DominoKeys.com

I’ll admit that in every single one of the 8 (I think that number is right) Lotusphere’s I’ve attended, I haven’t given much thought to the LS online tool that’s prepared with the event. Until now.

Perhaps the lsonline.info site has been this good in the past – but this was the first year I’ve noticed it … and WOW is it a great tool! The interface is very easy to use. I was able to scan through the list of sessions and create a calendar of what I wanted to see in very short order (a process that normally involves multiple reads through the materials, scanning for sessions that repeat and generally a good afternoon planning session right after I pick up my Lotusphere registration information).

But the best part was that I could export my schedule as an .ics file which then can be uploaded into Notes so that my calendar is available with me – how handy is that!

It doesn’t end there, they’ve also provided a mobile interface (www.lsonline.info/m) which works fantastic with my iPhone!

Very cool!

Tags: iphone, lotusphere, ls10

Everyone else seems to be posting things that reflect on the last year – so I decided to do the same. Below are the top 10 moments/posts/thoughts that I feel are more noteworthy from this blog. Enjoy.

10. Lotus announces Sametime 8.5 before the end of 2009 (despite me being SURE they’d wait to Lotusphere)

9. Disk savings from DAOS was easy to implement and quite beneficial on disk space usage!

8. Began using Google Voice a utility that’s not all “there” yet but potentially a game-changer for managing phone calls & voicemails.

7. Notes turns 20

6. Realized the using an iPhone is more like integrating something into your life than getting a new phone.

5. Realized that people don’t “search” any more, they “Google.”

4. My alter-ego starred in a video all about “conferences at Disney World” which featured Lotusphere 2009.

3. After much debate (and frustration caused largely by SnowLeopard) I abandoned a Mac in favor of a PC.

2. Notes (Traveler) support for the iPhone was released (and it rocks!)

1. I got fed up with hearing things like “notes is a tarnished brand” and one simple thing to try to make my voice heard for a moment by being featured on theInfoBoom.com along with a companion piece on my blog.

Tags: 2009, daos, google, iphone, lotusphere, mac, pc, sametime, traveler

A few weeks ago I posted an entry asking (begging?) GM to consider an iPhone app that would allow me to start my car from my iPhone. I don’t want it because its cool (well, that’s part of it) but because their basic and advanced remotes have horrible range … and I live in MN, where its cold and the last thing I want to walk within 25 feet of my car, start it, then go back inside to wait for it to warm.

Moving on … this week I noticed a post about an iPhone app Mercedes is working on as a additional remote for their cars. That’s perfect considering my other car is a C-class. Here’s the down-side of this app: no remote start. It simple mimics the functionality you have on your existing key fob. Let’s take a look at the steps needed to start your car for a moment (as I illustrate my point to this entry):

With current key/fob:

1. Remove remote from pocket
2. Press button – car opens

With proposed iPhone app:

1. Remove iPhone from pocket
2. Press button to activate iPhone
3. Slide finger to unlock iPhone
4. Swipe to screen containing your MB remote application
5. Press icon to start app
6. Wait a moment
7. Press button to open car – car opens (I’m just going to assume that it does it as quickly as well – which I somehow don’t think will be true.)

So there you go, GM. Simply hurry up and build the app I talked about and you’ll have a GREAT new feature Mercedes doesn’t even have! Again, I’m available for beta testing. 

Tags: cars, iphone, remotes

I’ve discovered that is all I need to say now after I re-call someone I just got disconnected from when using my iPhone.

Sad.

The best mobile device in the world is quickly becoming the most distrusted piece of technology in my life. I didn’t realize it until today when I stopped to think that I now:

• Schedule conference calls around when I’ll be near a land-line
• Preface important calls with “… I’m on an iPhone, so if we get disconnected, I’ll call back.”
• Interrupt people who call my cell to ask if I can call them back from another line
• Often use the phrase “Sorry, iPhone” to explain I got cut off

Its been YEARS since I did any of those things consistently. Cell phone technology has been pretty dang good for the last few years and call quality and reliability reached a point where it didn’t really matter what phone I was using – the cell phone was nearly as good as a land line. But the iPhone is quickly undoing that.

Now… I’ve been an iPhone user since day one. Literally. It seems that this problem has become much worse in the last 30 days. Which prompted me to wonder: what changed?

