January 2012

Outlook to Notes converter: from PST to NSF

by Volker Weber

Outlook to Lotus Notes converter software transfer emails and other items of MS Outlook user profile to Lotus Notes user profile without letting the user lose even a single bit of vital information. User can export Outlook to Notes along with all the emails and other email items in minimal amount of time.

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Girls On Longboards

by Volker Weber

BlackBerry Business Cloud Services with Microsoft Office 365

by Volker Weber

BlackBerry Business Cloud Services delivers a simple and affordable way for companies to manage BlackBerry smartphones with Microsoft Office 365. BlackBerry Business Cloud Services is available at no additional charge to Microsoft Office 365 subscribers.

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Next week: Edcom Lotusphere Nachlese & BlackBerry Devcon Europe

by Volker Weber

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Next week, I will have two overlapping events. On Monday and Tuesday I will be speaking at Edcom Nachlese in Munich. Keynote, closing, breakout session on IPv6 (!). At the closing we will again have the "Beat Ed Brill" session we have invented two years ago. The format is simple: attendees ask questions, Ed answers them as well as he is allowed, then I translate to German, sometimes contradicting what he said. Ed understands enough German to understand what's going on, but not enough to defend.

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Then I will head over to Amsterdam for BlackBerry Devcon Europe. I have a couple of questions about the PlayBook (and ultimately BB 10) enterprise architecture, that I hope to get answered. BB Devcon has sold out, if only for the free PlayBook. :-)

Google beats the big blue guy again

by Volker Weber

Google is building out its device support. Now the Nokia Lumia (and other WP 7.5 phones) gets the same treatment from GMail as the iPhone. Use your browser to go to http://m.google.com/sync and select your phone to set it up. You can now "send as", sync up to 25 calendards, etc.

If the site says your phone is unsupported, just change the site language (not your phone's) to English.

PlayBook is getting pretty cool

by Volker Weber

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This does not exist yet. Well it does, but you can't download it yet. It's a small program that connects a BlackBerry to a PlayBook. Not only can you access stuff on the BlackBerry from PlayBook, it now works the other way as well. Here is a use case:

Somebody sends you a presentation (or you have it already). Display it on PlayBook. Connect the PlayBook HDMI-out to a beamer or TV. Then use your BlackBerry as a remote. It works as a trackpad, you can use the keyboard to type on the PlayBook, you can go into presenter mode where you just click your slides forward and backwards. You don't need anything but your BlackBerry and your PlayBook. No dongles, no Wifi, no network access, no line of sight. And in a small group, not even a TV or a beamer. Just prop it up and then go through your presentation without touching the screen.

Here is a small secret: this works with PlayBook 1.0.8. You only need Bridge 2.0. I am sure you find it somewhere on the Internet.

And next month we will see what PlayBook can do for people without a BlackBerry. And it's equally cool. I have seen it already. ;-)

Size matters. Ask any girl.

by Volker Weber

Compare yourself here >

Lotusphere presenters, IBM needs your help

by Volker Weber

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Year after year, IBM has a hard time publishing the Lotusphere presentations to their customers. But you can help. Don't hide them on your blogs. Add them here.

Old farts on bikes

by Volker Weber

OpenOffice went LibreOffice, Symphony goes OpenOffice, vowe goes nowhere

by Volker Weber

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Once in a while somebody sends me an ODT or ODP file. Usually somebody from the ibm.com domain. For that I keep a copy of LibreOffice arTound. It's made by the people who used to make OpenOffice until Oracle p'ed them off. My copy is currently at 3.4.5 and I believe they are working on 3.5.

Then there is OpenOffice, currently on 3.3. IBM donated their Symphony code to the project. While it is transitioning from GPL to the Apache License (no I am not going there), progress has become a bit slow. But eventually OpenOffice will come out as 4.0, at which time it replaces Symphony.

That's right folks, Symphony 3.0.1 is probably the last version that IBM puts out. If I recall correctly they will also remove Symphony from Notes. Which I believe is a good thing. You shouldn't be dragging around another boat anchor that's too big for your ship.

I never felt inclined to use Symphony, although its interface is prettier than OpenOffice or LibreOffice Both of them are stuck on an old Microsoft design. If somebody wants a free office product, I usually install LibreOffice.

With version 4 OpenOffice is likely to become the new Symphony, with the OpenOffice name. IBM will distribute an "IBM Edition", which is technically the same thing. You can pay for support though, which makes enterprise happy.

