BBC on WM6

Somehow I managed to lay my grubby paws on an HTC Kaiser (also known as the AT&T Tilt) and I've update the ROM on it so it has Blackberry Connect. It's not the same as the RIM client, but it's still push email which is what I wanted. It's also got me thinking about the kind of apps I'd like to see on a phone . . . . and I can get the MS toolkits I need if I want. All I have to do is find some time. . . . . .

Traveller

I want it so bad. Or maybe I want BB Connect on a WM6 phone. One or the other would do. But I don't have a server to install Traveller on, so I guess it'll have to be BBC. But I don't have a phone that I can get a WM6 image for with BBC on it. Maybe I need to contact a friend who can find me the suitable phone!

Notes 8 - good enough for your kids?

RIM decided to remove some of the features of the Desktop Manager in their upgrade to 4.3, most notably (for me) was the removal of Synchronization support for Lotus Organizer. My wife and I have been using Blackberrys (ies?) for years now and since I refuse to use Outlook on any household machine we've used Organizer 6 since well I can't remember when. With 4.3, the support for this and other calender/contact managers "goes away" which leaves me in somewhat of a quandary . . . . move to Notes8 for household email/calender/contacts or keep rolling with Thunderbird for email and switch to Notes for calendar/contacts? I should be using Notes for my domestic and work email, but I have 11 email addresses spread over 7 domains and Notes is, to say the least, not the best at dealing with multiple email addresses forget about domains in a client unlike T-bird.
Which brings me to my question of the day. How can IBM Lotus make a serious move into the collegiate/small business/domestic market (which I believe have similar usage demographics) without having an email client that can support multiple addresses and domains to send from without the need of a server or switching location docs. Even Outlook can do this now! I heard a lot about the re-focusing of sales efforts towards the true (not IBM's past view) Small to Medium Business market (<100 style="font-weight: bold;">any other email client because they've been using it since high-school or college. Not because the other client isn't any better - familiarization is what it's all about - if you're comfortable with it and it does what you need (whether you could do more with another client is another story) then why would you want to change? I've used Notes for 15 years now and I'm comfortable with it. I use Outlook in a new job and I hate it. It's not intuitive (to me) perhaps because I've used Notes for so long. Or perhaps it's because it isn't intuitive - I've used thousands of apps through the years both inside and outside of the Lotus catalog and Outlook ranks up there with the least well designed UIs I've ever seen. IBM Lotus needs to back up the Sales and Marketing effort with a product flexible enough to suit domestic, small business and enterprise users in a single package. It would be very nice to see, but I guess I won't be hlding my breath . . . .

Exchange to Domino/Outlook to Notes migrations

So I've read lately about companies moving to Notes/Domino from Outlook/Exchange and it's interesting to hear that the transitions seem to be much smoother in that direction than in the opposite. Might be something to do with the fact that Notes/Domino is so much more than just email, something that most folks don't get. That can be shown by Microsoft's strategy to get people on Exchange at any cost, leaving many organizations with another platform to support and maintain (Exchange) and still retain a collaboration platform (Notes/Domino) for an extended period while they work out how to migrate to .Net or even if it is possible. In my limited experience with Domino -> .Net migrations, I've had to export all the data out from a database to an Excel spreadsheet or Access Database in order that it can be imported into the .Net app. Since 9x.x% of .Net developers can't spell NotesAPI but most Notes/Domino devs work with Java then the move from non-Notes to Notes/Domino appears to be a less laborious process.
I'll wait for the flames (if anyone reads this!) . . . . . . . .

A "New" Transporter Suite from M$?

Am I the only one to have noticed this? M$ have released yet another version of their Transporter suite to allegedly migrate to Exchange from Domino and/or "generic" POP3/IMAP email systems. They managed to sneak in the announcement on opening day of Lotusphere . . . . . Judging by their previous attempts this is not likely to fit the billing . . . I guess I'll have to wait for Paul Mooney to rip it apart!

Notes Traveller

As an erstwhile user of Windows Mobile phones, thanks to a very good friend, I have realized that the mail options (outside of Exchange) that come with the phones are poor. So I was excited to hear about Lotus Notes Traveller becoming available. Now all I have to do is find a customer who wants to use it!
BB Connect for Windows is my other option. When I get a WM phone that would benefit from it (ie one with a keyboard!) then I'll download it and use it. Right now I'm switching between a BB Pearl and an HTC Touch (I keep breaking the stylii for the HTC) and I've decided that I'm probably going to stay with the Pearl until I can get a suitable WM phone to use BB Connect on. When I do, I'll post my opinion . . . . . .