Messages posted by: Michael.Maguire

There is also http://v3.izymail.com/

[usual disclaimers about the fact that this is an external 3rd party website apply]

We'll look into this right away. Thanks for the report.

Colin,

When BlueWhaleMail is running, it should be foregrounding the application when a new email is received.

If BlueWhaleMail is running (even if you use 'Hide' to put it into the background) it should do this. We've tested this on the N95.

It would be really great if you could let us know if this isn't working for you. If you press *#0000# on your N95 it will tell you which version of the phone you have, which would help us to know.

Cheers,
Michael

Access points are really annoying things that I wish mobile network operations would fix.

I'm guessing that the problem is that the T-Mobile T-Zones access point will only allow you to do things like browse WAP pages like the T-Zones mini website itself, but won't allow programs like BlueWhaleMail to access the rest of the internet, which is what it needs to do in order to finish it's installation and in order to work later.

There's some discussion of this here:

http://wapreview.com/blog/?p=312

Is there another Access Point in the list for you to select, e.g. "T-Zones GPRS"

(My own search: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-US&q=T-Mobile+USA+access+points&btnG=Search)

Did you get your N70 from Vodafone? Perhaps it's security locked from installing unsigned sis files (which is the case for our N70 software).

Can you try the solution mentioned here:

http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72256

menu > Tools > Manager > Options > Settings > Software installation > On

menu > Tools > Manager > Options > Settings > Online certification check > Off

You didn't do anything wrong. The problem is that the Nokia 6300 -- and related Nokia "Series40" phones -- don't support "Hide".

You're right, this means that on the Nokia 6300 it's pretty hard to call it "Push" email if you can't leave the email program. This is one of the reasons the Nokia 6300 is not "officially" supported for BlueWhaleMail.

We also find that it tends to get OutOfMemory exceptions too -- we're working to solve that issue, but there's nothing we can do about the "Hide" problem.

We hope Nokia will fix that soon with their Series40 phones.

It's a fair question. Out of curiosity, do you use the email software on your phone regularly?

While in-built clients are mature and may have a lot of "marketing check-box" features complete, we feel that phones can offer a better experience than they do. We know from experience and talks with users of in-built clients that there are problems with it that have virtually created the market for other, dedicated mobile email devices out there.

Of course it's a big challenge to try to compete with software that's already built in to the phone. That team of developers has it easy -- I don't want to make it even easier for them by spelling out for them specifically what problems they need to fix. ;-)

It's also true that our product is just starting off (a fresh, new 1.0 product) and is in that sense immature.

The hope is that we'll be able to innovate and move forward with new ideas and features more rapidly than phone handset development cycles will allow for the in-built messaging client -- indeed, that's part of the whole point of things like smartphones that allow new software to be added.

As an example of this innovation, have you tried out the Facebook push integration BlueWhaleMail now offers?

I know it's not the answer you or the original poster were looking for. I guess I'm saying that if you pull out a list of features for your phone and for some of the other dedicated mobile email devices out there, the list will be identical, but still one is better than the other at email. I'm hoping we can put some of that X-factor on your phone.

Cheers,
Michael

Mobile phones are still too complicated these days and there are a lot of things that need to be correct in order for programs like BlueWhaleMail to work properly.

One of the big problems we found during our development and testing was that phones aren't always properly configured to connect to the internet.

We felt it was important to make sure that your phone can connect to the internet before worrying about whether your email server settings are correct.

So we first try to perform a "ConnectionCheck" to a few "known good" email servers. BlueWhaleMail shouldn't do this very often -- only the very first time you start using it or if it seems like there's a problem fetching your email.

If the ConnectionCheck fails, then it's easier to tell that there's a problem with the phone connecting to the internet, rather than a problem with your email server settings.

This is to try to prevent cases where you waste a bunch of time fiddling with your email settings only to discover that the reason your email isn't working is that your phone's "Access Point" settings are incorrect.

LONDON, June 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Email plus Facebook wall posting and messaging with news and status updates delivered straight to your mobile

Launched today, a new, free service for mobile phones starts bringing easy email access to the 2.7 billion people with ordinary mobile phones. Michael Maguire, who previously worked in the BlackBerry Applications team at Research In Motion, founded Blue Whale Systems Ltd: its BlueWhaleMail application offers a free mobile push email and push Facebook service. On launch, the service will initially be available for Nokia Series 60 and SonyEricsson feature phones.

"My team and I think there are some great dedicated mobile email devices out there - but we're biased, because half of us helped build one of them," said Michael Maguire. "Unfortunately the rest of the world's 1.1 billion email users have phones with unusable, hard to configure in-built email that few people can be bothered to set-up. With BlueWhaleMail, we've gone back to the drawing board so that people can keep the phone they like and still stay in touch on the go."

BlueWhaleMail doesn't just allow you to securely send and receive email messages from services such as Yahoo! and Google Mail*, it also notifies you of your friends' status updates and news items on Facebook, and allows you to send them a message or write on their wall in response. Messages and notifications are displayed as soon as they are received without requiring users to manually connect to their inbox.