For Lotusphere, IBM asks their presenters to use Symphony. In the words of Andrew Pollack:

IBM wants the slides in Symphony's ODP format -- and has "strongly requested" that we use Symphony to present.

I prefer to spend a little money. I am using Keynote for my presentations. It's 15.99 € from the Mac store. I also use Pages if I need a formatted document, which rarely happens. I am not happy with Numbers though.

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If I do get files to work with from other enterprise users, they are usually in Microsoft's formats. For those, I keep a copy of Office around.

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If I could only have one Office suite, it would be Microsoft. I like both Excel and Word. But I would still buy Keynote. I believe you just have to use the best tools for best results.

Maria Gomez schreibt

by Volker Weber

Maria Gomez, Director IBM Social Business and Collaboration Solutions, schreibt als Nachlese der Lotusphere an alle deutschen Teilnehmer einen Brief, den ich mit Erlaubnis zitiere. Das hat bisher noch niemand gemacht. Und man kann sehr gut sehen, wo die Reise hingeht:

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Best comment ever

by Volker Weber

Jeff Schick boasting on Facebook: "Announcing IBM Connections 4 at Lotusphere to 8000 people".
Dale Schultz: "Counting shoes is better than counting seats."

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Apple Reports Record Results

by Volker Weber

CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2012 first quarter which spanned 14 weeks and ended December 31, 2011. The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $26.74 billion and net quarterly profit of $6 billion, or $6.43 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 44.7 percent compared to 38.5 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Best quarter ever, beating estimates by more than 10%. 37.04 million iPhones (up 128 percent), 15.43 million iPads (up 111 percent) , 5.2 million Macs (up 26 percent), 15.4 million iPods (down 21 percent).

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Missed the IBM quarterly results last week

by Volker Weber

Revenues from the WebSphere family of software products increased 21 percent year over year. Information Management software revenues increased 9 percent. Revenues from Tivoli software increased 14 percent. Revenues from Lotus software decreased 2 percent, and Rational software increased 4 percent.

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What is killing BlackBerry? Hint: it's not the devices.

by Volker Weber

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So RIM has a new CEO. One that will continue the course set by the old CEOs. BlackBerry seems to be in a downward spiral, if you believe what the US press is writing. Or the rest of the world is parroting.

At the same time, RIM has a pretty good line of devices. But there is something wrong. I see three things that kill BlackBerry. All of them could be changed:

  1. Carriers
  2. Enterprise IT
  3. Emotion

Carriers require a special provisioning for BlackBerrys that they charge extra for. BlackBerrys don't work over the carrier access point. They need to talk to the BlackBerry.net AP and the RIM infrastructure. RIM charges the carriers, the carriers charge their customers. This is not smart, since BlackBerrys use a lot less bandwidth than other smartphones. Lower network utilization means extra dollars. If BlackBerrys would work with every single SIM on the market, devices handed down from business to family would become a lot more useful.

Enterprise IT locks down BlackBerrys in a way that makes them completely useless for private use. The reason is "security". Those enterprise policies are old and outdated. RIM provides BlackBerry Balance, which would allow IT to secure enterprise usage and allow private use of Facebook & Co at the same time, without compromising security. The irony is that enterprise IT kills the only platform that provides this solution.

Emotion. This is your call, Thorsten Heins. Unfortunately you don't look like emotion. Not in the least bit.

Yosemite timelapse

by Volker Weber

How to commit

by Volker Weber

Here is a little trick you can play with your brain. Say you want to exercise every day for 30 minutes, which you should btw, you need to keep a record. Don't just do it. Check it off on your calendar every single day. And display the calendar on your wall. Why? So you can see, that you did not break the chain. It's very rewarding to see that checkmark every single day. You don't want to see a day where you did not check off the thing you committed yourself to. And here is a little app that helps you if that calendar thing does not work, because you are traveling:

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Not yet working for the person who made the screenshot. :-)

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heise online - Lotusphere 2012: Alistair Rennie im Interview

by Volker Weber

Was ist eigentlich ein "Social Business"? Alistair Rennie, General Manager IBM Collaboration Solutions, erklärt, wie IBM die Technik und Kultur sozialer Netze auf den Einsatz im Unternehmen übertragen will.

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Cyan!

by Volker Weber

Black Lumia 800 replaced by cyan Lumia 800.

Sonos - what to play?

by Volker Weber

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These are the sources I can play on my Sonos. And I am a bit overwhelmed. Let's take a look:

The music services are all direct competitors, with the exception of Stitcher. Deezer is a french service like Last.fm without the social network. Aupeo, Juke, Napster and Rdio let you play exactly what you like. They largely overlap, so it does not make sense to pay for all of them. In my case, I can try them all out. The Juke trial for instance was provided by Thomas Lang of ueberall-musik.de, on Rdio I am using the 7-day-trial.

