• airmail,  exchange server,  mac,  mac os x,  outlook

    Bloop Airmail 1.3.2 Comes in for a Landing

    March 19, 2014 /

    Indie Mac developer Bloop S.R.L. has released version 1.3.2 of their email client, Airmail.

    Airmail 1.3.2 packs quite a punch when you look at new features and enhancements.  In total, the new version of Airmail ships with 15 new features, 26 enhancements, and 7 bug fixes.

    Airmail, as you may have already guessed, is a well designed third-party email client for virtually every email service under the sun.  Airmail has built in support for popular services such as Microsoft Outlook.com (formerly known as Hotmail.com), Google Gmail, Yahoo! web mail, Apple iCloud, and IMAP and POP3 servers.

    Among the new features is a new Microsoft Exchange Server engine – critical if you use your Mac at work – and integration with Omni Group’s Ominifocus.

    On the improvements front, Bloop has enhanced features such as unified inbox, message rendering improvements, Exchange Server auto discovery, enhancements for Kerio email servers, calendar attachments, Evernote HTML support and more.

    As an email client, Airmail looks great!  The application window is broken up into three areas: Mail accounts and mailbox folder tree in the left pane, inbox message list in the center, and the message pane all the way on the right.

    In my brief time playing with Airmail today, I definitely liked what I saw and Airmail could slip in to replace Apple Mail as my default desktop email client.  I’m pretty picky with my email clients.  As it turns out, I prefer Microsoft Outlook for Windows the best and use Outlook 2011:Mac on my MacBook Pro.  The bar is set high, but it’s not impossible to change my mind.  With Microsoft Exchange Server support, if you don’t have Office installed and you need to connect to Microsoft’s email server, Airmail is a low cost alternative that has the essentials for your email needs.

    Airmail is available for purchase now from the Mac App Store for the reasonable price of $1.99.  Airmail requires Mac OS X 10.7 Lion or later.

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  • apple,  exchange server,  ios,  iphone,  microsoft

    iOS 6.1.2 Rumored To Be Released Next Week

    February 16, 2013 /

    Apple has been scrambling to address issues with iOS 6.  The next security and maintenance release for iDevices is reportedly scheduled for release next week.

    From MacRumors.com:

    “German site iPhone-Ticker reports [Google translation] that Apple is planning to release iOS 6.1.2 early next week to address both the Exchange bug and lock screen passcode issue affecting iOS 6.1 users. According to the report, iOS 6.1.2 is likely to arrive before Wednesday, February 20.”

    Apple has been trying to squash bugs related to battery performance on with the iPhone 4S, recurring meeting invitations being sent from users of Microsoft Exchange Server, and a particularly worrisome lock screen bypass bug.

    [Via MacRumors.com…]

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  • apple,  exchange server,  ios,  iphone,  microsoft,  vodafone

    3G Battery Performance May Also Be Contributing to iOS 6.1.1 Being Fast Tracked [Updated]

    February 11, 2013 /

    Following up on the Apple iOS 6.1.1 beta release to developers story from yesterday, Ars Technica has some more information about potential iOS 6.1 battery life issues.

    From Ars Technica:

    “Things heated up on Friday when Vodafone issued a warning to its UK subscribers saying not to download iOS 6.1 to their devices. The company sent a text message to subscribers and posted a notice on its forums (hat tip to MacRumors) saying iOS 6.1 “impacts performance on 3G” for Vodafone’s iPhone 4S users.” 

    “Some customers may occasionally experience difficulty in connecting to the network to make or receive calls or texts or to connect to the Internet. Apple is working on a solution to their software issue. These connection problems are intermittent,” the company wrote. “While Apple’s investigations continue, we would recommend that anyone who has not yet installed iOS 6.1 on their iPhone 4s should delay doing so until Apple has confirmed that their problem has been fixed.”

    Stay tuned. I would say that if we see the a release before the end of March and/or with four or less beta builds, iOS 6.1.1 was an emergency release to address a recurring meeting bug with Microsoft Exchange Server, something that will be a big problem for Apple customers who rely on Microsoft’s corporate email, calendaring, and messaging platform and 3G battery life issues the Vodafone mentioned.

    Update

    Apple has released iOS 6.1.1 specifically for the iPhone 4S to address “cellular performance”.

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  • apple,  exchange server,  ios,  microsoft

    Exchange Server Bug May Be Cause of iOS 6.1 Battery Issues

    February 10, 2013 /

    Just days after Apple released iOS 6.1 to the public, iOS 6.1.1 was released to developers.  It’s not uncommon for companies to quickly begin working on the next version of their software.  What is unusual is how quickly the beta was turned over to developers outside of Apple so quickly.

    We might now know of the drivers to get iOS 6.1.1 out into customer’s hands.  A number of reports have sprung up over the last few days indicating that the battery problems reported after the release of iOS 6.1 could be related to a bug in Microsoft Exchange Server when a new recurring meeting invitation is received by an iOS device.

    AOL CIO Michael Freker, yes, *that* AOL, has written the following excerpt in an internal company email:

    “We have researched this problem and it appears to be connected to a recently identified issue that seems to cause these iOS devices to continuously loop while synchronizing a recurring calendar meeting invitation. Similar problems have been reported by a number of sources to several media outlets across the Web in the past few days.”

    There is a growing thread on Apple’s own support forms that suggests and unnamed employee working for ‘the fruit company’ suggests as a workaround fix for the issue until an official fix is released.

    “The Official Solution from an unnamed source within that fruit company in Cupertino:

    The bug in iOS 6.1 is a ping-pong infinite loop trying to talk to the Exchange server. Unfortunately, just rebooting doesn’t fix the issue. Deleting the account is necessary to remove the problematic invitation response from the queue. 

    The workaround is annoying, but effective:
    – Delete your Exchange account
    – Recreate the Exchange account
    – Do not respond to meeting invitations from the device until 6.1.1 comes out.”

    In other words, if you use your iOS 6.1 device with an Exchange Server, it is a good idea to not accept recurring meetings until a fix is released.

    I have a company issued iPhone 4S and I have not seen this issue, but then again, I don’t receive many recurring meetings, and if I do, I then to reply to those meeting invitations from Windows 7 laptop with Outlook 2007.

    For more on this store, visit iDownloadBlog.com.

    [Via iDownloadBlog.com…]

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