1. iPhone software update
2. Enabling push notifications on EchoFon (a Twitter app)
3. Notes Traveler

I disabled #2. I’ll roll back to the previous version to address #1 if #2 doesn’t fix it. And I sure as heck hope that #3 has nothing to do with any of this. Because “I heart Traveler.”

Tags: iphone, traveler, why we got disconnected from that call

InvestorPlace.com has a report out about how Apple’s iPhone is closing in on RIM/BlackBerry in a number of categories. While the BlackBerry is the defacto standard for mobile business devices, there is a clear trend that even business users are moving to the iPhone.

With the release of Lotus Notes/Traveler support for the iPhone we have seen an amazing amount of interest. We have limited our deployment of iPhones to ensure we do our due diligence of testing it in our environment but continue to have daily inquiries about the status of that testing. I’ve never seen so many people interested in “beta testing” something for our group. I’ve also NEVER seen people offer to pay for the device out of their own pocket if they can simply get one with their company-issued cell phone number attached. I’ve even had a few people who have asked if they can buy the device AND pay the additional monthly service costs, if any.

Hmmm… perhaps I’m sitting on a profit center and don’t even know it?

This report suggests not only that there continues to be a strong migration to the iPhone (although, not necessarily at the expense moving away from RIM) but that the customer satisfaction for using the iPhone continues to be very strong… an item I find interesting in light of a variety of articles suggesting that as many as 30% of iPhone calls are dropped (I’ve never experienced anything anywhere near that number).

Regardless, I find it interesting that a device which has nominally changed in three generations (face it, it hasn’t changed significantly) still has so much interest that people are still wanting to migrate to it; love it when they have it; and willing to pay out of their own pocket so they can have it. Amazing!

Tags: blackberry, iphone, marketing, mobile, notes, traveler

On the heels of my excitement about the Lotus Traveler support for the iPhone (which is an AWESOME implementation, btw … I can’t stress that enough) I now found that my iPhone is doing something very annoying suddenly: telling me when I have email.

Let me explain. The first “smart phone” device I ever used was the Treo 650, which was great at the time. It changed my life by doing something the IT industry would later call “blurring free and work time.” Every 15 minutes (30 if I knew I wasn’t going to be near a charger all day) the phone would replicate and buzz me with an alert about a new email message.

I then moved to using the GOOD service on a Windows Mobile device and the blur got much more hazy. With GOOD my phone was aware of new emails instantaneously (even before my Notes client in most cases) and immediately called my attention to them. It felt like two years of having a hybrid of texting, instant messaging and email.

Enter: the iPhone, and my pseudo-clumsy method of getting it to check my corporate email. I now went back to a replication schedule and the contrast was stark – so much so that I actually stopped paying attention to the iPhone’s email alerts altogether and only checked email when *I* wanted to. That’s good and bad, for a variety of reasons.

I have now been using Traveler on my iPhone for a whole 24 (almost) hours and my iPhone has become much more annoying (or helpful, depending on the email) about alerting me to email. Why? Its alerting me in the exact same method (sound & buzz). However, there must be a Pavlovian response to the iPhone’s former replication SCHEDULE that I must have not been aware of. I must have subconsciously dismissed alerts about new email since they were coming every 15 minutes based on the schedule I setup.

Now that Traveler delivers emails near-instantly, the iPhone is buzzing on its own schedule and drawing my attention to it. Which, all in all, is a good thing. I had previously said that the iPhone was the easiest email notification system to ignore. I see now that was due to a replication schedule that was predictable on a subconscious level.

If any of you are psychology students looking for a great thesis idea… you’re welcome.

Last week I was told that I was one of the most outspoken critics about Lotus’ lack of support for the iPhone. While I agree that I complained quite a bit, I was surprised to hear that the number of complaints I lodged reached anyone’s radar screen. With that in mind, I feel compelled to comment on the latest update to Lotus Traveler which now supports the iPhone.

In a word: Nailed-it!

From my perspective, I’ve been waiting for Notes connectivity since the day iPhone apps were first launched – which is a long time to wait for something (email, contacts, calendar sync with Notes) I could easily have by moving to a WinMobile or BlackBerry device. There is also a relationship between the amount of time I have to wait for something and the continuous raising of my expectations of the product once its released… which is to say: I’ve had some HIGH expectations for this product.

