Domino Unplugged

Domino Unplugged Dedicated to delivering Domino applications to handheld devices http://www.dominounplugged.com/hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/ en-us Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:15:13 -0400 iUIView - Domino view rendering Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:15:13 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/iuiview---domino-view-rendering.htm IPhone Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/iuiview---domino-view-rendering.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/iuiview---domino-view-rendering.htm Jason Hook and I get started on our presentation for Lotusphere, we've both been sharing interesting resources we've found ... and Jason found one that I wanted to share with you all right away .... the fascinating iUIView from Jeff Gilfelt.

It's remarkably simple ... it takes a typical Notes view:

... and turns it into a iPhone-ready UI:

Cool, no?

According to Jeff's site:

iUIView is a Domino web agent that provides an iPhone optimized user interface for any "classic" Notes categorized view, without the need to write any additional code or markup.

Haven't played with this and certainly need to get into this far deeper ... but wanted to pass it along.

Kudos, Jeff!

- Rob ]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/iuiview---domino-view-rendering.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/iuiview---domino-view-rendering.htm?opendocument&comments Travel planning time: Lotusphere and ADMIN/Lotus Developer Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:13:12 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/travel-planning-time-lotusphere-and-adminlotus-developer.htm Lotusphere2009 Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/travel-planning-time-lotusphere-and-adminlotus-developer.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/travel-planning-time-lotusphere-and-adminlotus-developer.htm
As the Twitter world is aware, today was the day that Lotusphere sent out the official acceptance notifications for people that had sent in session proposals.

It was fun to watch all the people "tweeting" about whether they'd been accepted, rejected or hadn't heard. (For those so inclined, follow me at http://twitter.com/rwunder.)

I was among the lucky (more in a minute on that), but for the record, I DID get turned down also. As did quite a few names you may be familiar with.

But, for those in the 'Unplugged audience, I'm delighted to report that Jason Hook and I **WILL** be doing our "Delivering Domino to Mobile Devices" best practices session again. This time our focus (you're going to love this) is: "Outwitting the Micro-browser." Jason and I are going to zero in on some fun tips and tricks that will help you get typical Domino databases working with the micro-browsers on mobile devices.

Jason and I had a ball last year - looking forward to doing it again.

I'm also going to be doing a session on, um, well, too soon for an official product announcement. But, I have been a little quiet around these parts recently because I've been moonlighting with the Lotus Connections product management team. And, that's got something to do with my other breakout session.

And, if that weren't enough ...

Got notified at the end of last week that I'll also be doing a couple sessions at The VIEW's ADMIN 2009 / Lotus Developer 2009 conference(s).

I'll give you more details on all this as the dates get closer ...

Now ... only have three weeks to get the Lotusphere sessions completed. That should be fun .... ]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/travel-planning-time-lotusphere-and-adminlotus-developer.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/travel-planning-time-lotusphere-and-adminlotus-developer.htm?opendocument&comments Obama iPhone app Thu, 2 Oct 2008 13:17:01 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/obama-iphone-app.htm IPhone Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/obama-iphone-app.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/obama-iphone-app.htm
Have you seen the Obama '08 application for your iPhone or iPod Touch:

Haven't looked to see whether the opposition has one as well ...

- Rob ]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/obama-iphone-app.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/obama-iphone-app.htm?opendocument&comments Squidoo wants to give away $80,000 - help ’em! Wed, 1 Oct 2008 21:16:17 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/squidoo-want-to-give-away-80000---help-em.htm Charity Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/squidoo-want-to-give-away-80000---help-em.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/squidoo-want-to-give-away-80000---help-em.htm

Some of you may be familiar with Squidoo.

It's not exactly a search engine, it's not exactly social bookmarking, it's not exactly .... well, it's kinda all of those things.

Anyway, you should check it out if you're not familiar.

But, I digress.

Squidoo wants to give away US$80,000 to charity. And, they'll direct it as per users' votes. It fits with Squidoo's overall idea of giving away money to charity - they make money from advertisers, they give 50% of it away. You can find out about the rest of Squidoo's charitable 'bent' HERE.

The charity vote is the latest initiative. You can join the voting HERE. ]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/squidoo-want-to-give-away-80000---help-em.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/squidoo-want-to-give-away-80000---help-em.htm?opendocument&comments Delighted to report that working comments seem to have returned !! Wed, 1 Oct 2008 00:06:06 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/delighted-to-report-that-working-comments-seem-to-have-returned-.htm DominoUnplugged Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/delighted-to-report-that-working-comments-seem-to-have-returned-.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/delighted-to-report-that-working-comments-seem-to-have-returned-.htm
Now, I hate to burden all of you with the trial and tribulations of blogmanship. I mean, heck, who cares, right?

