Phone sync software
I recently got a new phone (Sanyo MM-7400 multimedia phone). It works quite nicely for what I need, and I have the ability to take pictures, video, download ringtones, etc. As anyone who uses Sprint knows, downloading information (and surfing the web) via the phone is done via Vision. Also, as anyone who uses Sprint probably knows, subscribing to Vision ain't cheap (~$15-25/month depending on what you use it for).

Well, I decided to get a USB Data cable so I could talk to my phone. I just got the cable and no software (the driver that came with it allows me to use my phone as a modem, but that's it), so I now had to find some software. There are the traditional software programs such as FutureDial's SnapMedia and FutureDial Suite, or Datapilot's Software Suite, but I'm cheap and didn't want to pay the $29.99 - $49.99 for the software. After a little searching, I found this gem called BitPim that is free under the GPL, and works fairly well. There are a few glitches of course, but I'm sure not complaining.

Total cost to achieve syncing data with my phone? ~$8 for the USB data cable + approx. 1 hour to read up on BitPim functionality. Woohoo!
- posted by Ben Winzenz @ 12:42 PM 2 comments

 
RIM positions for future
Yesterday, Paul blogged about RIM's intent to develop an LCS client for it's Blackberry Devices. This I think was a great announcement from RIM and hedges the way for continued existence even as pressure from Microsoft (in the way of better versions of ActiveSync) increases.

This morning, I read Ed Brill's blog that RIM has also announced it's intent to include Lotus' Instant messaging client and web conferencing software into it's Blackberry devices.

Why you sly dog, RIM! Actually, the move makes a lot of sense to me. RIM is finding new ways to add functionality that customers want. Also in the article, RIM has signed a separate deal to offer Yahoo's IM client and is also working on deals with AOL and ICQ.
- posted by Ben Winzenz @ 8:51 AM 0 comments

 
Lotus Notes on the decline?
Paul Robichaux recently blogged about this article as well. It will be interesting to see the reaction from some of the Lotus faithful (esp. Ed Brill). I'll also be waiting to see the 2004 numbers, and the opinions of the analysts. I'm sure I'm not in the right crowd to hear who is migrating "from" Exchange "to" Notes, but I do hear an awful lot about companies migrating the other way. Recently, I heard that Symantec, who has acquired Veritas (which in turn previously acquired KVS), will decide to move from Notes to Exchange. If this is true, it will be a big win for the Exchange team. Now that Exchange has reached 1 billon in revenue, it appears it has nowhere to go but up, at least if the numbers that Daniel Lyons quotes are any indicator. Don't get me wrong here - there are a lot of things that could be improved with Exchange, and I think that Notes makes some things a bit easier, but I enjoy working with Exchange and I can usually make it do what I want.
- posted by Ben Winzenz @ 9:17 AM 0 comments