I was lucky enough to be on the beta for this and now it is released to the public.  You can head to this link via your Blackberry browser to get the recent update (version 2.0.0.36 as of this posting) and load it up.

• Scanning a barcode
• Top 25 apps
• More categories added
• More billing options (PayPal, credit card and carrier billing)
• and more..

There is also numerous enhancements that allow it to be Enterprise Distributed and controlled.  Billing controls and more are included.

My Review
While it loads a bit faster and seems to be more streamlined, they need more apps!  Ones that matter.  I have said it before that Blackberry had the chance to take over the enterprise devices with applications but came to the party late and without much fanfare.  I still love it as my go to enterprise device for so many reasons. But the amount of apps and easy of integration with Appworld could be much stronger.

It seems that users of Blackberry's really like the Out of Office feature even though the idea of a Blackberry is to be connected out of the office.  Lotus has delivered a nice technote on some of the issues, fixes and patches needed.  From technote #1395880 here are some items are covered:

What is the first version of BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) for Lotus Domino that supports the Notes/Domino 8.x Out of Office service?

Notes/Domino Out of Office service does not synch properly with BlackBerry devices through BES servers.

An editor level user has enabled their out of office agent from a BlackBerry Smartphone in the Domino environment.  This results the following error:

Unfortunately these are cropping up more often as we deploy more and more BES servers.  Just passing it along.

I received a request to fill out a survey from RIM on support.  I imagined it to be a check on how well they are doing in responding to our needs, tickets, issues and more.  Instead, I got a small chill when the crux of the questions hit me.

The questions were driven heavily to make you decide which was more important from a list of options.  Then each option was compared one against one in further questions.  These included:

• faster response time
• core hour or 24x7 phone support
• software updates included
• phone support at all

The list went on.  After running through the multiple pages, it appears as if they are looking into reducing costs and restructuring offerings included in T support levels.  You might pay for enhanced services or better offerings.  Maybe self service will become a forefront.  Either way, look carefully for this survey.

Some of us are heavy users of Blackberry Messenger.  With the new 5.0.x code it is easy to add another person by scanning their barcode immediately.  One of the other key items is that what service provider you utilize or where you are in the world does not matter.  It just works.  Well, RIM announced that as long as you are at versions 5.0.0.57 then you will see some exciting new changes coming in the next few days and weeks.

Insider sources say that time travel, the ability to make popcorn in your device and to cook bacon are imminent.  Yeah, I really have no clue but I am anxious to see what more features they include.

The next issue of the IdoNotes newsletter is coming up, don't forget to subscribe in the upper right.  If you are a new subscriber, the previous newsletter will show as a link in the sign up area.

Osterman Research always has interesting results in the survey results I receive and this one page stood out.  With all of the talk to the iPhone and Traveler, it seems all of these respondents had something else in mind.



It seems RIM is still top of the charts as the mobile device of choice for enterprise deployments.  While the iPhone pops up in third, the over 3-1 ratio makes a huge statement in the impact it has on mobile access to corporate data.  To me this shows a simple answer, that the iPhone is pretty as a consumer device, but lacks much of the needed function to be truly effective to have mobile apps and secure, controlled connectivity at this time to things outside of email.

P.S also SaaS email took a beating too.  Way down the chain in terms of thought and planned deployment.

As we talked to a customer about the choice between implementing Sametime Mobile or Enterprise Messenger on the new Storm 2 devices (which will not work right with Sametime Mobile right now), we can across this gem of a demo on the Blackberry site.   We were a bit stunned.



You would think they might update the demo a bit to include new devices and the new features that 2.5 supports.  Plus , with the IBM relationship, possibly update the client they use in the demos.

I bit the bullet yesterday and went with the "gold" version of OS 5.0.0.328 from Verizon.  One word, WOW.  Speed, performance of memory and overall little changes make it very pleasant.  Windows open quicker and close easily.  Scrolling is fast and responsive.

When typing email in landscape mode, the SureType takes a whole new look and feel as shown here (fuzzy but I couldnt capture and use the SureType together so we took a nasty picture instead):



I can say it made the Storm even more useful and user friendly.  One of those times where you say they would have gotten better press if it had come out the door like this.

UPDATE: I have had only one application issue and that was Google Voice with the new 1.6 that crashed.  Otherwise everything else seems to be working great and just as fast, if not faster for some, as before.

