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I LOVE my iPhone. I have more stories about how handy the device is and how it would seriously be tough for me to live without it.

Since AT&T announced that it is now available on their corporate plans AND since Lotus announced support for the iPhone, my inbox has been flooded with questions from employees asking when they can get one.

In the last few years, I’ve spent a lot of time researching solutions to deliver mobile phone functionality for our users. In the end, we went with GOOD (now from Motorola). Their software is amazing, especially with Notes/Domino. Email arrives on your phone faster than it does in your Notes client (even when plugged directly into the network and working off the server). Contacts work seamlessly and the calendar is outstanding. The interface for GOOD is consistent across every device that is supported, so its easy for people to change phones. And, the administration of it is very simple (read: doesn’t take time for an Admin to manage at all!)

As much as I love the iPhone – it doesn’t do any of the above items NEARLY as well as our other mobile devices using GOOD software. In short, the problems that remain for Domino users wanting to use the iPhone include:

• Email requires IMAP to be running on the Domino server (and takes up more CPU than it should to do it) and doesn’t delete messages (even when running it in the “Exchange” mode I’ve read about).
• Email arrives only when the phone goes to check for it (every X-minutes).
• Every calendar entry needs to be exported out of Notes and into Apple’s iCal, then you have to sync.
• Changes to a contact (or new ones) need to be exported out of Notes into Apple’s Address Book, then you have to sync.
• Sync’ing only happens when you plug in the iPhone.
• The Notes support will be in the form of an ultra-light DWA (Domino Web Access) website, which means you have to go look and find contacts, calendar entries and email (and most likely, log in each time). Ignoring the fact that its annoying to have to do all that, the iPhone still is an EDGE device and is much slower than its 3G counterparts.

Now, I tolerate all of that because I really use the heck outta my iPhone and because I already use the Apple address book and iCal for other reasons (which may go away as the Notes client gets better with supporting iCal subscriptions – posting and subscribing). But for all other users in my company, I simply can’t recommend the device as being “better” than what they have now – for their business purposes.

It pains me to say that. But today, its true.

Holy crap, I’m running Notes 8.5 (beta) on my Mac.

This is impressive in many ways, but I’ll focus on two for the moment:

1. I was able to complete the download while at the conference – I’m convinced the internet works differently down here.
2. I was brave (or silly) enough to do the upgrade while off-site, at a conference.

So far, it really is impressive. It works just as well as the version of 8 I’ve (sort of) played around with in Windows. I finally feel like my Mac’s version of Notes is current (and HOW current it is – considering its the 8.5 beta!)

I’ve often said (including in my Podcast on many occasions) that there are precious few places in Walt Disney World to get a GOOD cup of coffee. Lotusphere complicates that problem by mass-producing Starbucks coffee and doing a “just OK” job of spacing out the locations where you can get some (read: they’re hard to find and once you do, they’re busy).

But today, I discovered the key to getting a good (note I didn’t say “great”) cup of coffee while at Lotusphere … go to the Yacht Club convention area. In one of the main hallways they have a very small coffee stand with Starbucks coffee, cream, sugar AND flavor shots! It makes a big improvement to the standard convention-coffee.

From Lotusphere 2008…

This was the single session I was most excited to attend at Lotusphere this year. The session was well attended by an always passionate group of Mac users. However, this year it seemed to also include people that need to start supporting the increase in Mac interest they are seeing in their company.

The big focus here was on the Mac 8.5 beta that is now available. Other major items from the session included:

• Symphony is in a pre-beta build but will be available ~2H of 2008
• The delay in 8.0.1 for the Mac was due largely to the delay of Leopard. The team chose to focus on 8.5 instead (which explains why you can get your hands on that beta version but not the upcoming release of 8.0.1 that will go to Windows in Feb.)
• Domino Web Access (DWA) works well with Firefox and the team is committed to better support in Safari 3.0.
• Sametime 8.0 supports video. In the second half of 2008, it will also support web conferencing.
• Quickr (web) works today. Support for plug-ins is to be determined (but the group applauded loudly on the suggestion that Quickr plug-ins should be a high priority).

