Sean Pirtle's Windows Phone Blog

Corporate Liable vs. Employee Liable/Individual Liable

2010-05-29T18:33:00Z

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last several weeks talking to customers about the pros and cons of corporate liable vs. employee liable. Over the next few entrees I’m going to dive a little deeper on each area. Until then, I would like to hear if anyone has an opinion on the subject.

Windows Phone 7 Office Hub Demo

2010-04-28T21:33:02Z

Here is a great video showcasing the Office Hub on a Windows Phone 7.

-Sean Pirtle

Some of My Thoughts at the MIX Conference

2010-04-14T02:00:04Z

Mix10: Anthony Kinney & Sean Pirtle Talk Microsoft Phone with Social Wendy from MicrosoftDPE on Vimeo.

Social Wendy was capturing video out at the MIX conference and Anthony (left) and I were asked about App/Dev, Silverlight, and Windows Phone 7.

-Sean Pirtle

HTC Touch HD2 Photos from the Minneapolis Auto Show

2010-03-15T02:33:02Z

I spent the day at the Minneapolis Auto Show and I snapped a few pictures to demonstrate just how good the Touch HD2’s 5MP camera is! T-Mobile will carry this sweet phone soon.

With Windows Phone 7 Series, the overall “Photo and Video” experience will be just that—an experience. I believe the days of carrying a phone, camera, video camera, etc are coming to an end if OEMs can continue to raise the bar on the mobile camera experience.

I’m out at MIX next week, and I plan on capturing a lot of the conference via multi-media on my phone.

-Sean

Mobile Entree’s Mobile SharePoint Solution

2010-03-04T16:52:19Z

Here is another great partner, Mobile Entree.

Mobile Entrée (ME) is a SharePoint Solution that is installed on your SharePoint Farm. At it's core, ME provides a framework to build mobile applications within SharePoint Features.

Out of the Box, ME provides a mobile application we call the Base Plugin. Using the Base Plugin, you can configure mobile access to SharePoint lists, document libraries, discussion boards, and search. This base plugin can also be used as a menu to display any number of other mobile applications on the site.

Mobile Application Framework

ME utilizes the mobile web browser as the client delivery platform thus making it, by nature, cross-platform. Because they live 100% in the application tier, your mobile applications have access to all the same enterprise resources as your custom webparts or other LOB applications.

Mobile applications built upon the ME framework are developed in Visual Studio as SharePoint Features. They can even be included in the same Visual Studio projects as your custom webparts or workflows. By taking advantage of the tools that SharePoint developers are already familiar with, the learning curve for developing on the ME platform is very short.

There is an emphasis on best practices for custom development for SharePoint. Mobile Entrée as a product fits in by being installed and managed centrally as a SharePoint Solution. Mobile applications built upon the ME framework are also installed and centrally managed as SharePoint Solutions and Features.

Security

Mobile Entrée does not do anything outside of what SharePoint does in terms of security or authentication. One issue that may arise is the ability to get access to SharePoint that is behind the firewall. There are a number of companies that provide this capability like RIM, BitKoo, GOOD, Microsoft Forefront UAG as well using the mobile VPN capabilities on newer smartphones. Our focus is on the application side and would point to one of these solutions for mobile access behind the firewall.

Here is a quick demo that I presented at the SharePoint conference back in October:

-Sean Pirtle

Formotus—Great Windows Phone Partner for SharePoint

2010-02-20T20:49:14Z

One of the questions I receive a lot from my customers is “How do I access SharePoint from a mobile device?” I presented Mobile SharePoint: Driving More Productivity & Collaboration with Windows® phone at the SharePoint Conference back in October, 2009. During this session, I covered several ways to access SharePoint with “out of the box” solutions, and with partners like Formotus. I even talked about SharePoint Workspace Mobile 2010. I will go into more detail on the session and topics at a later date. I do want to spend a few minutes on Formotus, as I feel they have a solution that many enterprises can leverage today. After the description is a video clip from my session at the SharePoint Conference where I talked about Formotus and run through a demo.

Formotus http://www.formotus.com offers a fast path to custom business applications on mobile phones. Formotus technology enables rapid delivery and lifecycle management of mobile forms that work across platforms, connecting people's phones with SharePoint and business system data.

Create cross-platform business forms quickly without writing code

Generate sophisticated business apps for mobile workforce automation using Microsoft Office. Formotus integrates tightly with InfoPath and SharePoint, so there’s no need for expensive coding or lengthy development time to build or modify custom mobile applications.

Deploy forms from the cloud to both Android and Windows phones

Delivering and managing mobile software deployments couldn't be easier when using the secure Formotus Web site. Our hosted instant deployment method takes only a few clicks, requires no IT expertise, and works over-the-air with any wireless carrier or network.

Connect mobile workers to SharePoint data without a browser

Bring greater flexibility to your business by connecting people on the move with the business information they need to stay productive in the field. Formotus applications are designed to be robust offline as well as online, so productivity does not depend on constant connectivity.

-Sean Pirtle

What a Week! Windows Phone 7 Series Has Hit a Home Run

2010-02-20T04:10:57Z

Well, Microsoft made the big announcement on Monday and the dust has settled! I’ve briefed several of my customers and they all love the direction we are taking with the O/S, UI and the integrated experiences (XBOX Live, etc).

Next week, I’m switching gears a little to discuss some of the great things Windows phone 6.5 brings to the table <today> and some of the cool devices that are on the horizon.

Until then, here’s some of the great reviews from earlier this week:

· Windows Phone 7 Series is official, and Microsoft is playing to win engadget.com

· Microsoft introduces the new Windows Phone 7 Series mobile platform boygeniusreport.com

· Looks like Microsoft has finally gotten their mobile act together with the new Windows Phone 7 Series ... - More »

· FOXNews.com - Microsoft Windows Phone: An iPhone Killer?

· Windows Phone 7 Series: Everything Is Different Now - Windows ... - gizmodo.com

· Microsoft unveils mobile software upgrade USA Today

· Microsoft replays Zune design for phone comeback AP

· Microsoft Starts Over in Phone Software The New York Times

· Microsoft rolls out new phone operating system MarketWatch

· Microsoft's new mobile software: Windows Series 7 CNNMoney.com

· Microsoft Tries Hard To Drum Up Support For Year-End Windows Mobile 7 Launch at paid Content.org(Mon 10:22am)