I had some early sneak peeks at MyBlackBerry, but now it is fully public and ready to go.  What you will see is:

•  a 1990's discussion board
• some applications
• some basic tips with rating stars
• a horrific tag cloud

That about sums it up.  I had thought we would see all sorts of social integration and tighter integration of the AppWorld, highlighting many of the free apps that are available.  They had the ability to bring both of these together and make a much larger community.  Even using authentication from other systems would not have hurt, like Facebook Connect, oAuth for Twitter or OpenID.

Currently, the BlackBerry community is very heavily defined between business and casual users.  Business users don't always get to load and play with the best applications, with security policies and software load controls in place.  Casual users load every application they can and use the phone for more SMS and leisure activities.  Showing the benefit of both sides would help move users across as well as grow the fight against the every imposing, non-business iPhone in the workplace.  (We are still yet to see policy management for iPhones).

They do have a BlackBerry application for MyBlackBerry that you can fins in AppWorld.  But, alas it is the same thing.  Imagine if they had simply allowed BlackBerry Messenger integration where you could share your online status or even PIN (if you so desired) to make a chat community around the secure Messenger service.

The tips section was some very simple articles but there seems to be a Tips forum that is where the good stuff really is.  They need to find a way to bring these two together and make full articles from them.  The highlighted tips were light and not in volume.  The questions people were asking and answering had some good ones in there.

Lastly, I noticed one thing missing.  There was no device specific way to filter applications or topics.

We were having an issue with certain BlackBerry devices not being able to turn on integration features on the updated Facebook application.  In short, the new Facebook app should allow you to integrate messaging, calendar synchronization and contact matching.  However the calendar and messaging option was grayed out on our BES devices, but enabled for those not BES server connected.  So off we went to the BES server policies.  A sample of what we saw on the devices is below.



What we discovered after reading a ton was there was no policy that controlled the options,  only for a BES 4.x server.  There is a new policy in BES 5 that let's the administrator control how Social Applications interact with devices that have applied policies from BES servers.  It not only controls Facebook, but has very special settings for Lotus Connections individually.  It definitely shows how Lotus and RIM are working together.

So what did we do for the BES 4.x server??  BlackBerry just released a downloadable policy update for BES 4 servers.  You import the policy update, make the necessary changes, apply the updated policy to the users and they are almost instantly able to work with the new features.

The new policy area allows the BES administrator and to control data access on the device for social networking applications.  You can read about the policy update from this technote . It will also point you to a secondary one where you should download the additional policy.

What we did notice missing was the same integration for Lotus Connections.  It would be nice to have profile information, including pictures, pulled in to match my address book like the Facebook application.  Also, the ability to bring Activities into the calendar would be of huge benefit.  Moving into Bookmarks (Dogears) and having those sync to the Blackberry would make Connections a seamless integration point as well.

I'm just saying.

I blogged back in January about my first days with the Blackberry Storm.  I was frustrated and still learning.  It had issues.  It boggled me sometimes.  But here is what is different.

• We upgraded the OS on the Storm from the crappy Verizon version of .74 to a wonderful .109 (do not get .113 yet as it screwed us up)
• I updated all the applications that came with it or that I installed.  A tremendous difference
• Crashes virtually went away outside of one where I run the camera off and on too much and I get a reboot.  But they are rare and I live with it
• The small screen protector film was not noticeable at first until it peeled on a corner.  I thought the screen was broke.  Easy fix, they sell them in packs and protect the screen well.  Just clean it very well before applying a new one
• I tend to work in landscape mode most of the time.  I like the QWERTY keyboard and got used to it now.  Some apps only work in portrait so I am prepared to swivel as required
• I do not like the phone dialer.  I was used to just typing a name or number and it would guess.  I now have to go into the phone app, then the contact tab to find someone
• Screen scrolling is great since the new OS, so no more complaints there
• I installed a little free app that locks the touch screen when on calls automatically.  You just slide your finger to unlock and access the menus.  It saves you from accidentally hitting some button on the screen with your face
• There is slight hesitations sometimes when typing, mainly after long use and no restarts.  No big deal.  They are not often enough to be of concern.
• I like the type ahead guessing (T9 basically) or words and I find it very accurate most of the time
• I had to get used to where they put some symbols between the numbers icon and sym icon
• I am finding using the camera to send to Flickr and twitpics quite easy.  It really makes sharing easier
• More applications are being made for the Storm, increasing the productivity

Just overall I am liking it much more and finding it useful and easy to work with.  This was all after the OS upgrades and application patches.  So do not run away, be prepared to do some work to get it right for now.

