For those attending IBM Connect 2014 you should have already received your credentials to the Connect 2014 online site, which in large part is powered by IBM Connections. If you want to use the IBM Connections Mobile App (Android, iOS) it can be easily configured as follows.
Add a new account and select
“My company’s server’
Next use the this URL “https://connections.connect2014.com/mobile” along with the credentials you should have received from IBM.
Simple as that you now have access to the Connect 2014 Connections environment on the go.
The results are in, thanks to all who responded this year.  There was 155 responses, and not surprisingly the iPad rules at IBM Connect.  I was surprised that there were not more iPad Minis, I thought there would be more of them in the mix.
The presence of only one response of Microsoft Surface tablet did not surprise me, for a while it looked like it was going to finish at zero.
In the “Other” Category there was one  Lenovo Yoga, one “Etch a Sketch” and one “Moses’ 10 Commandments” (OK so not everyone took it seriously).
The laptop question was interesting, unless I chicken out in the next day I will be headed down to Orlando for the first time without a laptop.  I am at a point where I feel anything I need to do during the week can be accomplished on my iPad or Galaxy SIII.  Of the 155 respondents  121 are bringing their laptops, and 34 are leaving them home.  I am hoping at this time next week I will still think it was a good idea to travel without the laptop.
Once again this year I am asking you take a moment and share with me your gadget plans for IBM Connect.
In addition to asking about tablets there is also a second question this year  asking about a laptop.  I am hoping for the first time to travel to Orlando with out a laptop, I wonder how many others might be planning the same.  Feel free to drop a comment why you require or don’t require a laptop.
Poll is open until January 23rd, results will be published on the 24th
Since last weeks big upgrades to Twitter there is a lot of chatter about both the Web UI, as well as the apps for Android and iOS. I don’t use the Twitter Website much at all, but mobile Apps are another story more than half my tweets come from a mobile device.
My favorite mobile Twitter App has become Tweetcaster Pro (Android, iOS check the features lists not all features are available on all platforms) they have a free version with ads, and the Pro version which sells for $4.99 in the Android Market is ad free (I was lucky enough to grab the Pro version free as the Amazon Free App of the day a while ago). Besides all of the features you would expect it has two features I rely on heavily.
Merge lists in to timeline – I have a number of twitter lists I follow on a variety of topics, Tweetcaster lets you merge a list into you main timeline view, so for example when I am watching football on Sunday I merge my NFL List into my timeline, when the games are done I remove the list from my timeline. Nice way to see all the information in one place on Sunday, and have it separate the rest of the time.
Zip It – ever have someone in your timeline attend an event or tweet about something for a period of time that is of no interest to you? Keeping with our football example maybe you follow me, but have no interest in football. You can zip a person, hashtag, keyword to keep them out of your timeline with out un-following a person, and easily unzip them when that event is over.
Which twitter app is your favorite? If you were using the official Twitter apps do the recent changes have you looking for a new one?
I mentioned Spool on Twitter a few days ago, but the more I use Spool, the more I like it. I had been using Instapaper for saving things to read later, but I have switched over to Spool. The big difference is Spool brings all the content off line, including pictures and videos, in to an easy to read/view format. No internet connection no problem if you are using Spool the content is local on your device. Watch their video, and sign up for their beta this is a great tool.
Mobile apps are available for iOS and Android, as well as browser plugins to easily save items for later.
WhatsApp uses your phone number as your identity, although aside from an SMS message during initial setup, no messages are actually sent via SMS. One of the only complaints I had with WhatsApp was I could not complete the setup using my Google Voice number, you know the only phone number I actually use or give out. This dramatically limited the usefulness of WhatsApp as no one could find me, and if I started a conversation I first had to identify myself.
I contacted WhatsApp support recently, and while they state that using a Google Voice number is not officially supported there is an easy way to make it work.
I successfully configured WhatsApp for Android to work with my Google Voice number, I suspect it should work the same on iOS and Blackberry.
Here are the steps
1. Install WhatsApp 2. When prompted for a phone number enter your Google Voice number 3. Allow the automatic confirmation process to fail (5 minutes on Android), while that is happening you will receive a text with a 3 digit code in your Google Voice account hang on to that 4. On the manual confirmation screen use the code received in your Google Voice account (if that does not work use the "call me" option to receive a call on your Google Voice number with a code.
That’s it, you should now have WhatsApp configured to use with your Google Voice number.
Amazon finally unveiled their much talked about Kindle Fire this morning. Finally someone understands the dynamics of the tablet market, and they have priced it correctly at $199.00. Clearly the Fire will do a good job tying in to Amazons many services, be it books, streaming music, or video, and looks like it will deliver a decent browsing experience.
The real question which has been on my mind for a while is what about Android Apps that are not available in the Amazon App Store? You see the Fire is an Android based device, but it is not the same Android you find on other tablets. Amazon is not a Google partner so they do not have access to Honeycomb (Android 3.x), so they built their own version of Android based on 2.x for the Fire. I expect that Amazon got the UI right, it will look good and be easy to use, but what if I want an App that is not in the Amazon App Store, and there are many of those.
Probably too soon to answer some or all of these questions, we will have to wait and see. I think Amazon is going to sell a lot of these tablets, especially bundled with Amazon Prime and the free video content available with Prime it is an excellent value for the price. As for me, I am not going to be the first one on my block to own one, I want to see how Android actually runs on it, and how flexible it is. I am also curious if Amazon has any plans to update these devices to an Ice Cream Sandwich based version of Android. Finally I am pleased that I have not seen any one refer to this device as “an iPad killer†(at least not yet) because it is simply not, it is clearly targeted for a different audience/purpose.
