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My frustrations with trying to get the iPhone to work well with my Lotus Notes based life are well documented here. But I will soy, things are getting better.

The update to Domino 8.0.2 on our core mail server (the one my file is on) meant that suddenly I gained delete functionality over my mail again (previously unavailable via my IMAP setup). However, the ball is now back in the iPhone’s corner as the iPhone has no “delete right now” option – thus I have to wait a minimum of one day before the message actually removes itself from my inbox.

I’ve also gotten into the habit of using DWA uberlite more often. I like the UI of this, but hate the fact that I have to be connected. Still, with a 3G network and WiFi all over the place – its not as bad as I imagined (or perhaps my standards have just lowered – either way, its working better).

Finally, the latest Mac OSX update (10.5.6) brought in some much needed improvements for MobileMe (their service which sync’s your address book, calendar, etc.). Each time I get a Notes calendar invite, I export it and drag the file into Apple’s iCal. Yes, its a pain, but it ensures my Notes and iCal (and thus iPhone) calendars are always synchronized. However, MobileMe replicates sporadically, at best. So I would often miss the replication window and forget to attend a meeting the following day, because it had yet to replicate.

However, 10.5.6 fixes that. Within a minute (in most cases, less) my Mac has sent off every calendar update to my iPhone. A BIG improvement.

While none of these user experiences are ideal, the fact is that I’ve dealt with manu-matically getting my iPhone/Notes worlds to integrate for so long, that even the smallest of improvements feel like a big deal.

The gang in Apple’s iTunes group have been quietly changing the way they burn CDs for several versions now. Sometimes, you get the CD Text attached (the thing that makes your car stereo, if equipped, able to tell you what song is playing) and sometimes you don’t. Also, with the way they now do gap-less songs, you haven’t been able to control the pause time between tracks (although I still think there was one minor release that allowed you to do this – but when I went back to try it, iTunes had already updated).

I stuck in a CD today to burn a couple of tracks and noticed this handy dialog box appear right after I hit “Burn Disc” in my playlist:

Notice that I can now pick the gap time between songs (in this case, I’m using “none” because I’m burning a recorded speech that ended up split across multiple tracks) and I can choose to include the CD Text. Great new feature! Thanks, iTunes!