It’s time to talk about carrier bloatware on smartphones. Actually, it’s long past timed. You know what I’m talking about: It’s all those apps that come pre-loaded on your new phone when you buy it, most of which are trial versions or apps for subscription services offered through the carrier. I had read a little about this problem prior to getting my Motorola Droid Razr Maxx recently, and now I’ve had the displeasure of a firsthand experience.

I understand the phone manufacturers’ and carriers’ desire to include these apps on new phones. It’s a simple way of advertising additional services they offer (in the case of their own apps) or of collecting a fee from another app publisher for that placement. It’s the same thing that’s been done on Microsoft and Apple desktop OSs for years. The problem here is that many of these smartphone apps are now being preinstalled in such a way that you, the end user and owner of the smartphone, can’t uninstall the app if you don’t want it.

Have you ever had to respond to an e-discovery request for your company? Sometimes just the thought of facing a legal action can make seasoned Exchange Server administrators want to turn in their passwords and retire or find a new career as a janitor. Microsoft Exchange Server is a trove of information in almost any organization, but will you be able to find what you need when slapped with a discovery request?

Although email and Exchange Server aren’t necessarily the only targets of e-discovery, it’s quite possibly where the bulk of your data resides. "Email makes up so much of what is discoverable," said Barry Murphy, co-founder and principal analyst for eDJ Group, an analyst firm focused around e-discovery and information management. "There’s this notion that everything passes through the Exchange server at some point, so it’s usually the number one priority in any kind of e-discovery," Murphy said.

I learned a new word this week: nomophobia. It’s a made-up word, but then all words were made up at some point. When I first saw it, I thought it might be the fear of baseball players with names like Hideo Nomo or Nomar Garciaparra. Instead, it’s defined as a fear of being out of mobile phone contact -- "no-mobile-phone phobia." As a self-professed smartphone addict who’s already grown quite attached to my Droid Razr Maxx, I had to stop and consider this word.

I saw this term in the results of a study sponsored by security vendor SecurEnvoy. According to this survey of 1,000 people in the United Kingdom, 66 percent admitted to suffering from nomophobia.

At the Cloud Fest 1-day conference in Denver last week, one of the first things Microsoft’s David Chow said during his opening keynote was, "There’s no glory in running email anymore." There probably weren’t many Exchange Server administrators in the room because there was no laughter. I mean, seriously: when was there ever glory in running email?

The point Chow was making, of course, is that businesses don’t want to focus on running an email system such as Exchange, which means that considering a service such as Microsoft Office 365 makes a lot of sense. Let Microsoft make it their business to manage email so that you can focus on whatever your business’s goals are. Right? Chow is director of product management for Office 365, so that’s a message he’s well-positioned to make.

How is your Microsoft Lync 2010 deployment going? Are you even looking at Lync? I recently ran a poll about Lync adoption on the Exchange & Outlook page of WindowsITPro.com, and I was surprised by how many responders said they were already using or were planning a move to Lync 2010. Pleasantly surprised, I should say.

The poll results indicated that 45 percent of respondents were already running Lync 2010, and another 8 percent were using Lync 2010 through Microsoft Office 365. Further, another 24 percent said they were currently planning to upgrade to Lync 2010. That leaves less than a quarter of respondents who were sticking with their current unified communications (UC) provider, whether that was a previous version of Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) or a competing UC platform.

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything about my life as a smartphone addict. The reason is simple: It’s a little embarrassing to claim the moniker of "smartphone addict" when you’re stuck using a mobile device from the Stone Age. Of course, the Stone Age in mobile technology at this point is anything more than a year or 18 months ago. As of today, however, I’ve abandoned my stalwart original Droid by Motorola and am now using the Droid Razr Maxx.

Two years ago, I wrote about my selection process that landed me on my first smartphone, the Droid. At the time, there were signs that the Android mobile OS was on the rise, but it still felt like a bit of a risk. I certainly have never regretted my choice, even with all the -- quite legitimate -- problems with the Android ecosystem, ranging from malmare in the Android Market to OS version fragmentation across devices that can be a real headache for IT departments.

Microsoft didn’t quite make the predicted end-of-year 2011 release for its PST Capture tool that was originally announced last summer. But the good news is, as of today you can get this long-awaited -- and free -- tool in the Microsoft Download Center.

The aim of this tool is to discover PSTs throughout your network, including on PCs, fileshares, even USB drives, and give you the ability to import them into Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 or to Exchange Online. "As we’ve had a lot of success with our archiving technology and people adopting Exchange 2010," said Ankur Kothari, a senior product manager with Exchange, "one of the things that customers have been asking us for is the ability to stop having these rogue bits of data across their organizations." PST Capture helps fight this problem by collecting PSTs "in a centrally managed place so that they can do things like discover against that data or have appropriate policies in place that will expire content, or keep it, as needed," Kothari said.

