February 2011
CeBIT ahead
by Volker Weber
Tomorrow I shall be heading to Hannover to attend CeBIT. I will take a diversion to Köln though. Microsoft is hosting an executive briefing describing their effort to convince people that Microsoft has the desktop of the future. I will be hearing talks from Microsoft but also from Gartner and the Daimler CIO. It should be interesting to see the world through Microsoft's eyes, a view that I don't get often enough. I am frequently briefed by IBM, but only occasionally by Microsoft.
In the late afternoon I shall continue to Hannover for our CeBIT warm-up. It's going to be a wild ride with lots of appointments, our party at GOP, hardly enough sleep. Looking forward to see my colleagues as well as lots of friends.
Again, I am traveling light. An iPad instead of a computer, headset, chargers, an iPhone for connecting home, and ...
... a Nokia N8. Why would I need that? It's one great camera. It can read USB thumbdrives you get at press conferences, and it can upload the content to the cloud, for instance my Dropbox. None of the other phones I have does that. Having a well connected tiny USB host is quite a useful tool.
I have another candidate that arrived last week: a Nokia E7. It's larger than the N8 both in width and length, and it does have a keyboard. However, the 8 MP E7 camera does not nearly work as well as the 12 MP N8 shooter. The difference is in the optics and the xenon flash; the N8 also has the largest sensor of all smartphones. I was ready to return the N8 as soon as the E7 would arrive, but I quickly made up my mind.
Global Android Activations, Oct '08 - Jan '11
by Volker Weber
I got started in May 2009.
Ryan Jameson: This is why we ski
by Volker Weber
[Thanks, Hajo]
Happy 25th birthday, Pixar
by Volker Weber
[via Alper]
Thunderbolt: A new way to hack Macs
by Volker Weber
From The Register:
The 10Gbit/s interconnect Apple introduced Thursday in a new line of Macbook Pros may or may not change the way the world connects external hard drives and other peripherals to their computers. But it's safe to say the newfangled copper link likely contains the same security weakness that for years has accompanied another Mac innovation: the Firewire port.
Need advice on hard disks
by Volker Weber
I need to buy some new drives, preferrably 2TB each, SATA. The catch is that they will be running around the clock in a 6-bay ReadyNAS Pro. It will spin the disks down when they are not accessed, but they might as well be running around the clock. So I will need disks that either don't get too warm or that can handle the heat.
Update: Drives from the HCL with prices
Any recommendations?
Gingerbread finally on Nexus One
by Volker Weber
If you can't wait for the OTA push, you can still download Gingerbread for your Nexus One and install it over USB. Took me about ten minutes start to finish.
Get the new boot loader HBOOT 0.35 and Gingerbread 2.3.3. First apply the boot loader. To do that, copy the zip file as update.zip to your phone over USB. Power down, hold volume down and power on, with volume buttons scroll down to "recovery" and press power button, at the attention sign press volume up and power, from the menu select "Apply sdcard:update.zip" with track ball, reboot when finished. Now start all over again with Gingerbread.
New MacBook Pros
by Volker Weber
Looks exactly like the old one, doesn't it? I was hoping for a more radical redesign, more like the Air, with more power. I am staying put with my 2009 Pro 13". If I did not have that one, I would get the 13" Air.
Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office
by Volker Weber
Google Cloud Connect is a free plugin that improves Microsoft Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 on Windows PCs. It adds simultaneous collaboration, revision history, cloud sync, unique URLs and simple sharing to the Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint applications ... Unfortunately due to the lack of support for open APIs on Microsoft Office for Mac, we are unable to make Google Cloud Connect available on Macs at this time.
Gut gemeint
by Volker Weber
PR für Anfänger: Schreiben Sie in die Mail rein, was sie wollen. Nutzen Sie keine Anhänge, sprechen Sie persönlich an. Und arbeiten Sie mal in einer anderen Firma, damit Sie sehen, wie die das machen.
Google’s Disruption Of Enterprise Email Market And Their “Social Challenges”
by Volker Weber
Unfortunately, Google has absolutely no clue on how to execute their social strategy and it is going to hurt them badly sooner than later. With IBM firming up their Social Business vision, the threat to Google’s enterprise strategy is just round the corner.
Timeless advice
by Volker Weber
Vinod brought this oldie up on Facebook, and I enjoyed revisiting it.
Incoming tips
by Volker Weber
There were two tips coming in today, that would I like to share with you:
- Music: Imelda May (Gabor)
- Books: Brett Battles - The Cleaner (Michael)
While I have been away
by Volker Weber
I was kind of busy last week, since I had to finish a couple of articles for iX before leaving for München: editorial, Lotusphere report, iPhone device management and a short piece on BlackBerry management.
Then I went to München for two days. We stayed in Pullach just south of Munich, right in the village center. I figured the church bells would wake us at seven in the morning, but it turned out the snow plows started their serious business at a quarter to five. And they did not really finish their work until it was time to get up.
I went to München to co-host Edcom Nachlese, which tries to bring to best of Lotusphere to their customers. It's a joy to work with Anneliese, Otto and Wolfgang. They are my kind of people. Honest, generous, with good taste. We only do this once a year, but I guess none of us would mind doing it every three months.
This was our seventh event, and I believe it went really well. By now we know most of the audience, and we know what they want. For me there were three highlights: the opening session with Ron Sebastian who delivered what IBM should have done at the Lotusphere OGS, then at the end a very relaxed Ed Brill who did not have to race through his presentation, because there were no partners taking up 20 minutes of the hour, followed by a great questions and answers session. Last year we tried something we had not done before. It goes like this: we take questions in German, I translate them to English, Ed answers them in English, and I translate a short summary back to German, sometimes completely contradicting his answer, which is always a great joke. Anyway, last year Ed was a good sport, but this year, this concept was working really, really well. The audience was in a good mood, and we almost had a conversation. Even Ron was chiming in with some answers. The q&a session went for three quarters of an hour and it was just a great finale. There was hardly anything left to say but "thank you and now go home".
As it is at Lotusphere, the real value is in the breakout sessions, and there is always good ones, excellent ones, and some that don't work as well as intended. But overall, I believe, this was a really great event. Thank you to all who attended or helped putting it together. And now I have to stay away from beer for a few days.
A couple of unrelated things happened while I was away. Microsoft released SP1 for Windows 7 and a small update for Windows Phone 7 that I have not yet downloaded. I finally got the chance to upgrade the Pre Plus to webOS 2.1. And there is a Nokia E7 waiting to be delivered tomorrow. I shall not be bored for the rest of the week.
The hardest part today was giving back the MacBook Air. I got a little bit attached to it. ;-)
webOS 2.0 für Pre Plus, nicht aber für Pre und Pixi
by Volker Weber
Für das Palm Pre Plus soll es dagegen schon bald ein Update auf webOS 2.0 geben. Es wird dieses Mal nicht automatisch über das Mobilfunknetz bereitgestellt (OTA), sondern ist nur über die Software webOS Doctor installierbar, die man von der HP-Website herunterladen kann.
Update: Das ging fixer als gedacht.
New policy: all paper.li spammers will be blocked
by Volker Weber
For a while I have asked paper.li spammers to stop advertising their "paper" on Twitter. I have had enough. Now I am just blocking them. Congratulations, @bindermichi for being persistent. Next up: @michwitz.
On heavy rotation: Motown Remixed
by Volker Weber
If you have a Napster account try this: search for album "Motown Remixed". Play "Papa Was A Rolling Stone", Temptations remixed by DJ Jazzy Jeff and Pete Kuzma.
As a matter of fact, Ballmer is indeed missing
by Volker Weber
Photo The White House
The Oatmeal: What I think Obama is meeting with Jobs, Schmidt, and Zuckerberg about
by Volker Weber
Tonight Obama is meeting with Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, and Mark Zuckerberg. There's been a lot of speculation about what they're going to discuss. Here's what I think.
Frank Meehan: Here's What's Wrong With Android
by Volker Weber
“If you go to a nightclub in any city in the world, the pretty girl has an iPhone or a BlackBerry,” Meehan told Mashable at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “She doesn’t have an Android phone. She has no emotional attachment to an Android phone. It’s too complicated. It’s a geek device, it’s all wrong.”
That is a pretty good observation.
Update: What a coincidence. Pretty girl from the neighborhood just asked for advice: BlackBerry Torch or iPhone 4. Android wasn't even a consideration.
Notable awards at Mobile World Congress
by Volker Weber
Best Mobile Device: Apple iPhone 4. That's quite embarrassing given the fact that almost all new devices were running on Android and Apple did not even attend MWC. I do concur though.
Best app on iPhone: Angry Birds (also overall winner). Best app on BlackBerry: BlackBerry Messenger (by RIM). Best app on Android: Google Maps (by Google). Best app on Nokia: some app I never heard about.
David Kajmo does not want your money
by Volker Weber
It's highly unlikely that this is David Kajmo. Notice the difference between dkajmo@yahoo.com and dakajmo@yahoo.com?
Update: David writes:
My Facebook and Yahoo accounts have been hacked. My family and I are fine at home in Massachusetts.
Don't send money to dakajmo !
They are back. They are back!
by Volker Weber
November 10: We will never come back.
February 9: We are not done yet.
You can't keep up with the Joneses on Android
by Volker Weber
A friend has a Nexus One and he contemplates buying a Nexus S. Reason: Google has yet to upgrade the Nexus One to 2.3. Currently it runs on 2.2.2. The difference is minimal, but hey, you've got old stuff. Nexus One is about a year old, and it has been upgraded a couple of times. But now, it's no longer cutting edge. If you have to have the latest and greatest, then Android is not for you.
For the more serious user: relax. You have a great phone.
Moderne Zeiten
by Volker Weber
This should be fun
by Volker Weber
Google's Android Big in Barcelona - WSJ.com
by Volker Weber
Android powers every significant device launched at the Mobile World Congress and is benefiting from a big marketing push by Google to trumpet its arrival. ... The concern now is that it could become too powerful.
That is not an Apple concern, but a carrier concern. I hope you did not miss Elop's remark about WP7 becoming a "carrier friendly" ecosystem.
A packrat keeps everything forever
by Volker Weber
heise online: Kein Linux-Desktop im Auswärtigen Amt
by Volker Weber
Wie vor zwei Wochen berichtet:
Das Auswärtige Amt (AA) wird zu Windows-Desktops zurückkehren. Das hat die Bundesregierung In ihrer Antwort auf eine kleine Anfrage der SPD-Fraktion im Bundestag zur "Nutzung von freier Software im Auswärtigen Amt und anderen Bundesbehörden" bestätigt.
Recognize any of these?
by Volker Weber
No more geo restrictions for The Daily Show
by Volker Weber
At least not in Germany ...
And then they were nine
by Volker Weber
Sonos is addictive. Consider yourself warned. You may start with one or two, but eventually there will be a lot more.
BlackBerry PlayBook to be available with LTE and HSPA+
by Volker Weber
MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, BARCELONA, SPAIN--(Marketwire - Feb. 14, 2011) - Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) today announced plans to launch two additional BlackBerry(R) 4G PlayBook(TM) tablets during the second half of 2011, featuring support for LTE and HSPA+ high speed wide area wireless networks.
Let's count how many models RIM has announced now. Still waiting for one to arrive at my doorstep. :-)
RIM has now announced plans to offer four BlackBerry PlayBook tablets:In addition to the Wi-Fi and 4G connectivity referenced above, each tablet can also support:
- BlackBerry PlayBook with Wi-Fi
- BlackBerry 4G PlayBook with Wi-Fi + WiMax
- BlackBerry 4G PlayBook with Wi-Fi + LTE
- BlackBerry 4G PlayBook with Wi-Fi + HSPA+
- Bluetooth tethering
- Mobile hotspots (ie. a MiFi(TM), smartphone or other portable device equipped to act as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot)
- BlackBerry Bridge
Sonos S5, limited edition
by Volker Weber
Well, there is only one, and I am pretty sure that Thomas is not going to sell it. Thomas on the left, Walter on your right.
Nervous Steve
by Volker Weber
Do not stand with your back against a wall
by Volker Weber
This is my favorite Duffbert picture. As you may know, Duffbert isn't very tall, and when he wanted a photo against the Guinness brewery backdrop, I simply sat down on the floor to shoot it. Compare this to the typical shot at the same location. Here is one I like. And my favorite from this trip: Warren and Kitty. Almost five years ago!
Ever wondered why I don't predict the future?
by Volker Weber
I am confident on February 11, Nokia's new CEO Stephen Elop will be announcing a strategy that acknowledges these elements of its current leadership. Nokia has issues and needs to change and is struggling in many ways. But do not expect Nokia to announce it is abandoning Symbian (and/or MeeGo) in favor of Phone 7 or Android. That won't happen.
Bzzt. Scratch one analyst.
Windows Phone 7 On Nokia N8
by Volker Weber
Photo: vowe
Microsoft just became a partner
by Volker Weber
As I was sitting in a Lotusphere presentation about Notes, I heard this off the cuff remark "Yada yada Microsoft is not a partner" when mobile platforms were discussed and there was this dangling question about support for Windows Phone 7. I think we can scratch this bit of arrogance right now. When Nokia is going Windows Phone 7 big time, you will have to follow. Not as a "leader", but you better follow.
Nokia has yet another mobile platform
by Volker Weber
From the Nokia press release:
With Nokia's planned move to Windows Phone as its primary smartphone platform, Symbian becomes a franchise platform, leveraging previous investments to harvest additional value. This strategy recognizes the opportunity to retain and transition the installed base of 200 million Symbian owners. Nokia expects to sell approximately 150 million more Symbian devices in the years to come.
Under the new strategy, MeeGo becomes an open-source, mobile operating system project. MeeGo will place increased emphasis on longer-term market exploration of next-generation devices, platforms and user experiences. Nokia still plans to ship a MeeGo-related product later this year.
In feature phones, Nokia unveiled a renewed strategy to leverage its innovation and strength in growth markets to connect the next billion people to their first Internet and application experience.
Let me count this:
- Nokia is going to build Windows Phones
- Symbian is a dead man walking
- MeeGo is a dead baby not walking
- Nokia is continuing with feature phones on a separate platform
You know what? I am so looking forward to a Nokia Windows Phone 7. I like the software and I love the hardware.
What again was the difference between the UK, Great Britain and England?
by Volker Weber
Sonos hommage to Maxell
by Volker Weber
Sonos gets an Android controller
by Volker Weber
I can finally reveal one of my secrets. :-) Sonos gets an Android controller. I am currently in the beta program, and I can attest that the Android controller is just as nice as that for the iPhone and iPod. There are still a few bugs to iron out, so it won't be in the market until March. Sonos wants to show the controller next week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and that's why they are revealing it today. Cheesy promotional video after the break.
The new Kindle has landed
by Volker Weber
HP announces three new webOS devices
by Volker Weber
Palm is gone, but it ain't dead. A few hours ago HP announced three new webOS devices, and you probably want all (or none) of them. The big Touchpad is similar to an iPad, the tiny Veer is for those moments when you don't want to carry a full size smartphone, and then there is a regular sized Pre3.
There are hardly any surprises in the specs. Pre3 gets the same screen as all the Windows Phones and Androids, the Veer is just tiny and has the screen resolution of old days, and the Touchpad has the same dimensions and screen resolution as the current iPad. Add cameras for video calls, some nice features like the one that lets you transfer a web page from the pad to the Pre, but when you get down to it, the magic is in webOS.
I love webOS, but so far it has not held up to its promise. None of the apps that I need are on webOS, and neither are many that I want. I think HP got the sizes right, but not the dates. None of the devices is available now. The tiny Veer will be out in spring, the Pre3 and Touchpad Wi-Fi in the summer. And the TouchPad 3G even after that. No prices announced yet. By the time HP goes to market, Apple will have an iPhone 5 and an iPad 2.
The elephant in the room is that carriers have all but given up on the platform. The Pre 2 was never released in Germany, and Pre/Pre+ owners are still waiting for 2.x to be pushed to their devices. With the tablet and the new slider still half a year out, that's going to give the competition quite some time.
Two guys, one guitar
by Volker Weber
Three down, three to go
by Volker Weber
It appears the only way to get IBM PR screenshots fixed, is to post them here. So there we go:
Are we feeling all excited yet?
by Volker Weber
It was at DNUG in Berlin, when a partner asked Lotus GM Alistair Rennie, what he should do when he had a hard time selling a Domino solution. Alistair's answer was clear and convincing: tell your customer, it is an IBM solution. There were "Lotus knows" banners everywhere, but one could see the change coming. In 4Q10 WPLC was renamed Collaboration Solutions, and that name became more visible at Lotusphere.
Lotus as a brand is being deprecated, IBM pushed forward. But hey, that's just rebranding. It is expensive, it takes quite an effort, and your friends notice first. Somebody who works with his Notes client day in and out and hates, hates, hates it, won't notice. And if he did, he could not care less.
IBM is going to push forward with Connections and Sametime. Connections is still somewhat unique, but Sametime has very strong competition. I believe, and I am sure that people will jump all over me, that Notes will have to play defense. I know a huge pipeline of customers evaluating their commitment, and that pipeline is getting longer. We will see more of the Abbott Labs, Bayer, Daimler, Miele etc. moves.
The best thing that IBM can do is to convince customers that they have the tools for the future of what IBM calls "Social Business". (You did notice that the term 'Social Business' means something else to the rest of the world?) That success is not a given. In this country companies are not yet sold on "the cloud" and even less so on "enterprise 2.0/social business". I am sometimes involved in these discussions and pilots often end up as "Wohlfühlprojekte", which means you do them if you have time and money to burn.
The most convincing argument I heard last week was from Uffe Sorensen, who said: "Nobody did ROI on email. It's an essential tool. If you do ROI on social software, you will come up equally empty-handed. Your employees will have a social network. The only question is whether you own it, or somebody else."
PS: Please, please, please, can you do away with these ghastly orange/yellow icons now that you no longer have to be yellow?
Google Translate app for iPhone
by Volker Weber
Back in August 2008, we launched a Google Translate HTML5 web app for iPhone users. Today, the official Google Translate for iPhone app is available for download from the App Store. The new app has all of the features of the web app, plus some significant new additions designed to improve your overall translation experience.
Fallen Angels
by Volker Weber
Check out the much improved Planet Lotus on the iPhone
by Volker Weber
About Yancy's vendor bingo solution
by Volker Weber
On the Lotusphere show floor I saw a couple of QR codes that said "Scan me and win an iPad". Whipping out my iPhone, I found this to be extremely easy to use. If you have a QR code reader on your smartphone, and you really should, you just point it to the graphic, it calls a URL that leads you to a website, where you only have to register once. When you scan the next badge, it calls a different URL, but it recognizes your ID which is stored in a cookie on your phone. Very cool and easy. No address to fill out on a card, no holes to punch. Just point the camera at a couple of badges to collect them.
Then I found out it was Yancy Lent of Planet Lotus fame who wrote this elegant solution. It debuted at Lotusphere, but it can of course also be used at other events. Yancy calls it Vendor Bingo, and he is just building a list of leads and tracks whether participants have collected all badges. The coolest part is how he finally draws the winner. Select all completed entries, sort them by a random number and limit the result to one.
SELECT attributes you want to see
FROM the users table
WHERE has completed and is not a vendor
ORDER BY rand( )
LIMIT 1
That's quite elegant.
Best Lotusphere giveaway
by Volker Weber
Bucky balls, from Panagenda
Reply all
by Volker Weber
[via Curious Mitch]
Path - A little more conversation
by Volker Weber
Path Chat makes it easy to comment and converse around both your own moments and your friends’ moments, in real time. Like Emotion, we hope that Chat helps you interact in a more personal way with close friends and family. Enjoy.
You can now also share with people who don't have Path yet. Just add their email address and they receive a photo when you share it.
Google I/O sold out in an hour
by Volker Weber
Lotusphere used to be like that 10 years ago.
Last.fm Radio becomes a premium feature on mobile and home entertainment devices
by Volker Weber
Last.fm says:
On February 15, the radio service built into Last.fm mobile apps and on home entertainment devices will become an ad-free, subscriber-only feature.
Sonos says:
Last.fm is moving from a free, to a premium service on Sonos over the coming months. All Sonos customers will continue to enjoy uninterrupted Last.FM service until this change takes place on Sonos. All Customers will receive communication from Sonos and Last.FM in advance of this change.
This year's best Lotusphere T-Shirt
by Volker Weber
Year after year, there is the C.U.L.T. shirt, the Certified Unofficial Lotusphere T-shirt, which I usually don't like much. This year however, there was something else. A Small Lotus World, originally developed by the London Developer Co-op, better known as Matt White, Ben Poole, Mark "The Wookie" Myers, Rob Wills, Julian Woodward, and Kieran Green. Since Matt works with Bruce Elgort for Elguji, Bruce took the idea one step further, raising $3500 for charity. The main price was an autographed and framed copy of this artwork.
