Android update gives more features with Exchange EAS

Today my wife updated her Sprint Samsung Transform phone with the latest Android OS. I have been waiting for Sprint to push out this update as I found a very strange bug in the base OS that was shipped with the phone in November 2010.

For a list of versions and when they were shipped, see http://socialcompare.com/en/comparison/android-versions-comparison

The bug I identified was if you setup the phone to Sync with the Exchange server, in this case Exchange 2010 SP1 RU2 and then proceed to select a contact, change the picture of the contact to one that is on the device, and re-sync, you will now see the new picture in your Outlook. That is how it is suppose to work. The bug part comes in when you now edit that contact, say change the phone number or email address. Now sync the device, and you will notice the data doesn’t change in the device. The only way to fix it from my testing was to delete the contact via the phone. Once you do that, re-sync, and it will be gone from the Contacts in Outlook. Now go into your deleted items and you will see the contact. Move it back to your contacts, and re-sync the phone, and the contact is now correct on the phone. But if you make a change to the contact again, you will run into the same issue.

This was VERY annoying! I had found an update to the Android OS but it required rooting the phone, something I didn’t want to do. After the update came down today from Sprint, I retried my issue, and the bug has now been fixed. Other things I noticed in the new update is the support for OOF, or Out of Office. That is a nice touch as Active Sync get’s more aligned to the features in Exchange 2010 and EAS. I also noticed that the new update now enforces Active Sync’s security policies, including requiring a device password.

Now we wait for Microsoft’s own Windows Phone 7 to start supporting more Exchange EAS policies. If you are interested in knowing more about EAS, here is a chart by Marco Nielsen

Versions

The important versions of EAS usually follow the Exchange Server releases and they are are currently:

More details can be found here.

Compatibility Comparisons

Due to the incremental versions, protocol licensing and various implementations on different mobile devices, OS platforms and software clients it is very hard to get a complete view of what features are supported on a given device. Even if the mobile device is running a specific OS platform, the OEM, and mobile operator (especially here in North America) can decide to make specific changes.

I have found several references that may help, but all will obviously become out of date as new platform versions, software and devices come out.

I take no responsibility for their accuracy or the content. All information should always be tested on the devices you have on hand. I also apologize if the links become dead after a given amount of time, please ping me and I can update.

This excellent chart was posted by Marco Nielsen at http://www.myitforum.com/absolutenm/templates/Articles.aspx?articleid=22540&zoneid=100