01.14
As I mentioned in my previous post, Blackberry email integration with Google Apps could be better. Specifically:
- sync’ing of read-status and deleted items only happens in one direction
- you can’t access your other gmail labels (folders), most importantly Sent Items
- you have no access to the company directory (aka “GAL”)
Calendar and contacts sync worked just fine with Google Sync for Blackberry (which basically just uses the ActiveSync protocol), but gmail sync is not included, apparently due to some limitation with the built-in Blackberry messaging app (I only assume this because Google Sync syncs gmail just fine on the iPhone and Windows Mobile).
So, I decided to try out NotifySync for Blackberry (they have a 14-day free trial). It basically does the same thing as Google Sync, but it installs a special messaging application that is intended to mimic the look of the integrated Blackberry messaging app.
Installation and Initial Sync
Installation was a tad cumbersome. It forces you to install an “installer app” first – overkill for a Blackberry in my opinion – from which you can download and install Notify apps, update them, and uninstall them if needed.
It also didn’t do a very good job of helping you with some of the settings, specifically server address. Now, I know in a typical ActiveSync environment the server address would be unique, but given they now advertise Google Apps compatability, they could have easily taken 5 minutes to tell the user Google’s Active Sync server address (m.google.com in case you are wondering).
Finally, once it is done installing and registering, it asks you what and how you want to sync – it doesn’t mention these are only the first sync settings (not the ongoing sync settings). I mistakenly picked “merge” the first time, and then got duplicates of everything in both places (it does warn you of this in the manual, but it should give you some warning in the program). Anyway, I deleted the account, cleaned up my Google address book and calendar (took a while), and then registered NotifySync on the Blackberry again, this time telling it to replace everything on my Blackberry. This completely wiped out my Blackberry contacts, calendar, and tasks and then sync’d them with their Google Apps counterparts. I was surprised how long it took, not only to download and install the app, but for the initial sync itself. I set up a very small test account (250 contacts, 20 calendar entries, maybe 20 emails), and it took about 30 minutes to complete the first sync (I’m on Sprint’s 3G network).
In any case, once everything was done, I tested out the Gmail sync’ing, and it worked flawlessly (albeit slowly). Read status and deleted items sync’d properly in both directions. I could choose to sync whatever folders I wanted just like I was using BES. When I did a “directory lookup”, it retrieved my domain shared contacts (GAL).
The bottom line is the functionality is all there, and basically gives you a BES equivalent. However, like I said, speed is a factor. Calendar and contacts updates seemed to take around 15 minutes to happen. Email was definitely not push (apparently you can setup push if your Blackberry and network supports TCP, but I was using BIS). Thus, in order to get functionality close to push I had to set a very low scheduled sync interval, which caused me to go through an entire battery charge in half a day.
Also, the app itself just seemed slow and I got the hourglass a lot, even when not in the application. Finally, it had little quirks – one of my contacts only showed a single phone number on the Blackberry (but it showed both numbers online), and an error popped up at one point telling me that I needed to completely resync the calendar (which required wiping out the calendar on the Blackberry yet again).
I guess I wouldn’t nitpick if not for the price, which is really off-the-charts high. ”Volume” pricing is $100 per user for the first year, then $25 per user each year after that (individual pricing is even higher). Unfortunately, that puts it out of the price range of Google Apps Premier users.
In any case, I only kept the free trial installed for about 24 hours, and I’m back to Google Sync for Blackberry and IMAP for email. Even for free, the app really wasn’t worth all the hassle. Besides, it is just a matter of time before Google (or an open source developer) gets Blackberry email properly sync’ing with Gmail, and if not, hopefully I’ll have an Android device by then.
I wanted to add one thing – I believe the target market for this product is customers who have Blackberries and Exchange (probably hosted Exchange or MS BPOS) and who aren’t wanting have to deal with a Blackberry Enterprise Server. I imagine for that purpose it would be a great product, and the price would be more palatable. I did not test it in that scenario (although I do have a colleague who just tested it in that exact scenario and they still opted to do hosted BES instead, primarily because they didn’t like the separate messaging app it makes you use, and because they were worried about roaming charges overseas from using TCP).
The sales person from Notify Technology was very nice and helpful, so I will say one added feature of the service is that it does come with pre-sales and post-sales support, which can be a benefit especially on a large implementation.
Another note – Notify Corporation states that NotifySync does NOT “officially” support Google Apps. However, their hosted server product, NotifyLink, does. Thus, I’m trying to arrange for an evaluation of that. The benefits of NotifyLink would be a) it mimics the administration features of BES, such as remote wipe, and b) it is pretty much platform and device agnostic. No word on the cost yet. I’ll post a full review here.
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