The world as frankps sees it!
Posts tagged ActiveSync
Notes Traveler on the iPhone
5At work we have updated our Domino servers to v.8.5.1, and gone is the need for Lotus iNotes Ultralite and Notes Pro for the iPhone. With the new version of Domino, Lotus now supports Microsoft’s ActiveSync. You can now have the same push functionality as with Exchange, and use your native iPhone applications. ActiveSync has become a de facto standard for pushing out information to mobile devices.
I have been writing lots of positive things about Lotus Notes, and I should continue a little bit more. Setting up Lotus Traveler on the iPhone is both elegant and easy,and done in about a minute. But seeing that the data of Lotus Notes desktop client, iNotes and the data on the iPhone not being in sync by default, can’t be said to be anything else then a sad story. I thought this was the whole purpose with Roaming User profiles. But ok, it could be fixed. I only had to go in to the Contacts preferences on the desktop and enable “Syncronize Contacts on the Replicator”. Just that this option didn’t make any sence to me. Syncronize my contacts with a replicator? What replicator? Why treat iNotes and the iPhone (or mobile phones) as something else then the destop client?
After having solved the replication problem, the solution has worked flowlessly. But sadly leaves me with a choice I have to make, Lotus Notes or Google Sync? The iPhone can only have one Exchange account, and I must admit that I liked Google’s Exchange service for Contacts, Calendar and Gmail better. It has to be said that we don’t use Lotus Notes for mail. But since this is a work phone, I guess I should stick with Lotus Notes. Not a bad choice if the amount of meetings increase, and if I was more on the move. But for now, I could have been just as happy with Google’s solution, pushing contacts and calendar entries.
I also found Google Contacts to have an easier accessable user interface, and it handles pictures of your contacts far better then Lotus Notes. I have not found what pixel size Lotus Notes use. So most faces look draged. It’s just a small thing, but it is nice to see when somebody has thought design all the way through their product. Google has!
But if it is Lotus Notes you have decided to use, Paul Mooney has put together a brilliant manual for how to set up the Lotus Notes Travel service on your iPhone / iPod Touch (this is only the client setup).
Google finally lets you push Gmail!
02 years ago
I have been a long time user of Google’s push support for Contacts and Calender entries. When I tested it for the first time, I ended up writing a blog entry with the title “I simply love it!“. The only bad thing with the solution back then, was that push support was not enabled for Gmail.
Guess what? Today that changed. Users have ran down Google with requests on Google’s popular Product Ideas page and Help Forum. Our cries have finally been heard, and people using iPhone, iPod Touch and Windows Mobile devices, can now use the new functionality. Users of old fashioned S60 devices, should consider running to the closest mobile phone store. Just kidding, I am sure you will soon get this much requested functionality as well!
For those of you that already are using Google Sync, simply go to Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars and choose the Google/Gmail account. In the window that then comes up, simply activate the ActiveSync for Mail. By default Gmail will only push emails you have received the three last days and not your whole Gmail account. That’s it, that’s all the magic …
Notes Pro for iPhone
1Please have a look at my article Notes Traveler on the iPhone.
I’ve always been in favor of group calendar solutions, and therefor often written about Notes products. Recently the annual Lotussphere took place, and a lot of new stuff got announced. LinkedIn and IBM announced a partnership, in the future we will be able to use a LinkedIn add-on very similar to Xobni in Lotus Notes. Another partnership was with Skype. And Lotus Live is on the way. Yepp, this is the year of cloud computing. I can’t wait.
At the same time as Lotussphere I started upgrading my department’s computers with the latest Lotus Notes, version 8.5. I chose to install the standard version of the client and not the basic one. And ta-ta, users were quite impressed with the upgrade. I also bought a license of Notes Pro for my iPhone, and this is what the article is all about. This is my review. Notes Pro is an alternative for iNotes Ultralite.
Notes Pro costed me about 85 NOK on iTunes Music Store. From the application’s web page you can read that Notes Pro is an all-in-one Lotus Notes solution for the iPhone, that lets you access your Notes mail, calendar, group contacts and todos directly from Notes Pro. Before you can run Notes Pro on your iPhone, some basic Lotus Notes account configuration is required. So before purchasing the application, please read the Lotus Notes Server Setup Instructions and ensure your Lotus Notes server is compatible with Notes Pro.
You need to be able to to drop a simple script into your Agents folder in the Lotus Notes Application. Four versions of the script are available, among the things the script sets is where to look for your contacts. I tried both versions of the International version, Global and Local. I guess Local would only give you the Contacts you have in your local address book, but I did not get Local working. Global on the other hand was working, but I must say poorly with a global address book including all our 3.000 users. But as you can see from my screenshots, I also ran in to other problems. The appointments that appeared on Notes Pro, were the ones first taking place in December this year (screenshots were taken in the end of January!).
So with a not really working global address book and calendar, I was left with Mail and ToDo. I was able to send new mails access my list of todos, but not add new todos. The graphical user interface on the application is rather poor and not what we expect from an iPhone application, and with the limited of functionality included you are better of using the free Lotus iNotes Ultralite.
But …, I saved the very best news from Lotussphere to the very end. Notes Pro for the iPhone will in the future not be needed, as IBM plans to add support for ActiveSync (please have a look at my Google Sync article). What will this mean for us endusers? We will use the synchronization application EasySync less and sync wirelessly on-the-fly. The ActiveSync protocol is becoming a de facto standard for wireless synchronization. Another thing is that in the future we will not need iNotes Ultralite and Notes Pro.
I will test future versions of Notes Pro. Hopefully my problems will be solved.