Day 3 started out a bit better.  I could not immediately get the Blackberry version of the Sametime client working, so I went with Sametime Mobile 8.0.1 and that seemed ok.  There are some issues with the keyboard size overtaking the amount of the chat you can see, but it worked overall.  The new OS has made a difference in the touch screen response, to me that is.

I added a couple more minor applications and found how to organize the screen to my like, well some.  Disappointing that there are still not more themes out there.  But they will come in time.  I found a couple.

As for working with the keyboard for mail, well it worked.  Mainly when you trust the pop up choices for guessing words to interact.  It made typing messages quite easy.  You get used to not rolling over keys with the full qwerty keyboards, but it is an effort to make the switch.  Clicking down on the screen is fine, just wondering how long it will last.  The device should come with a screen protector until I learned that even cold fingers will not work right.  So a screen protector might be as bad.

One downside driving me nuts is the ability to turn off the 'ding' for new messages when it is not in a holster.  I like ti to be silent unless a phone call comes in.  Heck, it didn't even come with a holster in the box itself.  For such a premium device I would expect more.

Another bummer is the different pin setup for the mini USB cable.  Now all my other chargers and cables everywhere do not work.  That is pure insanity that a new cable set is needed from the same manufacturer in the mobile space.

lastly a small config issue on my part I am sure.  The camera keeps taking pictures like it should, but they are nowhere to be found on the device or the memory card as I set the preference.  I am investigating further.

Oh, the lack of wifi sucks based on the size of the device.  Imagine apps to connect up and stream content via wifi?  Now that would rock.. But no.

So yesterday upon arriving back from Lotusphere, a shiny device in a box was calling my name to test and see what it can do.  I was weary of it after reading many postings  But after much cajoling from certain admins (*cough* Troy), he did the switch.  Ok, here we go to what happened.

Day 1

• Upset it had no case that came with it like other ones
• Didn't like the total weight at first
• I had played with one sooner so the keyboard was not a huge shocker
• Limited amount of themes (one isntalled), but I went with the default
• I was able to easily type, send mail, use the keyboard in landscape or portrait.
• Great integrations with Flickr, Facebook and many IM clients
• I am not sure what some of the things do yet, but I am getting there
• The speaker was cool and videos were nice on the larger screen
• I didn't like not being able to turn off the dings when it was out of the holster, pet peeve of mine.  Just blink dammit
• Reception seemed very low
• But something was amiss

Day 2

• I loaded OS 4.7 and the interface got smoother
• Sametime 8.0.1 worked finally
• Reception got better, much better.  More bars all the time
• Loading new apps was a breeze, same as yesterday
• I still am taking pictures and can't find them saved anywhere
• I started playing with the camera and other apps
• I still didn't like the weight but you get used to it like anything else

I got a ping from the wonderful folks at RIM to let you all know about this as it was being announced.  There are savings for registering this week.  The conference is from October 21-22, 2008  in Santa Clara, CA.  If you develop now or want to develop on the platform, this is the place for you to be.

Many of my fellow bloggers have posted and express excitement over Connections for Blackberry.

• Lotus Connections Blog
• Mitch Cohen (Curious Mitch)
• Gia Lyons of IBM
• Darren Adams of IBM posted beta screenshots

I, unfortunately, do not share the same enthusiasm. I have already let RIM know those thoughts through some surveys that I already provided.

Since this (see screenshot above) has been under development for such a long time, I expected one simple thing. I , without hesitation, expected all five services to be primed and ready. Only have a native Profiles and Dogears makes it useless for my suers to load. For the other 3 services, you have a link that launches a Blackberry browser session that you must log into once again. Humorously I see how Chris Whisonant of Lotus911 only pointed out connecting to BleedYellow via the new client.

Profiles and Activities are arguably the most important parts. But in my opinion, any hook into social software should expose all of the services, or just don't present them until they are ready. Accessing the Connections information via that tiny browser is a terrible experience and I don't want my users doing it. I have been getting deeper into the social networking over the past year or so and see Lotus attempting to make strides. But having a Facebook application for Blackberry that works better and offers more, makes the Lotus Connections one a hard sell.

I posted a couple days ago on the missing feature that we saw at Lotusphere2007, but didn't seem to surface in the Sametime or Blackberry messaging client.  Well I finally got some updates from same avid readers to the blog across timezones (I love the Internet) :

The demo that was shown at Lotusphere used the Ascendant to bridge all the Sametime users into a conference call.

