June 2011
Nokia Public Transport
by Volker Weber
This is one cool app. With a major downside. It only works in and around Berlin.
Lotus, tell us what you know. Please.
by Volker Weber
Yes, LotusKnows.com still exists. So, Lotus Knows. Maybe you can tell us what you know. A few questions:
Splitscreen: A Love Story
by Volker Weber
Shot entirely on the Nokia N8 mobile phone. Winner of the Nokia Shorts competition 2011.
Mark your calendars
by Volker Weber
Nokia World 2011, October 26-27, London. I shall be there.
The Google+ Project
by Volker Weber
Sharing is a huge part of the web, a part that we think could be a lot simpler. That’s why we’ve been working on adding a few new things to Google: to make connecting with people on the web more like connecting with them in the real world. We hope you like what we’ve cooked up so far. And stay tuned, because there’s more to come.
Lotus, this is going to hurt a little
by Volker Weber
I was attending a Lotus community call (newspeak: IBM Collaboration Solutions Community Meeting) today. And it turned into a train wreck. What attendees expected to hear: "This is how the Lotus brand evolves." What they heard instead: "Social business blah." It is pretty clear, that Lotus as a brand is toned down. IBM Lotus Forms, IBM Lotus Connections, IBM Lotus Sametime. Next up: LotusLive. This makes Ed Brill officially the captain of a luxury liner that bears the name Lotus. It does not have to hit an iceberg, but there is precedence.
If IBM cannot will not explain to their faithful in 60 minutes, what is becoming of Lotus, the brand, the products, and how it all fits together, they certainly cannot do the same in 30 seconds to a customer. And 30 seconds is a long time to say "Exchange, Sharepoint, Lync, you got it".
I heard today that a huge IBM customer with 180,000 seats is moving everything to the Microsoft stack. This is a heavy duty, all white-collar Notes user. I am not at liberty to disclose the name of that customer, but IBM has seen this coming for half a year.
"Lotus Notes is cool" is gone for good
by Volker Weber
It's been half a year, since Darren Adams started notesiscool.com. Grass roots marketing for a product he tried to support in his capacity at IBM in the UK. With a concept unheard of at IBM: show the product.
That's history now. Darren has resigned from IBM and today is his first day at Microsoft. Best of luck to you, Sir.
Path photo sharing app starts BlackBerry beta
by Volker Weber
My favorite photo sharing app is only available for iPhone and camera-equipped iPod touch with iOS 4. Now they are starting a BlackBerry beta which you may want to join. Path lets you share and comment on photos of your closest friends, not your 500 Facebook "friends".
You can add your name to the list if you would like to join the beta program. Nice use of Google apps btw.
Everybody Groovin
by Volker Weber
I think my oldest Roy Ayers record is more than 40 years old.
Apple Final Cut Pro X Is Easy To Use
by Volker Weber
And these are the evaluations:
Things organized neatly
by Volker Weber
Photo: vowe
Danke, Matthias!
"We do not want this out in the blogosphere"
by Volker Weber
This does not look like an accidental leak.
The Original
by Volker Weber
Night Music: Nils
by Volker Weber
Photo: vowe
Great idea: QR code shopping
by Volker Weber
Quote of the day
by Volker Weber
The most popular software for writing fiction isn't Word. It's Excel.
— Brian Alvey
Mini, oh dear
by Volker Weber
Photo: vowe
I love the Mini Cooper. I got this close to buying one. Great ride, nice look. But not for the owner who has to look at this ridiculous dash board. And the exterior is getting worse with each new model. The Clubman with impractical doors all around; you can't see a thing in the rear view mirror. The Countryman, a Mini USV. And now the Coupe, a car so ugly they released photos with a camouflaged read end.
A clear message
by Volker Weber
This camera sends a clear message: "my owner wants a Leica, but can't afford one".
Ganz einfach
by Volker Weber
Okay, ich versuche Deine Email Adressen... Facebook scheint nicht geklappt zu haben.
