activesync coming to the iphone?

So much for the lines. A buddy of mine just called, saying he waltzed into the Lenox Square Apple Store at 8pm EDT and simply asked for and was handed his iPhone. No camping required, which is a good thing, because his wife threatened legal action if any urban camping was involved in his quest for this gadget

Well, I may have to eat my words. First, ZDnet blogger Mary Jo Foley who covers Microsoft reports rumors of ActiveSync licensing to be announced at any time for the iPhone. That means, for those companies who enable this feature on their Exchange servers, OTA sync would be possible for email and calendars on the iPhone – glory be, hallelulia! I want to see Apple confirm this, but this basically blows away the issues around corporate integration. Second, uber-tech writer from the WSJ Walt Mossberg makes an offhand comment in his video review of the device that Exchange integration is possible “if your IT department cooperates by enabling a setting on the server.” Now he didn’t specifically talk about ActiveSync, and may have simply been referring to the capability of Exchange servers to support outside-the-firewall IMAP, but I am keeping my fingers crossed on iPhone & ActiveSync. Mary Jo reports confirmation in both the Times and WSJ on the issue of Exchange IMAP support, but still stands by her report that Microsoft is licensing ActiveSync for the device. And there is an outside chance the gadget fairy may bless me with one of these for testing. Now I’m interested again.

toss the booty

Wanted to pass along this nation-wide recall of what I know is the fave snack of a lot of the toddlers (and their parents) – Veggie Booty, produced by Robert’s American Gourmet. In a note from Robert (PDF, Adobe Acrobat required) says that they have decided to temporarily stop all manufacture and sale of the Veggie Booty product. They have more detail on this page as well. Per this story in the LA Times today,

Robert’s American Gourmet Food Inc. recalled all its Veggie Booty snacks across the U.S. and Canada because the mix might be contaminated with salmonella, regulators said Thursday.

Veggie Booty, which include both kale and spinach, seem like a sneaky way to make sure the little ones are getting vegetables when they snack, has been the subject of controversy in the past. Back in 2002, a Good Housekeeping staffer exposed their labeling as being inaccurate, reporting only a third of the actual fat content of the treats. They have also run afoul of other labeling around their Fruity Booty being ‘mostly’ fruit. Turned out that wasn’t entirely accurate either. Anyway, our just-opened bag of Pirate Booty (in the cheese flavor), another of their products, is going into the trash now, until we hear more.