Real World Computing

I'm surprised that nobody seems to know how to do this - well, according to my research on the web anyway. So here it is, the instructions for getting your IBM Notes (we don't use the words Lotus Notes anymore) personal address book Synched with your Apple iPhone (and presumably Android too). Note: I'm assuming that you're already running Traveler and are able to get your mail and calendar. Enabling Contacts Synchronisation In IBM Notes, Select File , then Preferences . Click on Contacts Make sure that this is turned on;     [x] Enable "Synchronise Contacts " on the Replication and Sync Tab   While you're in here, make sure that in the Recent Contacts section you have selected;    (o) Do not add any names This bit isn't critical to the procedure but it's caused us no end of grief.  It's fine if you don't have lots of outside contacts in a giant corporate address book but it's painful if you do. Click Ok . Enabling

Why would you do this anyway? With the mobile data connection disabled, the iPhone can still hook into wireless networks, including those at home, in shopping centres and hotels, at McDonalds and Starbucks, on public transport and at the office to surf the internet and to receive data. It just won't be able to access data where there is either no internet wi-fi connection or where you haven't set it up.  As a means of keeping mobile costs down however, the wi-fi option is certainly better than a mobile data one. In particular, if you're travelling overseas, you'll want to disable the high-cost mobile internet option. Why can't I just use the Airport Mode? Airport mode is designed to allow your phone to be used on aircraft (once the plane has levelled out).  It will prevent the phone from receiving calls effectively turning it into a brick that plays games. Why wouldn't I just change my plan? You certainly could change your plan to not include data h

Before I start on this series, I want to make my starting position clear.  I'm generally "phone-agnostic".  I've had a Blackberry Bold 9000 for years and before that it was a Blackberry 8800.  Prior to that I had a Nokia "dumb-phone". My only non-work phone choice recently was a HTC Android device for my wife. I've never spent much time with Apple and I've traditionally disliked their computers.  I guess that means that; 1. You have to take any criticisms here with a pinch of salt. 2. If I end up really liking the device, then it's even better than I say. The longer term plan for this series will be for me to start looking at how to use Lotus Traveler to make the iPhone a secure device like Blackberry. Initial Thoughts Packaging The apple packaging is very slick and much nicer looking than the blackberry packaging.  (A win to Apple). Weight The apple device weighs considerably more than the blackberry bold - probably twice

I've had quite a few people ask me about the call log on the Blackberry Bold but as yet, I haven't found it. I did get this little tip from Craig Wiseman's blog ; Blackberry Call Log - Can anyone help? http://www.wiseman.la/web/cpwBlog.nsf/dx/blackberry-call-log-please-help Apparently the calls really are there in with your emails but they're almost impossible to see. To see all your calls do the following; Go into your main mailbox Press the Blackberry button to open the popup menu Scroll all the way down (past the bottom of the screen) to highlight Search and Click on it. Scroll to the bit at the bottom that says type and click on it Change it from Email to Phone Press the Blackberry button to open the popup menu Click Search Your blackberry will now be showing you all of the calls. When you push the Esc/ Back button, it will return to normal. Thanks Craig, not only for helping me to find the calls but also because he highlighted a very useful set of Blackberry featu

It's taken a bit longer than I expected to find a free solution to conversion of video files for the Blackberry but I've finally found one. The software to use is called; Internet Video Converter (I used version 1.52 standard) and you can get it from this web site ( http://ivcsoft.free.fr/ ). The application relies on either the FFmpeg or the Mencoder files in order to do the conversions. These files are available separately but I think they're also included with the utility. Converting the File Rip, Download or otherwise obtain your AVI file . Start the Internet Video Converter Application . Click on the Tab marked Transcoder . Click on the button marked 1. Select a Video . Choose a video file to use (there is a 1 second DOS screen that appears - don't panic about this). The Save As section will be filled in automatically. Change it if you need to. In the format list choose; Mobile QVGA 320x240 - AAC/good (.3GP) . Note: If you have a different type of blackberry

I have found a great E-Book reader for the Blackberry. It's called Mobi Pocket Reader , and its free. It's available for a lot of other phones too. You can download books "over the air" or you can copy them to your Blackberry using the desktop manager software - MobiBooks looks in the Ebooks folder (although this can be changed via the options menu). Getting Books I have been enjoying some of the many E-Books available as free downloads in Mobi format from ManyBooks.Net . If you're not a fan of classics, there are also a lot of commercially available books in the built-in libraries. Creating and Converting Books It doesn't stop there though. There is free MobiPocket Creator Home Edition software available for creating MobiReader books from a variety of other formats, including, text,html, pdf and doc. This means that the entire resources of Project Gutenberg are open to you as well as a lot of online fan-fiction and business documents, whitepapers etc

As promised last time, I'm going to have a look at views. Suppose we decide to have a view called ITContacts. We will also need a form called $ViewTemplate for ITContacts. We can't change the $ViewTemplateDefault form because changing this will affect other web views of the database. Of course, if your database isn't otherwise available on the web, you can save yourself some trouble because otherwise you'll need to create a $ViewTemplate for each view that will be available on the mobile. Tips for the View Creating this view is pretty much the same as creating any other Notes view except that you need to be conscious of how much data you're pushing out. For example; Your normal web or notes view of IT Contacts might have; |FirstName | Surname | Company | Phone | Fax | Mobile | Email | Support ID | Address | City | State | This is fine for a wide screen but isn't at all useful on the mobile. Concatenation Consider concatenating fields; eg: Instead of the first t

This is a Beginner/Intermediate Domino developer post. Most mobile phones these days will happily support web browsing. Some, like the Blackberry, will go much further and offer you an API for development. The problem really is that you need to find the common denominator rather than developing for one of the higher end platforms. I believe that the common denominator is probably plain old web access. If you've got Domino running web services, you most likely have many of your databases already served over the web. The key things to remember with mobiles are; Low Bandwidth Narrow Screens Simplicity This post will cover one method that could be used to provide non-push mobile access to databases using a Notes-only solution. There are plenty of other options available but this solution should work well in Domino 6 & 7 (and I'd expect, 8). Create a Mobile Page Open your database in designer and create a new page, you should call it mobile. This will be the front screen fo

Why would you need to do this? Until recently, I'd have been at a loss to give you a good reason. Now however, since I've decided to modify some databases for Mobile Phone use, I have a very good reason. Suppose that you want your database to be searchable via the web and also searchable via mobile. On the web, you can afford to spread out on the screen and you want to use a lot of fancy graphics and fonts. On the mobile, you need to keep things as small and as plain as possible. Working with your existing Database Your database probably already has a $$SearchForm (or similar) and a $$SearchTemplateDefault. Leave these as they are and your web site will continue to work beautifully. Make a copy of the two forms and modify them for mobiles In these examples, we'll call... the new $$SearchForm, MSearchForm We'll call the new $$SearchTemplate for MSearchAll On your MSearchForm, you need only have; 1. An Editable Text Field (called SearchWord1) 2. A Button 3. A Computed T