So ist das. Wenn man eine Antwort haben will, vowe@vowe.net. Nicht Facebook, nicht Twitter, nicht XING, nicht Skype.
Raum für Notizen
by Volker Weber
Photo: vowe
From my inbox
by Volker Weber
Nokia bestätigte erneut die weitergehende Unterstüzung von Symbian. Im Juli wird Nokia mit der Auslieferung des Nokia N8, des E7, des C7 sowie des C6-01 mit Symbian Anna beginnen. Dabei handelt es sich um die neueste Symbian-Version, die eine Vielzahl an Verbesserungen beim Nutzererlebnis mit sich bringt. Ab Ende August steht Symbian Anna für Nutzer, die bereits eines dieser Geräte besitzen, zum Download
Ende August. Das ist gut vier Monate nach der Ankündigung. Und mehr als einen Monat nachdem Neugeräte gleichen Typs mit Anna geliefert werden.
Ich würde das gerne verstehen.
This would have been Nokia's future
by Volker Weber
Oberon's World: IMAP and Domino - Hotfix seems to work
by Volker Weber
Thomas Uhl writes:
Last week we got a new hotfix from IBM which was created to fix the nasty Domino IMAP interoperability problem. A quick test with the IMAP+ provider of Evolution shows that the fix improved the behaviour dramatically. I was able to open all mails inclusive attachments in the INBOX. Therefore offline IMAP worked aswell. I hope we are done now.
I have had fun with Evolution and Domino IMAP as much as seven years ago. At that time IBM wasn't interested fixing it. I have learned that their implementation has a protocol violation where the sizes for the body parts are wrong.
Talk to Thomas if you are running into IMAP problems with Evolution.
Design Classic
by Volker Weber
Mixed Tape 39 "Violet Vibes" is out
by Volker Weber
01 STEVIE NICKS | THE BILINDA BUTCHERS | 4:36
02 WE WERE ECHOES | PRÉMIO MISTÉRIO | 4:06
03 OPEN MINDS | WATER | 4:18
04 FLOATIN' | RUBBERT TWIST | 2:33
05 CLICK | M.A.E. | 2:45
06 SLOW DOWN | GREG GIBBS | 3:32
07 UP TILL DAWN | PALLOC | 3:44
08 BREATHE | DENNIS KESCHTIDAR FEAT. SKY CHIEF | 4:13
09 GLASDELPHIN | FAIRA | 4:24
10 IF I STAY | SOFIE EKHOLM | 4:09
Has been for four weeks, but I missed it.
Sonos Tempations: Motown Remixed Vol 1 & 2
by Volker Weber
Photo: vowe
That's what I love about Napster on Sonos. Picked up music for the weekend from @jkuri. Then ventured into remixes and ended up at Motown Remixed. Delivered from the huge Napster library into my Sonos.
Photo: vowe
What Photographers Do To Entertain Themselves In An Airport
by Volker Weber
Larry Chen and Joe Ayala, ... recently were stuck overnight at the Dallas Fort-Worth Airport. Instead of trying to sleep on the fluorescent soaked vinyl benches, they decided to create a fun video of them playing around the empty airport while security was apparently asleep.
Nokia should trademark It-just-doesn't-work
by Volker Weber
Photo: vowe
The phone has a destination "Internet" with three access points. Prio 1 is my Wi-Fi, prio 2 is an O2 access point, prio 2 is a second O2 access point. MfE is set to always connect through the Internet destination. Easy enough, right? Not for Nokia. It only works when in reach of prio 1 Wi-Fi. Outside it sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't. And sometimes it tells me to try later. Why me? Not OK.
In order to setup the E6, I cannot get into Google Sync. Well, I can. Just have to use the iPhone.Maybe somebody at Nokia can tell Google about the new Symbian browser.
Be social. Don't do business.
by Volker Weber
Excellbook is a downloadable application for Mac and PC, that makes Facebook look like a spreadsheet, connecting you to your world without being caught.
"Liebe Medienpartner"
by Volker Weber
23:52, palimm palimm
Liebe Medienpartner,
anliegende Pressemitteilung zu Ihrer Kenntnis mit der Bitte um entsprechende Berücksichtigung und Abdruck.