The session wrapped with a nice demo of the Notes 8.5 client in the Mac. In short, it looks and acts just like it’s Windows counterpart. The team is also focused on making it more Mac-esque through things like Command function support and default mail app selection ability (making Notes your default mail program).

Finally, there was one question (and some applause to it) about if Lotus will port the Domino server to run natively on the Mac Leopard XServe server. The answer was “no” with the added comment that Lotus isn’t sure how much demand there is for that. — An arguement I’ve heard over and over again.

As someone who manages an IT department with data centers world-wide, I can honestly say that the ability to run Domino on the Leopard server would be HUGE. It would reduce licensing costs (Windows CALs), improve management ability (you can manage the Apple OS via their tools, which are easy and powerful, especially for remote site management), and I would assume that there would be a performance and stability improvement considering how solid the Mac server O/S remains.

Clearly there’s a need to define the value proposition and strategy behind why Lotus should focus on this concept. Call me, I’ll help.

All in all, I felt this was a great session that hit dead-on with the needs of Mac users in the business. There is still much desire in the community for even more (we want it now, we also want the Designer and Admin clients, we want better support for the iPhone, etc.). But it was the first time I can ever remember that IBM/Lotus really made a statement even close to: “we are committed to supporting the Mac – and not as a secondary O/S that we wish we didn’t have to pay attention to.”

That attitude has clearly started to change and the proof is available now as a download!

Much to my surprise, Lotus announced the availability of an 8.5 beta for the Mac. I would have it downloaded by now if it wasn’t for an issue with my internet connection in my hotel room and my inability to get my new AT&T 3G card to work properly. However, if you’re not as “internet challenged” as I am (and, if you have a Mac), then maybe you’d like the link to the beta.

I’ve just left the 2008 Lotusphere Opening General Session (2nd session). I have to say that this was the most exciting start to a Lotusphere I’ve ever seen. The Orlando Symphony Orchestra played some great songs while the screens all around featured a theme of “from individual actions, larger patterns emerge.”

As everyone sat down, there was a playbill on our seats that described the “symphony” we were all about to see. It talked about a symphony in three movements:

1. From individual actions, larger patterns emerge
2. A myriad of possibility
3. It all works together

A this point, I was pretty dang impressed. This appeared to be the cohesive direction I’ve wanted Lotus to have for years. It looked like the start of a synchronized marketing campaign that would end the day showing me how all these applications worked seamlessly together.

And for the most part, that’s exactly what they did. The OGS whipped through the entire line of Lotus products and did a good job of showing how they all integrate together. I think the concept could have been a bit tighter – the playbill suggested they would be a bit more explicit about walking through those concepts as they talked about each application. It was left to each attendee to figure out the tie to those concepts themselves … which is fine.

Other interesting topics (random):

• Notes and SAP have an application that allows you to access SAP via Notes (which would be cool, if we used SAP)
• Notes 8.5 is coming out … sometime … this year.
• Notes 8.0.1 is coming out … sometime … this year … before 8.5.
• A Mac version of 8.5 will come out after its released for every other O/S under the planet … but the beta is available now (guess what I’m doing tonight!)
• Sametime is focusing on becoming the core of your telephony infrastructure. It promises to work with a mix of PBX and VoIP vendors without extensive rip-n-replace. The demos looks promising. Of course, no costs or ETAs were discussed.
• Domino Web Access is getting redone to look like Notes 8 (which is brilliant – I never understood why it looked different). DWA also gets a light and super-light mode, the latter will work on the iPhone (but that means you have to connect to the web and log in to get stuff on your iPhone, not quite the integrated solution I had hoped for).
• Lots of performance improvements on the road for 8.X
• Symphony will integrate with lots of Notes stuff – I’m anxious to go to some sessions and find out exactly what that means; but its nice to hear they are talking about doing that!
• Quickr 8.1 will come out in March. A demo was then done of a future version of Quickr (so, apparently 8.1, which isn’t out yet, isn’t the “future”)
• Lots of people started to leave the room when they began talking about Websphere Portal. Even more left when they started to talk about Lotus Connections. — I always find that to be an interesting indicator of what people are curious/interested in.