There is so much funny detail in this artwork, that I give you a full resolution PNG to look at. With clearance from the people mentioned above. Try to spot characters from the yellow bubble and post in the comments whom you found. ;-)
Unusual Lotusphere perspectives
by Volker Weber
Lotus vs. Microsoft
by Volker Weber
Auf der Lotusphere konnte ich mir IBMs Sicht der Dinge anhören. Diesen Monat folgt dann noch Microsoft mit diesen Agenda-Punkten:
- Der Arbeitsplatz der Zukunft aus Microsoft-Sicht.
- Unified Communications and Collaboration Scenario: Are We There Yet?
- Warum Lotus Notes-Kunden aktuell Ihre Strategie überdenken - Erfahrungen aus diversen Evaluierungsprojekten.
- Next Workplace bei Daimler. Wie Daimler seine zukünftige Workplace-Strategie evaluiert und warum man sich für eine Microsoft-Lösung entschieden hat.
Ich bin gespannt.
Three weeks with the MacBook Air
by Volker Weber
It's now been three weeks since I started using the MacBook Air, and it feels like "forever". Unfortunately I have to give it back two weeks from now.
The MBA is the perfect notebook for me. Light, silent, fast, and rock solid. There may be notebooks with faster CPUs, more memory, or more storage. I don't care about any of that. My "old" MacBook Pro feels quaint compared to this machine.
I have not used a lot of software. These days I hardly need anything more than Microsoft Word, iPhoto and Chrome. Add Dropbox, Twitter, Evernote to the mix. They are all performing very well. If I did not already own a MacBook and an iPad, this would be the machine to get.
How to build an iPod watch
by Volker Weber
Photo: vowe
This is an iPod nano 6G, a Klipsch headset, and an iWatchZ wristband. This wristband is not only prettier than the Belkin band I initially used, it also turns the iPad clockwise by 90 degrees, so the headset cable runs easily up your sleeve without making a sharp turn at your wrist. If you put your headset on first and then your shirt, the cable runs inside your sleeve. Since the Klipsch headset also has a microphone, this setup provides me with a very sneaky voice recorder. The iPod 6G is smaller than the iPod 5G, it lost the camera and gained a touch screen. I prefer the touch wheel, but I think it's gone for good.
Lotusphere Keynotes
by Volker Weber
Opening General Session: (very long and boring)
Technical Keynote:
Business Keynote:
Mini-Vader
by Volker Weber
The drama continues
by Volker Weber
This is the only official photo from the Lotusphere Opening General Session, downloaded here. Is being blind a requirement?
Observations from Lotusphere
by Volker Weber
There is so much going on in my head that I somehow have to dump it in no particular order:
- Kevin Spacey is cool. Cool people don't trot up and down the stage.
- Essential tools for staying connected, all of them on the iPhone: free video calls with FaceTime, sharing photos and videos with close friends and loved ones on Path, free texting via Kik. I also learned about Viber, which gives you free voice calls. It does not require Wi-Fi, but you would not want to use it with data roaming.
- An iPod watch is a geek magnet, but not necessarily a babe magnet.
- A Canon G11 is a serious camera. But if you want to shoot in low light, you better have a DSLR with 50mm kit. Bonus points for full format sensor.
- You should not play with your BlackBerry while participating in a panel on stage in front of analysts and journalists. Seriously, even if you are the RIM CEO.
- Speaking of which, the commercial OGS break for Nokia was delivered much smoother than the BlackBerry one.
- Scripted panels with customers don't work for me. Not in the least bit.
- Sessions without teleprompter are hugely superior. It does not matter how hard you are trying to hide that you are just a puppet reading from a prompter. Remember, your face is on the big screen and unless you are wearing shades we see what you are doing.
- 300px wide "high-res" screenshots display a shocking incompetence. Same goes for JPEG.
- You are using Twitter, Facebook, Blogs to communicate. IBM uses them for demand generation (Sandy Carter). Marketing counts the number of tweets and blog entries as a metric for "success".
- "Blogs and Wikis" are now an empty buzzword, same as "open".
- There are vendors on the show floor begging you to write about the fact that customers are dumping Notes. Multiple times. They were really hard to get rid off.