What is standing out here at vowe's magic flying circus? I mostly listen to Music Library, and when Ute finds new stuff while reading her newspapers and magazines, she goes to Napster. Wolfgang's Vault is perfect for old farts, because it has so many original concert recordings from the last century. Aupeo, Juke and Rdio could possibly replace Napster. And I am currently trying to do that. However, old habits are hard to break.

If you have any of those streaming services, and your music library is not on a NAS, you will probably exclusively listen to streaming music. It's perfect for people without a large collection. You will find that none of the services are perfect. At times they will not have the exact album you are looking for.

You also have to look for mobile use. Depending on the plan you are paying for, you might also be able to stream or even sync to your mobile player.

Which service are you using, and why?

Research In Motion Names Thorsten Heins President and CEO

by Volker Weber

The Board of Directors of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) today announced that ... it has unanimously named Thorsten Heins as President and Chief Executive Officer. ... Prior to today's announcement, Mr. Heins was one of RIM's two Chief Operating Officers and, before that, Senior Vice President for the Handheld Business Unit. He played key roles in the creation of RIM's product portfolio. Mr. Heins came to RIM in December 2007 from the industrial conglomerate Siemens AG.

I am not expecting radical changes.

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First look at the Nokia Lumia 900

by Volker Weber

At Lotusphere I was able to take a look at the Lumia 900, which Nokia is building for AT&T. Same screen resolution as the Lumia 800 but much bigger. The prototype was very rough. The screen for instance was flat and not curved. There was a noticeable edge between the screen and the body. Not at all like a Lumia 800. They also made the USB port much more accessible. It's under a flap on the 800. Since the phone is charged over USB, a more accessible port is a plus, although the flap is prettier.

I don't like the larger body. My thumb is too short for the big display. But the 900 adds one important feature: a front facing camera for video chats.

Balance

by Volker Weber

A few brief Lotusphere observations

by Volker Weber

Back from Lotusphere and already digested most of the information. In no particular order:

As for my working conditions: I have never had a better service. Very much appreciated, Karen and Don.

iOS AirPort Utility

by Volker Weber

Yes, you can edit your AirPort settings on the go.

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Stuff I used at Lotusphere, and stuff I did not

by Volker Weber

While traveling to Lotusphere I hardly ever post here (or elsewhere). I am way too busy talking to other people or getting work done. Speaking of which, here is a list of things that worked really well and got a lot of usage:

Stuff I hardly used, although I thought I would:

If I have one regret, it would be that I had a tight schedule and did not have much time to hang out with the gang. You know who you are.

Connections Administration Toolkit (CAT)

by Volker Weber

This is a very cool tool that Otto Foerg created with a team of developers:

Simplify the administration of IBM Connections with this easy to install and easy to use web interface tool. Complex multilevel administration commands can be done with just a single click, even by administrators without WebSphere background.

There is nobody in this community who is more knowledgable than Otto. He has been in the Lotus business way before I first played with Notes 17 years ago. He is both an expert on Portal and Connections. His CAT is on display at Lotusphere. So go check it out at pedestal #518.

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PS: Happy birthday, Otto. :-)

Darmstadt Airshots

by Volker Weber

Trend. Meiner. #trendmeiner

by Volker Weber

'Trend. Meiner.' ist jetzt der Trend. Meint Cem. Cem war schon Gast hier. Cem war schon immer wichtig, was Trend ist. Cem meint, dass bloggen immer unwichtiger wird. Das ist mir recht.

Und die anderen? Facebook ist mir egal, weil zu doof. Twitter war es immer schon, weil zu zerfleddert. Google+ ist noch ein Welpe. Mit ganz großen Pfoten.

Chrome extension to push web articles to your Kindle

by Volker Weber

Send to Kindle is a Browser extension for Kindle owners who prefer reading web content on their devices. It’s designed to offer a quick way for pushing web content to Kindle, so you can read articles or news later on your device.

I use this all the time for 'tl;dr' stories.

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Also available for Safari, Firefox, Opera, IE9: http://www.klip.me/

First camera that could replace my G11

by Volker Weber

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The G12 only added HD video, and I don't do video. But this one gets a sensor 6.5 times larger. And that should make all the difference.

