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Microsoft Launches Outlook For Android and iOS
An anonymous reader writes Microsoft today launched Outlook for Android and iOS. The former is available (in preview) for download now on Google Play and the latter will arrive on Apple's App Store later today. The pitch is simple: Outlook will let you manage your work and personal email on your phone and tablet as efficiently as you do on your computer. The app also offers calendar features, attachment integration (with OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and iCloud), along with customizable swipes and actions so you can tailor it to how you specifically use email.
Honestly I can't think of this as being anything but big. Companies live and die by outlook email still (enough of them anyway). So many of those executives don't even need a machine past email really...
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
Exchange on my built-in email on my iPhone has worked better than Outlook on my desktop since I first tried it in October of 2007. Exchange on iPhones works very well. What advantage could they possibly offer?
"If Microsoft ever does applications for Linux it means I've won."
Linus Torvalds
On a positive note, the application did install and run correctly, and appeared to offer support for several popular mail servers (Yahoo and Outlook among others, as well as IMAP and Exchange support).
Blackberry is all but dead in the corporate space. This leaves a hole that iPhone and Android are filling. Microsoft recognizes that Windows Phone isn't going to fill that gap, so they're finally moving their branding into those environments because of that. I'll assume that advanced features are/will be available that make it worthwhile to deploy the application in a corporate environment over the stock applications. The attachment integration with web based services already gives it a leg up on iPhone's Mail application. Not that I'm expecting it based on what's announced, I'd be very happy if there was a way to give it network folder integration within the network where Exchange is located.
First an investment in Cyanogen in the morning, then Outlook for Android in the evening. All in a days work. Maybe they'll buy XDA Dev tomorrow.
"I'm a Linux user ... I don't use Windows so why should I *or anyone else* care?"
Anyone else?
Christ, did you read what you just wrote? Most people, by far, are not Linux users. You don't care, fine, it's not for you.
Many, many people use office and would also like to use it on their iPad and Android tablets. For them this is good news.
See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2... for some perspective...
The iOS Outlook app uses a cloud to download your email (including attachments should you choose to want to see it). This may or may not be what you (or your employer) want. I know I won't be using it.
Calling Android "Linux" is absurd.
... Because Android has no sentience and won't understand why you're calling it names?
I can't find another way to make sense of your comment.
Will it have a preview pane that will execute all the macros in the email, fetch all the attachments and render them on screen on just a mouse over the subject line? Will it also disobey the native sandboxes in android and introduce "internet zone" "safe zone" "home zone" "vpn zone" "super trustworthy microsoft zone" etc? Great! Just what the world has been waiting for.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
If you really want to be pedantic. Android is Linux, but it isn't GNU/Linux. Android uses the Linux kernel, but had its own userspace structure on top of it, which is not compatible with GNU/Linux (hence you have to specifically (re)write apps to run on Android).
I guess it should be called Android/Linux, and the "normal" Linux we know on our PC's is GNU/Linux. The one time where there is a real-world reason for having these things spelt out in full (there used to be a large argument about naming conventions of Linux a few years ago. Whether it was important to have the "GNU" bit at the front).
Why anyone would want to let corporate tendrils into one's personal phone is hard, very hard, to fathom.
That's his personal opinion.
So it must be right!
Also, what does "I won" means? What would he win?
He won a competition that he decided he was having. Now he gets to feel smug. That's its own reward.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
My employer just prohibited the iOS outlook app and shut down the access to the exchange server. This behavior will change very soon - as many will follow. This violates any halfway decent safety protocol.
This isn't about the OWA app. It's a full Outlook app. Actually, it's just the phenomenal Acompli email client rebranded, as Microsoft bought Acompli about six months ago. OWA is bad, as you have stated, but you're not looking at the correct (new) app.
No, and yes.
It is Acompli, rebranded, but it's not the OWA app to which you are probably referring.
I bet you were a hit at parties in the late 80s when it came time to debate the relative merits of Captains Picard and Kirk. ;-)
Seriously, though, you have a point.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
People actually want their information stored in Microsoft's proprietary format? I thought that was something done out of ignorance, or because you felt forced to do so.
No, and yes, that's right. I don't know that anybody has said, "Sweet, I love Outlook!" Rather, you use Outlook because you work for somewhere that uses an MS Exchange e-mail server whether you like it or not.
Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
Fine. But you said it was hard for you to fathom. Convenience and money are the reasons people take the other route. That's hard to understand?