Chronicles of a Windows Mobile User Gone Palm Pre (part 2)

In part 1 I talked about the initial set-up experience on the Palm Pre and my frustration with the Exchange set up. A guest commenter mentioned that you can actually install custom security certificates on the Palm Pre. It's a bit hard to find. You have to go to Device Info, then "More Info", then the menu in the upper left, then "Certificate Manager". From there you'll be able to install a certificate if you've copied it to your device.



This was good news. However, since I didn't have the USB cable with me, I would have to find another way to transfer the security certificate to the Palm Pre. On Windows Mobile, there are a number of ways to wirelessly access and transfer files. Normally my first try would be to beam the file via Bluetooth, however the Pre does not support Bluetooth file transfer profiles. On Windows Mobile, I could also access my network file shares over WiFi using the File Explorer and copy files to my device that way. Or I could log into a server using the Remote Desktop Client, map my phone's memory as a network drive and copy files that way. Or I could use Live Mesh beta to syncronize files to my device over any network. The Pre isn't capable of any of those methods.

It turns out, I had to browse to the certificate on my HTC Touch Diamond with File Explorer, then send that as a file attachment to myself on email. The only other option would be to go get the USB cable. Opening the certificate from the email address installed it directly, but I was unable to save the file to the Palm Pre's file system if I needed it in the future.

After the certificate installed, I figured everything would be great when I went to set up the Exchange account again. After all, using the same certificate on all of my Windows Mobile devices always lets me enable SSL and secure syncing. No such luck with the Palm Pre unfortunately. I still recieved the Error: "SSL certificate error. Is the date and time correct?"

Should I give up on secure Exchange Activesync? Perhaps so. Next up, we'll be looking at some of the great usability features in the WebOS.