Then another update showed from someone else putting it all together

Today, you are "linking" a Sametime user to an entry in your address book so that you get the added menu items of "Email, Call, SMS, MMS."  RIM will add the Click to Map feature

Looks like a winner when it arrives!

I happened to be poking around Lotus Greenhouse and saw a bookmark from January 2007 (Lotusphere2007) for a press release between Lotus and RIM.  It highlighted the new "Convert to Call" and "Click to Map" that would be possible.

RIM Showcases Unified Communications Breakthrough for Blackberry Users At Lotusphere
RIM is showcasing a new feature called "Click to Map" that will allow users to generate maps on a Blackberry handset within the context of a Lotus Sametime session.  The "Click to Map" feature will launch Blackberry Maps from within the Sametime client software and generate a map that illustrates a colleague's location based on presence information retrieved from Lotus Sametime.

This is a cool feature I would love to see in place.  I know the "Convert to Call" is kind of there, but that seems to not be in place either.  Maybe I missed something in implementation or does this need the Sametime 8 Advanced Server that is not due out till next year some time?  Also, does the map render from the location they type into the client?  I am not sure how that would work either looking at the preferences in the Sametime Connect client for the Blackberry as shown in this screen capture:


I can't seem to find a menu item for mapping the user in the Business Card or main screen.  Anyone?

You can grab it at http://www.blackberry.com/facebook.mobiledownload  by the way

So it all started on Sunday when I went to the airport to head over to Finland via New York.  Of course I check my flight status, get last minute emails and other weird things people do to waste time on the Blackberry.  I land in New York and check the next flight as I walk across the terminal, looking with half an eye so I do not run into anyone.  Or anyone else checking their Blackberry or smartphone that happens to be walking towards me.  

We don't look anyone in the eye anymore, we stare at tiny few inch screens.  Or we walk with the Borg attachments in our ears in circles in the airline lounge talking to seemingly no one.  Quite loudly.  In circles.  Loudly.  Talking to no one.  We have cords strung from our ears to our waists and can type 40 words per minute without looking and with one hand.  We can re-book a flight while everyone else stands in line, but we can't remember how to communicate with people verbally.  Heck, half the people try to mimic smiley faces with gestures now just to act like they are sending chats

I shut down all electronic devices as required and prepare to get some rest on the flight.  Which does not go as planned, but not as bad as getting no sleep at all.  Once off the plane it is time to turn the Blackberry back on to check if the car service is there and if any other plans had changed.  All is well and on schedule.  I arrive at the customer site and get straight to work.  They don't have an extra network line ready for me in the conference room and I accept that I cannot get on the wireless.  No problem, the corporate housing awaits that evening (or 8am my normal home time)  So I would not have missed much of anything and I got email all day.  well the housing has one TV in a common area and one PC line in there also.  No lines in the rooms, no wireless.  I can live with that.  Until I discover that the PC line there only accesses their Intranet and you need a username and password for the proxy.  I send a quick email with the Blackberry to the team I worked with.  Some answers from their Nokia phones.  We can check tomorrow.  I say hey, I have email and a bunch of DVD's  haven't watched anyway!  Time to relax for a night.

The next day I load JiveTalk to consolidate all my IM services onto my Blackberry instead of individual clients.  More on that later.  I like it though.  I also have the office set me on tether modem on the Blackberry but overseas it gives me some weird error.  Maybe because you dial that weird #777, who knows.  I work on that later.  Word comes from the security team that they are very unfriendly and do not have or will issue a temporary proxy account so I can use the network there or at the housing.  So I am full fledged Blackberry and accept my fate.

• Lotus Notes email access - well duh, BES server
• Sametime - Yes, Sametime Mobile 8
• Chat - JiveTalk for AOL, Yahoo, ICQ, Google and MSN
• Google email - yes I have the downloaded Blackberry mail app from them
• Other emails already configured to go to the Blackberry device through BIS
• News and such - many choices.  Bloglines for Blackberry and Pocket Express
• Facebook - Blackberry access in browser at http://m.facebook.com
• Jaiku - Blackberry access via JaikuBerry
• Blackberry Messenger - for all the time chat to the wife on her 8830 and also friends with Blackberry that have connected
• Tethered Modem - heck no, Verizon Access manager needed which takes a PC to get.  Their website is not Blackberry friendly at all and really needs a WAP interface.  All the darn scripts drove me nuts using the Blackberry browser

So where do I sit now?  Thumbs really do hurt some, the battery goes faster when you constantly use it, I expect no less.  Could I make it my lifeline, sure.  Do I need some of the Domino apps, sure.  That is how we do business.  having them offline is great, but not being able to sync does no one any good.  The Blackberry stepped up when it needed to and covered all the basics.  It does have me on the hunt for even more and better applications for it too.

