Huge Huge news coming out of the emoze camp.  The newest version of emoze as always is free, but now the free version includes all the the Pro bonuses.  It’s to late right now to name them all but if you ever wanted the best push email on your mobile phone now is the time to get it.  Get the new build of emoze for free at m.emoze.com.  I’ll have more info about it this week and if you have any questions, I’m all ears…

Here comes the newest build of emoze Version 2.03.7.  I told you it was coming a few days ago and word is it will be online in just a few hours.  I’ve been using it for a few weeks and let me tell you it’s good.  I found a change log in my inbox this morning and wanted to share it with our users.  No reason for me to reword what is already written.  Enjoy.

New Symbian Features

1 Push Content –

1.1 All users get Push Content by default with next update

1.2 Push content includes Weather, Breaking News and Sport Updates

1.3 This is in addition to the Football updater.

2 Total HTML support (was not supported for some of the higher end Nokia phones – E97/5800/X6)

2.1 Retain format when using Reply/Forward

2.2 Supports embedded images/tables/rich media text

2.3 Much better user experience, more friendly

3 New Shortcuts – easy to see on menu/easy to use

3.1 In general, the shortcut menus are easier to use as they are right there on the menu

3.2 Just press the number shown:

3.2.1 [1] Reply to sender

3.2.2 [2] Reply all

3.2.3 [3] Forward

3.2.4 [4] View in HTML

3.2.5 [5] Delete

3.2.6 [6]View Attachments]

3.2.7 [9] Change to Read/Unread

3.2.8 [7] Download Images

3.2.9 [*] View message details

4 View menu

4.1 Supports message preview  of either in 1 line or 2 lines

4.2 Enables user to hide header fields (To/CC) to increase viewing area on screen of mobile device – both in read and compose message

5 Support for BCC – this one is very important!

5.1 Now can send blind copy

5.1 BCC alert to make user aware that they are BCC (if you are BCC’d and reply to message alerts that you were not in the obvious recipients)

6 Support downloading larger Attachments

6.1 All MS Office documents up to 6MB

6.1 Jpeg and PDF – 4MB – all other – 3MB

6.2 Emoze supports download attachments to phone/memory card

7 Ability to add a contact from email header to native address book directly

7.1 Choose add new contact or update existing

7.1 New contact adds all data, update just changes email address

7.1 Do not synch contacts and calendar

7.2 Ability to respond to calendar invites with accept/decline/tentative and edit

8 Supports Google Contacts and Calendar – supports all fields

8.1 Respond to calendar, not able to invite or open event description from Google calendar)

8.2 Social Media – (Facebook/Hi5) synchs all friend in a virtual mode (have access to all friends via the mobile device but the names are not stored in the phone’s memory)

9 Text to Speech – emoze supports this feature if it is native on the mobile device

10 Signature – ability to make a customized signature (default is sent by emoze question whether this default is replaced? –[Moshe]YES)

11 Ability to select how the push functionality connects

11.1 Possible to connect either via WiFi (free) or Cellular Network (2g, 3G)

11.1 In supported devices, set up priorities for Access Point letting the mobile device find the best connection given each circumstance, so users can give the Wi-Fi higher priority than 3G connection.

Enterprise Edition

1 Ability to synchronize and control more folders and sub folders like Sent

2 iPhone now fully supported

2.1 ability to download Config file so iPhone can automatically configure itself on the device

2.1 (Needs screen messages and iPhone manual – especially for Enterprise)

This is a fantastic list of updates and what’s interesting is, much of it came from our users.  I will tell you a secret, I have a document that I update when I get a feature request/suggestion or find a bug and almost all of these upgrades came from that document.  So thank you to our users who gave us the inspiration to make this update.

You can now go and download the newest version from m.emoze.com on your mobile browser.  In emoze click Options and Check Version Update, this should give you the option to update emoze.

Enjoy and don’t hesitate to send me more suggestions and ideas for emoze via Twitter @emozePushEmail or via email, my email is Jeb@emoze.com.

Wow Mobile World Congress was a huge whirlwind and the excitement that went along with it is still in my blood.  I was very lucky to be given a Google Nexus One phone which I haven’t been able to stop using.  I am a long time Google Voice (formerly Grand Central) user and having an Android phone with the Google Voice app is delightful.

