With Lotus Connections 2.5 Shipping this week, now is a good time to look at what is in the Notes 8.5.1 Client for Connections 2.5.
Since Notes 8.0 Activities has been integrated in to the Notes Client. Notes 8.5 introduced Off Line Activities allowing you to work on a local copy and synchronize with the server when connected. In Notes 8.5 and earlier when installing you had the option to install Activites as a component (this is a screen shot from the Notes 8.5 Installer) 
In Notes 8.5.1 Activities is replaced with Lotus Connections as seen here
In addition the preferences panel has changed to Lotus Connections as opposed to just Activities
There is also Business Card integration so can view a persons Business Card from Notes and see links to their Blogs, Communities, Activities, Bookmarks, Files, Wikis, etc…. The business card also integrates with the embedded Sametime Client to display the business card from Connections in Sametime Chat windows.
I know my number one request for the Notes client is still not in 8.5.1, and that is the ability to connect to multiple Connections environments, currently the client only allows you to connect to one Connections server. Hopefully in future versions we will see support for multiple Connections environments, as well as even deeper integration with additional Connections features. Files would be a great one do build next to allow attaching of files and mailing links similar to the Quickr Connectors.
The Notes 8.5.1 client also recognizes that Dogear has been renamed Bookmarks in Connections 2.5 and changes all the labels appropriately since you can bookmark Notes Documents in Connections.
Disclaimer: Notes 8.5.1 is still in Beta and therefore subject to change between now and it’s ship date.
Mitch as usaul new stuff to know from your blog. I am looking forward to have 8.5.1 on my computer.
Good stuff Mitch!