Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer opened the software giant's TechEd 2005 conference by announcing a Messaging and Security Feature Pack for Windows Mobile 5.0, to ship alongside Service Pack 2 for Exchange Server 2003 late this year. In addition to better data security and device management for IT execs, the upgrade will give Windows Mobile smartphones BlackBerry-style automatic delivery and synchronization of Microsoft Outlook e-mail, calendar, contacts, and task information.

What Microsoft calls Direct Push Technology makes a direct connection between Exchange Server and Windows Mobile devices, with no need for additional servers or middleware. Integrated with the Office Mobile suite in Windows Mobile 5.0, it promises to replace plain text e-mail with a familiar Outlook experience including rich e-mail formatting with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, music, and video attachments. Microsoft adds that Outlook data sent between Exchange Server and a Windows Mobile device is significantly compressed, yielding network bandwidth savings of 35 to 50 percent.

In addition, Microsoft says it'll meet businesses' request for over-the-air lookup of global address list info stored on Exchange Server, bringing full contact details of coworkers to the Windows Mobile smartphone.

The Messaging and Security Feature Pack will also let IT managers manage and enforce corporate policies and exception lists over the air; wipe all information from and reset lost or stolen remote devices; and replace password access and corporate login credentials with native support for certificate-based authentication.