Except, there are times, dear readers, when this actually does affect all of you, and the comment issue did have a direct impact on visitors to the site - suddenly, one day it seemed that if you tried to leave a comment the site was automatically blocking you.

Far as I could tell - nothing had changed. No new agents, no massive changes to settings ... comments just quit working.

This was back in August.

I think as of today (well, yesterday, technically) it got solved.

And, it got solved by doing something that technically seems unrelated. I got really industrious this evening and started deleting blocked comments. 99.9% of them were some form of comment spam. It kind of amazes me - this is not exactly one of the top-ten-most-trafficked web sites on earth and yet 'Unplugged gets thousands of comment spam entries a month. Thousands! I can't imagine what an actual popular site must get.

Anyway, I waded through all the cialis, porn and "free ringtone" comments that the blog software had automatically blocked (we're using the standard Domino Blog template: Steve - I love you, man!) and started deleting. And deleting. And deleting. (There IS an option to "purge blocked comments," but I wanted to filter through them to make sure there weren't other comments in there that shouldn't have been.)

After deleting - literally - thousands and thousands of blocked entries, suddenly comments started working again. It's completely possible that the view indexes were just totally toasted with all the bogus entries - it's also possible that I hit "view refresh" exactly that one additional time needed to make it work.

Regardless, it appears to me that comments are working again.

You can certainly test it yourself ... and I'll be delighted to see any comments against this entry.

After which, we can all return to our regularly scheduled programming ...

- Rob ]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/delighted-to-report-that-working-comments-seem-to-have-returned-.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/delighted-to-report-that-working-comments-seem-to-have-returned-.htm?opendocument&comments Mosquito Ringtones - heard about this? Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:15:44 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/mosquito-ringtones---heard-about-this.htm Ringtones Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/mosquito-ringtones---heard-about-this.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/mosquito-ringtones---heard-about-this.htm
Reading glasses became a necessity about the time I hit 40 ... but hadn't realized that my hearing was going to pot also.

Well, the makers of Mosquito ringtones were aware that you lose the ability to hear high frequencies as you get older. So, they've created a series of ringtones that are age specific. Kids can hear them - adults can't.

I'm sorry to say that I can hear the ones right to my specific age - the ones below that I don't hear at all (although the dog was looking at me funny when I clicked play on them, so I know something happened.)

Check out Mosquito Ringtones.

- Rob ]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/mosquito-ringtones---heard-about-this.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/mosquito-ringtones---heard-about-this.htm?opendocument&comments Great BlackBerry freeware Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:36:56 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/great-blackberry-freeware-.htm blackBerry Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/great-blackberry-freeware-.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/great-blackberry-freeware-.htm
Check out the BlackBerry Freeware Directory - the 'one and only Open Directory of BlackBerry freeware!'

For the record, there are also similar directories for Widows Mobile SmartPhone, Pocket PC, Symbian, Android and Palm. ]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/great-blackberry-freeware-.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/great-blackberry-freeware-.htm?opendocument&comments Thanks, Cleveland! Great NEOLUG meeting yesterday Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:39:52 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/thanks-cleveland-great-neolug-meeting-yesterday.htm NEOLUG Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/thanks-cleveland-great-neolug-meeting-yesterday.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/thanks-cleveland-great-neolug-meeting-yesterday.htm HERE.

After a quick hit-and-run trip yesterday to Cleveland for the Northeast Ohio Lotus User Group (NEOLUG) meeting, I'm already back at the desk at Unplugged HQ.

It was great attending (and presenting at) the NEOLUG meeting yesterday, and even better was seeing a number of friends - Bruce Elgort (who was also presenting), Chris Blatnick, Gregg Eldred, Andy Donaldson and, last but certainly not least, Phil Randolph.

The guys mentioned above, along with yours truly, started the meeting with a 'bloggers panel' with Chris as MC and inquisitor. Andy tried to answer "lipstick" to practically every question. It was a good session ...

I did a mobile product presentation (chanelling IBM/Lotus Product Manager Shawne Robinson in the process), and Bruce closed the meeting with a nice overview of the cool stuff he's working on in his 'spare time' - IdeaJam and LinkJam. ToeJam has to be next on the docket ...