- The CTO award went to a tool that can turn old ugly Notes apps into new ugly web apps. Which is very useful if you want to keep the server but dump the client. Unfortunately you can't buy the tool.
- People have strong opinions on what is running on their device. They could not care less about what is running on the server. Don't pay lip service to open. Make it really open. Yes, that includes kick ass support for IMAP on Domino.
- Yancy Lent has written a really cool vendor bingo service that works with QR codes. Zero overhead. No, I did not win the iPad.
- You can easily survive on a diet of iced tea and fruit, salad, and three beers a night.
- Traveling in coach on Lufthansa sucks big time. Bitchy flight attendants, awful food, old seats, entertainment on CRT screens hanging from the ceiling. Hey, it's no longer 1999. Upshot: direct flight into Frankfurt. Once the nightmare was over, it was over.
- After traveling to the US for 30 years, I still can't get used to being shoved around. "You cannot go through this door, you have to go through that door". - "Why?" - "Because of the RFID sensor on your badge." - "I have long removed that sensor." - "You have to go through that door".
- Same goes for being seated in cafes. There are a dozen empty tables in front out in the sun. Why do I f&cking have to wait for you to show me one of them?
- A big thank you to Marco, Felix and Stefan for letting me ride along. An even bigger thank you to Otto for letting me have his car.
- 10-on-1-briefings are completely useless. Exception: Uffe Sorensen. Lesson learned there: you will have a social network. The only question is whether you own it or somebody else.
- Brightest mind I talked to all week: Charlie Hill. Thank you, Karen and Beate.
- You haven't heard the full story on the BlackBerry Playbook yet.
- IBM writes the Symbian Traveler client. Nokia writes the Exchange client. That's why the latest Symbian version supports Exchange but not Domino.
- If you want to speak about Notes/Domino marketing, Ed is your man. He inherited the title from Kevin, who now does strategy for IBM Collaboration Solutions.
- It's going to be a brutal year for Lotus in Germany.
- The really interesting story is never told on stage.
- "Lotus knows" ends here. "Lotus Software" was nowhere to be seen. I think that is a good thing. Let it be IBM instead.
PS: I see a lot of new hardware in my close future.
Mixed Tape 37 'Full Spectrum' is out
by Volker Weber
01 FIVE ON TOP | THE SAY HIGHS | 5:02
02 PROCEDERE | BOCCA GRANDE | 7:51
03 DESTROY SHE SAYS | ZOE.LEELA | 3:40
04 THANK YOU FOR | VONLEWALD | 3:42
05 PHILLY RUN | B-JU | 3:10
06 KREYZIE | SISTER DUKE | 3:39
07 TAKE A HIKE | THUNDER POWER | 3:01
08 UNDER THE SUN | THE WORDS | 4:31
09 FANGS | CULEBRA | 3:51
10 INTO THE SEA | ALEX BOWEN | 4:27
Yes, I am late because of Lotusphere. :-) This seems to be an exceptionally good one though.
Auswärtiges Amt kehrt zu Microsoft zurück
by Volker Weber
Der Vorgang sollte wohl in aller Stille vor sich gehen. Doch jetzt steht er im Scheinwerferlicht, dank einer Anfrage der SPD-Bundestagsfraktion: Das Auswärtige Amt (AA), einst ein "Leuchtturm-Projekt" für den Einsatz von Freier Software in den Bundesministerien, wird wieder zu proprietärer Software zurückkehren. Der Linux-Verband (LIVE) und die Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) bedauern diese Entwicklung.
Strings attached
by Volker Weber
Photo Alexander Kluge, post production vowe ;-)
Eileen
by Volker Weber
Photo vowe
Alexander Kluge: IBM loves Social Media – where does that leave Lotus?
by Volker Weber
20 years history of Lotus Notes show us: It is always about enabling people to communicate, to collaborate and to coordinate the business processes. About handling unstructured data. And much more. Still hot, today probably much more important than 20 years ago. So far I really enjoy what I hear at Lotusphere 2011.
But where does that leave Lotus?
Lowfi
by Volker Weber
On stage, playing vs. listening carefully.
Kevin
by Volker Weber
Photo Alexander Kluge, post production vowe ;-)
This is The Official High-Res Screenshot from IBM
by Volker Weber
Find it here. I have said it before. Actually, at least twice.
