NotesBerry

Category Smartphone

A little while ago Rudi Knegt at RKJ-Soft kindly agreed to let us link up to his notes.ini database. We ported it to the BlackBerry platform so you can search through all of the thousands of current entries using any part of the notes.ini setting or its description.

Well Tim Davis has now produced a specialised version of the Notes INI specifically for the BlackBerry Storm. You can install the Storm version OTA by going to http://lotusphere.turtleweb.com/notesini2.jad

You can still download the app if you have a different BlackBerry device than a Storm, to install the standard BB notes.ini application OTA go to http://lotusphere.turtleweb.com/notesini.jad

The initial load of data can take a couple of minutes and you will see it updating the record count as it goes. Any problems or suggested enhancements please let me know.

My colleague Gabriella has blogged about "an unpleasant bug from RIM for 4.1.6 Maintenance Release 5 which was new out at the end of April.  Basically if you attempt to move users from one BES to another with MR5 installed it may or may not work (with 10 people tested, 5 worked, 5 stopped working until they were moved back).  The servers in this case were 4.1.6 servers but the same applies to 5.0 servers." Gabriella says there is a private  hotfix and you can see her blog piece here.

It is interesting that BlackBerry and iPhone smartphones have bucked the worldwide market trend in the first quarter of 2009. According to Gartner they have both increased their sales in a falling mobile/cell phone market. The reasons for their sales success include the wider capability of smartphones, more aggressive pricing and their widespread use for social software. Interestingly use for social software is especially relevant for BlackBerrys rather than iPhones.

Its only over a single quarter but it reflects Tim Berners-Lee's view back in March that the future for the internet as we know it is in mobile/cell phones, and also IBM's prediction of one billion mobile Web users by 2011 and a significant shift in the way the majority of people will interact with the Web over the next decade.

Posted by Mike Smith At 14:56:36 Location London | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Category BES 5.0 Research in Motion

Hurrah! Finally! BES v5.0 has been released. Everywhere in BlackBerry land you can see impressions, download kits, get a hold of the documentation, etc.

But what you want to know is: Does it work?

• We have installed it on a live BES server, over the top of BES 4.1.6, running Domino 8.5. And - it does!
• One issue we had was being able to log into the administration screen afterwards. Its all web based now (hurrah!), and relies/requires SSL style certificate authentication. etc. On top of a Live domino server. This bit might get.. interesting..

. What else ? it looks pretty much like a BES 416 installer - so quite irritating, requires a reboot in the middle. Same old, same old.

We shall keep you posted on stability, etc, as it progresses.

Disclaimer> Do not try this on a live production server without backups, reading the documentation, trying it out on a test server, making sure all your third party applications work, etc. Remember: we cut corners so you dont have to.

Posted by Bill S Buchan At 17:28:06 Location | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

Category LCTY

Pleased to say that Notesberry bloggers and Lotusphere presenters Tim Davis and Paul Mooney will be at the Lotusphere Comes To You UK events in Manchester tomorrow 28/4 and in London on Thursday 30/4.

Paul will be on the BE Systems stand while Tim will be at the UK Lotus User Group stand in the techlab area. I will be helping out with the UK Lotus User Group as well. So please drop by to say hello or if you have a question.

Can I just add that there is still time to register for these LCTY UK events - just go here

Mike

Posted by Mike Smith At 10:36:39 Location London | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category BlackBerry Blogging
I meant to open source the source code for bbMetaBlog a long time ago.  Sorry for the delay. If you're looking to integrate Domino and BlackBerry with a custom Java application I hope this is useful:

http://weblog.jasonhookonline.com/jho/blog.nsf/downloads/JHOK-7QZV43

Best regards,
Jason

Posted by Jason Hook At 00:30:28 Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category BES

Well I suppose you could call this a back-handed compliment? Canadian Police are concerned, they say that criminals prefer using BlackBerrys because the devices are so secure they cant be tapped.

"The problem is that BlackBerry smartphones, designed by Waterloo, Ont.-based Research In Motion initially for corporate clients, run software called the BlackBerry Enterprise Server that creates a secure and private network and encrypts data."

A Canadian MP is asking that the government to force Smartphone manufacturers to provide ways to tap their phones and of course there is strong resistance on privacy grounds to that. Strikes me that making authorised 'back doors' into personal devices opens a huge can of worms, so I suspect this argument will run and run.

You can see the whole story over here.

