the SP UI but simply put its not optimized for SP.

Also if you use the hotkeys, most things you don't have to go to the menus for. Press H or 0 to get to the hotkes.

Other than that the interface is nice and it has very nice improvement over pocket inbox. Just wished the tool requirements would have been thought more thoroughly

They were :) I know that most people on THIS site are going to be Exchange users and FM does have a lot of work put into it to make it a usable MAPI (ActiveSync/SMS/Hotmail) client. But that's not our focus because really there is not much you can do when those account types have severe limitations that simply cannot be written around. Our focus is business level email using standard protocols: IMAP and POP3.

I use Direct Push with Exchange, but I can tell you that the experience using FM with IMAP IDLE is superior to Exchange Direct Push and Messaging because of the per email notifications and frankly better controls. That's not to say we can't improve our support of AS accounts and all, but its not going to be our primary focus.

As I told Microsoft, our goal is not to compete with them on Exchange connectivity. I can't. Our goal is to provide a much better email experience for everyone else. And I think FM 2007 Rev 2 does that.

I think its a testament to the software's leap in quality, reliablility, and usability from Rev 1 and previous versions that the complaints we get are primarily with MAPI stuff. Even with the adolescent Smartphone UI (which is getting improved dramatically more in Rev 3 based on feedback we got during Rev 2 beta) that doesn't get mentioned as much because the software works very well for what its designed for: IMAP/POP3. Now that we've finally overcome the curse of previous versions on the core, I think we can start to expand on its abilities in MAPI and elsewhere.


First of all, I'd like to state that I am a big fan of your company. I have been a pocketinformant user for many years (whenever I had a PPC , I switched back and forth between PPC and smartphone).

In terms of folders: I have about 100 folders on my exchange server mailbox. I use it because it is the only way I will get my corporate email in real time. not allowed through IMAP and this is my primary messaging need.

It feels like your implementation polls the server every time, vs. caching folders. When I file a message in pocket inbox, the list of folders appears immediately. Doing so in Flexmail takes about 8 min as I said, every time.

Loading the app is too slow as well, I am sure you know that

On the menu complexity, I will make the same comment for PPC: simple common tasks should be accessible in a first level menu (as an Engineering manger I have faced usability requirements many times...). Less important tasks can be in a sub menu. Very advanced or very infrequent ones, in a sub sub menu. The fact that a task like marking a message read is in a sub sub menu makes the app less usable.

Don't get me wrong: I really like the app and the UI you designed, but if it takes me a lot more time to do simple tasks over pocket inbox, it will in the end make me less productive.

Also on your point that this is mostly a POP/IMAP client: focus is great and optimizing this is very good, but realize that - as these are convergence devices - having 2 apps to deal with essentially similar items (an SMS, exchange email or POP/IMAP message) should be treated identically and as a user, I do not want 2 apps. So if one app does a very good job at one and a lesser good job at the other, and tool B does a reasonable job at all, I'll go for tool B which allows me to deal with all my messaging needs in one place (just wished pocket Inbox would also handle my voicemails......)

Would be happy to provide more feedback and beta tests future releases...

C.

[alex_kac]

First of all, I'd like to state that I am a big fan of your company. I have been a pocketinformant user for many years (whenever I had a PPC , I switched back and forth between PPC and smartphone).

In terms of folders: I have about 100 folders on my exchange server mailbox. I use it because it is the only way I will get my corporate email in real time. not allowed through IMAP and this is my primary messaging need.


OK, understood. 100 MAPI folders - not a good thing for FlexMail at this time.

It feels like your implementation polls the server every time, vs. caching folders. When I file a message in pocket inbox, the list of folders appears immediately. Doing so in Flexmail takes about 8 min as I said, every time.

No, we don't pull it from the server. We just do it via MAPI each and every time, but I think we do so in a very ineffcient way. As I said, this was not a focus of FM so it was not handled efficiently. Since we're working on Rev 3 specifically with performance and optimizations in mind, I'll note your config.

Loading the app is too slow as well, I am sure you know that

For the same reason of the above. We enumerate all MAPI folders and that's slow at this time. I know two things we are doing for Rev 3 to improve this dramatically.

On the menu complexity, I will make the same comment for PPC: simple common tasks should be accessible in a first level menu (as an Engineering manger I have faced usability requirements many times...). Less important tasks can be in a sub menu. Very advanced or very infrequent ones, in a sub sub menu. The fact that a task like marking a message read is in a sub sub menu makes the app less usable.