It was very interesting not only to hear the interest in the iPhone from those assembled, but also to see how many people there had an iPhone. Lots of questions about IBM product support for iPhone. I showed some of the 'delivering to mobile' samples that we'd worked up for Lotusphere, and managed to blend in a few tidbit about mobile devices and standards from my "day job" during my presentation.

Good time was had by all ... and the pizza and salad were great also.

Thanks for inviting me, Cleveland.

Incidentally, I see that I've already been beaten to the blogging path by Andy, Phil and Gregg. Go get 'em guys .... ]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/thanks-cleveland-great-neolug-meeting-yesterday.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/thanks-cleveland-great-neolug-meeting-yesterday.htm?opendocument&comments Heading for Cleveland - User Group presentation Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:00:00 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/heading-for-cleveland---user-group-presentation.htm MobileDevices Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/heading-for-cleveland---user-group-presentation.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/heading-for-cleveland---user-group-presentation.htm
I will post the usual bevy of links after the presentation for all the stuff we talk about ... ]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/heading-for-cleveland---user-group-presentation.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/heading-for-cleveland---user-group-presentation.htm?opendocument&comments A possible iPhone Calendar solution ??? Mon, 15 Sep 2008 23:53:04 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/a-possible-iphone-calendar-solution-.htm IPhone Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/a-possible-iphone-calendar-solution-.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/a-possible-iphone-calendar-solution-.htm Ed Brill, who was repeating a post from Declan Lynch, we find NotesCal which - according to the site - lets you view your Lotus Notes calendar on your iPhone and view details such as event start and end time, date, location, attendees and the event description.

Not sure what's happening under the hood, but it works wirelessly, directly against your server. It's a standalone app on the iPhone - meaning it does not tie into your iPhone's native calendar.

There's quite a bit of interesting comments on both Ed and Declan's sites, so be sure to read those.

Regardless of limitations, it's great to see an iPhone app that aims at Notes.

Check the website here, or purchase the application through AppStore on your iPhone. ]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/a-possible-iphone-calendar-solution-.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/a-possible-iphone-calendar-solution-.htm?opendocument&comments 96 percentile quality stuff here ... Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:35:49 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/96-percentile-quality-stuff-here-....htm WebsiteGrader Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/96-percentile-quality-stuff-here-....htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/96-percentile-quality-stuff-here-....htm
That's right, campers.

This here site boasts a 96% grade. Even on a curve, that's not bad!

Check out: WebSite Grader. ]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/96-percentile-quality-stuff-here-....htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/96-percentile-quality-stuff-here-....htm?opendocument&comments iPhone discussion over at LotusUserGroup.org Thu, 11 Sep 2008 08:47:14 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/iphone-discussion-over-at-lotususergroup.org.htm IPhone Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/iphone-discussion-over-at-lotususergroup.org.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/iphone-discussion-over-at-lotususergroup.org.htm LotusUserGroup.org on the iPhone topic.

Come join us ... ]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/iphone-discussion-over-at-lotususergroup.org.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/iphone-discussion-over-at-lotususergroup.org.htm?opendocument&comments Interesting - comments AREN’T working Fri, 8 Aug 2008 12:46:29 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/interesting---comments-arent-working.htm DomunoUnplugged Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/interesting---comments-arent-working.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/interesting---comments-arent-working.htm
Please try anyway - the DominoBlog template captures the comment, and I can promote it ..

And we'll try to figure out what's wrong in the meantime ...

- Rob ]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/interesting---comments-arent-working.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/interesting---comments-arent-working.htm?opendocument&comments Need your help - still looking for Notes>Outlook sync tool Fri, 8 Aug 2008 12:10:42 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/need-your-help---looking-for-notesoutlook-sync-tool.htm IPhone Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/need-your-help---looking-for-notesoutlook-sync-tool.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/need-your-help---looking-for-notesoutlook-sync-tool.htm yesterday's plea for ideas about the Notes-to-Outlook sync tool.

But, still haven't found a workable solution. The background of the problem is HERE and HERE ... and all has to do with getting Notes data to an iPhone.

Suggestions still being solicited!

Thanks!

