Introducing: iPass Open Mobile v3.0 for iOS

Thursday, January 17th, 2013 Han Dong, Sr. Product Marketing Manager

A breakthrough in Wi-Fi connectivity for Open Mobile users across the globe..

Just last week, iPass released the latest release of our Open Mobile client for iOS (for Apple™ iPhone, iPad and iPod devices). Go to iTunes to download the latest version of Open Mobile for iOS today!

Why is this latest release so important?

iPass Open Mobile v3.0 for iOS represents a tremendous leap forward for Open Mobile users. It ensures a superior user connectivity experience that’s more simplified and automated than previous versions of the client.
iPass networks now become easier to identify for Open Mobile users who are looking for a trusted and known Wi-Fi connection wherever they travel.

Mobile users will now enjoy a radically simplified Wi-Fi connectivity experience (with Background authentication) when connecting to the iPass network; and users can take advantage of the seamless, high-performance Wi-Fi network of over one million hotspots around the world.

Highlights of the new features in Open Mobile v3.0 for iOS:

Enhanced network labeling:
Qualified iPass networks are annotated in a small footnote below the SSID to inform users which SSIDs are part of the iPass network. The enhanced network labeling allows users to make a clear and informed decision on which SSID to connect to. This takes the guesswork out of knowing the difference between an iPass SSID and an open broadcast SSID while still in Settings.

No more guesswork!

Open Mobile Notification messages:
By integrating the iPass Open Mobile client with the native iOS Notification Center, the Open Mobile for iOS client can alert Open Mobile users if additional action is required to complete a connection to iPass networks.
Faster time to connection!

Automatic background authentication:
The iPass Network authentication is now performed automatically in the background after a Wi-Fi connection has been established by the iOS Wi-Fi connection manager. This new feature eliminates the need for users to manually interact with the native iOS Wi-Fi connection manager (via the iOS “Settings”) in order to select, and then interact with the Open Mobile client to complete the authenticate.

iPass Open Mobile enables organizations to provide mobile employees with seamless connectivity to the world’s largest commercial Wi-Fi network of more than one million hotspots including in-flight, hotels, airports and commercial venues around the world. Our goal is to help users stay well connected wherever they go. Be sure to download the Open Mobile client for your smartphone and tablet today.

If you haven’t updated, or have a new iPhone or iPad, go to iTunes to download the latest version of Open Mobile for iOS today!

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Aerohive partners with iPass Managed Network Services

Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 Corey Fischer, VP, MNS Sales & Marketing

Today’s announcement is an exciting milestone for the Managed Network Services business of iPass.

We have been working with the Aerohive team for several months, and this new formal partnership paves the way forward for our customers to truly harness the benefits of a fully managed, business ready Wi-Fi solution. The market buzz around this Wi-Fi offering has never been louder. Our customers and prospects are inquiring about Wi-Fi strategies, designs and architectures to meet their specific needs.  The demand for seamless mobility with straightforward deployment, management and scalability are all critical to our  business enterprise and large venue clients.

Managed Wi-Fi services are in high demand at distributed retail, big box stores and real estate venues or shopping malls. This iPass MNS / Aerohive partnership provides a secure, distributed way to deliver a great user experience at an affordable price. We are not only seeing growth in the retail sector, but the healthcare, insurance and financial services markets are experiencing similar demand due to BYOD and mobile device explosion.

It’s truly a pivotal and exciting time for both the Aerohive and iPass MNS teams!  

Read the press release >>

Read more about iPass Managed Network Services >>

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Microsoft Surface Review: I got what I wanted

Thursday, November 1st, 2012 Chris Witeck, Director Product Marketing

We recently highlighted the fact that with our Open Mobile clients that we have full support for Windows 8. We’ve also expressed thoughts on what Windows 8 will mean for the mobile professional. In those posts we talk about how our customers are not rushing to Windows 8 on their IT managed laptops, but we are seeing curiosity on how Windows 8 performs on a tablet and how tablets running Windows 8 will have an impact on BYOD in the Enterprise. For this blog, I wanted to take a closer look at the new Microsoft Surface Tablet from the perspective of the mobile professional (Note: I am not expressing an official iPass opinion here, instead expressing my own opinion as the persona of a mobile professional).