To you its a common task. To others, its not. We have a rule that no menu can scroll if its on a QVGA Landscape screen or PPC Square screen. So we've got reply, forward, delete as the primary commands that most people want to do. So while I agree with you, I think we are doing exactly what you say. Its just you want a command you use a lot to be top-level while its not top level for most users because they have things set to mark as read if its shown in preview for 3 seconds or opened.


Don't get me wrong: I really like the app and the UI you designed, but if it takes me a lot more time to do simple tasks over pocket inbox, it will in the end make me less productive.

I can agree with the principle of your comment. One thing to remember is as I said - the app is still PPC centric. On PPC tap/hold is very much used and if you tap/hold on a group of messages or that single message you get all those items in the first level menu. When you have the soft key alone, your specific example is not considered a common command. It may be for you and a lot of other people, but it was not for the sample of people we worked with.

Also on your point that this is mostly a POP/IMAP client: focus is great and optimizing this is very good, but realize that - as these are convergence devices - having 2 apps to deal with essentially similar items (an SMS, exchange email or POP/IMAP message) should be treated identically and as a user, I do not want 2 apps. So if one app does a very good job at one and a lesser good job at the other, and tool B does a reasonable job at all, I'll go for tool B which allows me to deal with all my messaging needs in one place (just wished pocket Inbox would also handle my voicemails......)

I agree with that, except you have to focus. There are millions of users out there that use POP3/IMAP and a much smaller amount that use Exchange. We support ActiveSync/SMS/Hotmail because they are desired by many people. And we will continue to work on those areas. But let me turn it around on you. If FlexMail came out and was an excellent MAPI client and bad POP3/IMAP client - what would be the point of buying it? MAPI limits you to what MAPI provides and Messaging does everything MAPI provides. Unlike Pocket Informant where we can innovate, MAPI does not allow that. So at the very best FlexMail can only equal Messaging in ActiveSync/SMS/Hotmail. It can never be better. With IMAP/POP3 on the other hand, we can be better.

So our focus must be where we can actually improve the situation. As such our focus is IMAP/POP3. But just because one's focus is there doesn't mean we ignore MAPI. Rev 2 has many MAPI improvements. Speed just wasn't one of them. Rev 3 will have many more MAPI improvements (we have a lot on our list).

[cvdbl]

Alex,

Thank for your answer. As you could guess from my previous post, I am a big fan of your company and have used your applications for years now, with great pleasure.

So, I'll keep testing FlexMail as new releases come out. And I may be part of a minority of users, but all I can say is that the primary requirements that I personally have as an individual are:
- offer a better, more sophisticated tool than pocket Inbox - you do that today and do it well
- consolidate all my messaging needs in one app: SMS, exchange, POP/IMAP. Most important to me being exchange first, SMS second
- have a lean, one hand operations UI. I do a lot (too much in fact) while driving and cannot deal with convoluted UI's

at the end of the day, it is about letting me do things faster and better than I do today.

Again, I have been for years and will remain an adept of WebIS. I am looking fwd to the next iteration of FlexMail. You have come a long way since I tried out (and in fact bought) WebIS Mail 1.0 on my ipaq 5455 with a BT connection to my SE T68i


Truly Yours,

--Christian

[kiwi]

what benefit is this over the email in Windows Mobile 6 ? - coming out from TMobile this week for Dash owners.

[Jerry Raia]

Sadly, I had to uninstall it finally. I had SMS messages disappear as I tried to retrieve them and the over all feel of the application is just to sluggish. My alerts all got changed after the install. I have two IMAP email accounts, IMAP IDLE didn't seem to like either of them. This is not meant to be a scientific opinion, just a personal one. My primary email is Exchange. FlexMail just wasn't up to snuff in that department either. The interface is clumsy and convoluted. There are way too many menus to navigate to do a simple send and receive. I hope someday this application is ready for prime time. WM needs a good email application. The built in one is still the better alternative.

[22350]

My question is pertaining to the sms.

I am using PhoneAlarm and I had the problem of the icons on the bottom always defaulting to outlook.

I was able to get my hands on 1.10 beta 5 and that fixed the problem.

The one problem that i am still having is that when i go into the contact list and select a person to sms, it still kicks me back to outlook. Also I believe that the PhoneAlarm notify is still getting it's info from outlook.

any idea if there is a way to get the smartphone to default to flexmail, when sms'ing from the contact list?

thanks

paul

[scottb]

Have you set FlexMail to be the default mail/SMS client? Assuming you have, if it still goes to Outlook from the Contacts screen, I would report that to WebIS and see what they can do.

[22350]

Have you set FlexMail to be the default mail/SMS client? Assuming you have, if it still goes to Outlook from the Contacts screen, I would report that to WebIS and see what they can do.


yes, i set flexmail as my default sms and mail. still kicks to outlook