April 11 - 9:45pm EDT   Softhing this week unveiled the Entourage Exchange Accounts Optimizer 1.1, an update to its application designed to optimize Exchange servers by defining a maximum amount of time a user wishes for mail to remain on the server. The update is free for existing users, adding several internal improvements, Exchange account definitions, a 10 minute timeout, and compatibility with Entourage 12.0.1 and Mac OS X 10.5.2 Leopard. EEAO v1.1 is available for $15. [full story]

March 21 - 8:05pm EDT  CommuniGate Systems recently announced that it is ready to supply iPhone users with push mail, calendar, and contact syncing using over-the-air Airsync, without requiring a Microsoft Exchange server. The software, called CommuniGate Pro also works with both Linux and Windows systems, as well as the Mac. While pricing and availability for the service was not available, CommuniGate showed Communigate Pro at its booth at the VON.x Expo. [full story]

March 7 - 10:05am EST   Apple's press event yesterday inspires greater confidence in the company's sales targets for 2008, say analysts with Piper Jaffray. The research group notes that it is particularly excited by the prospect of the SDK and the App Store, which, come June, should liberate iPhone users from the restrictions and speeds of current web-based applications. Piper describes the new iPhone as a "full-fledged mobile computing platform," and expects Apple to follow up with a "full family" of Internet-capable devices going into the future. [full story]

March 7 - 10:05am EST   Yesterday's "iPhone Software Roadmap" event raised analysts' faith in AAPL stock, with Shaw Wu of American Technology Research reiterating a "buy" rating and a price target of $175. According to Wu, Apple had met and exceeded expectations with its "superior" implementation of ActiveSync. Apple's method eliminates separate server software, while also providing a direct connection to the server, rather than through a third-party network operations center. [full story]

March 6 - 1:20pm EST   Apple today announced that it is implementing ActiveSync for Exchange mail support on its iPhone. The word came today during a planned meeting at the company's Cupertino campus, where Apple promised to discuss the future of software on the iPhone. ActiveSync for Exchange mail support, or 'push' mail, comes alongside promises of improved security for the mobile handset, according to phonemag. Stanford University has already purchased hundreds of iPhones for faculty and students, according to Apple, and the Cupertino-based company promised built-in Cisco IPsec VPN capability with certificates and identities with WPA2/802.11x. [updated] [full story]

February 29 - 10:15am EST   Apple will announce tight regulation of iPhone applications at its March 6th SDK event, say several anonymous sources. Although the SDK has been hotly anticipated as a means of turning iPhones into handheld computers, Apple will for various reasons restrict how iPhone software operates and is distributed. Users will for instance have to acquire applications through the iTunes Store, instead of through independent websites, where it may sometimes be more convenient. [full story]

February 28 - 10:10am EST   The special event Apple has planned for March 6th will likely introduce better corporate e-mail support, argues Shaw Wu of American Technology Research. The analyst cites "industry and developer sources," who say that Apple has been conducting months of beta testing in order to make the iPhone function properly with Microsoft ubiquitous Exchange Server technology. The same sources suggest that support is imminent for Lotus Notes, for which IBM has confirmed that a web client is in development. [full story]