Posted by Mike Smith At 10:00:24 Location London | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Category World

I have said this before but the potential for Smartphones is huge - 4 billion people on our planet have mobiles/cellphones while only around a paltry 2 billion have a PC, at the same time IBM's Institute for Business Value predicts a massive shift to internet access via mobile devices (they estimate 1 billion mobile web users by 2011). This move to mobile internet use also ties in with a change in people's internet usage - increasingly they are using online time to communicate using social software, not just to find info.

So there is a lot to play for and thus a lot of new Smartphones aimed right at that market.

With all this activity it is worth considering that in this sector BlackBerry is still the one to beat. According to ITProPortal there are over 21 million BlackBerry users worldwide which means that RIM's back-end infrastructure is dealing with 4 terabytes of data every hour - that's an impressive proven user base.  

More than that in my view BlackBerry still leads the pack of Smartphones when it comes to corporate use. The reason? Well we can talk about the pros and cons of individual devices but for corporate use the key for me is administration. BlackBerry gives you the ability to centrally administer your BlackBerrys right down to functionality on an individual device. I know - admin is dull - but when you run a stable of devices day-in day-out then effective admin is vital.

Posted by Mike Smith At 10:59:41 Location London | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category Lotusphere

Our own Tim Davis has blogged about his Show and Tell session with Jason Hook at Lotusphere 2009 - 'SHOW109 Developing Mobile Applications - Techniques for Running Big Applications on Small Devices'. This session focused primarily on BlackBerry development with a small segment on the iPhone. You can see Tim's blog entry and get copies of his slides here.

Jason has told me that he will also be blogging about this session shortly.

To give you some background 'Show and Tell' was a new track at Lotusphere which replaced the 'Hands On' track by producing presentations with step-by-step screen-by-screen documentation on a particular subject. Feedback on this new track has been positive, certainly there was a pretty good turnout for Tim and Jason's session despite it starting very early in the morning.

Posted by Mike Smith At 12:17:09 Location London | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category Lotusphere

If there is one thing that I took away from Lotusphere 2009 its the change in the relationship between BlackBerry and Lotus. Its much closer at all levels - and the best example was that this year RIM was literally centre stage at the Lotusphere Opening General Session. Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of RIM, stood on the stage at Orlando and pledged support for Lotus software - including Quickr, Symphony and Connections.

As I see it a couple of underlying currents emerged at Lotusphere 2009.

The need to mobilise business applications had long been a theme at RIM's own Lotusphere sessions - but now it was a major Lotus theme at the OGS. As Bob Picciano, General Manager at IBM Lotus Software, said 'new Lotus collaboration features and developer tools on the BlackBerry platform will deliver productivity beyond the office extending IBM software and services so that individuals can access all of the resources they need to keep their business moving, anytime, anywhere.' That's very publicly stated proof that Lotus are strongly behind the concept of apps mobilisation - and a public acknowledgement of RIM as a partner to deliver it.

Meanwhile RIM has continued to evolve its strategic view of the BlackBerry as a flexible software platform. This is reflected in their new dedicated software team, their continuing investment in product development (interesting to hear that RIM are hiring despite the current economic climate) and their ongoing work with Lotus. Of course Lotus and RIM have worked together for some time but now its at a whole new level, with the BlackBerry software team talking direct with the Lotus developers.

The fruits of this investment and of closer ties to Lotus were clear at the show. To take some examples - extending X-pages to the BB platform, support for Lotus Symphony docs (from BES 5.0 which is due in March), the new enhanced Lotus Connections Client announced at Lotusphere, a new Quickr Client (due 3rd quarter 2009), new Sametime for the BB (with better address book integration, ability to send chats as email, emoticons and presence on the home screen). And there is more in the pipeline.

So its been good to see RIM and Lotus getting closer, and showing public commitment to their partnership.

Posted by Mike Smith At 12:49:05 Location London | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Category Lotusphere

Once again this year you can download our free BlackBerry version of Genii's Lotusphere 2009 Sessions database.

To download simply browse on your BlackBerry to http://lotusphere.turtleweb.com/bb

After you install the app just click on "Load Data" to get all the Sessions info.

The Sessions database does have a few gaps left as certain times are finalised. However you can fill them in after you install - just  choose "Load Data' again from the app main menu anytime to get an update directly from the Sessions database itself.

Besides the ability to add sessions to your Calendar on the BlackBerry we have also included Genii's 'Feedback' form this year. This allows you to post questions and comments in response to a Session.

Hope you find our Sessions app useful and please let me know how you get on with it.

