What if ...
... your hand-eye coordination is not as good anymore (or not yet) and you need to know the time and date? The answer is simple, ask someone. But if you live alone, you are out of luck. You may get the time from a big wall clock, but the standard analog display may not always be as helpful as a digital display. So the answer is a clock with a big digital display. As simple as it sounds, that's where my problem starts.
There are not many options out there - but then it hit me, A Tablet. I'm lucky enough to own a BlackBerry PlayBook. So I'm spoiled. Before you say iPad or Android, let me explain why that is not a working solution according to my research.

I was looking for an app that shows the time and date. Lots of choices, actually too many. To limit the options, the app has to meet the following simple requirements: Full screen mode with time and date, including day of the week. Touch anywhere on the screen to get the date, day of week and time in a voice that is clearly understood.

Sound
The clearly understood is the first problem. Tablets have tiny little speakers at the back that are impossible to hear. Here goes my rant, iPad is possibly the worst of them all. I also looked at Android tablet without luck. BlackBerry PlayBook to the rescue, the tablet features two speakers facing the viewer with an outstanding audio quality.

Application
Androids time and date applications are mostly Widgets that are not designed to work in full screen mode. I didn't find one that is full screen and voice enabled yet. So anybody knows of an application that meets the requirements, please let know.
I did not really consider the iPad due to the poor audio quality and the unreasonable price. I did own an iPad 3 and the speaker was one of the main reasons I gave it away.

Hardware layout - Speakers
As I said before, the iPad is out. They have one design model, take it or leave it.
Andoroid comes in different shapes and sizes, but as of this writing, I didn't find any that feature a reasonable speaker. Still searching.

The Solution
The BlackBerry PlayBook has an outstanding speaker that is front facing. BlackBerry World has Bed-Buzz which meets the requirements and then some. Even so the app has more features they are not disrupting the simple time and date functions. Bedd-Buzz is also available on iPad.
The weekday and date could be bigger, but the voice will announce them clearly. So not a problem.
In my installation, the tablet will not be connected to the Internet, so no weather. Putting the tablet into Flight Mode disables the weather completly.
This app is nicely done, congratulations to the developer. There is a free version that works with all the basic functions. I purchased the full version that has alarms and options to customize.

A picture perfect late afternoon. Race started at 6:30 and was well attended. I didn't train enough this year to run the Half Marathon tomorrow morning. If I can't finish the race and feel good at the end, I won't do it. So the 10K was just right and I also finished just below one hour. My time was 59:18 and as always, I had a great time.

I had BlackBerry devices ever since the Stone Ages and I loved the keyboard. Now with the BlackBerry Q10 out for a couple of days, it seems that a lot of people were waiting for the keyboard model. One such report is BlackBerry Q10 off to absolutely phenomenal start. I have to say "Sorry", I couldn't wait and broke down when the BlackBerry Z10 arrived.

I had a struggle at the beginning but adapted. The keyboard on the screen is by no means an adequate replacement for the real BlackBerry keyboard. The only two reasons that I tolerate the on-screen keyboard are The pop-up text on the Z10 keyboard which is bilingual (English and German) and the larger screen when reading a document or web page. So, with the BlackBerrys going strong, it is time for me to report on some of the applications.

I won't go into details on email, contacts or calendar. I'm using Lotus Notes Traveler to synchronize my business email, I also have Gmail, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Text Messaging and BBM which are standard on the phone anyway. So these are my applications to keep in touch.
Now to the ones I actually use regularly:
Maps, BlackBerry Travel, Docs To Go, Print To Go, Sports Tracker, CIBC Banking, Weather, Clock, BlackBerry Bridge, Air Canada, Cineplex, Globe News, CBCNews, Currency, CB 10, Ontario Hwy Traffic Info, Bus Arrivals for TTC, What's up, Gadget Box, Quick Wikipedia, Ringtone Creator. Not all of them are used daily but are very helpful when the occasion arises. The Air Canada and BlackBerry Travel are such examples.

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Upgraded my IBM Domino server to R9 last night and it went without a glitch.

If you are a web mail user, I strongly recommend to upgrade. Or if you are in need for a good mail system start reading here. I have a relatively simple environment, email, some applications and IBM Notes Traveler.
The server uses three IP addresses and there is a historic reason for that. Back when I was running more then one server. I kept the three URLs, one for web mail, one for SMTP mail routing and one for IBM Notes Traveler. IBM Domino runs with the 32bit version on a Windows Server 2008 R2. That was required for the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, the version for devices prior to the new BlackBerry Z10.

