We got a dog in January, didn’t go on holiday during the Summer, and then the weather was rotten which made the fact that we didn’t go on holiday just that bit more depressing. I changed jobs in April and I’m now spending less time in Scandinavian airports. Christmas was fun but came and went too quickly.

My best wishes for the time period between the 1st of January and the 31st of December, which is basically a range of dates decided upon by a Roman guy who died a long time ago. There is no real reason to cheer and kiss people at midnight.

Something we’re often asked… when would you use [IBM Lotus] Quickr and when would you use Connections? My frolleague Louis Richardson, who just so happens to be our Worldwide Sales Executive for Social Software, has provided some thoughts on this question in the Collaboration Soapbox blog.

I’ve covered off this issue with customers in the past, and reading through Louis’ article I’m glad to say I wasn’t far off with my answer. Just as when people have asked questions like “does Domino integrate with XML?” it should be answered with another question – “what do you want to achieve?”. Sure, there is some overlap (the solutions have to stand on their own two feet) but the right solution can only be decided on by looking at the requirements. And isn’t that true of most things?

Slightly old news as Ed Brill has already blogged it, and Traveler Product Manager Jan Kenney has also provided a detailed write-up. So what more value can I add?

Late this morning a member of the IBM UK Public Relations team contacted me and asked if I’d be available to speak to journalists about the announcement. Nursing a slightly sore throat wasn’t going to impede me, so the answer was yes. By lunchtime an appointment had been set for 14:30 with Dan Worth of v3.co.uk. Not long after the interview, and after I’d gone back to Dan with a couple of clarification points (thank you to Jan and also Matt Newton), the finished article was published. I think Dan paraphrased one of my thoughts rather well…

Lotus Notes 8.5 introduced the ability to overlay other calendars onto your own. The ‘other calendars’ can come from a variety of sources:

• Other users’ Notes calendars
• Notes TeamRoom calendars
• Notes application calendars (e.g. an application for managing events or a workflow application with milestones and deadlines)
• Google calendars
• Open standard iCalendar feeds
• Lotus Connections Activities

Lotus collaboration advocate Chris Crummey talks about the idea that work / life balance is a myth, and what you’re left with is work / life integration. So, while it’s important to be able to overlay the calendars of colleagues and applications onto your own calendar, it’s also important to be able to add some personal things, such as:

• The calendar of a relative (I have the current Mrs Adams’ Google calendar available)
• The Arsenal fixtures, so I can see when they’re going to scrape a 2-1 win or a disappointing draw
• The birthdays of my Facebook friends

So what about the weather? We love talking about the weather in Great Britain, so wouldn’t it be good to have a forecast readily-available?

A couple of days ago I was watching a presentation by my frolleague Jon Mell, and one of the screenshots contained a calendar (not a Notes calendar, but that’s not important) with information from a number of sources… one of them being a weather forecast. A light-bulb lit up just above my head (not sure if anyone else in the room noticed) and I thought “that’s a good idea”. Notes supports calendar overlays provided by the iCalendar format, and after a brief search I found a site providing for weather feeds for UK towns (wunderground.com). Camberley wasn’t an option, but Bracknell was and that’s near enough to give an idea of the weather conditions in my home town.

If only they could predict the weather more accurately…

Click on the image below for a larger view.

Update…

There were a number of requests for more information about this so I wanted to add a basic how-to.

Go to http://www.wunderground.com and search for your home town (or the nearest place). When your place has been found, you’ll see a green iCal indicator on the right. Do a right-click on this and copy the link location.

Now go to the Notes calendar and click the ‘Add a Calendar’ link. In the resulting dialog box you’ll need to select an iCalendar feed, set it to a public calendar, add a label (such as ‘Local weather’) and then paste the iCal feed URL into the URL field (click on the image to see how it should look). Select some tasteful colours and press OK.

That should be it. Please note that the feed only shows weather for week ahead, but bear in mind that most weather forecasters can’t accurately predict what the weather will do tomorrow, let alone in six days time.

