OStatic

Funambol Releases v8 of its Mobile Email Push and Sync Solution

I am always tickled when I can write about (and introduce others to) open source applications that solve, quickly and easily, the very real problems that frequently arise when technology manufacturers (or providers) assume that customers use their devices in completely homogenous settings.

So today, it seems, is my lucky day -- today Funambol unleashes version 8 of its nifty open source mobile cloud push and sync software that enables a wide variety of mobile phones (including iPhones, Blackberry, Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices) to share and sync information with a number of email clients, POP and IMAP mail servers, PIMs, and social networks. And while it's great to wax poetic about the subtle joy that can be had just by syncing your smartphone that wasn't designed to communicate with another software company's email and calendaring application, I'm fortunate enough to be able to share the experience with ten readers in the form of membership invites.

First, though, the important part: What's new in Funambol v8?

Funambol v8 made its first public appearance at the Mobile World Conference in February. As winter gave way to spring, and summer passed into fall, version 8 kept its focus on visual elements. The AJAX web portal is polished and responsive, while data and multimedia syncing across systems and devices remains one of the most impressive new features.

Spiffy features are much more impressive, however, when they work easily on your hardware and communicate with the services you already use. This is why Funambol paid special attention to functionality beyond an attractive and well-laid out portal. Funambol streamlined the sign up and configuration of new accounts, and introduced remote auto-setup and configuration of SyncML settings for billions of phones. Funambol's email client for mobile devices has an even easier install process (download, installation and first run is a one-step operation) -- and setting up a POP or IMAP mail account (including Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo!) can be done via the new "quick add" option.

But Funambol v8's biggest selling point is the same one you see in other Funambol releases. It allows you to use the smartphone you have with the services, mail and messaging clients and operating systems you use on a daily basis. It saves time, and it keeps information intact and secure in the event of some unforeseen, unfortunate circumstance befalling any single piece of hardware you own. In a perfect world, my Blackberry would communicate nicely (and uniformly) with my Ubuntu laptop, my openSUSE desktop, and my husband's Windows XP box. Alas, out of the box, the world is not anywhere near perfect. Funambol, however, brings the world just a tiny bit closer to perfection.

Funambol version 8 is available now for those wishing to give it a whirl. However, the demo only offers a 90 day trial membership -- carrier charges apply for use of the portal, and once the trial period expires, you'll need to find a Funambol-friendly provider or install the AGPLv3 licensed Community Edition on your own machine.

But before you do that -- about those invites I mentioned earlier. Funambol is offering unlimited memberships to a few lucky souls. First, you'll need to sign up for a trial membership at the myFUNAMBOL portal. The first ten OStatic readers to send their myFUNAMBOL usernames to my email address (linuxlibrarian[at]gmail[dot]com - remember to insert the appropriate symbols for the bracketed text) with the subject line Funambol/OStatic will receive an unlimited Funambol membership.

If you are one of the first ten readers to respond, I'll notify you as soon as possible. If you do not hear back, the bad news is you weren't one of the first ten to respond; the good news is you still have three months to try out Funambol v8, and should you decide that it's not the right time to seek out a provider that supports Funambol or try out the Community Edition on your own, your trial account will simply cease to exist (but please do make sure you have your data on your devices prior to the trial's end).

• pim
• open source
• Mobile
• AJAX
• Funambol
• myfunambol
• smartphone
• portal

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