I’ve been using the Nexus One as my primary handset on and off since I got it but I’ve been carrying it and using it every single day since.  It is a great consumer device and and very pleasant to use.  Android as a whole is still missing a few things, it doesn’t support enough languages for one thing.  It’s not customizable enough is another big one for me.  But my biggest problem is the email on it.  I’m used to having a Nokia E71 as my primary device with a physical QWERTY keyboard and emoze.  Meaning I had an enterprise device and enterprise level push email in my pocket all the time.

Gmail that’s built into the N1 is good for reading but the N1 lacks a physical keyboard and a few software nuances that are driving me nuts.  I find phones with out keyboards to be great for reading email, news and any other content but for trying to convey a message via email, IM, or any other output infuriating.  I can’t believe we don’t have a better way to get our thoughts out.

I’m a huge fan of push email and emoze and the fact that the Nexus One is missing some key and in my mind basic aspects of email keeps me from using it as my only device.  I’m trapped in a good way using emoze on my E71 for sending almost all my email, at least anything more then a few words.  emoze is such a superior experience compared to the Gmail app on the N1.  It may not be as pretty due to the Nokia limitations but it is such a rock solid experience.  I’ll tell you my biggest gripe about email on the N1, I can’t seem to see the email address the sender sent from or my email address they sent to.  This may seem petty to some but it’s very important to me.

What are you thoughts on the N1?  Will you get one?  Would you use emoze on the Nexus One?

As I headed to Barcelona for the annual Mobile World Congress I was delighted to get some emoze news.  There is an update coming soon to the Symbian application.  I just got word via email from the co-creator of emoze, Moshe Dgani, that the update will address nearly every issue I have been asked/suggested by our users.  There are even some suggestions I’ve made that will show up in this update.  This is big news, as fantastic a program as emoze is, it’s getting significantly better in my opinion.

I’ll try to get a change log and post it.

If you are an emoze user and have suggestions, please don’t hesitate to send them my way via email or Twitter.  My email address is Jeb@emoze.com and the emoze Twitter handle is @emozePushEmail.

I’m here to help you and if you want you can help us and the community as well by voicing your opinion to me so I can pass it up to the right people.

We’re in the midst of conference season and I’m up to my ears in interviews and have a stack of business cards of people I need to connect back with.  I don’t attend all the conferences like some but I go to my fair share.  As much as I like to be cutting edge and I feel like I’m  playing with the newest and coolest apps, gadgets, and services but you know what doesn’t change is email.

Twitter is amazing but I don’t always know instantly when someone is @ing me to get connected, or when my name is mentioned in a Tweet.  On top of that not EVERYONE is on Twitter 24/7 like some.

Instant Messenger is also nice to use but I don’t always see or hear that an IM came in.

You know what always works to reach me is email.  You know what anyone and everyone will always check is email.  What do you think people will count on for setting up a meeting or sending out an invite for an event?  Email.

Some people will say oh what about Facebook?  Well do you know how I get my FB mail?  I get it in my email inbox (plus emoze delivers it via their push content system).

What about twtvite or Evite or any of the other invite systems?  They all end up in my email inbox.

What is it that all business people use to stay on top of email?  Push email!  Instant email delivered right to your handset is so vital during conferences and trade shows.  Getting an email 30 minutes after it was sent could mean losing the chance to meet with someone or the opportunity to have dinner with friends.  In my case I missed a dinner meeting with the Bill Plumber the top man over at Nokia North America because I didn’t have push email and I got my email 30 minutes to late.

Basically push email is the killer app and after using emoze push email with a free account and then a Pro account I will never go back to POP3 or Pull/Polling email.  I need instant email.  People have said email is dead, I respond with, do you still check email?  When your phone or computer alerts you to new email don’t you look at it?  YES of course you do.  Then how is email dead?  Let alone push email?

Push email is THE killer app and it will stay that way until there is a huge paradigm shift in our global society.

Great news everyone, emoze (a client of mine) is now available on the Nokia N97.  We haven’t exactly had to wait long for them but I am pleased to tell you that it’s now ready for you to download.  I have been using it for a little while now and it’s fantastic.  It’s the best email experience you could ask for on a touch screen phone and you’re not going to compromise anything.  It’s wonderful and even if emoze wasn’t a client of mine I would still use them.

I currently have 3 email addresses being checked, my emoze work email (Exchange via OWA), my Gmail, and my work email from BrilliantExpos.   emoze is tightly integrated into the phone so there’s no funny quirks.