"We're trying to make social networking -- messaging, news feeds and status updates -- as much a part of mobile life as Text Messaging. People who are unwilling to pay for or use a dedicated mobile email device still deserve a great mobile email service and that's exactly what BlueWhaleMail offers," said Richard Seward, founder and CEO of Blue Whale Systems Ltd. "Our service is the simplest choice for those wishing to stay on top of their social life while they're away from their computer".

"The complexity of setting up mobile applications on many phones is a great obstacle for most people so we've worked hard to make BlueWhaleMail child's play to setup" continued Michael Maguire. BlueWhaleMail can be interactively test-driven and pre-configured for download at www.bluewhalemail.com - most people will only need to know their email address and password. Alternatively browse to m.bluewhale.net on your mobile.

"We wanted to deliver a great service without charging users" continued Richard Seward. "We didn't want trial periods or subscription fees, but we didn't want spam messages either. We believe that banner adverts at the top of the BlueWhaleMail message viewer provide an unobtrusive way to support the service".

Multimedia content:

To learn more about BlueWhaleMail, watch a film of Michael Maguire explaining the service at the Blue Whale Systems Press Room.

http://bluewhalemailpress.blogspot.com/

You can also view and download screenshots to accompany the release.

About Blue Whale Systems Ltd:

With a team of engineers previously from companies such as Microsoft, Nokia, Research In Motion, Symbian, Vodafone and T-Mobile, Blue Whale Systems Ltd aims to make mobile phone software simple. Founded in 2007 and based in the United Kingdom, Blue Whale Systems Ltd is privately held with investors including Dr Andrew Rickman OBE, founder and former CEO of Bookham Inc.; Jon Moulton, founder of private equity firm Alchemy Partners; as well as Seven Spires Investments Ltd.

* BlueWhaleMail users cannot directly access Hotmail, as Microsoft does not yet freely support the required industry standards of either IMAP4 or POP3.

Distributed by PR Newswire on behalf of Blue Whale Systems Ltd

fiona.leung wrote:

My question is, will I still be able to use it to connect if I'm using a dial-up WAP connection instead of an access-point GPRS?

Theoretically, if it will let you connect to the internet it ought to work. For example, with WiFi equipped phones like the Nokia E61, we sometimes use an 802.11 (WiFi) access point instead of GPRS and it works fine for us.

Can you give it a try and let us know how it works?

Hi Oliver,

I see two questions in your post. One is:

1. "How will we compete with prosumer blackberry service offers with data packages cheaper than the standard data package?"

and the other is:

2. "How will we compete with free blackberry software on E-series Nokias?"

I believe I've already said as much as we will say about number 1. above. We're aiming for something a little different, and my opinion is that it would be a mistake to bet against an overall trend down in data package prices.

As for 2., my own opinion is that the addition of BlackBerry Connect protocol software to Nokia E-Series handsets has not resulted in the best mobile email experience possible -- perhaps you've had a different experience?

Ultimately, I think there are a lot of "marketing check boxes" that are checked by some of the products out there, so discussing what's written in the product marketing literature isn't always very useful. If you've tried the different solutions it would be good to hear your feedback.

Regards,
Michael

I hate to answer a question with a question, but have you tried any of the inbuilt mail clients on the phones you have mentioned?

Many of these brands of phones have had rudimentary email client software built-in for at least 10 years now. But I would say it isn't great and doesn't lead to an addictive, satisfying mobile email experience. Partly I believe this is because the email component of the phone hasn't been an important focus for the people designing the phone.

I would argue it's for this reason that there is even a market for purpose-built email-centric mobile devices. The mobile devices have been there all along, but the email software has been bad.

With BlueWhaleMail, our focus is making the email experience as great as it can be on existing mobile phones.

Read this if you are looking for BlueWhaleMail software for your phone, but your phone is not listed.

Even if your phone isn't listed, you can still download BlueWhaleMail and try it out.

We've tried to make sure BlueWhaleMail will work on any handset which has the storage capacity and capabilities to run many of the "Java" games available for today's mobile phones.

We're working to add support for more phones as well as documentation for more phones.

Hopefully the documentation we've provided for e.g. the Nokia E61 or the SonyEricsson W880i will get you started even with a different kind of phone.

I have a big favour to ask. Can you (Sir exim dude) create a forum account and PM me? I'd really like to get this working for you (helps me and and I hope it will help you) and I'd like to ask you some more in depth questions.

I don't know any better way than that that avoids posting people's email addresses to a public forum.

Cheers,
Michael

Read this if you are looking for BlueWhaleMail software for your phone, but your phone is not listed.

Even if your phone isn't listed, you can still download BlueWhaleMail and try it out.

We've tried to make sure BlueWhaleMail will work on any handset which has the storage capacity and capabilities to run many of the "Java" games available for today's mobile phones.

We're working to add support for more phones as well as documentation for more phones.

Hopefully the documentation we've provided for e.g. the Nokia E61 or the SonyEricsson W880i will get you started even with a different kind of phone.