An excerpt from the pdf found

QUOTE FROM THE PDF

BlackBerry servers may crash unexpectedly when the server Name and Address Book (NAB) is upgraded to the new Notes/Domino 8 design or when users switch to the mail8 template. On your server console, you may see an error similar to the following:
Process E:\domino\nBES.EXE (4172/0x104C) has terminated abnormally
In addition, NSD may or may not activate. In either case, the BES task is not functioning, and BlackBerry users will be unable to receive mail.
Workaround Administrators should upgrade to the latest BES release that has Domino 8 support.

It's page 18 and 19.

Read the pdf right here

If you are running Blackberry server version 4.0.x or something below 4.1.3 (so far in our testing) and then load the Notes 8 client or server and change your mail template you make the BES server go boom over and over and over.  We had a mail template modified to Domino 8 and then the BES 4.1.0 server hit it and it crashed continuously for some time until we found it.  Our internal server is 4.1.3 and we have had no issues with the Domino 8 templates.

However!  RIM states no support of Domino 8 in any fashion at this time so run at your own risk

Everyone in the room just about had a Blackberry.  So all those talks about not many European countries having them is way off in this attendee group.

Sametime 7.5 was not widely deployed, it was only in testing at a couple sites.  Scaling the current sites as they migrate was a key factor to the entire group.  They had many wishlist items, some of which I posted into the necessary forums.

There was no chat logging requirements or demand from anyone here.  Most of the concern seemed to be, from my angle, how this gets deployed, how I manage the new Sametime Connect client, what kind of plug-ins are available and issues around current deployments.

Now one thing I hold close is the Sametime Gateway.  Eyebrows were raised when we covered this topic as the business need could not be defined.  Each of the US cities we did for this seminar wanted more time for this topic.  Here, it was well received, but we spent extra time on reasoning and doing live demonstrations showing the differences live in how a user would appear using a public name versus a corporate name in the public systems.  I had a couple side questions after the sessions that showed there was some interest now that it was better understood.

More after we start the Blackberry sessions.

I said I would type this up so I went one better and recorded a mini podcast from the St Louis User Group meeting today where we talked about the DST changes we did at Connectria. I will compile that tonight and get that published.

But as a quick note, look for another new agent (4.0.2.7) to come out and fix some of the looping script errors we received on numerous servers while running the server based agent against the mailfiles.  We saw this on more than a few customers across versions of templates as well as Domino versions.  It drove us nuts, and wasted a lot of time to have to go into the text files and remove the offending user mailfile to get the agent to run on.  Until it encountered another one and looped again.  Now some ran without incident.  Others stopped more than 20 times on larger sites.

I also talk about the order we did things and across the product lines.

So today I went all day trying to use Sametime Mobile for my normal day to day activities while on the road.  This just didn't cut it for a power user that is used to manipulating around the client.  This would have been one of those areas that should have been in beta for some testing.  I don't know if it was, some let me say that also, it might have been.

1) I had a chat, invited another per the menu item but it opened another chat window instead.  Ok, I might have did it wrong, but the way it shows the screens does not make it clear how to select multiple people at once or to add someone correctly to an existing one.

2)  Now, the new chat window only had one menu item in it for some reason., the word Close.  I took that to be close that chat.  No, it closed Sametime Mobile entirely!!  I then had to log in again to go the #3

2) Finally figured out how to do group chat.  Once the 3rd person joined it threw an error  Cannot chat with cn=xxxx/O=Connectria.  Error code = -2147475456.  Now after clicking the OK button, it took me into the group chat.  I think this is a bad closing of the single chat moving it to group mode.  The icon changed to a group symbol with my name instead of the normal of whom I was chatting with as an individual.