- Rob

]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/need-your-help---looking-for-notesoutlook-sync-tool.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/need-your-help---looking-for-notesoutlook-sync-tool.htm?opendocument&comments I’m looking for a flawless Notes > Outlook sync tool? Got one? Thu, 7 Aug 2008 20:13:57 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/looking-for-a-flawless-notes--outlook-sync-tool-got-one.htm IPhone Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/looking-for-a-flawless-notes--outlook-sync-tool-got-one.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/looking-for-a-flawless-notes--outlook-sync-tool-got-one.htm disappointment post from yesterday, my initial elation over the "iPhone sync solution" has turned to dismay.

The calendar portion of the equation is the sticker.

It seems that the "get it to Outlook" idea is sound. I can sync Outlook to the iPhone multiple ways.

But what I need is a trustworthy way to sync my Notes calendar to Outlook.

Here's what it needs to do (in no particular order):

Sync Calendar, to-do items and contacts
Preferably, sync memos (journal entries) as well, but that could be optional
Keep calendar entries in sync (update to item in Notes updates item in Outlook - particularly important for conference call numbers which are notoriously updated at the last minute)
Successfully handle updates/modifications to recurring meetings (as outlined in my previous post, this was the downfall for the product I'd originally thought was the answer - switching a weekly recurring meeting from Monday to Tuesday shouldn't make it vanish)
Keep alarms, etc., intact
Be a sync product, not a migration product (in other words, while maybe I can't expect the product to 'trigger' every time a new calendar item shows up [although that would really be nice], this is NOT a one-time-move-my-Notes-calendar-to-Outlook project - I want to do this on some regular schedule)
Be flawless. Don't miss stuff (or, if you choke on a calendar entry for some reason [the originator attached a 75 MB Powerpoint and we know we can't sync that to the device] tell me!)

Suggestions, anyone?

There seem to be a plethora of products that look promising from the marketing pitch. I'll start looking at them.

But, your input warmly welcomed ....

- Rob

]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/looking-for-a-flawless-notes--outlook-sync-tool-got-one.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/looking-for-a-flawless-notes--outlook-sync-tool-got-one.htm?opendocument&comments Turns out it’s NOT solved (the iPhone sync challenge) Wed, 6 Aug 2008 14:45:00 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/turns-out-its-not-solved-the-iphone-sync-challenge.htm IPhone Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/turns-out-its-not-solved-the-iphone-sync-challenge.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/turns-out-its-not-solved-the-iphone-sync-challenge.htm my post last week.

As many of you may know only too well, there's more than just science involved when it comes to syncing devices with Lotus Notes. There's a lot of 'art' in the mix, as well as some old-fashioned dumb luck involved to get it all working correctly.

Four or so years ago, when I was with a business partner in the Detroit area, I was working on a project with one of the automakers to help them with mobile access to Lotus Notes. We had concurrent projects running with BlackBerry devices in one pilot and Palm and Windows Mobile devices in another.

We found, frankly, that things were a whole lot more complicated than they might seem at first blush, particularly within the Notes Calendar world.

Recurring meetings, in particular, were a huge problem.

Large organizations probably have more of a problem with this than smaller organizations, but this particular automaker had executives that literally spent entire days going from meeting to meeting. They virtually never got back to their desks, and so they relied heavily on their mobile devices to tell them where they needed to go next. So, absolute, precise, flawless, 100-percent mobile calendar accuracy was critical.

And, as we were evaluating sync products, one after another failed crucial tests. Things like, we've got a weekly staff meeting at happens every Monday at 10:00 AM. For the (in the US) Memorial Day weekend and July 4th weekend and Labor Day weekend we need to move the meeting to Tuesdays. Oh, and after we've done all that, we need to change the location in June because they're painting the usual conference room, and, oh, let's move the whole thing to 9:30.

Notes somehow knows how to keep all that straight.

Mobile devices haven't got a clue.

And, since virtually none of us keep calendars on our mobile devices that date back to the dawn of civilization, the whole parent/child relationship that is kept within Notes itself to keep track of recurring meetings and modifications to them doesn't work on ANY mobile device.

So, the sync software has to do ALL the heavy lifting.

We found at the time that the BlackBerry users were having constant calendar corruption (this was SEVERAL versions ago, no longer true {thank goodness] in more recent BES versions), and as we tried sync software product after sync software product, they all had problems too. Some were more willing to work with us than others ....

Long story short, we ended up settling on Commontime's mNotes product at this particular automaker. They were one of the few firms that seemed to truly understand the calendar issues and worked very hard to attack the challenges, particularly in the recurring meeting category.

