Messages posted by: Michael.Maguire

We know we need whale tones! We're working on it -- it's hard work to find a good sound.

Usually the "WAP" APN (access point) only gives you access to port 80 HTTP and port 443 HTTPS.

You can use a WAP APN for BlueWhaleMail's Push Facebook functionality, but for email since email servers usually require you to connect on port 110, 143, 993, 995, 25, 465, etc., you will need to use an Access Point that gives you access to these ports.

On Vodafone in the UK this is usually called "Vodafone GPRS" and the APN value itself is set to "internet".

We don't support this yet but we're looking into it.

BlueWhaleMail does foreground newly arrived items for you.

Mark,

We don't yet support IMAP folders.

Cheers,
Michael

This is because the BlueWhaleMail software for the Nokia N70 is not "signed".

Some phones require signed applications. The N70 does not require signed applications, but some operators such as Vodafone have configured it so that by default the phone will only allow signed applications.

To change this, on the N70 from Vodafone, if you go to Tools/Manager/Options/Settings and change "Software Installation" to "On" (instead of "Signed only" or "Off") you should be able to repeat the download and install BlueWhaleMail.

BlueWhaleMail never touches your mail on the server. It doesn't try to delete mail once it has downloaded it or anything like that. Some email programs do this, but we don't.

What may be happening in your case is that you're using a mail server that automatically archives mail if you've downloaded it.

I don't know if you're using GMail, but GMail is an example of a mail server which does this. Usually it can be configured. For example in GMail's settings/Forwarding and POP/IMAP page, beside POP settings choice #2 "When messages are accessed with POP", there are several choices:

1. keep Google Mail's copy in the Inbox
2. archive Google Mail's copy
3. delete Google Mail's copy

Again, I don't know if you're using GMail, but if you are, it would be better if you used IMAP instead of POP to access GMail, which avoids this problem altogether. In BlueWhaleMail you can switch email settings by visiting Help/Accounts/Email.

If you're using a different mail server, it may have similar settings to GMail's which you can configure, but just to re-iterate, BlueWhaleMail works with your email server in a read-only way.

Short answer:

In response to this and a few other problems we've heard people have had, we've changed which version of the sofware we give SonyEricsson phones. Can I ask you to make sure you phone's date is set properly ( e.g. 2008 ) and then try the download once more?

Long answer:

"Operation failed" is a message that is often seen on SonyEricsson phones when there is a "certificate problem" with "signed" versions of applications.

Java software like BlueWhaleMail can be "signed" by a reputable authority so that the phone will trust the software more and allow it a little more freedom. Usually this means fewer prompts like "Allow BlueWhaleMail to connect to the internet?" etc.

We've made sure BlueWhaleMail is digitally signed by Verisign Ltd. On most phones, this means BlueWhaleMail is considered a trusted 3rd party application.

However, we've seen a lot of problems with Vodafone-branded versions of phones because Vodafone has crippled the phones slighly by removing "root certificate authorities" from the phone. The root certificate authority is the bit of information that helps the phone recognize that Verisign signature we obtained.

Also, since signatures are only valid between certain dates, if the date of your phone is set incorrectly, you'll get "Operation failed" -- I wish SonyEricsson would give a slightly more detailed error message.

We're now handing out the unsigned version of BlueWhaleMail for SonyEricsson phones.

It should avoid the "Operation failed" message on Vodafone-branded phones.

You can still try to upgrade to the signed version later in BlueWhaleMail by going to the Help menu and choosing the "Less prompts?" command.

We're taking a serious look at Windows Mobile right now.

Thanks,
Michael

Ian,

Here are the APN settings instructions for the SonyEricsson K770i:

1. You will receive a configuration message for your phone.
2. The display shows: "New settings received. Install?".
3. Press "Yes".
4. Enter the PIN code 0000 and press "OK".
5. Press "OK".
6. Make sure the new setting is set as default:
7. Enter the main menu. Select "Settings".
8. Press to the right to select "Connectivity".
9. Scroll to and select "Internet settings" and select "Settings for Java".
10. Make sure the new profile is selected.
11. Your phone has been configured.
12 .Note: The settings will be rejected if the profile list is full.
13. To delete settings, enter the main menu.
14. Scroll to and select "Settings".
15. Press to the right to select "Connectivity".
16. Scroll to and select "Data comm." and select "Data accounts".
17. Scroll to a profile.
18. Press "More" and scroll to and select "Delete".
19. Press "Yes" to confirm.
20. Press the "Back" button twice.
21. Scroll to and select "Internet settings" and select "Internet profiles".
22. Scroll to the profile you want to delete.
23. Press "More" scroll to and select "Delete profile".
24. Press "Yes" to confirm.

Can you explain what you see at step 6. that is different?

Apologies it's not easier to get back to the stage where it shows the APN setup instructions.

To be frank, this is partially by design, as we are charged for every APN configuration that is sent, and there are some real problems where depending on country, people get re-imbursed per text-message received. This can cause situations where websites that send Text Messages for free get abused. We'll see if our agreement with our APN configuration provider will allow us to do something to make viewing the instructions at a later point easier.

Thanks for the praise -- we've been working to try to address your concern. There's a new release available. To get it, you'll need to aim your phone's web browser at http://bluewhale.net

It should use a lot less RAM -- I'd be interested in hearing your feedback.

Cheers,
Michael

Anoop,

We don't yet have support for multiple email accounts but we'll be adding it shortly. See: http://www.bluewhalemail.com/forum/posts/list/575.page

We don't yet have support for e.g. preferring Wifi when available, but you can select this manually -- see http://www.bluewhalemail.com/forum/posts/list/583.page

We have to apologize but we're having a lot of trouble with LG phones in general, which is why at the moment we're only announcing we can support Nokia Series 60 and SonyEricsson phones.

I suppose it might seem lazy to try to point the finger at someone else, but we've tried with LG (as with Samsung) and found that their Java implementations (which let programs like BlueWhaleMail run) just aren't as good as the implementations on some other phones.

But at the end of the day, this is our fault -- we hope that with a little more time we'll be able to work around the limitations of LG phones so that we can support your phone.

Again, sorry about that

Michael

Reithi,

We have to apologize but we're having a lot of trouble with Samsung phones in general, which is why at the moment we're only announcing we can support Nokia Series 60 and SonyEricsson phones.

I suppose it might seem lazy to try to point the finger at someone else, but we've tried with Samsung and found that their Java implementations (which let programs like BlueWhaleMail run) just aren't as good as the implementations on some other phones.

But at the end of the day, this is our fault -- we hope that with a little more time we'll be able to work around the limitations of Samsung phones (e.g. file size too big) so that we can support your phone.

Again, sorry about that

Michael

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/1048&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Fortunately, help may be around the corner for some:

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/roaming/roaming_regulation/consultation_may08/index_en.htm

We haven't tested BlueWhaleMail on that phone yet.

We hope to get to it soon.

Sorry about that.