A couple of months ago I blogged about Plantronics’ headsets, and it’s no secret that we have a very good relationship with this supplier of extremely high-quality audio equipment. Yes, Plantronics do work with other vendors of Unified Communications solutions (why wouldn’t they?) but it’s good to see that they’re extending the integration with Sametime.

Late last night I got an e-mail from Carl Tyler of Epilio, who are providing Plantronics’ Sametime integration via a plug-in. A previously-supplied plug-in allowed users of supported Plantronics headsets to control calls directly from the headset itself (for example, picking up and ending a call). Carl’s e-mail detailed a beta of a new plug-in which not only provides call-control, but also changes the user’s status if they’re on a VoIP or Sametime Unified Telephony call, or a call using another application, using a supported Plantronics headset… see below.

The messages are configurable, and I can make a distinction between a VoIP and an SUT call, and a call using another application such as Skype. It just tried this, and my Sametime status changed when I was on a Skype call.

No word yet on when the plug-in will move from beta to final, but after a number of SUT calls today it seems to work perfectly.

I was going to name this post “keep taking the tablets” or something witty like that, but then I realised it would be an extraordinarily bad pun and not very funny.

Anyway, here’s the problem… I’m a contented soul who doesn’t want for much or expect much. I have a few gadgets… I actually have four iPods (and use them all) and an Archos 605 media player. The 605 looks a bit long-in-the-tooth – it’s three years old which is almost pre-historic – but it serves one extremely important use case for me… I can record from Sky Plus and then watch stuff wherever I find myself with my trusty 605. I’d have you all believe that I’m furiously working during long journeys on the Camberley Express, but the reality is that being sardined into a position where you can’t move your elbows is not a good work environment. So out comes the 605, and I can catch up on movies that I don’t get a chance to watch back home at Adams Towers. Generally a good thing, but occasionally I end up watching something like Will Ferrell’s Land Of The Lost, which made me wish I’d spent the time snoozing, looking out of the window or counting the hairs on my arms instead.

After three years of use, the 605′s battery life isn’t what it used to be. The original life of more than six hours has dwindled to under three hours – the battery isn’t easily replaceable without risky screwdriver surgery. Given the advancements of technology in the last three years, and the fact that once again Mrs A has no idea what to get this contented want-for-nothing soul for Christmas, I started looking at the options for a new device (remembering my primary use but considering other potential uses around the house and at work).

Firstly, the Apple iPad. Apparently they’re quite popular. I had an iPad in my possession a few times (the shared Lotus team one) – it sat on my desk at home for two weeks gathering dust and quite frankly it was in the way. When someone told me they needed it for a demo I felt no angst in parting with it, and when they said they’d get it back to me I replied that it wasn’t mine and they could hang onto it until someone else needed it. Okay, whoever said that I would have felt more of an attachment to it if it had been my own was probably right. But I can’t deny that I’m just unexcited about the iPad. And there’s two other things to consider. Does it allow me to record from Sky Plus? Not as far as I know (correct me if I’m wrong). And there will be a new iPad next year, and it’ll have one or possibly two cameras. Christmas comes at just the right time for Apple – they can clear the shelves ready for the new stock next year. I don’t want to be one of the people investing in the outgoing model.

What about Archos? Since the 605 Archos have released two versions of the Archos 5, the newer one based on Android and sold as an ‘internet tablet’. I looked at this a while back and was tempted, but then realised that the DVR station (which connects the device to the Sky Plus box and television) was different to the 605′s DVR station. Quite frankly this p!ssed me off – good for Apple for staying with the same dock connector – I’d have to buy a new one. The Archos 5 is now an outgoing model, and it’s natural replacement is the Archos 43 Internet Tablet. However, there’s a couple of problems with the 43 – one is the storage, 16 gb compared to my 605′s 30. But the bigger problem is the apparent lack of a recording function or DVR station – Archos seemed to have dropped this from their new offerings. I put this point up on an Archos discussion forum, and one of the replies stated an opinion that Archos’ direction for video would be more about live streaming. But I ask you – is live streaming any use on a train? It’s difficult enough holding a ten minute phone conversation on a train without it dropping. Why would I want to stream video when I could have it sitting on the device?

RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook… looks nice. But it won’t be a Christmas present in 2010.