But that's not why we're here today, and not why I brought up the experience.

My real point here is that your Notes calendar is a complicated beast, and getting it to sync with the iPhone is a complicated process.

In my previous "success" post, I hinted at the fact that we might uncover some calendar issues, specifically with "the dreaded modification to a recurring meeting" scenario mentioned above. Well, that problem has reared its head, and for me it's a showstopper. Recurring meetings in Notes that had been modified just vanished. No meeting at the old date and time, no meeting at the new date and time.

Per my previous post, I was using CompanionLink to sync the calendar, contacts and to-do items from Notes to my iPhone. I had mentioned in that post that there seemed to be some 'missing' calendar items, and it turns out that CompanionLink had serious problems with the recurring meeting modification issue.

I spoke to CompanionLink support yesterday and the kind support person, Jill, said that they were aware of issues that crop up with "unusual" situations, and the modification to an existing recurring meeting apparently falls into that category. You will recall that CompanionLink actually syncs to Outlook, and then uses that to sync to the iPhone. I ran some tests and Outlook itself seems able to handle the modification to a recurring meeting issue, and it seems to sync THAT fine to the iPhone, but CompanionLink doesn't seem to handle getting those changes to Outlook.

This post is not meant to demean CompanionLink as either a product or as a company. They sync a SLEW of products to the iPhone, and they actually do a pretty decent job of syncing Notes - just the pesky calendar thing. If you have a pretty vanilla calendar, I'd bet this will work fine for you. It's certainly worth a test. Incidentally, I was using the "CompanionLink Express" and doing USB sync. There are other options - but I was trying to avoid a monthly service charge.

I shall continue to look for the answer. The Sync-Notes-To-Outlook solution, ultimately, may not end up being a bad one (at least until IBM does whatever it's going to do). But, I need to find a Notes-To-Outlook product that can handle the calendar modification issues.

Let me know if you've got one.

I'll keep you posted on what I find.

- Rob

]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/turns-out-its-not-solved-the-iphone-sync-challenge.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/turns-out-its-not-solved-the-iphone-sync-challenge.htm?opendocument&comments Come join me over at LotusUserGroup.org Wed, 6 Aug 2008 12:32:37 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/come-join-me-over-at-lotususergroup.org.htm LotusUserGroup.org Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/come-join-me-over-at-lotususergroup.org.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/come-join-me-over-at-lotususergroup.org.htm LotusUserGroup.com on the topic of Web 2.0 and Domino.

Come join the conversation! ]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/come-join-me-over-at-lotususergroup.org.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/come-join-me-over-at-lotususergroup.org.htm?opendocument&comments Solved (I think) the iPhone sync challenge Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:05:00 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/solved-i-think-the-iphone-sync-challenge.htm Domino Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/solved-i-think-the-iphone-sync-challenge.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/solved-i-think-the-iphone-sync-challenge.htm
I'll report on my results in a day or two - I want to get some screenshots and document the process a little better. However, like several others, it seems a combination of MartinScott's WirelessMail and CompanionLink is pretty successful. There are issues on both sides - in particular, Companionlink seemed to completely overlook a couple repeating meetings on my calendar (the dreaded modification-to-a-repeating-meeting syndrom) - but it works well enough.

However, in my quest, I continue to find people who've also claimed to have found "the solution."

Frank J (no known last name) reports in a singular 2008 entry about his solution:

For email, I've switched to VistoMobile for the iPhone.
For syncing calendars, I use a combination of iCal, Live Mail, and the Httpmail plugin for Mail now that it is available for Leopard.

EverythingiCafe has a lengthy thread about iPhone. Click HERE.

Over on NotesNet, I mean, developerWorks, Raymond Liu had a great post over a year ago on how he got it working. His solution is close to mine.

Not sure whether this will help much, but I created a "network" for Domino & iPhone over at Social|Median. We'll see what that turns up.

There's also a lot of PlanetLotus hits on iPhone ....

In the meantime, I'll start working on screenshots!

- Rob ]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/solved-i-think-the-iphone-sync-challenge.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/solved-i-think-the-iphone-sync-challenge.htm?opendocument&comments All iPhone - all the time Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:49:01 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/all-iphone---all-the-time.htm IPhone Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/all-iphone---all-the-time.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/all-iphone---all-the-time.htm
If you're in the market, you need to be aware that you DON'T have to order one from AT&T and wait (like I was going to do), you can check the availability at your local Apple Store courtesy of the Apple Retail Store Web Site. I did exactly that last Thursday - saw my local store was supposed to have inventory the next day. And, I went, they did and I bought. (Kind of brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it.)

