Phones, Smartphones, PDAs
To have your mail, calendar, contacts, tasks, and documents available on your smartphone, IT will help you with the following solutions:
- Buy a phone from your provider of choice that
- Runs Windows Mobile or Palm operating systems
- Supports "Quad band" if you need it (that is, works in different continents)
- Buy an SD card
- Use Oracle Calendar to keep your calendar, contacts and tasks
- Buy a SyncML client for your phone.
- Configuring your phone to read your mail
- Installing the SyncML client (...)
- Configuring the SyncML client to synchronize with Oracle
- Transferring documents and notes to your phone (...)
Some Recommended Models
The wireless phone industry changes rapidly and product variety is vast, but these four models have been tested by Information Technology (IT) staff members and have been proven to work with Rice's calendar and email systems. The following four models are neither recommended nor endorsed by Rice; however, we have tested them thoroughly and found that they worked successfully on a consistent basis with Rice email and calendar systems:
Rice IT staff members are committed to providing their best efforts in support of other models of PDAs and Smartphones, however not all devices are fully compatible with Rice systems.
Want to use a different model?
There are so many different combinations of devices, capabilities and carriers that IT cannot fully support every PDA (as is the case with other information technology applications and services). You should work with your voice/data service provider for complete support for your device. IT staff will provide their best efforts in support of other models of PDAs and Smartphones; however, not all devices are fully compatible with Rice systems. This means the IT staff will attempt to work with you if you select a different device, but we cannot guarantee full functionality of email and calendar services for PDA devices which are not included in the list above.
Frequently asked-about devices:
- iPhone: While the iPhone may be an interesting new communication tool, it has its share of bugs (see iPhone article the New York Times). No one in Rice IT has tested an iPhone yet, so at this time, Rice cannot "guarantee" the iPhone will be compatible with our current services. As stated on our PDA web site, we will attempt to support the features that are compatible with our service offerings.
- Treo: Although the Palm Treo is not on our recommended list, it is compatible with our services through the same third party software and settings as the Windows Mobile counterparts. As stated on our website: "Rice IT staff members are committed to providing their best efforts in support of other models of PDAs and Smartphones, however not all devices are fully compatible with Rice systems."
- Blackberry: At this time, we are unable to provide support for Blackberry devices. RIM's Blackberry devices require behind-the-scenes infrastructure we currently do not have; our email and calendar services, which work well with other devices, do not work with Blackberry devices, and third-party options have proven ineffective so far.
Additional PDA tips and suggestions:
