Alex Fauske is a genius – we love what he did for us!
ActiveSync
TouchDown for Windows 8.1updates
Our Windows developer has been working like crazy adding in more features and fixing the bugs on our latest platform added to the TouchDown family – Windows 8.1.
Currently, the focus is on stabilization of the app and making it more even responsive. The next release, after the holidays, should show a huge improvement! In the meantime, small bugs are being fixed now and new versions are being added to the Windows store on a weekly basis.
We are also adding user settings such as Calendar view settings, what working hours are, etc – simple ways to customize how TouchDown for Windows looks and works for you. Which brings me to the exiting part:
Now is your big chance!! Add comments to this blog post about what features you want to see or change, and we’ll see what we can get in to the next big release in January. This is your opportunity to shape this app and make it work just how you want – how often does that happen??
TouchDown for Windows 8.1: Swiping and Drag and Drop
The new TouchDown for Windows 8.1 has some awesome new features that you can utilize with a mouse or your touchscreen…here’s a quick demo:
What do you think?
TouchDown for Windows 8.1 arrives November 4th
We at NitroDesk are *SUPER* excited to be launching TouchDown for Windows 8.1 next Monday (November 4th, 2013). It has been an exciting year of launching TouchDown across several platforms, and Windows 8.1 promises to be exciting, useful and of course, features all of our usual security measures. TouchDown for Windows has a new facelift, with an elegantly clean UI that beautifully utilizes touch screens with the same great reliability our TouchDown users are accustomed to.
Here are a few new features to look forward to:
- Rich text editing when composing an email
- Drag and drop emails when moving to different folders
- Arranging your working view (using the splitters)
- New contact list management
The upcoming version (by the end of Nov. ) will include additional features that will be supported only in Windows 8.1 such as:
- Live tiles with mail and calendar updates
- Color Themes
- New configuration and flash screen
- Folder management (create, delete, rename your email folder)
- Group contacts
More importantly, here is YOUR chance to tell us what additional features you want to see in this product – we love to include features that help our loyal users, so send us your ideas and we will try to incorporate them.
Why TouchDown for Mac?
Today we get to hear straight from the mind of our developer himself!
Why TouchDown for Mac?
Some of you may wonder why NitroDesk, traditionally a mobile email product developer, would build a Mac version of TouchDown. TouchDown has traditionally been available on mobile platforms Android and iOS, but Mac is really a desktop platform. So what gives?
Last year when we switched from a pure android shop to build an iOS version, it forced some of us to start using Macs as our desktops (it’s hard to build an iOS app on a Windows desktop). Initially we got by installing parallels on the Mac and with using Outlook. We also had the native Mac client syncing our emails. But eventually we got tired of having to switch between Mac and Windows just to do everything unrelated to development (performance issues due to the two OSs, and the fact that we use Eclipse on Windows to build our android app was another reason – there are several legacy reasons why we could not switch to Eclipse on the Mac). So, we switched from Parallels to BootCamp to dual boot Win8 and Mac on the same computer. That made life easy in some ways (we could actually boot back and forth and get the job done – Eclipse would actually run in Win8 on bootcamp). Personally the best windows PC I have used is a Mac PowerBook Retina (shhh, don’t tell anyone).
This was a good move in a sense. This helped us focus on one platform at a time. The pain of rebooting to switch from iOS to Android was enough to prevent our minds from wandering.
But it caused a couple of problems
- We would get a notification of emails on our mobile devices as soon as mail arrived. However, if the mail required us to write a reply from a computer, we had to wait and wait until Mac Email finally received the message. This was most frustrating for email junkies like us who needed to finish responding so we could move on to the next task.
- Tooling around in the Mac partition, we discovered this:
Every email received in the Mac Mail app was in plain view in Windows, when using Boot camp. While promiscuous sharing like this between platforms was just great when we need to copy files over from one platform to another, we were not too thrilled with the implications of this (each .emlx file contains the received message in base 64 encoding), which had some serious implications – consider this not too uncommon scenario:
Your CFO is traveling with a MacBook Air and an iPad. You have spent some serious coin on an MDM that would protect the email content on the iPad (probably even mandated the use of TouchDown and an MDM on your iPad). So your corporate data is more secure than Fort KNOX, with a GATE around it. Lose that iPad? You can whip out your cannon and do a remote wipe on it, disable it and nuke it to kingdom come. BUT what happens when he loses the MacBook Air? The MacBook probably syncs with either outlook or Mac Mail. It has waaay more data (no control on email history to download to it) than the mobile device you just nuked. This time around, all you can do is pray for the finder to simply format it rather than trying to get the data out.
YES, laptops are MOBILE! And Macs are vulnerable when they have a partition!
Consider this other scenario:
Your employees use Macs. Every email they send or receive is in that directory in plain text. Any application they may have downloaded from the internet (you can side load applications with no restriction on what they can do) can contain a Trojan which looks for the Mac Mail directory, enumerating, reading and decoding emails, contacts, calendar, notes etc, looking for passwords, credit-card numbers, (PHI if you are a hospital).
This was indeed an OH CRAP moment for us. We have been working hard for the past five years to protect your corporate information, and still we haven’t done enough for our corporate customers.
Hence TouchDown for Mac.
With TouchDown for Mac, all the data in the application is encrypted, so no other application can read or decode it easily. Without explicit user action, none of the email data or attachments can leak outside the protected sandbox we place around it. And no, They cannot be viewed in Windows if you dual boot. Boot away 🙂 “And there’s more!”
…and all the nice tweaks and productivity measures we have added to our mobile apps, and a future resplendent with new ways to work with your corporate email account. (GTD, MYN ? anyone?)
…and PUSH email with an exchange client without being limited to an IMAP connection.
…and the ability for you to import SMIME certs to the application sandbox (not the whole computer) and have touchdown use those to encrypt and sign your emails.
…and the ability to set your OOF.
…and the fact that it may even be a viable solution for implementing the Direct Project (http://directproject.org/content.php?key=overview) – Physicians love Macs (at least mine does), and if we can get them to communicate via secure email, we would have done some good.
Well then, Why NOT TouchDown for Mac!
-g
Mobile Spaces and NitroDesk collaborate to provide robust mobile security
Out on the wires…
SILVER SPRING, MD – September 19, 2013 – Leading mobile security companies MobileSpaces and NitroDesk announced today a technology partnership to provide enterprises with a much more robust mobile security solution. By harnessing the power of iOS 7, the companies have integrated NitroDesk’s Touchdown application with the MobileSpaces workspace to remove the need and limitations of any proprietary SDK to secure mobile devices. In fact, IT admins can now fully automate the provisioning of corporate email with any other enterprise app by simply assigning NitroDesk’s Touchdown application, the leading Microsoft® Exchange ActiveSync® solution for securing corporate email on mobile devices, to any MobileSpaces workspace.
The release of iOS 7 simplifies how IT organizations secure and deploy apps on Apple devices, eliminating the need for proprietary app ecosystems that limit app choice. Now enterprises have a standard method for securing their apps in a native container, as well as a seamless way to configure those apps for work use, giving them the freedom to create custom business workflows.
By using Touchdown, IT now has the foundational app necessary to secure every employee while the MobileSpaces workspace will give them the flexibility to provide each employee with the additional apps they need for their job.
“Now users can utilize the most secure and feature packed Exchange ActiveSync client in the world while using the MDM features provided by Apple, Inc while requiring no additional hardware infrastructure. This is a huge win for cost-conscious IT departments” says Ron Goins, COO of NitroDesk Inc
MobileSpaces 2.0 combines Apple’s iOS7 app management capabilities with app virtualization technology for Android to create a trusted BYOD workspace that supports any mobile app on any device. Now enterprises have a uniform way to secure and configure mobile apps on iPhone, iPad and Android devices allowing enterprises to focus on choosing apps for business and not worry about devices.
“MobileSpaces is pleased to be working with NitroDesk and we are excited that it demonstrates the new norm in mobile app security and provisioning,” said David Goldschlag, former VP Mobile at McAfee and now MobileSpaces CEO and co-founder. “The plug and play way our solutions work together unlocks the full potential of the mobile app economy and gives enterprises the freedom to choose any mobile app for work.”
For more information on how MobileSpaces 2.0 secures and empowers the app-centric enterprise, please visit MobileSpaces.com.
More on TouchDown:
With TouchDown, NitroDesk brings a cost-effective solution to IT departments – a completely secure email and productivity client utilizing Exchange ActiveSync that allows users to BYOD no matter what the device is, from Mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, to desktops. TouchDown keeps enterprise and personal data separate, and includes features such as remote wipe of enterprise-only data, AES-256 Encryption for an added layer of security, and support for Information Rights Management (IRM) and Data Loss Protection policies.
“TouchDown on iOS7 now features TouchDown Nudge; Nudge incorporates the iOS7’s new battery optimized Background fetch technology to keep corporate data updated on the device without manual intervention.” says Ron Goins, COO of NitroDesk Inc
About NitroDesk Inc.
Founded in May 2008, NitroDesk Inc. is the developer of TouchDown, a popular application that lets users synchronize their Android, iOS and Windows 8 and Windows RT powered devices with corporate email, contacts and calendar on their Microsoft ® Exchange Servers. NitroDesk currently operates its head office in Bellevue, Washington.
About MobileSpaces
MobileSpaces helps enterprises mobilize their applications, govern their data, and respect the privacy of their employees. MobileSpaces offers a BYOD policy-managed workspace for iOS and Android that protects mobile enterprise apps and data against loss and leakage. Founded in 2011 (as CellSec) by experienced enterprise security executives and engineers from McAfee and Check Point Software, MobileSpaces is headquartered outside of Washington, DC, has offices near Tel-Aviv, Israel, and is backed by Accel Partners and Marker LLC. Learn more at MobileSpaces.com.
What do we have here?
That appears to be a Sony Smartwatch 2…with TouchDown synced. Oh, yes, yes it is.
Yes, its secure – and really geeky cool. Live updates, on your wrist. Oh, the choices!!
Support for the Sony Smartwatch TouchDown is live now – and support for the Galaxy Gear is in development, and will be live shortly after release. We can not confirm or deny our work for the iWatch…….
TouchDown for Mac – Custom notifications
Despite working on the UI on the Mac version of TouchDown, there are still fun features that Goutham (who built it) surprised me with – especially my new favorite feature, the custom notification feature.
I like to know when I have new email, and since I am often working on a Mac desktop, a Macbook air and a Samsung PC all at the same time, (meaning my eyes aren’t always staring at the inbox), I LOVE that I can create sound notifications. Not the boring “Ding” that says you have a new email, but awesome, completely custom, speech notifications, PER account. So lets says I have my main inbox, which just happens to be my name @nitrodesk.com. I might have it say “Heh, you have mail.” or if Im having a bad day, I might even have it say “You are amazing” everytime I receive an email.
The coolest part is not the self-esteem booster, but the fact that I can then go to my second and their and fourth account that I have configured for Touchdown, and give each one a different sound/speech notification. So for my support email I may have it say “check support email.” So whether I am pouring over the PC working on some Windows 8 design issue, or having a snack in the lunchroom, I know exactly what account just landed an email that needs my attention.
Want to know who the email is from or who sent it? You can do that too. Here’s how:
In general, you will want to select the account you want to change the notification for – below, I have selected my main account, Daniela@nitro….
1. Click on Settings Icon (lower left hand corner)
2. Click on Notifications, making sure its the Notifications tab under the account you want to amend.
3. Select the Speak radio Button
4. Enter what you want it to say when you receive a new email in the “Speech String” box
5. If you are feeling down, have it say something positive about you, and send yourself email (ok, maybe that’s me…)
Differentiating notifications between accounts
If you want to have a different notification for additional accounts you have configured on your TouchDown for Mac, simply click on that account (mine is blank in this example) and repeat steps 1-4 above. Easy Peasy!!
To get even more details, like WHO sent the email, or the title of the email, repeat steps 1-3, and then:
4. If you want to hear the sender, write something like “Message from” (or email from) and then write “from” like this: %from% An example would be “Email from %from%”
5. If you want to hear the subject of the email, write something like “email titled %subject%”
You can even do both, such as “You have an email from %from% with the subject %subject%”
SO whether you want differentiate your incoming email with speech notifications, boost your self-esteem or TouchDown tell you what the subject line is, this is one cool feature I am already hooked on.
Let me know what you think, and what your notification is.
TouchDown for Mac is here
So here at TouchDown, we are thrilled that we launched our Beta version of Touchdown! Here are the details !!
Have you been dying for a completely secure Mac Productivity client?
– Everything is encrypted, regardless of your server or technology
– Use of PIN when mandated by server administrator or MDM
– SMIME and IRM, per-email signing and encryption
– Native AES-256 Encryption on the data at rest! (this means other apps only see an encrypted blob of data)
– Selective remote wipe if your device is lost or compromised – only corporate data is removed.
– Support for client certs when connecting to server
TouchDown for Mac has many more features than are available on Mac Mail or any other third party Exchange solution:
– ActiveSync push for lightning fast access to your corporate data
– Supports Microsoft Information Rights Management Server
– Incredible price – no monthly charges, lifetime license includes all upgrades.
– User-selectable themes, with quarterly updates
– Ability to search the server for email not synced to a device
– GAL searches
– Quick Replies when you simply want to send a one-liner
– Great UI – easy to read, sort and respond to mail efficiently while still having familiar MacOS interface elements
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The bad news about “single click” logins
We are all super busy, running from one place to the next, texting our spouse as we walk to the car and sending an email at the red traffic light (only at a red traffic light, correct?) So yes, it is tempting to give in to all those supposed time savers like ‘one click’ log-ins. But do they make your information vulnerable? Craig Young from Tripwire thinks so.Young reports that the popular ‘weblogin,’ which allows users to use their Google account credentials as authentication for third-party apps may seem secure because its not sharing the username and password itself; instead it creates a token to represent the your login details. Google Apps are very popular across businesses of any almost any size due to their low cost, apparent security and ease of access. However, the use of Google Apps on mobile devices (In this case, an Android device) was demonstrated to have some vulnerabilities by Young at this month DefCon21.
To demonstrate, Young created an Android app that asks for access to the user’s Google account to display stocks from Google Finance. Once you grant the app permission, the app creates a token to access the data. This makes you feel safe and secure because its not passing on your actual username and password. However, the evil app sends the issued token to the hacker who created it, who can then directly paste it into a web session, providing access to everyone of your Google Services. No, not just the Google Finance App you gave permission to use, but Google Calendar, Google Docs, and even your Gmail. Ooops.
It gets worse if you are an administrator for a Google Service – once the hacker can get into your information they can change your passwords and otherwise take control of every account which you administer, not to mention read private company data. Which gets me to the more important point: Why is anyone who is remotely concerned about the safety of their email data not using a self-contained email service that doesn’t allow web-logins, single clicks and other vulnerability causing services? If you are the owner, manager, or client/patient of a business, are you concerned about what security holes the business’ employees are causing when they ‘sign in with Facebook’ or “Google one click” on their Android device while watching their sons T-ball game? We have to balance our thirst for ease of access with our need to not only keep our information private, but that of our clients and our work’s clients. Mobile devices are what allow us the freedom to balance work and play, to multi-task, to keep every client and friend in constant contact. But it is so easy to forget about workplace ethics (including security) wen we’re enjoying that Corona at the Park, checking email to keep up, but taking shortcuts to ‘make it easier.’
So stop using shortcuts, and most importantly, use self-contained data environments (especially for email) that don’t allow other applications on your mobile device to interact with it. If it’s too easy for you to access, its probably too easy for someone else to access too.