What you do need to know is that everything you've heard about the device is true - it's elegant, it's sophisticated, it's powerful ... and the most important thing for you all to know is that typing on it is a cinch, and I'm certainly not producing any more errors on the iPhones on-screen keyboard than I was on my BlackBerry or Treo.

What's not quite so pleasant a conversation right now is the status of syncing Lotus Notes and iPhone.

Despite having made an announcement way back in October 2007, Commontime still isn't shipping a sync product for iPhone. Likewise, IBM isn't out of the gate yet either, and Ed Brill (among others) has posted a couple times about the iPhone situation. Intellisync doesn't appear to have a solution (at least iPhone doesn't show up under supported platforms), and both Visto and iAnywhere appear to be using IMAP. A search for "iPhone" on Good's site comes up empty. Funambol has been mentioned as a solution, but right now they're only syncing contacts.

Martin Scott was one of the early 'supporters' with their Wireless Mail product, but they're limited to mail only (no calendar) and, in essence, they're merely relaying.

There are a couple other vendors I'm not familiar with who have publicized some sort of sync capability: CompanionLink promises "CRM & PIM data on your iPhone" (but it looks like CompanionLink syncs your Notes stuff with something else (like Outlook) ). PocketMac GoBetween might be a solution for Mac users. Don't know. SyncJE looks like it has products that support Lotus Notes and products for iPhone; hard to tell if the Lotus Notes product supports iPhone and/or vice versa.

All is not completely lost, however. Although the process would make Rube Goldberg wince, Paul Mooney details his roundabout method of syncing with his iPhone HERE. Kevin Hansen has an equally complicated method HERE. A slightly less complicated option was detailed on HowardForums (read all the comments - the final comment has a solution). Stephan Wissel posts some thoughts HERE. Nathan Freeman has had a series of articles about iPhone; check HERE.

It's even an idea at IdeaJam. (Although I can't imagine IBM really needs any prodding ...)

And, you can tell Apple directly via their iPhone Feedback Form .

And, not that it brings any of us any true comfort, turns out that the Outlook/Exchange implementation isn't exactly enterprise-ready, either. Ed pointed us at Paul Robichaux's blog where he discusses Exchange/iPhone sync shortcomings.

So, enough for now.

Tell me about your experiences - you know I'll be sharing mine ...

- Rob

]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/all-iphone---all-the-time.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/all-iphone---all-the-time.htm?opendocument&comments iPhone isn’t the only exciting device news Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:28:50 -0400 http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/iphone-isnt-the-only-exciting-device-news.htm blackBerry Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/iphone-isnt-the-only-exciting-device-news.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/iphone-isnt-the-only-exciting-device-news.htm
Well, campers, that's NOT the only interesting device news out there. Nosiree.

There's some interesting news leaking out of the RIM headquarters up there in Waterloo, Ontario, courtesy of the folks at Gear Diary and Boy Genius.

Check out your next BlackBerry device (you can chose either the BlackBerry Bold [on the left] or the BlackBerry Thunder [right]):

According to reports at both Gear Diary and Boy Genius, September looks like the timeframe that these two beauties will be seeing the light of day. The Bold looks like a "normal" BlackBerry - just updated. Full specs and details HERE.

But the Thunder is going to be something truly special ... it will be the first BlackBerry device to feature an on-screen keypad, but supposedly it has some sort of tactile response to it. Details on all that HERE and HERE. And, here's a picture (remember there's no "real" keyboard - what you see is onscreen):

blackberrythunderqwerty(edited).JPG

So, iPhone - take that!

- Rob

PS: In the spirit of true disclosure - local stocks of iPhone were completely depleted over the weekend, and I really couldn't bring myself to stand in line or camp out overnight, so I was NOT one of the early, early adopters of iPhone 3G. However, I stopped by my local AT&T store yesterday and ordered one (did you know you could do that? I didn't until they suggested it). Ten days from now (or so they say), I'll be in iPhone nirvana! ]]> http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dxcomments/iphone-isnt-the-only-exciting-device-news.htm http://www.dominounplugged.com/Hosting/dominounplugged/home2.nsf/dx/iphone-isnt-the-only-exciting-device-news.htm?opendocument&comments