At last week’s Microsoft Exchange Connections conference in Las Vegas, Exchange General Manager Kevin Allison gave a keynote entitled "Moving Into the Future with Microsoft Exchange." Before moving forward, Allison took time to apologize for and explain the problems the Exchange team had earlier in the year with updates to Exchange 2010. Personally, I think that was a really good move -- something I think doesn’t happen enough in our society, let alone from big corporations.

I won’t dwell on what Allison covered in his keynote, mostly because Tony Redmond already wrote about it. However, I did have the chance to sit down with Allison afterward and talk a little more in depth about what’s going on in the Exchange development process, what we can expect from the product now that the on-premises development is combined with the cloud version of Exchange Online, and also a few hints about what we might see in the next full-release version of Exchange, currently being called Exchange 15.

How important is mobile device management to your business? We’ve gone beyond the days when organizations could simply standardize on a single device, or even platform, such as BlackBerry, and manage everything the same. It’s not even just iPhone or Android smartphones anymore; the iPad has launched the tablet space in earnest. The BYOD world has taken over.

I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing. If you can increase employee satisfaction and effectiveness by letting them use the mobile devices they love best, it seems like an easy win—provided your IT department is prepared to manage the variety of devices such a situation brings.

]]>B. K. WinsteadThu, 06 Oct 2011 16:42:23 GMThttp://www.windowsitpro.com/blog/exchange-and-outlook-blog-8/mobile-computing-devices/mobile-device-management-140841http://www.windowsitpro.com/blog/exchange-and-outlook-blog-8/exchange-server-2010/exchange-server-2010-deployment-trends-michael-smith-140407
By B. K. Winstead
Microsoft Exchange Server expert and author Michael B. Smith has a technology career spanning almost 30 years. His first job in IT was while he was in college in the early 1980s (picture not available, but I’m imagining some really great hair). After working for a few different companies over the years in IT departments, in 1999 he started working in IT consulting, working largely with building hosted Exchange environments. Michael published his first article in 1984 in Byte magazine, and since that time he’s written a couple hundred articles, over 400 blogs, 2 books, and contributed to 4 other books.

If you’re attending this fall’s Microsoft Exchange Connections, you’ll be able to share in some of Michael B. Smith’s well-earned messaging wisdom as he’ll be presenting several sessions. Michael is also, by all accounts, an accomplished swing dancer, and although I can’t say you’ll get to see that skill displayed—well, you just never know, do you? You still have a couple of ways to get a discount on conference registration. First, the early bird discount has been extended until September 8; second, use the code UPDATE when you register for an extra $50 savings.

Now let’s see what Michael had to say about the current state of Exchange server deployments and what you might expect to see at Exchange Connections.]]>B. K. WinsteadTue, 30 Aug 2011 15:39:55 GMThttp://www.windowsitpro.com/blog/exchange-and-outlook-blog-8/exchange-server-2010/exchange-server-2010-deployment-trends-michael-smith-140407http://www.windowsitpro.com/blog/exchange-and-outlook-blog-8/exchange-server-2010/office-365-message-tracking-140351
By B. K. Winstead
The fall tech conference season is just about upon us, and it’s not too early to make your plans for the shows you plan to attend. There’s nothing like getting away from the server room for a little interaction with your peers and exposure to the latest trends and technology. I’ve got a small teaser for the fall Microsoft Exchange Connections conference that will take place in Las Vegas, October 31 through November 3—along with a special offer for my readers. First, the special offer: Use the discount code UPDATE when you register for a $50 savings. If you register before September 1, you’ll also receive the "early bird" discount for a total of $250 off. Now the teaser: I’ve got a preview of a couple of the Exchange Server–related sessions that will be offered at the conference.]]>B. K. WinsteadThu, 25 Aug 2011 17:45:38 GMThttp://www.windowsitpro.com/blog/exchange-and-outlook-blog-8/exchange-server-2010/office-365-message-tracking-140351http://www.windowsitpro.com/blog/exchange-and-outlook-blog-8/mobile-computing-devices/smartphone-app-addiction-good-140086
By Winstead, B. K.
What good is a smartphone? I’m sure if you ask most smartphone users that question—whether they’re loyal to Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, or something else—they’ll have no problem spouting a list of exciting things their mobile device lets them do: email, IM, gaming, Facebook, navigation. They might even mention its ability make phone calls, although that’s probably an afterthought. It’s the apps that make a smartphone. In fact, it’s the apps that are changing our lives in dramatic ways—that is, if you’re among the smartphone addicted.

MTV Networks along with Latitude Research recently released a new study about smartphone app usage. The research involved a survey of more than 1,300 people who reported using apps daily as well as in-depth interviews with app consumers. The key findings of this research fall into two areas. The first area has to do with how our app addiction is changing our daily lives—and, at least in the way they’ve presented their findings, changing them for the better.]]>Winstead, B. K.Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:09:02 GMThttp://www.windowsitpro.com/blog/exchange-and-outlook-blog-8/mobile-computing-devices/smartphone-app-addiction-good-140086