One of my favorite sites TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) just put up a story about Lotus Notes coming to the iPhone. The article left the reader with excitement over the announcement (rightly so) and avoided any discussion about how the product being announced was a web application, not an iPhone application (again, probably a smart move).

I was curious to see if anyone else who read the article made a comment about this fact. And, they did, with the same degree (I’d argue a STRONGER degree) of concern that I’ve expressed over the lack of a true iPhone native application.

But that wasn’t the thing that struck me. It was all the Notes-hatin’ that was going on in the comments. I suggest reading through them yourself (perhaps it would be good to grab one of those stress toy things first, ’cause its a frustrating read). The thing I found interesting was how many people either “didn’t get” why people use Notes or condemned IT departments for still using it today.

It was frustrating to read it all. Thankfully, there were some people who stepped up to the plate and offered positive comments to help balance it out. I hope someone in the Marketing department at Lotus reads it and uses it as an opportunity to more clearly communicate the power of Notes in the future. Hint, hint. 

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My iPhone continues to amaze me. I’ve had it literally since “day 1″ and I still discover new uses for it. For example, I learned this week that it can be used as a boarding pass.

I also learned something it can’t do: send address book entries via bluetooth. My new car will store these entries in its memory and allow me to call them through the car’s interface (including voice command). However, the iPhone doesn’t support this.

No worries though… my contacts are in my Mac address book and sync’d via .Mac, which also syncs to my wife’s computer, which syncs to her phone, which is also connected to the car. So… in an extremely roundabout way… I’ll still get that info into the car without typing it all in!

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Over at Ed Brill’s place, there’s a link to a video from Sybase showing the iPhone being used to connect to corporate messaging system (Domino or Exchange).

I’ve fallen into this trap lately of being instantly enamored with anything that holds the promise of connecting my Notes email and iPhone. However, even the support team at PocketMac admitted that they’re having trouble understanding and fixing why I can’t sync Notes and the iPhone (I get a number of calendar errors and it apparently takes much longer than it should). The Sybase solution looks like another alternative, but its still not as slick as the MS Exchange demo Apple did a few weeks ago at the iPhone SDK event.

In short, it appears to require a server on your DMZ that acts as a go-between to your device and Domino server. Contacts are delivered via a web page optimized for the iPhone. And some contact information can be pulled from whatever is cached when you’re working off-line (although I’ve noticed that the web pages “blank out” after a period of time, meaning there’s just a white page instead of whatever content was there the last time you accessed  the page on the iPhone while connected to a network). But here’s what I found amusing about the video:

If you look closely, you’ll see the battery level is very low. Now, this could simply be that it took the guy A LOT of takes to shoot the video OR it could be a reflection on the battery life needed for the product. Our company used to use Sybase’s iAnywhere product for a variety of smart phone devices and the number one reason we replaced it with GOOD’s product was the effect it had on battery life. I found it funny to see that problem exist on the iPhone video demo.

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Today, Apple announced their new SDK for the iPhone. They also announced the availability of integration between the iPhone and Microsoft Exchange. Here’s the rundown of what it does:

• Push email.
• Push contacts.
• Push calendar.
• Access to global address books.
• Remote administration (including a remote lock-out feature).
• Fast. Easy. Instant.

I honestly believe that what we’ve witnessed today is the beginning of the end for the Blackberry. And I’ve witnessed is the most compelling reason I’ve ever seen to consider jumping off the Lotus Notes/Domino wagon.

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I have a post draft all about the PocketSync application that should, in theory, sync my Mac, Notes and iPhone worlds perfectly. Its a detailed post and yet, its not complete for one reason: it doesn’t work … yet.

I say “yet” because I hope that my 3 open support tickets will be answered by something better than “make sure you have admin rights to install software.” Perhaps my hope should be much less than it is.

And then there’s the promise of some announcement at the upcoming Apple event that the SDK will help bring my iPhone into the enterprise world. I hope so … but I fell for that at Lotusphere and wasn’t all that impressed with the way you have to access the content via the web (and the fact that even though 8.0.1 is out, we don’t have that tool, yet).

But … the next event is an Apple one. And those guys know how to hype and deliver. In the mean time, I’ll keep hoping until I have something more tangible.

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I can’t tell you how excited I am at the promise of a conduit that will finally allow me to connect my iPhone with Lotus Notes (even if it uses the built-in Mac stuff to get it done - that’s a more valid option than DWA uber-light, in my opinion).

However, I’ve had the software installed since Wednesday of last week and I still don’t have it fully working. I’ve got a few tech articles open and their support is friendly, but very slow to get back to you. There are also NO documents in the knowledgebase about anything related to the Notes connector.

So … when I get this working, I’ll finally be able to post a blog entry about it (and it’ll be detailed, to help others avoid the headaches I’ve had).

Watch this space for more information.

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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.

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…if by “soon” I were to mean: Summer, 2008.

