 Heiko Voigt | Heiko Voigt 25 April 2013 18:26:40Hello, Lately, I have been working on an XPiNC Project in parallel to a project for a Web CRM System based on XPages. As we also created the web layout (and me not being the greatest designer at all or, to be honest, I am not at all good at that), I came across a few tools that did some nice jobs for me and that I would like to share. They all are online resources and a lot of you might know them already. The first tool is Color Explorer by Kim Jensen, a tool that helps creating matching color palettes to get a color theme for your website. I used it a lot working with bootstrap themes. The second one is PlaceIt by breezi which lets you put images into mobile device image frames like an iPad or an iPhone. It will create an image like this:  PlaceIt creates PNG Files that can by rather large - to compress them nicely, I use my third tool: tinyPNG by voormedia. It compresses PNG files very well without visible artefacts. As online resources, I usually can access them even at customer sites to do some quick fixes. Nice tools, I think, check them out, hope you like them, too ! Heiko. Heiko Voigt 12 April 2013 17:24:43Hi, just came across this statistic from one of our hosted servers for one of our customers. It's an SMB Customer, running an XWorks Server for their internal applications on 8.5.3. All apps are XPages, used with mobile clients as well (we built some mobile xpages apps with JQuery Mobile) Friday afternoon there's not much left going on, we host a CRM system there so sales seems to be gone fishing already. There's a lot more going on on that system during the day. Anyways - awesome uptime for me !  Cheers, Heiko. Heiko Voigt 22 March 2013 15:13:44Hi, just in case you did not hear about it yet - the new Plugins for IBM Connections 4.5 to deploy in IBM Notes 9 are available. More info on Louis Benitez' Blog, you can download the plugins from the greenhouse catalog. Kind regards, Heiko. Heiko Voigt 14 March 2013 19:22:19Finally ! T-Mobile in Germany rolls out the first carrier-driven update for the BlackBerry Z10 device. From what I read so far, a lot of bug fixes and battery lieftime improvements are part of it. Looking foreward to it - downloading now ;-). Cheers, Heiko Heiko Voigt 13 March 2013 12:59:13[... Extending BlackBerry's trusted, gold standard security to separate work and personal data on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets WATERLOO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - March 14, 2013) - BlackBerry® (NASDAQ:BBRY)(TSX:BB) today confirmed its commitment to bringing a solution that will separate and secure work and personal data on mobile devices to third party platforms. Secure Work Space for iOS® and Android™ will be managed through BlackBerry® Enterprise Service 10, BlackBerry's multi-platform enterprise mobility management solution which builds upon more than a decade of enterprise and security expertise and is the most widely deployed mobility solution in enterprises today. ...] BlackBerry Previews Secure Work Space Technology for Third Party Platforms
Heiko Voigt 31 January 2013 10:31:50Hi, for those who currently have a BB10 Dev Alpha Device and did not check yet - as promised, there's a software update available that adds phone and BB Hub functionality and several bug fixes. Thank you RIM oh, no - BlackBerry ! Heiko. Heiko Voigt 30 January 2013 17:21:37What an interesting WebCast ! - RIM will be renamed to BlackBerry - one brand, one promise
- BB10 devices look great !
- Storymaker App looks great !
- Skype is coming to BB10 !
- Whats App is there
- All major content labels deliver content to BB World
- 70.000 Apps at start of BB10
- Availabilty starts on beginning of February (Canada, February 5th, UK: January 30th)
- Global availability for the Z10 will be in March 2013
- Global Creative Director for BlackBerry will be: Alica Keys !
Good stuff ! Now, when can I get a new device in germany ?
Heiko Voigt 28 January 2013 11:32:01Hi Folks, it's been a bit quiet again around here for a couple of weeks - we have been extremely busy working on a lot of things in parallel. One milestone we had ahead was to bring our first BB10 App to a start, it's currently in the process of coming to BlackBerry World but we wanted it to be ready for demos before BB10 launches this week.  | So, this is what the start screen looks like. It's a wine tasting app, that lets you take notes on wine tastings and share your knowledge with a wine community. The front end was built with the WebWorks SDK for BB10 and JQueryMobile. And yes, the app is multi-language, too.