Finally, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab… if I had to put anything at the top of my Christmas wish-list this would be it. It doesn’t have a record function or Sky Plus connectivity, but I’d be willing to forgive it – I could turn the 605 into a recording slave and transfer the movies to the Galaxy Tab. The default storage is 16 gb but that can be hiked up to 32 gb with an SD card. I like the size – smaller than an iPad, it would fit nicely into my bag for trips on the Camberley Express. But it’s big enough to provide a decent web browser, e-mail, calendar and social networking experience.

So, what’s the drawbacks? Firstly, mixed reviews – reports of a sluggish browsing experience, Android applications which don’t scale up, and the opinion that Android is not designed with tablets in mind (yet). Secondly, the price – the cheapest I’ve seen it is £450, which I personally think is a lot of money for what it is.

So, the big question is not “which one do I get?” – rather “do I actually need one?”. On reflection it seems that the Adams fortune won’t be depleted by £450 and the Archos 605 will have to remain my faithful travel companion for another year. Mind you, it’s my birthday in January.

A couple of weeks ago we announced Lotus Connections 3, and today it became generally available. This is a substantial update with many improvements and some major new capabilities – so, it’s a good time to provide a quick overview of what’s new and improved.

Files – lots of new display options… you can now choose which pieces of information you see, and also choose whether to see full details or a ‘social view’. Collections have become folders – you can drag and drop files into them – and you can pin important files to give them extra visibility. Finally, you can take one of your files and copy it to a community.

Click on the image below for a larger view.

Communities – the two big improvements are the ability to create a friendly ‘handle’ URL for a community and the ability too create sub-communities within a community.

Bookmarks – some navigation and management improvements, and the ability to add an existing bookmark to an activity, community or blog.

Forums – previously forums only existed as an element within a community, but now they’re also a major Connections element in their own right.

The home page – improved layouts on the widgetised home page and the news feed, and recommendations… Connections will look at your tags and contacts, and then suggest other content you might be interested in (what we describe as social analytics).

Following – you can follow certain Connections elements and be notified when they are updated. Follow-able elements include wikis (entire wikis or specific pages), files and folders, forums, blogs, activities, communities and profiles. So just about everything.

Improved navigation – the top level navigation is now simplified but at the same time offers more. The home page, profiles and communities sit on the top level, and everything else sits under ‘Apps’. That drop-down menu allows you to jump to certain places in one click (e.g. files shared with you).

New APIs – probably the most important of these APIs is that which allows compliance and auditability solutions to integrate with Connections.

That’s a small selection of all that’s new and improved – for the full list see here.

It’s not even December yet, but our friends at Teamstudio are already thinking about Lotusphere. Michaela from Teamstudio notified me that they’re running a contest to put the spotlight on the best Notes applications, and Notes applications that are begging to be mobilised (and I know that Teamstudio have a great solution for doing just that).

Details are here and you have until 31st December to get your application entered.

If you haven’t discovered the This Week in Lotus podcast series yet I suggest that you check it out. This week would be a good time to start – joining regular hosts Stuart McIntyre and Darren Duke are Suzanne Livingstone and Mac Guidera from the Lotus Connections product management team (discussing Connections 3, which will feature here on dadams.co.uk very soon).

Also featured in episode 26 – and I apologise for this appalling act of self-promotion – is one Mr Darren Adams, talking about notesiscool.com. Like so many other people I hate listening to my own voice, I think I sound like Jools Holland and say “errrrm” and “you know” too much.

Regardless of my own shortcomings as a broadcaster the podcast was great fun to record, and thanks to Stuart and Darren (Duke)’s enthusiasm and informal style it’s always a great listen.

Episode 26 is available to listen to on-line and is also available on iTunes.

The title says it all – LotusLive iNotes has won an honour in this year’s Everything Channel’s CRN Tech Innovator awards. iNotes won the award for the best small / medium business software productivity solution. According to the press release:

The winners were recognized for introducing innovative new solutions to bridge the widest gaps between current problems and solutions facing channel executives today.

iNotes’ mention is brief, but you can read about the full list of winners here.