And Lotus totally pulled it off. Install is easy & painless. Setup is so easy its almost non-existent (which is GREAT). Usability and integration with the iPhone is awesome. What’s more, Lotus also threw in a free surprise in the form of global address book look-ups which is a HUGE deal for us since we leverage directory assistance to integrate not only address book information but supplier, vendor and customer information — all of which are now easily at my fingertips and work GREAT!

Nice job, Lotus! You guys NAILED IT!

Tags: iphone, nailed it, notes, traveler

LOTS of big Lotus news today but the one that has my full attention is the release of 8.5.1 scheduled for October 12! This brings the much anticipated support for the iPhone. No, not “uber-ultra lite” – a real, integrated support of Lotus Notes email, calendar and contacts on the iPhone complete with all sorts of corporate security addressed.

One other really important announcement buried in the full announcement:

THE complaint of our users who have been using Lotus Traveler (on non-iPhone devices) has been the lack of a corporate address book. This statement suggests that the new release of Traveler addresses it for at least the iPhone (probably others as well).

Other BIG news included the announcement that Designer and Lotus Mobile Connect are now free (see your specific license details for exact details). Both are huge announcements as it further shows that Lotus Notes is a complete solution that addresses a wide variety of business needs – not just “that other” email platform.

Big news indeed!

Tags: awesomeness, designer, iphone, lotus notes, mobile

Living with an iPhone in a Lotus Notes world got significantly easier for me today.

I spotted a Twitter post from Dr. Brill* saying he was reading about this iPhone app. No more than 10 minutes later, it earned a coveted spot on the first menu screen on my iPhone. In short, the app allows you to search your company’s name and address book (domino directory) and retrieve listings for people in your company. Its easy to set up and there’s a “lite” version which allows you to try the app, confirm you can connect (via HTTP or HTTPS) and retrieve someone’s email address — which, by the way, is EXACTLY how the “lite” version of that app should work in order to earn a sale. Well done!

The app even warns you about storing your user name and password on the iPhone (not a requirement, but most people will likely do this out of convenience).

Its a great app! My only suggestion for improvement would be to either allow for names to be retrieved from the address book (like a mass download on launch, with a periodic update every x-days/hours) and/or the ability to store records I’ve searched for already. — Even without that, its a handy app!

* Ed Brill may or may not be an actual doctor. I have no clue.

Tags: apps, iphone, lotus, nab

The invite to Google Voice that laid waiting in my inbox this morning really felt like getting the golden ticket from Willy Wonka. The slow-releasing invites appear to be causing quite a bit of buzz (eBay has a number of them for sale ranging from about $50-$150).

I knew this product would be cool – but I didn’t realize how it would completely change how I manage phone calls at the office… within the first 30 minutes of using it.

Here’s the run-down of how it did that…

• Setup Google Voice phone number (even got a vanity number!)
• Forwarded it to my cell phone number
• Recorded three voicemail messages (friends, work and default)
• Setup a few contacts who are likely to call on the new Google number and assigned them a voicemail message
• Forwarded my office phone to my new Google #

That’s it (so far). Here’s what its done to improve things for me:

• ALL office calls (ones I want; many I don’t) appear on my cell (w/o having to give out my cell #)
• If I ignore the call – it goes to Google voicemail w/ the “work” message (since its forwarded from my office phone, the source phone # is always my extension)
• Google voice saves the message, transcribes it into my inbox as text (and is surprisingly accurate) AND sends me a text message with the first several words of the message that was left.
• I now know exactly who called, when, and can SEE what they were talking about without having to listen through the entire message.
• All “um’s” and “uh’s” are removed from the text transcription
• I can listen, forward, save or delete the messages via my Google website (including some of that functionality on my iPhone)

And I haven’t even getting to a whole list of other cool stuff it does. For example, I can click on a contact’s name/number and press “Call.” Google will call my cell phone and as I pick up a voice tells me to wait a moment while it places the call; it then dials the number of the person I’m calling and the call is routed — for free (in the U.S.).

An amazing tool. I’m already feeling like I don’t know what I’d do without it and anxious to see what else I can do with it. Stay tuned…

Tags: awesomeness, cell phones, google voice, phones