pmooney.net :: Using the infamous iNotes Ultralite for my iPhone

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Well, I just couldn't NOT test it. Now I own an iPhone, it was a matter of time before I gave it a go. So, using the public beta of the 8.5 server, which we run, I upgraded my mail file to the 8.5. This gives me access to the Notes Ultralite UI, which is designed to be used on the iPhone browser. It offers:

Browser based access (no integration with the native iPhone features)
Mail / Contacts / Calendar information
Light interface

You get to it by navigating on your iPhone to the webmail login site and entering your user name and password. So, I started here:
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and entered in the URL, then name and password. First things first, you would need to design the login page to be more iPhone friendly, but it went in.
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and then it brought me to my mail.
Read on...

The first mail interface it brought me to was the normal iNotes interface, so it looked a right mess:
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You have to click on the Full link and switch to Ultralite mode:
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Then, the lite interface appears, giving you this
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Clicking on your inbox, gives you this (blurred out real emails)
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It being the iPhone, it also will switch to landscape mode just by moving the unit.
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Opening some emails were fine:
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Others, not so fine:
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Creating a email, gives you a clean interface to send your message off:
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Responding, or forwarding messages can be done using links in each message. Back to the home page and the calendar interface can be loaded:
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You can navigate forward and backward days, or always reload the browser window. Creating an entry, like creating a contact is not ready in this beta yet, so you get this:
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So, what did I think? First the negative:
Its not push email, and we know that. Its not the same as native integration with the iPhone, which is what people will want.
You cannot operate this disconnected from the internet.
Some features are not yet working (but it is a beta). Also, I couldn't find out how to get to folders from my inbox, but that possibly is just not there yet.

Now, the positive:
In fairness, the ultralite template worked better then I thought it would. Its very fast, and the interface is clean.
It could be argued that no local data on the unit makes it more secure?

Overall, I thought I would hate it, and I didn't. Don't get me wrong, it has its shortcomings, but it would be possible to use this utility for email/PIM if you needed to. It was most definitely very fast to use, and the combination of some good UI design on the template and the iPhone browser itself makes it a usable mail account. Apple/IBM still need to get traveler sorted asap, as opposed to hacks and workarounds for getting Notes PIM information local on the iPhone (I have it working, but it ain't pretty), but I asked myself if I would get away with demoing this to a customer, and I think I would.

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Comments

1 - You can setup the webmail redirector to automatically detect the iPhone and switch to the Ulta-Light mode for you. Works very nice. Just open the WebMail redirector app in your notes client and check the settings.

Posted by Declan Lynch At 14:30:09 On 11/07/2008 | - Website - |

2 - Thanks for sharing, Paul.

I would prefer a native client, but this actually looks like it could be somewhat usable!

Posted by Lars Olufsen At 14:55:08 On 11/07/2008 | - Website - |

3 - Ditto what Declan said above, when using the 8.5 redirector template it was prepopulated with ipod and iphone. A little more detail here { Link }

Posted by Mitch Cohen At 14:58:59 On 11/07/2008 | - Website - |

4 - Woohoo, Paul!
It is very exciting to see others excited about the iPhone and iNotes lite stuff. Our designers Margo and Jodi worked hard and they and I look forward to your additional feedback! Emoticon

Posted by Mary Beth Raven At 15:47:06 On 11/07/2008 | - Website - |

5 - @dec thanks for that

@marybeth. Happy to help out but the native client is what we want!!!

Posted by Paul mooney At 16:06:12 On 11/07/2008 | - Website - |

6 - Yesterday I tested the iPhone VPN client to access my corporate Notes email via POP3. Worked like a charm. For now it's a good alternative if you want offline email access. IMAP should work as well.

Posted by Geoff Black At 19:07:06 On 11/07/2008 | - Website - |

7 - And just why is getting an email from me "not so fine"!!!! The cheek!!!

Posted by Chris Crawford At 20:57:01 On 11/07/2008 | - Website - |

8 - I understand that Mary Beth is happy for her team (they deserve that for their hard work), BUT you have to raise your bar of satisfaction way much higher.

This is not your kindergarten drawing we're jugging here.

I'm sorry to be hard again on you. Nothing personal. For me you are representing one of the biggest software companies in the world.

You must raise that bar.

Posted by Pierre Lalonde At 18:26:32 On 12/07/2008 | - Website - |

9 - you need to buy a ssl certificate

Posted by Flemming Riis At 14:45:24 On 14/07/2008 | - Website - |

10 - @8 - "you have to raise your bar of satisfaction way much higher."

Who does that command go to? Paul? Mary Beth? Any reader?

Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 15:32:50 On 14/07/2008 | - Website - |

11 - Check out the iNotes Ultralite implementation in Lotus Greenhouse. It seems to be based on a newer build than the Domino 8.5 public beta and it also let's you create contacts.

Posted by Erik At 23:19:53 On 14/07/2008 | - Website - |

12 - As long as there's a way to be reminded of meetings, most users don't seem to care if PIM is browsed vs synched. It's not that dynamic. However, email and other messaging is much more effective when it's push and available offline. For some, POP/IMAP fill this need, but in reality most production Domino servers don't run POP or IMAP.

But you can add push email to iNotes Ultralite with the addition of MartinScott WirelessMail. It pushes copies of incoming emails via SMTP redirection to your iPhone-linked Yahoo or GMail account, which shows up instantly in the iPhone inbox, complete with original headers and distribution lists. No evidence of the Yahoo/Gmail address in the history or reply address. And to make up for non-native Calendar sync, WM will optionally email your iPhone a calendar event reminder before an event. Together with iNotes Ultralite, you can have a pretty useful Notes experience on the iPhone.

Posted by Jamie Magee At 04:12:13 On 16/07/2008 | - Website - |

13 - @10 - Nathan, when Mary Beth says...

"Woohoo, Paul!
It is very exciting to see others excited about the iPhone and iNotes lite stuff"

I don't think she understand that people are not so excited about Ultralite, they'll take this since IBM doesn't offers anything else.

So my comment was for Mary Beth. She have to raise the bar on what she and her team deliver.

Posted by Pierre Lalonde At 18:45:43 On 16/07/2008 | - Website - |