Rdio in Deutschland. Auch auf Sonos.

by Volker Weber

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Transfer MCO Dolphin

by Volker Weber

Fährt jemand Samstagabend aus Frankfurt anreisend mit dem Mietauto vom Flughafen zum Karpfen oder Schwanen und kann mich mitnehmen?

techconsult: Microsoft baut Groupware-Marktführerschaft weiter aus

by Volker Weber

Unterschleißheim, 12. Januar 2012. Die Zeichen für die künftige Marktentwicklung der Microsoft Communication- und Collaboration-Lösung sind positiv. Einer aktuellen Studie von techconsult zufolge liegt der derzeitige Marktanteil von Microsoft Exchange, Kern des Angebots, in deutschen Anwenderunternehmen bei gut 65 Prozent im Umfeld der installierten Groupware-Lösungen – Tendenz steigend bis 2013. Dabei wächst Microsoft mit 4,1 Prozent YoY in 2011 mehr als doppelt so stark wie der Gesamtmarkt, dessen Wachstum unter 2 Prozent liegt.

Ich gehe davon aus, dass Microsoft die Studie in Auftrag gegeben hat.

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Lumia 710 im Handel

by Volker Weber

Das neue Nokia Lumia 710 ist ab heute in Deutschland im Handel verfügbar. Der empfohlene Verkaufspreis liegt bei 319 € (inkl. Steuern, ohne Vertrag). Das Smartphone wird über die Netzanbieter Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica O2, Vodafone und mobilcom- debitel erhältlich sein.

Nicht kaufen. Unbedingt das Lumia 800 nehmen. Das hat ein wesentlich besseres Display und sieht auch besser aus.

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Milestones: David Bowie is 65

by Volker Weber

Three days ago:

David Bowie turns 65 today, and while he’s hitting what’s traditionally seen as retirement age, the Thin White Duke seemingly — and with no actual announcement or farewell tour — ended his musical career a few years ago. So to celebrate this peerless musical legend, and thanks to the miracle of YouTube, we present eight full Bowie concerts, filmed between the years of 1978 and 2004. That’s more than 13 hours of footage. Dig in.

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Fisheye Lotusphere

by Volker Weber

I have the Olloclip as a loaner from Thomas. It's three lenses that clip on an iPhone 4(S): fisheye, wide angle, macro. I already love it and since I have to return it after Lotusphere, I put it on my wish list. Looking forward to a fisheye Lotusphere.

iA Writer is a great tool for writers

by Volker Weber

iA Writer is a great tool for writers. Distraction free, with an excellent font. It works with Dropbox and iCloud. It lets you send texts as file attachments or directly embedded into a new mail message. The onscreen keyboard has extra buttons to speed up your typing.

   

Available for Mac and iPad.

Oh, the Places You'll Go

by Volker Weber

Google+ for iOS updated

by Volker Weber

A new version (v 1.0.8.3514) of the Google+ iOS app is rolling out to the App Store now. Like the Android app, this version includes the hot new ability to start a hangout from a Google+ Messenger conversation.

Get the new app in the Apple App Store here:
itunes.apple.com/app/google/id447119634

RIM Previews BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 at CES

by Volker Weber

Can't wait for February:

CES 2012 attendees who visit the BlackBerry booth at CES (South Hall 3 Booth # 30326) will get a sneak peek of upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 functionality including:

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Und jetzt … Lotusphere

by Volker Weber

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In einer Woche sind wir voll drin in der Lotusphere. Ich habe schon so eine Ahnung, was IBM so vorstellen wird. Aber das behalte ich wie immer für mich. Dieses Jahr ist IBM spät dran. Die Agenda stand sehr spät, dafür ist die Veranstaltung früher als in den letzten Jahren. Da bleibt nicht viel Zeit, Eintrittskarte zu verkaufen. Da trifft es sich ganz gut, dass diesmal am ersten Tag gleich 750 Studenten heran gekarrt werden. Mal gespannt, wie die Welten aufeinander treffen.

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In vier Wochen gibt es dann in München die Edcom Nachlese. Ich habe schon gar nicht mehr mitgezählt, zum wievielten Mal. Das ist einfach eine wunderbare Veranstaltung für die Daheimgebliebenen. Ron Sebastian wird wieder da sein, Ed Brill auch, und ich werde auch wie in den letzten Jahren Eds Antworten komplett falsch auf deutsch übersetzen. Ein großer Spaß.

Ja, liebe Business Partner, Ihr macht bestimmt auch alle ganz tolle Veranstaltungen. Aber ohne mich. ;-)

Microsoft, Defying Image, Has a Design Gem in Windows Phone

by Volker Weber

Microsoft, long ridiculed as the tech industry dullard, has surprised critics with its Windows Phone software. But will consumers be tempted enough to try it?

