Reading about the new features in version 10 of FirstClass I like what I see and then I get to this:
Read the full article at: http://www.kannoncom.com/FirstClassRoadmap2008 and make sure you see the images of the iPhone client. Nice
Enhanced Sync Support for Mobile Devices: In FirstClass 10 we will greatly enhance our “Sync” support with the following new features:
* The FirstClass 10 version of FCSS will support Microsoft’s ActiveSync protocol for the bi-directional syncing of contact, calendar event, and task data. This will provide a simpler, more cost-effective and more robust solution since ActiveSync is now natively supported by Windows Mobile, Palm/Treo, and the iPhone. There will no longer be a need to purchase and install a 3rd party sync translator on platforms that natively support ActiveSync. In addition, our ActiveSync implementation will include support for Directory Searching. This will enable devices that support Directory Searching to search the FirstClass directory directly from the handheld. Only directory entries that have valid résumé data will show up in the search, and the résumé data will be provided to the handheld as the user data (sometimes referred to as a virtual contact).
* Our recommended syncing solution for Blackberry continues to be the Nexthaus SyncML agent through SyncML via FCSS. We will continue to work with Nexthaus and enhance our offering as they provide new enhancements in their offering. In addition we will be testing out Blackberry ActiveSync solutions that are starting to appear from 3rd party vendors. We will keep our user community advised regarding our findings. Also, RIM has announced on October 21st, 2008 that they will be exposing their APIs for their push technology to their 3rd party developer community. We are now investigating the feasibility of building a direct push solution from FCSS to Blackberry devices without the need for any intermediary software. We expect that such an approach will provide the fastest and most reliable solution over the long run.
* FirstClass 10 will include the new FirstClass iSync Connector. This software runs on Apple Mac personal computers and enables FirstClass users to quickly and easily configure it so that FirstClass contacts, calendar events, tasks, and bookmarks are synchronized via the iSync engine with other applications such as Address Book, iCal, and MobileMe and devices such as iPhones, iPods, and 3rd party devices that support iSync.
FirstClass Native Mobile Clients: The power of the latest generation of mobile devices and mobile development environments is at last sufficient to enable the delivery of a compelling mobile experience for FirstClass communications and collaboration features through native mobile applications. By building on top of the latest device-specific development frameworks we can provide a user experience that matches other device-specific applications. As well, we can exploit device-specific features by integrating them into FirstClass. For example, if the device has a camera, it would be useful to enable a direct upload of a photo of a person on the device into a FirstClass contact. We are now working on FirstClass Mobile Clients to deliver this. The first one of these to ship (as part of FirstClass 10) will be the FirstClass Mobile Client for iPhone, providing real-time push delivery of mail, in additional to full access to social networking and other applications in the FirstClass suite, including FirstClass Forms, Workflow and Application Services. We expect that the iPhone version will be followed by a FirstClass Mobile Client for Blackberry.
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