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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

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

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

Two statements about mobile Lotus tools caught my attention today (both I found off Paul Mooney’s website):

1. Lotus announced support for Symbian phones in the 8.5 version of the Traveler product. That means that Nokia phones which run that OS can now leverage Traver. I’ve been a Nokia fan for along time (until the iPhone came out) so this is good news. Its also timely since GOOD has no/limited plans to support this OS in future relases (and our company has a number of Nokia devices deployed today that use GOOD software).

2. Paul got his hands on a Lotus/iPhone FAQ (download). In short, it reminds people of the availability of web-based access to Notes calendar, contacts and email in 8.0.2 and a name change of that product to iNotes (good thing I never stoped calling it that in the first place – that’ll be an easy transition for me) in 8.5.

There is also a statement about how IBM understands how important the iPhone is, but they suggest customers contact Apple to express this same thought; use the web based tools; and look at 3rd party solutions to get access to contacts or calendar through NotesCal from the iTunes App Store.

My favorite part of the FAQ was the question asking if IBM recommends companies use the iPhone for enterprise deployment. The answer: “Yes, but be aware…” then there’s a quick comparison to BlackBerry devices and some value-added statements about using that device.

So… my tounge-in-cheek summary of the FAQ is that IBM is saying: “Yes, iPhone is important. Yes, we’re sick of hearing that. The best we can do (for 8.0.2 OR 8.5) is give you support via the web. Please call APPLE and complain, not us. Shouldn’t you be using a BlackBerry anyway? We know we’d like that!”

As for me, I’m just going to take it as a good step forward that IBM released something to address the amount of people who are despriately looking for Notes support as a native app on their iPhone. At least they’re being honest about the whole thing and answering the question. For that, I thank them.

Oh, and hey… now that you’ve got Symbian support built in to Traveler, perhaps those people could refocus their efforts on working on the iPhone – which will probably bring in more new sales revenue than the Nokia business would. Just a thought.

Tags: iphone, lotus, traveler