There is a great support page which lays out how you setup your account (done though the Exchange option when adding an email account). There are pictures walking you though setting your email to configuring and accepting meeting invitations to using the Global Address Book for looking up your organizations contacts!

A quick summary, after the break!

iPhone Functionality and Overview

NotifyLink Enterprise Server allows iPhone and iPod touch devices to synchronize email, calendar and contacts using the native software contained on the device. There is no application software to install.

This section overviews NotifyLink functionality based on the parameters of the iPhone/iPod touch native software.

Email

•      Uses the iPhone native email client to send, receive, reply to and forward emails

•      Folder Mirroring allows email folders from your mail account to be synchronized to the device

•      Email Filters, set on the NotifyLink server, filter mail sent to the device

•      Attachment viewing is supported using device’s native viewers.  Emails with attachments can be forwarded.  With the exception of picture files in the device’s Camera Roll album, attaching a file residing on the device to an email is not currently supported.  You cannot save an attachment on the device.

PIM (Calendar and Contacts)

•      Interfaces to the iPhone native Calendar and Contacts

•      Synchronize calendar events in a configurable Look-Back/Look-Ahead range

•      Choose Address Books (on groupware servers that support this)

•      Remote Lookup (Global Address List) retrieves contact information from an LDAP directory using the iPhoneContacts application

•      Receive and respond to meeting invitations

•      Meeting invitations cannot be initiated from the device

•      Task synchronization is not supported

Push Types

•      Direct Push (Push) and Scheduled Push (Fetch) options

Security

•      SSL encryption protocol for data-in-motion between the device and NotifyLink server

•      Remote Wipe for devices lost or stolen

•      Require password on device (Enabled via the NotifyLink Admin Web)

•      Inactivity Timeout (Set on device via Auto-Lock)

MacRumors has discovered that though you receive your MobileMe email very quickly, the “pushing” of other MobileMe services is not as fast when coming from your Mac. Apple’s knowledgebase article states:

Selecting Automatic in Mac OS X allows your computer to immediately sync and update when there are any changes on the MobileMe servers.  Those changes can come from your iPhone, iPod touch, the MobileMe website, or another computer.  Changes made on your computer will be synced to the MobileMe “cloud” once every 15 minutes (or every hour in Mac OS X 10.4.11).

I have personally not experienced this. Even when I change information on my Mac (specifically iCal), I received the updates in a matter of minutes. I suppose this could have been because my scheduled 15 minute sync was about to happen, but I really have not noticed that much of a delay over all. 

What do you think? Is this really that big of a deal? Should Apple’s push services be realtime from your Mac?

What is MobileMe?

MobileMe, Apple, Inc.’s answer to the consumer-based “push” concept has launched today. MobileMe comprises of web-based applications that not only synchronize with their desktop counterparts, but also “pushes” updates to other computers including calendar appointments, address book entries and Safari bookmarks. Windows-based PC’s and Apple’s OS X can be used to synchronize this information between platforms. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch (using Wi-Fi) you can receive these updates instantly on your device without having to synchronize with your desktop.

MobileMe Setup

After unboxing and setting up my iPhone 3G, I got straight to work on configuring MobileMe. One of my initial concerns was how the information will sync to my new iPhone from iCal, Address book and my Safari Bookmarks without duplicating information. iTunes handles the synchronization process, and I figured that between synchronizing iTunes and sending the same updates out, there was bound to be a duplicate somewhere. As it turns out, MobileMe disables synchronizing this information from iTunes. Instead, it gets “sent to the cloud” and is then pushed to the appropriate devices. 

First, you have to turn on MobileMe from System Preferences in OS X. The options are identical to Apple’s precious synchronization effort, .Mac. After choosing what you want to sync, the fun begins!

Adding Information

After turning on MobileMe and synchronizing in iTunes, I noticed that all of my information was missing on my iPhone. Calendar, gone. Contacts, gone. Nothing. I immediately opened those respective applications on my Mac. Thankfully, they were there and intact. I procrastinated a second and began to look at the web experience of MobileMe. Just as I started to type the URL into the address bar, I looked at my iPhone (I kept the Calendar application up when I left it on the table after freaking out) and noticed my appointments showed up. What? I then looked at Address Book. What again? That is right, within about a minute; my calendar, contacts and bookmarks were synced to my iPhone. I could not believe it. 

This was very impressive. I then proceeded to the obvious: I added and appointment on the iPhone. No sooner than launching iCal on my Mac desktop, the new appointment appeared. Next I proceeded to add a whole new calendar to MobileMe on the web. I clicked the “+”, picked a color and I was off to the races. I added and appointment for fun, and again without fail, a few moments later, the new calendar WITH appointment showed up on my iPhone and iCal. This service behaves as advertised.

One of the nice new features that I am enjoying on the iPhone is that the calendars that are synchronized also keep their colors. For example, I assign green to my personal calendar, blue to my work calendar and red to my wife’s work calendar. These colors and calendars all get synchronized across platforms. When creating an appointment on the iPhone, you can now designate which calendar you would like the appointment to belong to.

Synchronizing with Microsoft Exchange

My next question I asked my self was, “If I used Microsoft Exchange at work, could I also use MobileMe with that too?”. The answer is yes. MobileMe and your Exchange information can live on the same device, but only if you are a paid subscriber of the MobileMe service. If you are not and try to synchronize your personal iCal data and Address Book information, Exchange will win that rock-paper-scissors battle and wipe them out, leaving the Exchange information only.

Summary

I can’t be happier with MobileMe so far. There is more to this service including online photos and a web-based version of iDisk, but I will discuss this further in a full review at a later date. In the meantime, enjoy MobileMe and enjoy the freedom that it offers.

According to GWcheck it is:

Novell is committed to providing a solution that allows users access to their email, calendar and contacts on the iPhone. As the SDK was just released, we are still working out the details and will announce more specific plans when appropriate.

There are still plenty of organizations out there that do not use Microsoft Exchange. Those that don’t, typically use RIM’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server solution. It will be nice to see either RIM jump on board the iPhone bandwagon (I don’t see that happening) or companies like Novell working with other visionaries to bring their services to Apple’s iPhone.