First off, up to this point I was an avid iPad user. I liked the iPad, but always felt that it was not the perfect device for me. It was great for content consumption, but I never felt it could be a laptop replacement and instead became another device in my bag along with my laptop and phone. However, I’ve been interested in a device that could combine much of what I can do with a laptop with the portability and convenience of a tablet. So with that in mind I purchased a Microsoft Surface this week.

My thoughts? Let’s start with things my iPad could not do that I was hoping that my Surface could do:

1. Microsoft Office integration, or specifically for me access to PowerPoint and Excel
2. Easy access to my work files
3. Better multi-tasking

Now I know it is easy to nit with these as there are some options with the iPad, but none that I have ever been happy with. Now in using Surface, how close did I get to meeting these requirements?

In short- I got what I wanted.

1. Microsoft Office integration: the Microsoft Surface device available today with Microsoft RT has Microsoft Office bundled in, and it is not a stripped down version but a fully functional version. The real estate provided by the Surface screen doesn’t feel cramped in any way, so I can easily see this as something I could create and edit documents in that cramped coach seat flying across the country as well sitting in a hotel room. With the right adapter, using a projector to present a PowerPoint file should be easy.
2. Easy access to my work files: I know this is definitely possible with the iPad using cloud storage solutions such as Dropbox, but with the Surface you do have more options. Microsoft Surface makes it easy to set up a sync relationship between the Surface and another laptop with easy offline and online access to content via Microsoft SkyDrive. Additionally you can use file explorer to navigate to content on a network, something I often wished for on an iPad.
3. Better multi-tasking: I know with the iPad there is the concept of background tasks and app switching, but there is not an easy way to have two apps running simultaneously. With the Surface you actually can do that, have two apps running side by side. You can do this easily in the desktop mode where the environment is more like a laptop, but even with the new Windows 8 UI where you have the tiles across the screen, you can have two apps running side by side. This is useful if you are typing an email and want to have a web page as a reference right next by.

Other things I liked:

• The keyboard that comes with the Surface is really good, folds into the cover and is very convenient. I typed this blog entry on the Surface keyboard and find it much easier for typing than the iPad screen. I would not list this as a big advantage as you can get keyboards for the iPad if you really need one.
• A lot has been said that the Surface has a lower screen resolution than the iPad, but frankly I found the Surface screen to be impressive.
• So far the battery life is impressive. This would have been a deal breaker for me as one reason for having a tablet is to get that 9-10 hours of battery life.
• The browser is a pro and a con. The pro is that this is a fully functional browser with better support for web sites than what you often see on the iPad. However, the con is that the browser is Microsoft Internet Explorer. I’ve not used IE in a long time and even on the Surface it just feels slow compared to something like Google Chrome. Perhaps Google will make a version of Chrome available at some point, but I have a feeling that Microsoft may make that a challenge.
• The iPass Open Mobile for Windows Touch client just looks awesome on a Surface (I had to get an iPass plug in here somewhere). It is the perfect accessory for the mobile traveler who needs convenient access to Wi-Fi (Note: you do need to be an iPass customer in order to have access to the iPass Mobile Network of Wi-Fi hotspots). Even if you are not an iPass user I’d would recommend anyone to check out the Open Mobile for Windows Touch app- the ‘Speed Test’ capability on the Open Mobile client is worth the download alone and can be used without being an iPass customer.

So to summarize, is this an iPad killer?

So far this sounds like a glowing endorsement of the Microsoft Surface. However, I will say that I don’t see it as an iPad killer, but it may take a bite out of some of the iPad market. Why is that? I think the Surface is a great device and will find its niche, but I see it as something that mobile professionals will gravitate towards but the broad consumer market will continue to look at the iPad. Why is that? To start with, the availability of apps in the Windows store is very limited, but that could be a short term concern as the app ecosystem is built out.