Lots of other updates, but those are my main thoughts thus far…

Since the iPhone was announced, I’ve written about:

• My first impressions with the iPhone
• An anticipated product that connects Notes to the iPhone
• My experiences with connection Lotus Notes to the iPhone

And now, I can stop. IBM announced that they will announce an announcement (yeah, you read that right) at Lotusphere next week about the ability to run Lotus Notes ON the iPhone. This is HUGE news! It suggests that I’ll be able to have my entire Lotus Notes experience on the iPhone.

I can’t believe that! So I’m going to not hold my breath and hope for 1/4 of that statement to actually be delivered. That way, I won’t be disappointed and I’ll still be thrilled. Either way, you know I’ll be blogging about it the moment the announcement is announced (yeah, you read that right, too).

But that’s not all! They’ve also announced to announce (ever see “Oceans 13″ where one of the characters says “Soft opening. Grand opening. In my time, one day the place was closed the next it was open. That’s it!” — I’m starting to feel like that right now) an availability of IBM Lotus Symphony for the Mac. That, too is HUGE news!

I’m SOOOO glad to see these announcements and it really makes me think that IBM/Lotus is way more on the right track then I’ve given them credit for. I sincerely hope they do a great job with these announcements AND follow up with some solid software AND tell the world about all of it so everyone knows that Lotus products are very much alive and groundbreaking.

Lightening round of some of my favorite new news from MacWorld:

• New iPhone updates that allow you to do things like move icons & pinpoint where you are on Google Maps
• iTunes movie rentals
• Updates for AppleTV
• Time Capsule – NAS device for backing up via TimeMachine
• and my favorite: MacBook Air a ridiculously thin new Mac w/ some awesome specs

Here’s an image of one of the most clever features (I think) on this new Mac. I bet some Mac designer was inspired while he sat on an Airbus A319.

I decided that its time for me to try VMware’s version of a Mac virtual environment. I’ve been using Parallels, which I love, but an odd networking bug has finally gotten on  my nerves enough to do something about it. Rather than reload Parallels, I’m trying VMware.

The other thing I’m trying is not having Microsoft Office in my Windows environment … for the first time ever. I’m going to rely completely on the IBM Lotus Symphony product.  In theory, this should allow me to do everything I needed Word, Excel and PowerPoint for before.

I’m committed to giving this my all. I just hope I don’t realize later that I should have been committed for trying this.

First, the good stuff, a RAVE:

The Apple Store always does a GREAT job of taking care of any issue I have. I love that I can go online and setup an appointment (although, you really need to ask someone in the store when their least busy times are before you setup an appointment – to minimize waiting).

Once you’re there, they always seem genuine about listening to your problem, explaining what is happening and why and then making sure you feel they can fix it. That’s awesome! This trip, they replaced a mouse button on my MacBook Pro that acted a bit funny AND my iPhone which was having a “screen issue.” – I was in, out and back to 100% in very little time.

Now a RANT:

Apple Stores are going to color-coded shirts. So the person in a light blue shirt is a concierge, which I’ve yet to figure out what they do, because they always just ask someone else HOW to do something. The guys in dark blue are sales … no, wait … Geniuses … no, wait … trainers. Hmmm… I guess the people in the dark blue shirts are the ones that actually know how to do stuff. (Based on what I’ve seen anyway).

They also took out their registers, which is cool because you can just pay anyone who’s got a hand-held card reader. I love that! But, if they’re all busy, there’s no way to just wait somewhere for one of them so you don’t look like you’re not just following one of them around, or stalking their customer.

I then learned that there is a single line at the Genius bar that is designed for that purpose. But, there are no signs, no terminal at the end and no person working it. Its just an area blocked off with a rope thing.

So … it’d be nice to have the color coded shirts mean something and for a sign to be located somewhere explaining how you make purchases.

Just a thought.