Microsoft Agrees To License ActiveSync To Google

JacobSteelsmith writes "Microsoft agreed today to license ActiveSync to Google. Google is using ActiveSync as part of Google Sync, which enables the synchronization of data between mobile devices and, presumably, Google Calendar and your contacts stored at Google. 'Microsoft's vice president of intellectual property and licensing, Horacio Gutierrez, said in a statement that the Google license is "a great example of Microsoft's openness to generally license our patents under fair and reasonable terms so long as licensees respect Microsoft intellectual property."'"

Re:Hah! That's a joke

[LiENUS]

All the "Activesync Protocol" is, is good old PPP.

Umm what? It looks like he's just using ppp to connect the device up to his computer. ActiveSync is as much PPP as email is ethernet.

Re:Hah! That's a joke

[DaHat]

I suspect I am not the only one who now feels dumber having read your comment.

Your saying that Active Sync is just PPP is like claiming that... DNS is just ARP... one (can and in the case of Active Sync) may use the other... but is not absolutely required to... and even when such a low level protocol is used, it is the higher level data that matters to applications.

If it was that simple... don't you think there'd be more FOSS implementations of ActiveSync than there is if it was just PPP... oh right, it's not!

To recap... PPP: Layer 2 protocol, Active Sync: (likely) Layer 3-5 protocol

Re:woopee

[Constantine XVI]

We do. It's called SyncML. Google now supports it as well (though calendar sync isn't 100% together yet)

Re:woopee

[jrumney]

Alternately, use SyncML, which is already available on a large number of non-Microsoft handsets with plugins available for Windows Mobile, Outlook, Exchange and other non-compliant software.

Re:woopee

[bcrowell]

Okay why can't we have an open standard to sync data with mobile devices?

Because your mobile devices are proprietary systems, and the companies who sold them to you don't want use every possible piece of functionality as a revenue stream.

If you want to synchronize your files between various devices, using open-source software, try unison [upenn.edu]. It's free, it's open source, it's fast, and IMO it's of very high quality. I use it to sync two desktops, a server, and an ARM-based network appliance (NSLU2). The key is that none of these are locked down systems sold to you by a cell phone company.

Re:Oops. Hell freezing over?

[shutdown -p now]

For the record, Microsoft often refers itself as MSFT even outside stock quotes. For example, on public Microsoft newsgroups and forums, whenever a Microsoftie replies to a thread in his official capacity (typically support guys, but devs come there to help as well), his name will be suffixed with "[MSFT]".

Re:moar plz

[shutdown -p now]

Cool, can you point us to all the other examples?

Sure. You might want to look at the current list of specs covered by the Open Specification Promise [microsoft.com] (that means no licensing fees, royalty-free, and a patent non-enforecement guarantee) for a start.

Re:Hah! That's a joke

[nxtw]

What Google has just done is to license PPP from Microsoft. Nice job.

Don't believe me? Read this. [handhelds.org]

All the "Activesync Protocol" is, is good old PPP.

No. Google licensed Exchange ActiveSync [microsoft.com], a protocol runs on top of http(s) to provide calendar and contacts synchronization and push email for mobile devices. It only requires an internet connection - unlike BlackBerry, which requires special network support.

On the client side, Exchange ActiveSync is implemented by the iPhone (since firmware 2.0), Windows Mobile devices, and some Sony Ericsson and Nokia devices. Microsoft Exchange is the most popular server, but other closed- (Zimbra) and open-source (Z-Push) implementations exist.

Re:woopee

[mathfeel]

I use scheduleworld.com and have pretty much given up of synchronizing with Gmail because every time I do it, Gmail complete mess up the first-name/middle-name/last-name of the contact because gmail assume that the display name is in the form of firstname lastname. Is this a nonissue with English-speaking world? Where I live, I want different display format for different names. F-L for Western names and L-F for Asian names. To me, Gmail contact is pretty feature-limited.

Re:Oops. Hell freezing over?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know anything about stock markets or codes but it appears JAVA is a stock code for Sun [google.com].

Re:Cue Activesync Connector for Android

[Daengbo]

Google Apps aren't beta for paying customers [slashdot.org]. Stop spreading FUD.

Re:Oops. Hell freezing over?

[lusidd]

Push e-mail is still not available (at least for a WM phone).

Re:Hah! That's a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

zimbra is opensource

Re:Why?

[dhavleak]

...It often has to be reinstalled...

...I just bought a CF card reader/writer for my HP PDA (compare 15 minutes to transfer an mp3 with ActiveSync to 10 seconds directly)...

It sounds like you're mistaking the Desktop ActiveSync program (now called WMDC) with Exchange Server ActiveSync (the protocol) that Google licensed. The ActiveSync protocol is one of the few things about Windows Mobile that Just Works.

not a standard at all

[speedtux]

And with this step, it *is* the de-facto standard.

No, it's not. It's only a standard for Microsoft and Apple mobile phones, and for Microsoft Exchange. There are a lot of people using those devices, but that doesn't make it a de-facto standard. For it to be a de-facto standard, there would have to be a lot of implementations of the protocol, and there aren't. SyncML may or may not have fewer users, but it has far more implementors.

Intersting thought, that the only thing being left of MSFT in a couple of years is a protocol to sync wireless clients to a server...

If Exchange goes away, ActiveSync becomes meaningless.

Re:Oops. Hell freezing over?

[molarmass192]

Well ... yes ... MS invented and implemented it as an ActiveX control. However, MS wasn't the first to integrate it natively into JavaScript, that honor goes to Mozilla. MS only followed suit in IE 7.0. On that note, we were leveraging dynamic image loading in JavaScript to do ajaxy things in HTML long before XMLHTTP ever came around.