Posted by Mike Smith At 16:27:57 Location London | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Category None

I got this eMail from PocketMac:

Hello Bill,
We've been hearing from customers like you that they had trouble synching their BlackBerry handhelds with new Aluminum MacBook laptops.
They also reported trouble synching their new BlackBerry Storm.
The Aluminum MacBook issue appears to be caused by a change Apple made to some of the hardware and software for that new model.
We recommend two items that you should download and install to better assist with connection and synchronization:
1. Apple OS 10.5.6 Update 2. Blackberry USB Driver Patch/Upgrade (available at the bottom of this email).
Please run Apple's software update from the Apple icon --- Software Update. After the Software Update searches for new software. Mac OS X 10.5.6 software update should be available in the download list.
Please install this update. It's large and will take several minutes to complete. After successfully installing the update, please restart your Macintosh and continue with the instructions below...
We've just released a new, free patch is to support synching the new BlackBerry Storm, the BlackBerry Bold 8900 and connections to the new MacBook Aluminum. This patch supports both Mac OS X 10.4 ("Tiger") and Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard").
At the bottom of this email, please find the download link for this new update.
However, please download this USB Driver ONLY if you have one of the following items in your operating environment:
*You have a NEW Aluminum MacBook. *You have a BlackBerry Storm 9530 *You have a BlackBerry Bold 9000
Please download this update at: http://www.pocketmac.net/public/DriverUpdate.3.1.3B.dmg
If you run into any issues or need help installing this update, please visit our knowledgebase article at: http://tinyurl.com/69n83a
Thank you,
Lauren Samuels
PocketMac Team

Now this kind of customer service I like.

Posted by Bill Buchan At 08:10:39 Location Marykirk | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Category Lotusphere

Our own Tim Davis and Jason Hook from Notesberry will be presenting at Lotusphere 2009 in the new "Show and Tell" track. They will team up together to present 'Developing Mobile Applications - Techniques for Running Big Applications on Small Devices' (that's presentation code SHOW109).

Tim and Jason will take you through the steps needed to get a Domino application made available on mobile devices, such as mobile browsers and BlackBerrys.  Jason will be talking through how to create a consistent browser UI that will work across the variety of mobile browsers, covering the various standards, tools and tricks you need to know. Tim plans to use his BlackBerry Lotusphere Sessions Application (which is based on Genii's Lotusphere Sessions Database) to illustrate the development techniques he uses. Tim will then go further and talk about pushing data out from Domino to your BlackBerry applications.

Bill Buchan, Paul Mooney (both of them are presenting sessions again this year) and myself will also be at Lotusphere in January. So hope to see you there.

Posted by Mike Smith At 16:07:51 Location London | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Category BES

Interested in hearing more about logging and monitoring on your BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES)? Well my colleague Gabriella Davis will be giving an online presentation at the next Lotus User Group Virtual Meeting.

The BES integrates tightly with your Lotus Domino environment but its many services actually sit outside Domino and are not readily accessible to, or understood by, most Domino Admins. So this presentation will take you through how to monitor each of the BES services and what they do.

Gabriella will be taking a look at the extensive logging operations available for the BES server and each of the services, while delving into some sample logs to help you understand what your BlackBerry server is doing. She will also take a look at some tools in the BES Resource Kit that help you analyze your server activity and identify problems.

This session is ideal for anyone who is fearful their BlackBerry server 'just runs itself' and wants to achieve a greater level of control and tracking of BlackBerry activity, such as:

• Discovering the meaning of common Domino console commands you are seeing.
• Learning how to configure BES logging and enhanced logging for specific services.
• Generating revealing statistics and performing insightful log analysis with the BES Resource Kit.

So please join her at 12:00 noon Eastern (GMT -5) on November 17, 2008. Then after the presentation you can participate in the online discussion forum that same week which will be moderated by Gabriella. In the forum you can ask additional questions, provide feedback on the presentation, or share your knowledge and experience on the topic with the rest of the Lotus community

The presentation is free to Lotus User Group Members and LUG membership is free. You do need to pre-register, so please register today at http://www.LotusUserGroup.org/VUG

Gabriella is Technical Director here at The Turtle Partnership. Her role is high level administration and consultancy on Lotus and BlackBerry products supporting customers with over 60 domains, 400 servers and 30,000 plus users. She is an IBM Advanced Administrator and Developer for v7, certified for v8 and a CLI. She has been a speaker at Lotusphere and other technical conferences in the US and Europe.

Posted by Mike Smith At 14:23:00 Location London | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Category Bold

Well I must admit to a bit of "Xmas Morning" excitement when the Bold arrived from O2 in its cool black box. So what are my first impressions after a few days use?

• The device itself does look smart, its slightly larger than my old Pearl but not that bulky and I use the same holster for it.