Of course, I still do not like the blue and black where everyone in the group is blue.  Can we get different colors for each person?  Now that would be a huge benefit too

During the day, which had decent turnout even right behind Lotusphere, a question arose revolving around trusting the IP address of the Sametime Gateway in the Sametime server.  The person stated that they had placed the following:

VPS_Trusted_IPS=1

in the sametime.ini thereby allowing all IP addresses to be trusted.  So in turn, did they still need to go into stconfig.nsf and list the IP address of the Sametime Gateway.  Some research says this is not the setting they are using and that if they are using the one I think:

VPS_Bypass_Trusted_IPS=1

instead, then they are allowing any server to connect to their Sametime server.  The first ini variable should have been a list of IP addresses and not a 1 (one).  This setting should only be utilized during debugging connectivity issues and then should revert back to the trusted list.  If they are running this in production, we will cover it tomorrow in how to clean it up.

Otherwise it was good to see everyone in the room was running Sametime, outside of 1 person, already.  A few had test installs of 7.5.1 running but no one had gotten near the Sametime Gateway.  The user ranges were from under 50 to over 10k.  Which gives a nice slice of environment sizes to cover examples with.  It seems there are still not enough Sametime marketing campaigns for some reason to reach everyone.  While they have it in place, so much of the capabilities and architecture were still unknown to them.  Wait till Day 2.

I mentioned we found the issue with the DST patch issued by RIM that caused Sametime Mobile on the Blackberry to stop working.  Well removing the entire Sametime Mobile program and downloading it again fixed the issue.  Sametime Mobile works once again.  This was posted as a comment to my blog posting and also we had confirmed it earlier in the morning today on our own Blackberrys.

We went ahead and moved on with more internal testing with all the DST patches before our big outage.  This test was to push the Blackberry DST patch to the handhelds and have them restart.  Patch went on great.  However, after the patch was loaded, Sametime Mobile client for Blackberry will not start.  As soon as the client code begins it crashes.  No log in screen, nothing.  Blackberry without the DST patch loads the Sametime Mobile just fine still.  Yes we did this on more than one BB device of different versions too.  Sucks to be them (for some reason my DST patch didn't download).

Update: After this point I got one IM saying they had the same issue and now an email with the same result. Blackberry Enterprise Messenger will still work however.

So today ends the 3-day seminar.  I crammed in a podcast, announcing the Lotusphere2007 t-shirts with the Taking Notes guys and even digging deep in the conversations around the Sametime Gateway.

As for here, the normal array.  Only a couple hands running older versions of Sametime, from 3.1 and below.  No one really had a full implementation of 7.5 outside of a couple small shops.  One site even used the integrated calendaring feature to invite the Sametime server for all of their meetings.  I do not see that often at all.

The demand for scalable and clustered architectures was the largest I had seen so far.  There were some larger enterprises represented that were asking about architecture design and deploying everything from clusters to MUX's with load balancers.  It was nice to see that Sametime 7.5 is becoming a commodity and looked upon as a business tool.  The session on plug-ins showed some of the capabilities, and now that I have tested and actually ran the auto updates from the server side, it made the push in that direction stronger for myself.  I took great interest in the new redpaper Carl mentioned and can't wait for it to hit full redbook.  It has a couple cool plug-in ideas.  It will offer some sample code download too.

Deployment was a concern, mainly over the amount of features.  I posed a question to Adam G offline asking about the ability to reduce memory load by removing feature sets from the client.  This was asked more than once by attendees here and other cities.  Basically the thinking is that if I am not using it or deploying it, why do I have to show it and can I save from that in memory.

Dinner the second night (the first night I missed a connection due to mechanical issues on the plane) was at Bella Trattoria.  Excellent food, thanks to Andy P for choosing.  Otherwise I got to see nothing outside of the hotel and a walk to a local sports grille.

• I received a comment yesterday asking about the 7100 and SureType.  Well an answer was presented in the Sametime Forum that says SureType is possible with a quick manual user intervention.  You need to go into Preferences on the mobile device for Display and select Full Screen Input.  But then enter doesn't just send the text, you have to click the wheel.  I didn't like that much.  Luckily mine is the 8703 so I don't have that issue.
• Setting text size bigger than small made it easier to read but took up a lot of real estate which meant scrolling.  So the default small font worked for me. Emoticons looked the same.
• Chat history on the mobile device is great.  When you jump into a chat it pulls the previous bit of history.  That is very cool
• The icon for the 7200 series is just a big blue square.  However, on the 8703 it shows as the familiar Sametime icon, even if it was a bit larger than the other desktop icons.
• Port 80 access for tunneling seems to work as Gerco reported, we went for the default 8082 to test.
• The ability to flip between multiple open chats and the buddylist is nice.
• N-Way chats are very cool and interesting.
• Get ready for the standard blue and black text
• Get used to the option in the click menu.  I thought would back me out until I realized it did close Sametime instead of the window I thought I was in.   is at the bottom of the scroll list instead of towards the top
• I didn't test Quick Find yet, will do when more are online with the new client
• Alert Me should be fun to play with.  I wonder if it carries over into the client too, or just the mobile device.