CommonTime announced that they will have a version of their mNotes product available for the iPhone this summer (2008). The announcement comes after Steve Jobs committed (again - ’cause I’m pretty sure he did it when he previewed the iPhone) that there will be a developer SDK available for the iPhone in February 2008.

Despite this announcement, CommonTime’s website does not make mention of it (at least, not of this post). Infact, their last “news” story is from June of 2007.

So … while I want to be really excited about this it means we still have to wait, we’re not sure what we’ll be getting and the company that will bring it to us doesn’t want to advertise it on their website.

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Last night, one of the new iPhone ads came on the TV. As I was passing through the room, I said to my wife “Ugh! I hate those new iPhone ads.” She asked why, suggesting that she thought they were really good.

And that got me thinking … am I just so jaded on what I expect from “tech” ads (Lotus, Apple, etc.) that I think they all suck? Perhaps. - That prompted me to take a closer look at the latest round of iPhone ads. I quickly realized that they do a good job of demonstrating how the average person can use this powerful device is situations that happen frequently. Most of those situations are ones that, when they happen without an iPhone, leave you somewhat stranded.

Take the ad with the guy who tells the story about meeting his girlfriend’s boss and fiancé’s. At the restaurant waiting, they realize they didn’t know the woman’s name. So he whips out his iPhone, checks the bosses wedding website and finds it out. And the day is saved.

That scenario happens. And without an iPhone, you’d have to resort to “hi ………. you!”

So the ad serves to tell a story about how everyday problems are solved with this device. That’s a good message. And its one that Apple thinks is key to tell people in order to sell the phones.

So while I don’t like the look and feel of the ad, its effective. Especially if you knew what I was talking about before you saw the picture on the blog post.

So maybe, just maybe, I need to take a closer look at some of the Lotus Notes/Domino 8 ads I’ve been complaining about. Maybe I don’t like them, but they are effective. Maybe…

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I have now accomplished 2 of the 3 things I need in order to feel good about this purchase (since it was a work-related purchase after all). Here’s a recap:

(Please keep in mind that all of these steps are for Lotus Notes on the Mac.)
1. Lotus Notes Contacts on the iPhone

• File\Export…
• Give it a name and select the file type of “vCard 3.0″
• Decide if you want “All docs” or just the ones you selected and hit OK
• Open Apple’s Address Book
• Select File\Import\vCards…
• Find and select the file(s) you exported
• If a duplicate exists, you will be prompted with options to resolve it. Since that’s the case, you could export the entire contacts list from Lotus Notes once a week (or whatever) and deal with duplicates. This is handy for me, since I am more likely to update contact information in Lotus Notes than I am the Mac Address Book.

I know what you’re thinking … “I could set up an Automator activity for that.” You could, if Notes had Automator activities (or if you know a way around that … and if so, please share!)

2. Lotus Notes E-mail on the iPhone

This one is theoretically easier, yet took me a long time. You’ll see why in a moment…

• Enable IMAP on the Domino server that has your mail file. To do this, open your domain’s Address Book. Click on Configuration\Servers\All Server Documents. Edit the one for the server your mail file is on. Go to the tab Ports…\Internet Ports…\Mail and enable the IMAP (143) port. It would be a good idea to enable the name & password authentication as well.
• On the iPhone, set up a new mail account. Enter the name (DNS name on the internet — your Domino server needs to be exposed to the internet with an external IP, or NAT’d or something) of the IMAP server in the “incoming mail server” area (and add your Notes username and password).
• In the “outgoing” area, you need to enter the name of an SMTP server. This might be the same server or it might be a hub mail server. In my case, it was neither. We route mail through a spam filtering service and tell the ISP to pass all SMTP traffic to their servers, instead of us. Once I remembered that (and remembered the name of that server) I was able to get past this point.

Its also interesting to note that you can tell the iPhone to check for mail every X-minutes. If you connect your iPhone to WiFi hotspots that you frequent, it’ll help speed your email connectivity as well. Also, you may want to do a quick search in the Notes help files for “IMAP” for a quick understanding of how it works, especially if you’re more familiar with POP3 accounts.

… and the one I haven’t yet figured out:

3. Lotus Notes Calendar on the iPhone

Oddly enough, this is the one that I wanted to tackle first! You can export your calendar entries to .ICS files and import them into iCal, but that’s kinda a pain. I’m working on modifying my mail file to display an .ICS calendar feed that iCal can subscribe to (so that it is then passed on to my phone). I’m still working on formatting the file correctly (for iCal to read it properly) but I’m not done yet.

Other Resources:

It appears that there is already a product that would help me out tremendously. The name of the product is KissWorks which is in a transition to Seth Ober, who apparently originally worked on the product. You can purchase the product or benefit from lots of time I spent searching to find the trial link here. One important note: it doesn’t work. — I’ve tried it on a few installs with no success. I’ve tried to contact all of the email addresses listed on the various sites but haven’t heard back from anyone.

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