I own an IT consulting firm, and as you can imagine, that means that I am not always in the office, and don’t always have connectivity available. With my BlackBerry, it was as simple as loading the Sprint SmartView software on my laptop (similar applications are provided by most carriers) and using my BlackBerry’s data connection. However, SmartView doesn’t work with the Samsung Moment, and Sprint has made the (poor) decision to do away with tethering or “Phone-As-Modem” options on their Simply Everything plans which are required plans for their smartphones. I speculate that their reason for doing away with tethering is an effort to drive customers to the increasing number of mobile broadband devices that they carry, including the new Novatel MiFi 2200 router, but I’ll save that gripe for another post.

So it seems that all is lost, I can no longer tether my phone to my laptop to use the data connection, and that’s a deal breaker. Weighing my options, door number one, I stay with BlackBerry and keep on trucking, but that’s not going to be a long term solution as Sprint will eventually drop tethering from my account. Door number two, I buy another device with another data plan, and I’m good to go. But why? Why should I have to fork out the money for another device, have something else to carry around, power, charge, and pay a monthly fee to use when I have a perfectly capable connection hanging on my belt, that I’ve been using for over a year, especially when I know full well that the only reason Sprint is making this change is to try to dig deeper into the pockets of smartphone carrying business professionals. Sprint, I’m still not against you, but I found door number three and I’m taking it (yes, it’s a line from National treasure).

One of the great things about the Android platform is the Android Market and the incredible amount of software that is available, more often than not, for free. One of these applications is June Fabrics PdaNet, a tethering application that is available for several platforms, including Android. Setup is painless on both the phone and the PC, but useage is a little different than what I was used to. The most noticeable difference, which I’ve already hinted at, is that you actually install PdaNet on both the phone and the PC that you wish to use it with. Once installed on both, you connect the phone to the PC via USB or bluetooth (Android 2.0 required for bluetooth tethering on the Android platform), launch the application on your phone and enable your connection method, right click the PdaNet tray icon on your PC, and select Connect.

That’s it, you are now using your phone’s data connection on your PC. PdaNet is one of the many applications available on the Android Market that provides a paid version and a “lite” or free version. The paid version gives you full use of your data connection, while the free version restricts you to http web access only. If you’re on the go as much as I am, you’re going to want the full version. The good news is that it’s cheap, $29.00 one time. I was paying an extra $15 a month for tethering when Sprint offered it.

This was one of the most crucial obstacles to overcome in order for me to be able to transition to the Android platform as a mobile business professional. Next time I’ll discuss some of the other applications and tools that I have found to make Android the platform for business now and in the near future.

First, let me say that I had not been looking to leave the BlackBerry/Exchange family, but I was holding out for a full screen BlackBerry with a physical keyboard, a slider if you will. Those of you who follow mobile devices closely, especially those who follow BlackBerry hardware, are well aware of the numerous design concept drawings, mock-ups, etc. of a BlackBerry slider that have been floating around for at least a year. Never revealing just exactly when we would see such a device, RIM has only been willing to confirm that several design options have been considered. This secrecy is nothing unusual among device manufacturers, but the lack of information and an opportunity provided by a competitor presents a precarious position, and, in this case, caused a long time RIM fan to jump ship.

One of my fellow TechVirtuoso staffers, Eric Iles, made the move to the Palm Pre when it first came out earlier this year. He had several problems with the device that caused him to go through a few of the phones before getting one that seemed to work without issues. Even though Eric finally worked through the issues he was having with the phone and seemed to finally have a working unit, he still wasn’t happy with the device, or the lack of applications available. Eric ended up switching to the HTC Hero, Sprint’s first offering on Google’s Android platform. I visited the local Sprint store several times and played around with the Hero. I really liked the look and feel of Android, and HTC’s custom Sense UI is very aesthetically appealing. The only thing I couldn’t get used to, and it turned out to be a deal breaker for me, no physical keyboard. This wasn’t a huge surprise for me. I have never liked typing on any touchscreen phone. My daughter has a Samsung Instinct, I hate it. I’ve used friends iPhones, hate them too. I have big fingers, and no matter how much I “train” the phones, I always seem to spend more time hitting backspace than I want. So, the HTC Hero was a no go for me. Then along came Polly, err… Moment.