Bei Rückfragen stehen wir Ihnen gerne zur Verfügung.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Aha.
Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus
by Volker Weber
Cool video. Does not add much we did not know already.
[via Michael]
twitter.com/ibm is live
by Volker Weber
I thought IBM should have this Twitter account. Others disagreed. Now it's live.
[Thanks, elsua_b]
Google Sync updated to support search on server, meeting invitations and "send as"
by Volker Weber
Google Sync keeps your phone's native mail and calendar apps in sync with your Gmail, Calendar and Contacts. Today, three new updates to Google Sync for iOS will allow you to:
- Search all your emails in Gmail, not just the emails stored locally by the iOS mail app.
- Accept, decline or edit calendar events from the iOS calendar app.
- Send email from the address you want. We recognize that some of you manage multiple email addresses from a single Gmail account.Gmail's 'Send Mail as' feature lets you send messages with another email address listed as the sender instead of your Gmail address, e.g. joe@altostrat.com instead of joe@gmail.com. Now the iOS mail app will respect these settings.
I have now switched my iOS devices from IMAP/CalDAV to Exchange ActiveSync with Google Mail & Calendar.
No updates available
by Volker Weber
When Microsoft issues a Windows update, you can get it, no matter who made your PC. That's what you also expect from your smartphone, a device much closer to heart than any PC ever was. However, that's not what you are getting.
You never did. Updates had to be certified by the carrier. That's why they were pretty rare. Apple changed this somewhat. When Apple issues an iOS update, your iPhone, iPad or iPod will install it (unless it's no longer supported). Everywhere in the world. Apple managed to become the dog instead of the tail.
When Microsoft releases an update to Windows Phone 7, it starts trickling down through your carriers. Currently all WP7 are alike. Same CPU, same chipset, same graphics. Updates could be swift like for the iPhone, but they are not.
When Google releases an update to Android, you are going to wait. A few weeks, if you have a Nexus. A few month if you have a phone with "added value" like HTC Sense or Motoblur. Or you are not getting it at all. No timely fixes for security holes, nada.
Nokia just dug itself a hole with Symbian^3. Instead of fixing the phones they already sold, they dumped two new devices on the market. Updates for existing customers were announced to be "in the next months", two of which already passed.
Customers learn quickly. I have seen people buying an Android because they damaged their iPhones and wanted to try something else. Most of them lasted a few weeks. At most until the next update they could not get.
Apple starts selling unlocked iPhones in the US
by Volker Weber
At $649 it is currently way cheaper than EUR prices. You will have to add sales tax though.
Desire and Gingerbread Update
by Volker Weber
In case you ever wondered why I recommended the Nexus One instead of the HTC Desire:
Our engineering teams have been working hard for the past few months to find a way to bring Gingerbread to the HTC Desire without compromising the HTC Sense experience you've come to expect from our phones. However, we're sorry to announce that we've been forced to accept there isn't enough memory to allow us both to bring Gingerbread and keep the HTC Sense experience on the HTC Desire. We're sincerely sorry for the disappointment that this news may bring to some of you.
Update:
Contrary to what we said earlier, we are going to bring Gingerbread to HTC Desire.
What a ride
by Volker Weber
Remember "IBM Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing"?
by Volker Weber
Here is a list of current product names:
IBM Connections
IBMLotusSametime
IBM Lotus Quickr
IBM Lotus Notes & Domino
IBM LotusLive Collaboration & Meetings Suite
IBM LotusLive Collaboration Suite
IBM LotusLive Engage
IBM LotusLive Connections
IBM LotusLive Meetings
IBM LotusLive Events
IBM LotusLive Notes
IBM LotusLive iNotes
IBM LotusLive Symphony
IBM LotusLive Labs
Try and rename them without using "Lotus". Connections is done. Sametime is obvious. Play with "Collaboration Solutions" and "Social Business". Add a little bit of cloud. Obfuscate. Then come back in the future to see how well you did.
