Lotus Nut

Not to be confused with the iPhone 3G (the newly-released hardware that I hope to acquire sometime), the iPhone 2.0 software is now available. I actually loaded mine yesterday after reading of the availability at iPhone Central. Although the 1st Generation iPhones can run this same 2.0 software, there are some extra features that the iPhone 3G will have due to the hardware upgrade. Obviously, it will take advantage of the 3G data networks and it has built-in GPS.

My upgrade to iPhone 2.0 went fairly smoothly. After loading it, I immediately went to the AppStore to get some applications. I was surprised at how many useful, free apps there are! Lifehacker has a list of some of these.

Some of the ones I have loaded are:

• Remote - remotely control your iTunes library over wi-fi. This will be even better if they allow streaming from iTunes through the iPhone! I have noticed some quirks with this when the display shuts off (volume control stops working, play/pause is confused, basically it just stops working!), but closing to the home screen and opening the app brings back the functionality.
• Facebook - works fairly well. I actually really like Facebook's iPhone web app. It actually has more functionality in general. However, the Facebook app allows you to upload photos as well as use Facebook chat
  
• Twitterific - I am not giving up on this yet. I have been using the Hahlo Twitter web app for a while and really dig it, but I will keep trying to use Twitterific.
  
• AOL Radio - Lots of streaming radio stations with options to look for local stations. Works well
• eBay - I like this app a lot so far.
• Bank of America - I am not a customer, but kudos to you for doing this. I have considered switching to BoA because of this. My bank tells me to just use Safari because all of the functionality works. Ok...thanks
• Contacts - So this is pre-loaded with the software. You no longer have to go to the Phone application just to see the contacts!
• WeatherBug - I think I will dig this one. I have been using Weather Underground's excellent web app (http://i.wund.com) for a while. I don't like the radar feature with WeatherBug

So there you go. Enjoy the software upgrade if you are not going to be going to the 3G anytime soon. You can also hold the "home" button and press the top button to take a screenshot!

Oh yeah, since this is a Lotus blog, here is iNotes:



I also have to mention that I find it funny that when adding a mail server that Microsoft Exchange is listed before Apple's mobileme product as an available mail server!! They must have really got in good with Apple!

 Ed Brill points out that Sprint announces Mobile Email Work; access Lotus Domino or Exchange. This is really great news!I'm really glad to see that Sprint is going to have mobile mail available for Domino with around a dozen devices (including the ubiquitous RAZR). I will be interested to see how this actually works, technically. Sprint touts that this will be a "push" mail solution (See Nathan's post on push mail) and that software updates on the device will be forthcoming.

After going to the press release that Ed linked to, I clicked through a couple of pages and found that Sprint does have some more information about this at their website. Thankfully the press release (the item that will have the most hits!) mentions Lotus Domino because Sprint doesn't have a word about it at their mobile email site (at least not yet).  But I did see this at their site - specific mentioning of Exchange:



Sprint worked with Seven Networks to do this. Seven Networks has some info at their website that there is an Enterprise version available to work with Lotus Domino. I'm presuming that this is how Sprint will be licensing this. I know they've been around for a while, but I've never been familiar with their offerings. Perhaps others have some experience.

By the way, in the US, Seven Networks works with Alltel, AT&T, and Sprint. So the big news on Ed's blog is that Sprint actually mentioned Domino. There's nothing really specific that it appears Sprint is doing in this regard other than licensing and marketing their mobile email product running Seven Networks' software.

And while I'm sure the Instinct is a great device, I'm wondering if Apple already has that market cornered with the iPhone - especially whenever it is available on multiple networks. But time will only tell on that.

I just read this over at Kevin Hansen's blog:

This month, an Exchange server will go live in our organization. It will be connected to Domino to allow us to deliver iPhone services to our corporate users. We have a number of iPhones requested from our user community and more are sure to come.

Somehow, I don't believe this is they type of response to John Head's "Call to Action" that was anticipated. Kevin also states that this will be opening the door for more use of Exchange in his company and some likely migrations from Notes mail for certain groups.

It was asked at Ed Brill's blog if companies would seriously choose to move to Exchange just to support the iPhone - apparently the answer is yes. As I'm writing this, there are 367 signatures at the iPetition. This represents mobile users in the tens of thousands. Let us hope that more of these companies do not see more pressure to deliver push mail to iPhones.

I do believe that IBM is trying to get this all sorted with Apple - and much of it is out of IBM's hands. I have tested and provided some feedback on Lotus iNotes Ultralite. I think it is a good interim solution for those who need access to Domino mail from an iPhone. But, I think we all agree that it does not provide the desired long-term solution we all want for push mail and pim sync.

Further, to reiterate what Ed said, none of us really know how the Exchange services are going to work on the iPhone. There has been past debate about whether Exchange Server with Windows Mobile devices actually provides "push" mail. So will the iPhone implementation of this be more of a constant pull than a push? (Not that end-users actually care - they just want instant access to mail...)

I do not want to keep this debate going, but with the knowledge now that there are companies considering Exchange implementations to do this, we should keep this in mind.