Having told Eric that I couldn’t get used to the on screen keyboard, he directed me to a Sprint press release announcing the Samsung Moment, a slider Android based phone, that was due out on November 1st. Monday, November 2nd, I was at the Sprint store. Having gotten my hands on the HTC Hero several times, and having read as much online as I could, I was somewhat familiar with the overall functions of the Android OS. I was more interested in how the Samsung Moment felt, how the keyboard worked, and whether or not I would be able to type on it reliably. I spent about 20 minutes looking over the Moment, and decided to make the jump, and just to make sure I saw it through and wouldn’t have a crutch to fall back on, I let Sprint buyback my BlackBerry Curve. I was going Android.

Once the transactions were complete, the new phone configured, my next concern was getting my e-mail, calendar, contacts, etc. setup on my new phone. I ran my own Exchange server and my own BlackBerry Enterprise Server, and was considering setting up ActiveSync and just moving forward. Once again, Eric offered up a suggestion, that I should take a look at Google Apps, and moving my e-mail and letting Google host it. Our TechVirtuoso e-mail is Google hosted, as was our e-mail at our previous venture, and we’ve had nothing but positive results with it. After I thought about it for a day or two, I thought, why not. It takes the responsibility off of me, it will simplify the unison of data between my devices, and if I don’t like it, it’s easy enough to switch it back. Back, don’t think that’s a direction I’ll be taking.

Signing up for Google Apps Standard (free) Edition is simple, and in doing so, provides the opportunity to try Google Apps Premier free for 30 days. This is key, because Google Apps Premier gives you access to Google’s migration tools which provide you with easy solutions for migrating your existing data from another server, such as a Microsoft Exchange Server. So, I signed up for my Google Apps Standard account and registered for the free 30 day trial of Google Apps Premier, setup the Exchange migration to pull my existing contacts, calendar, e-mail, etc. from my Microsoft Exchange Server, and let it run overnight. The next morning the transfer was complete, and I canceled my 30 day trial of Google Apps Premier, reverting my account to Google Apps Standard. I now have all of my mail, contacts, calendar, etc. transferred over to my new Google hosted e-mail service, it’s automatically synchronized on my phone, my laptop, any PC for that matter, as I just log into my account via the web and there it is, wherever I am.

This is where I start experimenting with the Android platform, and finding out for myself just how useful and business friendly it is. I’ll save those thoughts for my next post, so stay tuned!

“We’re making significant process with Palm’s transformation, and our culture of innovation is stronger than ever. We’re launching more great Palm webOS products with more carriers and turning our sights toward growth,” said Jon Rubinstein, chairman and CEO.

This move comes as a blow to Microsoft, which is struggling against up and coming smartphone OS providers in the business sector like Palm webOS, Google Android, Apple iPhone and the continued fight against Research in Motion’s Blackberry.

According to Garner, at the end of 2008, the estimated market share for Windows Mobile, worldwide, in the smartphone market was 12.4% — currently many of the those phones are made by Taiwan based HTC, however they’ve began releasing many of their new phones with Google’s Android platform, so it remains to be seen what their continued commitment to Windows Mobile will be.

However, the move could backfire on Palm, as some businesses continue to see devices like the Pre as more of a consumer oriented device and will opt for Windows Mobile and Blackberry which provide better support for Exchange and more enhanced and native device security.

Yesterday Palm, together with Sprint, revealed they’d only sold around 810,000 Pre devices in the last quarter. (In comparison the iPhone 3GS sold over 1 million units in the first week and over 5 million in the quarter.) Palm also announced yesterday losses for the quarter reached $164.5 million, compared to a loss of only $41.9 million last year. However, this did beat industry expectations for the company. Palm says they expect revenues for the next quarter to be even lower than their last.