Anyways, if you’re interested in giving emoze a test run watch the video below, it will walk you thorough the very simple steps of installing emoze on a Nokia N97.

To download emoze go to www.emoze.com from your mobile browser.
If you have any questions or need any help with emoze don’t hesitate to contact me
Twitter:  @emozepushemail
Email: Jeb@emoze.com

I got an email last week asking if emoze has a home screen alert on a Nokia E71.  I went to work right away documenting it and decided to put together a short video showing you how to set up the home screen alerts.  Also below is the very simplified instructions.  Good luck and if you need any help don’t hesitate to ping me.

Here are the steps written out for you:
Menu >> Tools >> Modes >> Home Screen Applications >> Enabled Applications >> Check Email 1 and Email 2 Notification (you can select only 1 if you only have 1 email set up) >> Press Ok.  Then back out of there and in Home Screen Applications select Email 1 Notification >> in Mailbox select the email account you want to be notified about >> In Preview play with it and select what you prefer >> Back out of that and you should be all set.  Now you’re going to say Jeb it’s not showing anything on my home screen.  Well send yourself a test email to the selected email address and when it arrives you will have an on screen notification and it’s better then the @ because you can see it much easier and clearer.

Earlier last year AT&T launched the Nokia E71x.  It looks almost the same as the original E71 but it is S60 feature pack 2 where as the original is S60feature pack 1.  It comes in all black and with the AT&T branding / software built in.  One thing that was in question for me personally was if the Emoze email client would install properly and run.  Well, low and behold it does, it works great and I created a movie to show you just how to install it.

All you have to do now is take your phone and head over to m.emoze.com from it’s internet browser, download it and go to town with your email.If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.

Over the weekend I was happy to come across this new blog post from Kevin at Web2 and More.  Kevin talks about needing reliable email pushed to his phone and needing it to be easy on his eyes and look good.  Kevin decided emoze is the best option and is currently using it on his Nokia N95 and 5800.

Here’s most of his blog post talking about emoze

“Like many people I rely on keeping up to date with my email on a very regular basis and often the only way to do this is through my mobile phone. On my old Nokia N95 and now my 5800 touch screen device I have relied on the free service from Nokia that acts as a push facility. In the past this has been reasonably reliable with the odd drop out of service but for free you have to bite your lip and go with the flow. This week, however, the service has been down for two days and I have not been able to log into my Nokia account to see what the hell is going on so I needed to look for a replacement.

Unlike Windows Mobile there is not a lot of choice when it comes to a phone biased email clients for Symbian devices and the built in system is not that flexible. I found a client called Profimail but to be honest it had one hell of an ugly interface and I’d rather cut off body parts with blunt scissors and feed them to rabid rats than use it. Then I discovered Emoze.

Emoze is available as a free service if you use one email account and there is a Pro version if you want more than one email account and a few extra bolt on goodies all for the exorbitant sum of €10 a year (for anyone who took the “exorbitant” seriously it was a joke, I cannot believe this service costs so little).

Emoze can handle Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Facebook and OWA accounts. Each new account is given it’s own folder with an individual icon and you can create extra folders for filing emails. As you would expect you can create, reply and forward emails as well as save them to a draft folder and there is limited calendar and contact syncing available. Syncing withGoogle Calendar is not yet available but this is coming soon.

If your battery and data plan can cope you can have the service on all the time and your email will be sent to your phone as soon as it drops in to your server inbox or you can schedule it to poll the server from anything from five minutes to 24 hours. If you don’t think your data plan will cope with an always on service you can just exit the program and restart it when you want to pick up mail.”

Thanks for the write up Kevin and I’m really glad you are enjoying emoze.  By the way, unless there was a drastic change emoze supports Google Calendar and Contact sync.  If you or anybody else is having an issue with it don’t hesitate to contact me and I’ll try to help you.  My email is Jeb@emoze.com and on Twitter at @emozePushEmail.

For anybody who is a Football fan this will be up your alley.  We just recently updated the emoze Football Updater site and app (more importantly).  Check out the site at football.emoze.com.  As far as the app goes, well it’s now free.

I’ve also gotten word that the emoze team is working on making a an updater for Basketball, Tennis, Rugby and Cricket.  Stay tuned here for news on releases.