• I like the clear and sharp screen. I also like the "white etched out of black" UI design - the clock is my favourite example.

• The full keyboard was easy to use even with my "sausage fingers" mainly due to some clever contouring on the keys. While the trackball is precise and bounces from item to item very smoothly.

• Setting up my Domino mail was straightforward, as was getting Sametime up and running. For Sametime we used the 8800 Client and just a little tweak on the port used.

• The UI has quite a few icons amongst several folders so I reshuffled them to help usability. I just moved icons about to make sure that Mail, SMS Messages (its a separate box), Calendar, Browser, Sametime and Keyboard Lock are always shown first.

• In the office I use WiFi while outside its shifts to GPRS. No usage problems with either route, and the transition between them is pretty seamless.

• Battery life has been good - I can leave it over the weekend between recharges. No different to the Pearl really.

• The browser is much improved over the Pearl, and the camera is not bad (though we took the attached image with another Bold - of course that could be the craftsman not the tool!).

• Crucially it now comes with 4 games preloaded - our old friend BrickBreaker plus WordMole, Texas Hold'em, Sudoko and Klondike. My rail journeys will fly by.

So what has been the downside of the Bold? Well I have yet to run into any of the software issues that I have heard about. My only gripe is that Google Maps won't load, its some sort of bug that freezes the load after about 10% and according to several BlackBerry sites other Bold users have had his problem too.

Overall then a good experience with the Bold so far.

I see that elsewhere a Mr Ed Brill of IBM Lotus has also commented on his new Bold, you can see that here.

Posted by Mike Smith At 15:51:51 Location London | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Category IBM

Thanks to Eric from Reno in Nevada for flagging a paper by Aaron Pane on "IBM Lotus Domino with BlackBerry Enterprise Server: Performance best practices":

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/domino-blackberry/index.html?S_TACT=105AGX13&S_CMP=EDU

And though its not strictly BlackBerry related here is a statistic I find staggering. By the end of this year its expected that mobile phone penetration of the world's population will reach 61%. That will be something like 4 billion phones. Now compare that to an online population of about 1 billion and the fact that by 2014 its estimated that there will "only" be 2 billion PCs in use. You can see why RIM, Apple etc get very, very excited about the potential market for web-enabled smartphones.

Posted by Mike Smith At 11:10:00 Location London | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category BlackBerry

I've heard that the new 9500 BlackBerry Storm is going to be a Vodafone exclusive or will at least debut on Vodafone (http://blackberry.vodafone.co.uk/storm/).  Volker reported in his blog that RIM have released v4.7 beta of their IDE (http://vowe.net/archives/009971.html).

The feature list of the IDE makes for interesting reading (http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/devbeta.jsp#tab_tab_jde):

Touch Screen with support for gestures;
Orientation and Rotation support;
Accelerometer Support;
DRM support;
3rd Party Apps can invoke the video recorder and capture video;
Apps get a "send to" menu action for sending media to a target (like email, Flickr app)

Other features of the 9500 include:
3.2mp Camera with Flickr and FaceBook apps pre-installedt;
30fps video;
Up to 16gb storage via SD Card;
High quality sound;

That sounds like iPhone territory to me but with the security of BES.

The Vodafone link gives you a nice 360 degree view of the device and it looks nice.  At 112.5mm x 62.2 mm x 13.95 mm it has very similar dimensions to the iPhone's 115 x 61 x 11.6mm.  Hopefully it has a bigger battery.

CrackBerry.com recently revealed a first look a RIM's app store: (http://crackberry.com/exclusive-first-look-blackberry-application-center) which looks like a move in the right direction.  The concern I have with it is the rumour that carriers will host the store.  I hope we're not going to have a situation where developers are having to approach the different carriers worldwide to get their applications in the various stores worldwide.

All in all it's looking positive,  BlackBerry is fighting back.  BTW check out the Vodafone link if you think you might miss a real qwerty keyboard, the landscape view with virtual keyboard looks good.  I can imagine execs wanting a Storm.  For IT departments the Storm is a sexy device which also makes integration with Notes secure and easy to manage.   The iPhone is currently hard work for us and the Storm should be an easier sell to execs than any previous BlackBerry.

But wait, before we all get carried away and buy one, what's missing?  There's apparently no WiFi.  I know 3G's quick but why pay for calls and data when you don't need to?  Bizarre.  That's why I won't be an early adopter much as I'd like to.

Hopefully the 9510 will be worth the wait, I want one.

Posted by Jason Hook At 12:25:09 Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)