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G+

by Volker Weber

G+

Logo created by Google, animation by J. R. Gellett

IBM no longer funding OpenNTF?

by Volker Weber

More tricks with Live Tiles

by Volker Weber

On the Nokia blog:

Live Tiles are what makes the homescreen of your Nokia Lumia 710 or Nokia Lumia 800 a dynamic, constantly evolving place. We’ve written about smart tricks with Live Tiles before in a previous post, but we’re back again with some more that we’ve found useful over the past couple of months that we think will make your experience better.

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Damien Katz takes it to Mountain View

by Volker Weber

What's the future of CouchDB? It's Couchbase.

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Cool. Cold. Zero Kelvin.

by Volker Weber

Former Lotus and Microsoft exec Ray Ozzie hiring for new start-up

by Volker Weber

Ozzie is perhaps best known as creator of the 1990s collaboration product Lotus Notes

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Temporary social

by Volker Weber

On January 4, 2012, Social Business Online 2012 opens for those who were confirmed for the conference prior to January 4, 2012, and will remain open until Friday, February 3, 2012 @ 4:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. After February 3, 2012, access to conference content will be provided through the established IBM Connect Community and Lotusphere Community on Lotus Greenhouse.

In other words: don't bother building a social network on a site that is gone in four weeks. The upside: You get a temporary email address you can use to sign up for services that would otherwise spam you to death. Mine is 683075@socialbizonline.com.

Fade

by Volker Weber

Hit the max button.

Removing the Band-Aid ever so slowly

by Volker Weber

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This is a message header. It shows how IBM wants to call it Connect but does not dare to drop Lotus. And yes, I think Connect is a good name. It goes well with "Connections".

Mixed Tape 43 "Silver Vibrations" is out

by Volker Weber

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01 NEVER | KALEEM TAYLOR | 4:05
02 NO EGO | FOXBIRD | 3:43
03 A FRIEND OF MINE | STEVEN SMIRNEY | 6:24
04 YEARS (THE SOUND OF ARROWS REMIX) | THE NEVER YEAR | 3:40
05 BE AROUND U (SODA PLAIN REMIX) | O F F LOVE | 4:37
06 UNDERFENCE PASSES FEAT. EMILY EASTERLY | THE DECENT LOVERS | 5:10
07 SECRET SISTERS|SOLEDAD VÉLEZ | 2:41
08 APPLES | WYLA | 2:57
09 CITY OF LIGHTS | SUMMER UNDERGROUND | 3:18
10 VISIONS PART I | THE UGLY CLUB | 4:21

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Pelicans and flying rays

by Volker Weber

Natural scrolling

by Volker Weber

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When I first installed a Lion beta with "natural scrolling" I was taken aback. This was all wrong! Swiping with two fingers no longer moved the window, but the content. I immediately set this back the way it had been "forever". Well, well, well. Now that I am no longer using a mouse at all, I have set my trackpads all to the scroll direction that Apple calls natural.

And the switch was easier than I thought. Now I swipe the content, either on a trackpad or a touch screen. And they all work the same.

Gearing up for Lotusphere

by Volker Weber

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Next week I will have to return an iPad 2 that I don't own. That would have been the obvious device to bring to Lotusphere. Since I have an original iPad that I do own, it's only a small step back. I could actually work with my iPhone 4S and the Belkin keyboard, but the iPhone does not let me import photos from my camera. That's what I need to bring the iPad for. I won't be leaving the BlackBerry behind, so the PlayBook would have been a good choice as well. But that won't import photos either. I was entertaining the idea to bring a notebook, since it's easier to type on, but my MacBook Pro is a bit heavy, and the two netbooks are just too slow. When I did not have an iPad, I could bear with them, but that is no longer the case. So here is the very short list:

I need three power supplies: one for the camera battery, one BlackBerry (microUSB), and one iPad (2.1A). The iPhone charges off the Belkon power strip. So does the keyboard (if ever needed).

All of the above gear (minus the camera) has a combined weight of a MacBook Pro plus power supply. The first four items go into the shoulder bag, the other four into the suitcase.

Almost there

by Volker Weber

Here is an idea: $99, $149, $199.

Clean Your App Permissions in 2 minutes

by Volker Weber

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Old vowe.net archive pages

I explain difficult concepts in simple ways. For free, and for money. Clue procurement and bullshit detection.

vowe

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