[UPDATE:] We decided not to use bbUI.js as we wanted the app to be consistent accross all the other platforms to follow BB10. If you want to create an app that's unique to BB10, bbUI.js is definitely something to check out.[/UPDATE]
All tasting reports are saved locally, the app works off-line of course and your data can be synched back via REST-Services to a Community instance of our XPages Portal (SIT Portal DXP) that runs the web community part of it. I will post some screenshots, when the community goes live. So - Social Business without Connections. Yes, it's possible ;-).
The next steps for this app will be finalizing the port to Android and iOS - and a lot more features are yet to come. Stay tuned, wine lovers... . | Heiko Voigt 21 November 2012 15:34:26We're up & running ! 6.000 users have been online already - system is up & working fine. Party time !  Heiko Voigt 20 November 2012 13:19:11How I missed these times ! Did I really ? Well somehow. I guess anyone in the IT-Business knows the time of the year where your large projects approach their final state before they appear in public. I'm currently working on my first Adobe CQ5 WCM project that will emerge in public (a closed user group though) in a few hours. I only did small parts of the implementation myself, most of my work was managing a x Million-Euro budget, a herd of developers (10) and the business users of the system (another bunch of 10 people). The audience is a group of 8.000+ users. We had a great time so far - an excellent project team, strong support from the IT department of the customer as well as from the line of business users and managers. Today, we are finishing the last touches, swing the broom to get out the sawdust and make everything look nice and tidy for the customers to walk in tomorrow. It's a humming bunch of people buzzing around that new system, trying to get everything done in time. Very exciting ! It always seems to me that it's like opneing up a booth for CeBIT - two days before the fair starts you have an undefined mess of stuff that still needs to be done and then, all of a sudden, everything seems to start to fall into place, the closer you get to the grand opening. This was my first project with Adobe CQ5 as WCM system - I have some very interesting findings that I will talk about in a later blog post. For now, I'm just sitting here in the eye of the storm and enjoy a few moments of silence, before the final rush begins. 24 hours left and counting. Please keep your fingers crossed for us ! Regards, Heiko. Heiko Voigt 7 September 2012 08:20:14Hi, First I have to say - I love my BlackBerry PlayBook. This device travels with me for one year now and it slowly has grown to be an edition to my electronic zoo that I definitely don't want to miss anymore. With some sideloaded Android apps and PlayBook OS2 it really became an extremly usefull and reliable device that I use daily. The second thing I have to say is that I like the 7" form factor a lot. I use my tablet as a mobile device on the train and on an airplane - areas where space is limited. I also like to hold devices in one hand for more than twenty minutes - that's why 7" is perfect for me and after trying the iPad, I knew we would not make friends. Well, the grass always seems greener in someone elses yard, so I regulary took a peek on the 7" Android tablets. And, so far, I was not impressed. The device I tested (Samsung Galaxy Tab 2) was not what I wanted - mainly, because the OS seemed sluggish, complicated and weired comüared to the iPad and the PlayBook. I personally don't like the configuration part of Android - it's a system for people who know what they want to do and know how to do it. It's not a true enduser-oriented system to me. Please - this is only my opinion. iOS und PB-OS seem more intuitive to me. My main concern regarding the Galaxy 2 was the sluggish behaviour of the user interface across the board. Swipes did not work well, flickers in animations - something I never experienced with iOS or the PlayBook. And for me, that sucks. I simply don't like it. So, in short, I did not fall in love with an 7" Android device. Last week, I received a Google Nexus 7 - and this device seems to be capable to change my mind on Android tablets. It's fast, it's slick - the OS and the animations work smooth and nicely - it seems to have a heck of a lot of computing power. The interaction with Google Play is comparably easy as with Apples AppStore and BlackBerry AppWorld. And from an app perspective - it has everything I need and more. The price is great - so overall - I like it. Now, how does it compare to the PlayBook ? Will it replace the PlayBook for me ? Not yet, but it comes close, here are some observations:
Things I like about the Nexus 7: + Performance - the Tegra Quadcore rocks ! BUT overall - the PlayBook is still close, although it's a device that is already one year old. + Resolution - 1280x800 is way better than the 1024x600 that the PlayBook brings. + Some Apps - Skype, in particular. I do a lot of video conferencing with people abroad and Skype is a killer app for me. I really miss that one on the PlayBook
Things I don't like about the Nexus 7: - No HDMI out. I use this a lot to do company presentations and the PlayBook performs really well here. - No rear camera - Taking pictures like scanning business cards with my tablet became a habit to me. I really miss a somewhat usable rear camera for my use cases. - The android notification area. Every app behaves different in the notification area (Some open the app, some have direct interaction, it depends on the app) . Sliding it down sometimes doesn't work - the PlayBook does this significantly better for me.