RIM: "BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet ab heute in Deutschland verfügbar"
by Volker Weber
Düsseldorf, 14. Juni 2011 - Das BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet von Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) ist ab heute, 14. Juni, in Deutschland bei Retailern und Großhändlern erhältlich.
Das BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet mit integrierter WiFi-Konnektivität wird mit 16GB, 32GB und 64GB verfügbar sein.
Simon Says... OpenOffice.Org and the LibreOffice Imperative
by Volker Weber
The best thing end-users can do is ignore OpenOffice.org at Apache until the dust settles, and switch to LibreOffice instead.
BBC iPlayer launching internationally
by Volker Weber
BBC iPlayer will bring you the best of the BBC, including favourites such as Doctor Who, Top Gear and Little Britain available on demand.
If this works out well, it's time for a happy dance. Prepare to be disappointed:
BBC iPlayer will not be available in all regions and titles will vary by country.
[via Stuart]
Should I Be Worried?
by Volker Weber
Photo: vowe
Nokia E6 with Symbian Anna - First Impressions
by Volker Weber
Looks a bit like a BlackBerry, doesn't it? It should, because it appeals to the same audience. People who need a good phone with email messaging. Nokia has two prior devices, the E71 and its successor E72. They both have a 320x240 px screen which no longer is acceptable. This is the new E6 with 640x480 resolution, and much like the iPhone 4 screen you can't get close enough to see pixels.
Other than the E71/72, the E6 has a touch screen. So it's a bit like the next BlackBerry Bold, that RIM has announced in May, but won't ship real soon now. The E6 has very impressive specs that I won't get into. Just a minor detail that makes it nicer than the E71/72: there is a small spring loaded switch at the right hand side which locks and unlocks the device, much like all the other new Nokia smartphones. Very handy indeed. THe E6 feels very solid, has a stainless steel back, and there is absolutely nothing that I would not like about the hardware.
Smells even funnier
by Volker Weber
Ask $6, bid $2.75, for 500. That is quite a spread. Very hard to turn stock into money. Why would you sell stock that has a target of $9? Simple. You rather want money now.
For the sake of argument, let's assume you would like to sell your privately held company and cannot find anybody who wants to pay cash. Then you might be tempted to sell for stock in a publicly traded entity. Once you start selling those shares you may find out that they are less valued than you thought. Hence the spread. And the stock goes from $4.25 close to $4 open via $3.8 for the first trade to $3.5 for the second. Who wants to go short?
Watch this space.
Great lyrics
by Volker Weber
Waiting for Anna
by Volker Weber
About three years after the E71, the-best-phone-Nokia-ever-built, they are making another one, the E6. Quadruple the E71 resolution, talk time of almost 15 hours on GSM and 7.5 hours on UMTS, 75 hours music playback, 30 days maximum standby. 4 band GSM, 5 band WCDMA. Records video with 720p HD at 25 fps, shoots photos at 8 MP. The list goes on.
And it's running the latest build of Symbian "Anna". Since my N8 is still waiting for Anna, I am going to take the E6 for a spin.
Prehistoric BlackBerry
by Volker Weber
[Thanks, Dirk]
Dr. Wolfgang Huhn erhält Professor Ferdinand Porsche Preis 2011 der TU Wien
by Volker Weber
Dr. Wolfgang Huhn, der Leiter Licht und Sicht der AUDI AG, hat den renommierten Professor Ferdinand Porsche Preis 2011 der Technischen Universität Wien erhalten. Zusammen mit Kamislav Fadel von der Firma Automotive Lighting wurde er für die Entwicklung und den Einsatz der neuen LED-Technik in Automobilen ausgezeichnet. Der Preis wird nur alle zwei Jahre verliehen und ist mit 50.000 Euro der höchstdotierte seiner Art. Im Februar 2011 war Huhn schon einmal für die LED-Technik ausgezeichnet worden. Er hatte von der amerikanischen Internetplattform Driving vision News.com den Titel "Man of the decade" erhalten.
Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Wolfgang. Ich trink ein Bier. ;-)
3-Way Street
by Volker Weber
Whole Lotta Love
by Volker Weber
[via Sucker for Girl Groups]
iOS 5 and OS X Lion videos
by Volker Weber
Is the Lotus Brand Going Away?
by Volker Weber
Learn how IBM's evolving Social Business strategy will impact the product and solution naming approach within the IBM Collaboration Solutions portfolio.
This starts to smell funny
by Volker Weber
NEW YORK, June 6, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GBS Enterprises, Inc. (OTCBB:GBSX), announced today that Gar Wood Securities, a full service institutional broker-dealer located in Chicago, Il, has initiated coverage and issued its Insight Equity Research Report on the Company with a Buy rating and $9 per share target price.
Stock for OTCBB:GBSX traded for $3.99 to $5.00 and is down 2.3 percent to $4.25 today.
Gar Wood recently raised $7.55MM for GBS with warrant coverage that will result in an additional $9MM funding to the Company.
The same company who advises to buy stock with a target price double of what it is trading today, recently raised $7.55 million. It should not come as a surprise that they would like you to buy some of that stock.
We estimate the total market potential for the Transformer to be roughly $18.0 billion, of which we believe GBS's realizable market could be roughly $5.5 billion.
That's how much? 10 years of Lotus' revenue? Compare the latest SEC filing on EDGAR Online.
Lion in July, iOS 5 and iCloud "coming this fall"
by Volker Weber
Impressive updates from Apple today:
- Mac OS 10.7 Lion ships in July as an upgrade from 10.6. $30 or 24 € for all your Macs. Download and install through App Store.
- iOS 5 "coming this fall" for iPhone 3GS and up, all iPads, iPod touch 3rd and 4th gen. Can be activated and operated without PC/Mac. Syncs with all your devices over the air. Incremental updates OTA.
- Free iCloud replaces Mobile Me. Adds numerous features, including photo streaming to all your devices. Beta for iOS 4.3 today, shipping with iOS 5 in the fall.
- "iTunes in the Cloud" lets you match your CD rips and upload your own tracks for $25 a year. Available today with iTunes 10.3.
iOS 5 adds numerous features that require third party apps right now. iMessages is like BlackBerry Messenger. Twitter integrates, but not Facebook. New Reminder function does todo lists with location alarms. Notification services akin to Android, and the list goes on and on.
Viel Pril hilft in der Regel viel, meinte früher mein Chemielehrer
by Volker Weber
Interessant, so ein IBM-Presseverteiler. 9x Handelsblatt, 6x FAZ, 5x FTD, 4x Manager Magazin, 4x Süddeutsche, 4x Welt, 4x SIGS Datacom, 3x Computerwoche, 2x REUTERS, 1x Wirtschaftswoche.
Dumm nur, wenn man alles in .DOC verpackt.
How to opt out of Facebook social ads
by Volker Weber
Facebook has started to use your "Likes" and "Checkins" in social ads. People are more likely to click on their friend's recommendations. If you don't like Facebook using your recommendations for commercial activities, you can easily opt out. Set these two settings to "No one":
- https://www.facebook.com/editaccount.php?ads&pane=social
- https://www.facebook.com/editaccount.php?ads&pane=platform
[to be continued]
Oracle. 'nuf said.
by Volker Weber
Prank: Windows logo on Apple Store construction site in Hamburg
by Volker Weber
Richard Phillips
by Volker Weber
Thanks for the Sonos heads up
by Volker Weber
I have received a few mails about the FCC filing and subsequent reports at Engadget et al. As you can imagine, I am not very surprised. 'nuf said.
Quote of the week
by Volker Weber
Narayen: "We will have 130 million Android devices running Flash by the end of the year."
Mossberg: "And I have yet to test a single device where it runs well."
ICSUX (IBM Collaboration Solutions User Experience)
by Volker Weber
This community is for anyone who is interested in products in the IBM Collaboration Solutions (Lotus) portfolio.
User Experience == UX, thus ICSUX. That's almost as catchy as LOTUS.
