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GNEX is not suited for work.

M

mrspeedmaster

Android Expert
There I said it.

Today, I got two .ICS calendars appointments from clients
WTF? .ics and the Galaxy Nexus can't even do that?

I mean a BIG WTF!!!!! Client laughed at me. I was so embarrassed.


Went to another client to discuss a bulk purchase of phones. GNEX was not even suitable after some testing:

1) No EAP-TLS certificates
2) No CALDAV support. Flaky exchange
3) No provisioning tools for deployment.

and my other problems:

4) Non-working Cisco VPN
5) No Push-IMAP/IDLE. This is killing my battery life. 4 hour from charge to discharge.
6) MTP filesystem

I'm about ready to throw the towel.

So much frustration just trying to use it for work.

My other fruity phone ... well just works except the 3.5 screen.

I know the Galaxy S2, Samsung paid for better exchange and VPN support. I'm thinking Google just cheapped-out.

Does Motorola have better Enterprise support?

Maybe Vanilla android isn't so great after all.
 
As far as I can tell, Android as a whole has always been pretty sketchy as far as enterprise support goes. Not really helped by the fact that every manufacturer had their own implementation on how to do it.

I'm surprised it didn't support .ICS. Even more odd is that Google Calendar itself DOES support ICS files. I suppose to get around that though, there are ICS importer apps on the market.
 
the only thing i enjoyed about exchange support on the GNEX was the calendar but it didn't work well. i switched to TOUCHDOWN which is much better. not sure if it has .ics support but battery usage is low and i have push/pull enabled on it. the calendar is not as nice as the ICS calendar but it does the job. another reason i love android. i have a choice to use something else unlike those fruity phones.
 
GNEX not suited for my specific needs at work.

See what I did there? I didn't make a sweeping generalization.

I'm sorry that the GNex is not meeting your needs. Are you still within your return period? Are there any apps that can do what you need?
 
mrspeedmaster said:
There I said it.

Today, I got two .ICS calendars appointments from clients
WTF? .ics and the Galaxy Nexus can't even do that?

I mean a BIG WTF!!!!! Client laughed at me. I was so embarrassed.


Went to another client to discuss a bulk purchase of phones. GNEX was not even suitable after some testing:

1) No EAP-TLS certificates
2) No CALDAV support. Flaky exchange
3) No provisioning tools for deployment.

and my other problems:

4) Non-working Cisco VPN
5) No Push-IMAP/IDLE. This is killing my battery life. 4 hour from charge to discharge.
6) MTP filesystem

I'm about ready to throw the towel.

So much frustration just trying to use it for work.

My other fruity phone ... well just works except the 3.5 screen.

I know the Galaxy S2, Samsung paid for better exchange and VPN support. I'm thinking Google just cheapped-out.

Does Motorola have better Enterprise support?

Maybe Vanilla android isn't so great after all.
Click to expand...

I don't know what most of that stuff is, but I use Good Mobile messaging and it makes any Android phone work just like Blackberry back in the day. We have hundreds of them deployed at work. We use the same software for the iPhone.
 
Outatime said:
GNEX not suited for my specific needs at work.

See what I did there? I didn't make a sweeping generalization.
Click to expand...

I don't know anyone who ONLY works within Google's walled eco-system. Yes, walled.

Bottom line. GNEX (vanilla Android) is suited ONLY for Google Workflow. That isn't a generalization but a fact.

If you are not using Google services, the phone is of very little use.
You basically need to be entrapped in their eco-system.

Doesn't even play nice with other open source stuff. The fact I can't mount the phone on a Solaris machine or Redhat 5.3 box just proved my point.
Can't even connect to a zimbra open source calendaring system.

if your company uses PUSH iMAP. You are outta luck.
If your school uses a Cisco VPN, you are out of luck.
If the rest of the world gives you .ics calendar appointments, you are out of luck.
 
Outatime said:
LOL... I found apps in the Market for every point you mentioned.
Click to expand...

The market apps are pretty half-baked, half-assed.


As for ICS.

Jit ICS import didn't work. Didn't even show a calendar entry a few times.
WIth the one entry it showed, I couldn't even decline the invite. Response went nowhere.
And when I did declined, I still got notified. 1/2 ass.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jitdesign.icsimport

Fliq didn't work

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.markspace.fliqcalendar


ICCSync only works with webdav saved calendar. Doesn't work with invites.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.nightlabs.android.icssync

Cisco VPN only works with ROOTED phones and some Galaxy S2 (Samsung paid for this)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cisco.anyconnect.vpn.android.rooted

As for Push iMap
K-9
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fsck.k9&feature=search_result

Crashes with mailboxes with more than 40-50 entries. Not very stable.


So yes, you can point to some apps but some of them dont flat out work like the cisco vpn. The rest are garbage and useless. k-9 email for push? Seriously.

Replacing the entire mail client and calendar app impaird all of android advantagrs. Why not just get a blackberry?
 
A couple of minor points. Sorry you're having trouble.

Regarding the calendar, it was just redone for Android 4.0 so my guess is that there are some bugs. I'm quite sure this area will improve soon. At least, I very much hope so.

Blaming Android for Cisco's software isn't really fair.

Android 4.0 does support various types of VPN (though I'm not sure how well it does).

Push IMAP would be nice, cant really argue with you there. Never tried K9 but there is an IMAP related bug in the core Android client fixed in 4.0.3 relating to STARTTLS.

Anyways, I definitely I share some of your frustrations. But hopefully we can all keep this positive or at least neutral on both the recommendations to help you and our rants on what is frustrating :)
 
Yeah even the onboard mail app is iffy for pop use. I keep getting repeat emails from several weeks ago. I've tried k9 and am not a fan. Although I think this is generally true of Android in general. I've never had a lot of luck with incoming media as compared to Blackberry but at the same time, there is a great deal of choice and freedom on this platform.
 
Long time no see mrspeedmaster.

I think phones with Sense UI and Blur might have a lil better enterprise support.

I think as far as apps...they must havent been updated for ICS yet. Thats been a complaint of some ppl. And a reason why we cant knock a phone running GB. Or a phone with a custom UI.
 
I picked up Gnex for my work and have had no problems with them. We use exchange 2008 and have tested several remote desktop apps with varying happiness (GoToMyPC and TeamViewer are two that work very well). I have not yet tried the 2008 server remote capabilities, but will be trying it tomorrow since it has come up more than once. Every appointment that I am invited to gets placed in the calendar and have not heard any complaints from the other Gnex's I have running. It is hokey that we cannot decline or send a tentative to any invitation, but those are easy to work around.

We moved from Blackberries with the enterprise server to vanilla android and everyone loves it. I have rooted my phone and the others are still "stock" with apps. Printing is really hokey with the apps available.
 
re: cisco vpn. That should work.
We use cisco vpn with certificate at work and my boss vpn in with his phone.

I haven't done it on my phone because if I did then there would be expectation for me to work more and I do enough as is. :)
 
I use Touchdown for my work needs (exchange 2003)...no complaints. Android, stock, has always been subpar in this regard imo


But really, I just wanted you to know that I literally laughed out loud at the visual of your clients laughing at you and you getting all embarrassed over calendar invites. Lolololololol
 
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