Lafayette’s email and calendaring system, Zimbra, provides real-time, wireless synchronization of email, contacts, and calendar information between the Zimbra server and smartphones with ActiveSync technology. For Lafayette users who access their Zimbra calendar while away from the office, an ActiveSync capable device is critical, especially if others can edit your calendar. While email synchronization is a standard feature on most mobile devices, if you want to fully synchronize your Zimbra account with your smartphone, ITS recommends that you purchase an ActiveSync capable device.

For instructions on how to set up a smartphone with ActiveSync to work with the Zimbra server, see: http://its.lafayette.edu/help/zimbra/activesync. If you plan on having your smartphone vendor configure your device for you, ITS advises that you print the instructions and bring them with you to the phone store.

Selecting a device

Some smartphone brands and models are available only from certain carriers (e.g. the iPhone is currently available only from AT&T), so your choice of smartphone is likely to limit your choice of carrier, and vice versa. If the carrier for your current home cell or land line is one that offers Lafayette employees a discount, you may save money by choosing the same carrier for your smartphone. If your home service carrier does not offer employee discounts, you may want to consider switching to one that does. (Discount offers are between the carrier and the customer, not between the carrier and the college. Check with the carrier to see if they offer discounts to Lafayette employees.)

Observations on specific devices

iPhone
The iPhone has native ActiveSync support. Wireless synchronization between an iPhone and Zimbra is a simple matter of entering the correct configuration information. Many people at Lafayette are successfully using the iPhone with Zimbra.

Windows Mobile devices
Windows Mobile has native ActiveSync support. Windows Mobile devices are made by a variety of manufacturers and come in a variety of configurations. If you're considering a Windows Mobile device, make sure that the particular device has not had ActiveSync disabled.

Windows Mobile devices have reputations for shorter battery life and a tendency to crash, but both vary depending on the manufacturer. ITS staff have minimal experience with these devices, but reviews for the Motorola Q and Samsung Blackjack (and their successors) indicate that they are stable, well-designed devices. (These two smartphones take many design cues from the Blackberry.)

Blackberry devices
Blackberry devices are fine for email, but they do not support ActiveSync natively. Astrasync software, available for a fee, can be installed on a Blackberry to enable it to synchronize email, calendar, and contacts via ActiveSync. However, ITS staff have tried the software and encountered significant problems. Astrasync offers technical support only through their online forums.

If you want to use a Blackberry for email only, ask your wireless carrier for a Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) account. You will be able to set up your Lafayette email through this.

Palm Treo (Palm OS)
Applying a software update allows a Palm Treo to use ActiveSync, but ITS staff have observed that certain types of recurring Zimbra calendar events often fail to synchronize. We have also observed a tendency for the calendar to get out of sync with the server, requiring the device to be wiped. Wired hotsyncing through Outlook appears to work, but it is not officially supported by Zimbra, and could break with future upgrades. Palm hotsync has a tendency to create duplicate appointments and contacts, and periodically break entirely. ITS does not recommend using a Palm Treo with Lafayette's Zimbra implementation.

Palm Pre (webOS)
ITS does not yet have any experience with the Pre, but its advertised specifications include native ActiveSync support. While the Palm Pre uses a different operating system than the Palm Treo, it is unknown whether the synchronization problems found in the Treo's ActiveSync implementation have been addressed in the Pre.