Mac slow on DHCP? Check STP.
by Volker Weber
My iMac has been slow to pull its configuration from DHCP. It just took half a minute to a minute after waking up. That was never a problem on the MacBook. I narrowed the problem down to wired connections. And then it dawned on me that the wireless connections went through a dumb switch where the wired connections went through a smart switch.
I started playing with the port settings, and when I switched off STP (spanning tree) on the iMac port, the problem went away. Switch it back on, and the delay was back.
You have a couple of options:
- Switch off STP completely, as pictured above.
- Switch off STP for the ports connecting your Macs. Workstations don't cause loops.
- Leave on STP and switch on Fast Link for your Mac ports. That's what I am trying now.
If option 3 does not work, I am going to option 2. I am trying to avoid option 1, since I have been burned by STP before. See:
SonosNet is a mesh network. It uses STP to prevent loops in the topology. If you misconfigure your smart switch, it may be forwarding all your traffic through a Sonos player.
At 3:07 it falls apart
by Volker Weber
This is a very impressive demo of what the next version of Windows could look like. And then, the beast returns.
Still loving the original
by Volker Weber
Photo: vowe
The G11 was a great purchase
by Volker Weber
Photo: Ute Breitinger
Nokia: When pigeons fly home to roast
by Volker Weber
Good analysis by Andrew Orlowski:
Nokia's problem is not Stephen Elop, or his strategy. Its problem is it didn't have Stephen Elop, or his strategy, in place two years ago.
And while we are certainly watching a dramatic destruction of shareholder value — this will be a terrible year for Nokia — it's worth remembering that three bad quarters are not necessarily fatal to a company. I'll admit, this is not a popular opinion this week.
Elop looks quite successful
by Volker Weber
Nokia has gotten quite cheap since Elop announced plans to move Nokia to Windows Phone 7. They are now worth $25.42 B. The latest rumor, 100% baseless according to Nokia, is that Msft might be interested in buying the phone business for $19 B. That would be $5 per share (3.8 B shares for the whole company). That's not out of reach with Symbian sales collapsing, isn't it? Once Nokia starts shipping WP7 devices, the stock may rebound. If Msft wants to make a move, they will do this year.
Let's connect some dots
by Volker Weber
We also see this feature release as the first place you'll recognize our Project Vulcan vision, and that includes a shift to making web and mobile interfaces a primary experience.
The client is a choice, not a requirement, in the future. More customers asking for this approach.
The Transformer has been part of almost every customer conversation I've had in the last few months. ... Modernization, either through the Transformer tool or other XPages practitioners, brings those existing Notes apps to a modern, web 2.0-based UI, accessible on all browsers, as part of a portal, or on mobile devices.
Former Notes apps in the browser, access from mobile devices, tactical bet on Transformer. That's a good survival strategy where Notes is about to be dumped for Exchange. The only thing you need to solve is identity.
Some people love the Notes client. Many people don't. None of them cares about the server, apart from the admins of course. Updating the client is expensive, updating the server is not. Come to think of it, updating the server has always been simple compared to other solutions.
New services for your Sonos: AUPEO and Stitcher SmartRadio
by Volker Weber
Photo: vowe
Check for updates to get them.
Rule #1: check the wire
by Volker Weber
If there is any ground rule I have learned in 30 years of IT, it's to always check the wire first. A lot of problems can be solved in seconds instead of hours following this rule.
If there is no wire, things get complicated.
Do not rely on wireless technology in front of a large audience. Most likely, it won't work, unless it is handled by real pros. Example: Sennheiser has techs that make sure wireless transceivers work during concerts. Google failed big time when they wanted to present their Google TV at Google I/O 2010. It worked during rehearsal but not with thousands of geeks in the room.
Remember when Ron Sebastian did not show up on stage at Lotusphere? He was backstage in a Faraday cage so he could use Wi-Fi to demo mobile devices when everybody else in the room was having trouble with Wi-Fi.
You always want a wire. Between your machine and your presentation screen. And between your machine and the Internet, if you need Internet access to present. Without that wire, you are bound to fail.