Overall observations: Here are some areas in my comparison: | Criteria | Google Nexus 7 | BlackBerry PlayBook | Winner for Heiko ;-) | | eBook reader | Kindle | Kindle | Draw | | Office Suite | None yet | Documents to go | currently the PlayBook, Docs To Go comes out of the Box, but more likely a draw. | | PIM experience | Lotus Traveler | Lotus Traveler | PlayBook - Integrated experience in calendar, contacts and mail in PB OS 2.x is extremely usefull for me. | | Tethering | BB Torch 9860 HotSpot | BB Torch 9860 HotSpot and BB Bridge | PlayBook slightly ahead because I use a BB smartphone as well, otherwise it would be a draw | | Presentations | Nope - no HDMI out (I don't want to use a USB dongle for that, although I know I could) | Docs To Go and HDMI out with an HDMI->VGA Adapter from Samsung (:-)) | PlayBook | | Web Browsing | Chrome | PlayBook Browser | Draw with slight advantages for the PlayBook | | Video Conferencing | Skype | PlayBook Video Conferencing | Nexus 7 | | Games - I'm not a huge gamer - I only use some time consuming stuff on a plane or on a train. | Angry Birds, Chess, Mah Jongg, Car Racing,Macchinarium | Angry Birds, Chess, Mah Jongg, Car Racing, Macchinarium | Draw for me, although Android has some more to offer here | | Picture galleries | Built in | Built in | PlayBook - see HDMI out and quality of animations. | | Video | Built in codecs | Built in codecs | PlayBook - there are only a few things the PlayBook won't play. | | Screen resolution | 1280x800 | 1024x600 | Nexus 7 | | Social Business crapp | Facebook, Twitter, XING | Facebook, Twitter, XING | Draw | | Performance | Quadcore, 1.3 Ghz, 1 GB RAM | Dualcore, 1 Ghz, 1 GB RAM | Nexus 7, although it's close. | | Storage | 16 GB, no SD-Slot | 64 GB, no SD slot | PlayBook, although both lack an SD-Slot | | Price | 299,- € | 259,99 € | Draw | | Battery Life | On my regular use: 2-3 days | On my regular use: 2-3 days | Draw | | Multitasking experience | Excellent, task management a bit complicated if you don't use an app for that | Excellent | Draw | | Desktop | 4 panes, Widgets | 3 panes, no widgets | A draw for me - I love the widget concept but the OS of the PlayBook is more intuitive to me. One could argue about that, I guess. | | App catalog experience | Google Play Store | BlackBerry AppWorld | Nexus 7, due to the amount of apps. Both Stores are easy to use for me. | | Upgrade experience | OTA, Google | OTA, RIM | Draw - both update apps and OS OTA. | What's the outcome ? The Nexus 7 is a great device for me - I really like it. It will not replace my PlayBook though, for reasons check the table above. The Nexus 7 is the third generation of 7" Android tablets and the first that really seems usable to me now, thanks to the massive computing power and Jelly Bean. Compared to that, the PlayBook compares significantly well for me. To make it a perfect tablet for me, I would like to ask RIM for a new edition with a higher screen resolution and Skype as one killer app. If I was about to get my first tablet - the Nexus 7 would be a good choice for me, it has a lot to offer for the money. Heiko. P.S.: I will update this comparison in the future, as I spend some more time with the Nexus 7. Heiko Voigt 25 June 2012 10:17:46Well, it has been quiet around here for some time - so I thought it might be a good idea, to talk a little bit about the stuff I was dealing with lately and especially about some fun stuff here. The most time-consuming project im working on currently is a web content management project using Adobe CQ5 5.5. Very interesting project, great tool and a great project team. Nevertheless, one of my side-shows drew my attentions as well - my first mobile web application integration