However, more importantly there is much that the iPad just makes easy. With the iPad you have this whole concept of using iTunes to manage content from a laptop to an iPhone or iPad. There is not that type of equivalent on the Surface. Managing movies, pictures, videos and music I think is not as intuitive on the Surface. If I had a friend or family member who is not a proficient laptop user, I may steer them towards an iPad instead of a Surface.

If all I want to do is consume content, I probably would have stuck with the iPad. I think those who want to have both a content consumption and content creation device are in the minority. However, the question is how sizable is that minority. That I don’t know, but if you count yourself as part of that minority then I recommend you take a look at the Microsoft Surface (just don’t forget to download the iPass Open Mobile Client)

[Created with Microsoft OneNote 2010]

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iPass Open Mobile and Windows 8

Monday, October 29th, 2012 Chris Witeck, Director Product Marketing

We’ve talked about the impact of Windows 8 before on this blog discussing the impact of Windows 8 and the new Microsoft Surface device on the business/mobile worker.

Since that time I’ve had a chance to discuss these points with many of our customers. What I’ve consistently heard is that our customers are not in a rush to support Windows 8 on their standard IT-managed laptops, but I’ve also seen plenty of curiosity on the impact of Windows 8 on tablets, either impacting the organization’s BYOD policies as employees potentially bring in their own Windows 8 device or as competition to iPads and Android tablets for IT-provisioned tablets.

Well we’ve now arrived at the launch of Windows 8/Windows RT and an interesting array of devices, including Microsoft Surface. And to coincide with this launch I’m pleased to announce that iPass has support for Windows 8 with our iPass Open Mobile clients. Any customer who is using Open Mobile today will be able to provide Windows 8 support to users via our brand new Open Mobile client v1.0 for Windows Touch or via our updated Open Mobile client v2.3 for Windows.

Why two client versions? That has a lot to do with the different user experiences Microsoft is offering with Windows 8. I’ll describe the differences briefly below:

The new Open Mobile client v1.0 for Windows Touch is available for devices running Windows 8 or Windows RT and can be found at the Windows Store. This client, screenshot below, provides a brand new Windows 8 optimized user interface and provides connectivity to the iPass Mobile Network along with great user tools such as the iPass Hotspot Finder and Speed Test (which allows users to determine the quality of their current connection).

The upgraded iPass Open Mobile Client v2.3 for Windows is only available for devices running Windows 8 (it is not available for devices running Windows RT) and offers the full connectivity management experience that Open Mobile has provided with previous versions of Windows. This version is not available from the Windows Store and instead is distributed via standard Windows client distribution methods (so basically whatever method our customers use to distribute software to their Windows laptops). A user can launch the Open Mobile client from the new Windows 8 UI, and upon launching the client will see the traditional look/feel for Open Mobile appear.

So no matter what type of Windows 8 device a user is using, iPass has you covered. It will be interesting to see what type of traction Windows 8 gets with mobile professionals, but it is nice to know that if our customers see a bunch of new devices coming in with their employees in the coming weeks that iPass has them covered.

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Deploying Open Mobile and Wi-Fi for smartphones (last of 5-part series)

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012 Han Dong, Sr. Product Marketing Manager

We had quite a break from our Top 5 list for showing the value of deploying Open Mobile and using Wi-Fi for smartphones. For our fifth and final reason, we wanted to offer reason not only for the end user, but for IT especially.  

5. Premium “command and control” services + Integration with Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions

iPass is not just a Wi-Fi network service.  We also offer a broad range of services designed to assist IT managers to control the deployment, provisioning, access, and cost of Wi-Fi for mobile workers.  The Open Mobile portal provides the dashboard for Administrators to rapidly create and customize Open Mobile profiles that define the user access and experience for multiple departments and/or groups within the organization.  These profile(s) help IT manage the wireless access and costs incurred by specific categories of mobile users – from global executives to regional sales and field support personnel. 

Additionally, iPass has relationships with leading MDM vendors such as MobileIron, to develop integrated solutions of connectivity, provisioning, and secure device management to assist larger organizations who are deploying smartphones and tablets across the enterprise.

Thanks for staying tuned with us and our 5 main reasons for deploying Open Mobile!

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