Now the humorous part is that the total hotel lost power this morning at around 7:15am.  So that meant walking down the stirs from upper floors, power generators in the meeting room for the projector and laptops and candles on all the tables for some light.  (it was quite cloudy and dreary outside)  About halfway through the first session it all came back on.

I have had the link to the Real-Time Collaboration and Mobility Seminar on the side of my blog for some time.  An excellent turnout for the first city with over 120,000 Sametime users represented with versions ranging from 3.0 to 7.5.  Many did not have Sametime installed anywhere at this point.

After covering the bandwidth and basic server build session, many were left for lack of better words, stunned.  You can consume unbelievable amounts of bandwidth with audio/video in place and configured for higher quality.

IBM took the stage to do two sessions (one in progress) on Web Conferencing and one on IM.  They were built around the high end of show and tell, not just marketing, but not highly technical.

After lunch we jumped into plug-ins in the Sametime client.  From building to deploying and where they get updated from.   Peeked at a couple samples and showed some security concerns around them

Last session of the day was opening your environment to the public networks with the RTC Gateway.  More on that shortly.

That is what the Skype looks like on the Blackberry.  Not bad.  Uses SkypeOut to make the calls and runs as a plug-in for the desktop Skype for the free version.  A good compromise in some ways.  Sucks in others.  The documentation was a bit misleading on how to get it configured, plus it gave 2 icons on the Blackberry with no reason what the difference was.

  Also, the Skype id was to be used locally on the Blackberry (one would think) but in turn, you have some weird id name you enter into the WebMessenger plug-in that links the two together.  Keep that in mind if you download this freeware portion.  Just a step that you have to mix the guide and online help in figuring out.

Next up is the Sametime integration.  I already had Skype for the U3 working successfully, this is a nice addition so far.

Talk about a mix.  I came across an article found here that then linked to WebMessenger.  Now I had seen this product when we started doing Blackberry rollouts for customers (and ourselves) but never investigated further.  I found the first part interesting in how the company states that their mobile client is used by IBM.  I never have seen anyone mention it from IBM or seen it in action.  I am curious to see how that would function as an extension to our Sametime environments.

Next, Naylor says, WebMessenger will be expanding beyond Skype. "We have SIP compatibility as well, and so we're going to be rolling out similar capabilities for various SIP-enabled networks and telephony systems," he says.  "On the enterprise side, we're close partners with IBM - in fact, they deploy our mobile client internally as the extension to Lotus Sametime on the desktop."

But this is the part I really enjoyed.  Grabbing connectivity to other SIP providers for integrated click-to-call and conferencing.

The release of Lotus Sametime 7.5 this fall, Naylor says, will add a full set of voice capabilities. "They'll have click-to-call and Web conferencing, all tied into various telephony systems from Avaya, Siemens, Nortel, and so forth - and all of those are SIP-compliant systems as well, so we can provide that same capability out to the mobile device for them," he says.

I grabbed the Sametime integration for WebMessenger and will play with that and the Skype part on the Blackberry.  Here comes the review.

We are starting to host more and more Blackberry so we imagined it would be best to have the official class from RIM to make sure we haven't missed anything.  Well, it seems we haven't missed much.  There was a few tips and tricks we picked up.  But, having done so much of it now, we had a good grasp.

The diagrams of the internal flow were very nice to have and reference though.  Those were a huge help.  The instructor knew his stuff and only put off a couple questions he needed answers for.  Most were specific to things we were trying to do but fall outside the normal scope.

Now, I have had talks with the product managers at RIM at conferences and follow-ups.  They are still missing the boat on a couple things with true scalability and deployment in a large hosting environment.  Recently, RIM announced a hosting package but it was not well defined and the instructor had no knowledge.  From all of my readings it still lacks some true scalability features we require.  True clustering and failover are not there and policies need some more granularity and inheritance control.

But send us your hosting needs for Blackberry, that area is growing quite rapidly