into our SIT Portal DXP framework. I have developed an extension for SIT Portal DXP to handle mobile versions of the web portal using XPages and JQueryMobile. I was highly impressed about the combination of Domino/XPages and JQueryMobile - easy to use, reliable and delivering excellent results. Fun coding all the way. I was doing a presentation on that topic at DNUG two weeks ago - please find the slides below. regards, Heiko. Heiko Voigt 22 February 2012 09:56:00Hi everyone, it's here - PlayBook OS 2.0 has finally arrived. I installed the build last night on my Pb 64Gb that was already running the developers beta - updated without any problems. The most important functionality for me are the new PIM features - especially the connection to Lotus Traveler for Push Mail. The Messages app acts as a universal inbox from messages from different sources in my case from GMail, Traveler, Facebook and LinkedIn. It also works with POP and IMAP accounts. So frist thing I did was setting up my accounts. This worked pretty easy and especially for the large e-mail providers very well - there's a gmail profile, so the setup automatically detects the settings for the account and I only needed to add an e-mail address and the password - the PlayBook figured out the rest. Setting up traveler was very straight foreward, too - "servername.domain.extension" /servlet/traveler as the server address and my credentials was all I really needed. Given that, contacts, mail and calendar entries fly down to the PlayBook like a charm !
I really LOVE the new contacts app that aggregates the profiles for people from my Notes contacts, BB contacts, Facebook and in my case LinkedIn. Another feature I instantly fell in love with is the people page in the calendar. It shows you the people you are meeting with on a particular day and you can hop off to the contacts profile from there - so you can get a very brief overview of who you will be talking to. Very nice.
Besides that - performance of the PlayBook is excellent, working offline with the new apps is working fine as well. The Video Chat feature is integrated into to contacts of a person as well - very nice indeed.
From my first impressions this is a HUGE step foreward for the BB PlayBook. It is now at least at par with the basic functionality I would ask from a tablet plus it adds its core strengths that have been there before - an excellent web browser, great multimedia features, multitasking and the gaming experience. Well done RIM !!!
Regards,
Heiko.
P.S.: Sideloading Android Apps (kindle that is for me) works very well. This will close several gaps regarding base apps for the PlayBook.
Heiko Voigt 17 January 2012 13:33:35So, Lotusphere 2012 sees its second day and there were some findings I had in the fineprint between the OGS and other sessions and talks during the day. IBM (Lotus ?) Traveler will support the complete ActiveSync stack in the near future - this adds a nice perspective coming from the RIM/BlackBerry Part of the game - PlayBook OS 2.0 will add native Mail, Contacts and Calendaring based on (inofficially) - guess what - ActiveSync ! So, although it's not officially announced yet, some well informed sources say, we well see the connection to N/D via Traveler for the PlayBook. This also answers questions about problems with multiple device ids for a BB phone and a PlayBook on a BES Server. So basically, Traveler should be sufficient to get PIM data to the PlayBook. For those in need of tighter app and device management, BB Fusion will be the answer to manage both BES phones and PlayBooks in a single management environment. Cool stuff coming to the BB community ! Heiko. |
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