Anyway, here is a quick checklist should you decide to upgarde:
1. Get the IBM Domino 9 and IBM Notes Traveler 9 installation source from the IBM Passport site.
2. Read the installation and upgrade instructions for Domino and Traveler here.
3. Shutdown Domino and change the NOTES.INI - remove Traveler from the ServerTasks. I don't have the HTTP task in there at all. When Traveler starts, it will also start HTTP. So now would be a good time to also remove the HTTP task from the line.
4. If you have multiple IP Addresses configured, add the following in the NOTES.INI
   NTS_HOST_IP_ADDR=10.10.10.5 (or whatever the IP Address for Traveler is)
5. Install Domino R9 and start the service. Make sure all the migration tasks are finished.
6. Install Traveler R9 and start the Domino service. Test the Traveler URL with a browser. If you get the Traveler page, you are likely ok. If not, check the Web Configuration. My server is setup to use Website Documents. The Traveler install added some entries to these documents but picked the wrong website. I created the same rules for the correct website, the entries are:

Web Site: mobile (mobile.stdi.com; 10.10.10.4)    Rule (Override Session authentication): /traveler*    Rule (substitution): /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync* --> /traveler/M    Rule (substitution): /servlet/traveler* --> /traveler*

Even so I removed the entries from the non-Traveler Website, the system put them back in again after restart. Fine with me, doesn't seem to conflict.

Now that the server is running, time to upgrade the Android devices with the new app. Keep in mind that the minimum Android release is 2.2

Samsung GT-P1000 with Android 2.3.6 worked ok

Samsung GT-I9100M with Android 4.0.3 worked ok (Bell Canada)

Samsung GT-P3113 with Android 4.1.1 worked ok, eventually. See note below.
Other devices are:

BlackBerry Z10 with RIM-Z10-STL100-3/10.0.10.672 worked ok (Bell Canada)

BlackBerry PlayBook with RIM-PlayBook/2.1.0.1526 worked ok

Apple-iPhone3C1 with Apple-iPhone3C1/1002.144 (OS 6) worked ok (Bell Canada)

Apple-iPad2C2 with Apple-iPad2C2/1002.329 (OS 6) worked ok
There may be a problem with iPhones/iPads and large attachments. I tested large attachments and found no problems with the iPhone.

The old familiar yellow icons changed

On the Android screen you will notice that the icons changed, the yellow icons are replaced with blue icons. You will also find the change on the IBM Domino server, IBM Notes client. Android upgrade issues: It starts with the lack of being able to install your own Root Certificate. If you don't know what that means, just ignore this and uninstall Traveler, then Install again.

If you don't succeed with the installation over https (secure with SSL), use the regular http for the installation. Then during the installation, you will be asked to accept the certificate. Now we are back in business. This is an old 'serious' shortcoming in Android, but with the workaround in place, I guess we can downgrade from serious to annoying.

Read more stories, click here, or my other BlackBerry Z10 related postings
BlackBerry Z10 connection to IBM Lotus Domino
BlackBerry Z10 first impressions

BlackBerry Z10 screen shot

Picked up my BlackBerry Z10 today after negotiating a new contract with Bell Customer Support. They offered me a new plan which is about $30 less per month and includes Canada wide free calling and 5GB of data. Since my data usage was always around 160MB, I'm not worried that I'll exceed the 5GB anytime soon. I was really impressed with their service. I worked with the BlackBerry Dev Alpha device for some time and got to know many of the features. Now that I actually have to respond to emails, make phone calls and do all the other things for which I have my smartphone, these are some issues I encountered during the first 2 days of operation.

Screen Resolution is 1280 by 768 with a Pixel Ratio of 2.243. The display is amazing. I did see Apples Retina display before and praised it as the top feature of the iPad, but the Blackberry Z10 display is ... wow!! The picture above is an actual camera picture of the Z10 screen in portrait mode with a width of 768 pixels over 2.125 inches. This is small and crisp. According to technical reviews, the Z10 resolution surpases the Retina display, well that will last for a few weeks. According to a loyal iPhone 5 user, "anything more then Retina display can't be distinguished by the naked eye", so there you have it, anything better then the iPhone 5 exceeds human capabilities!

Voice Quality is much better according to a friend. "It is identical to a regular land line" he said.

Virtual keyboard with the words you can kick up is absolutely the finest feature. Didn't take long to get used to it. My BlackBerry is setup for English and German, so it will provide words from both dictionaries. I can not stress enought how much I like it because it is multilingual. This feature makes me forget how good the keyboard on my previous BlackBerrys were.

This feature really deserves three thumbs up - The Bedside mode. It goes like this. When the BlackBerry is locked, slide down and a clock in a dim red color will show. No need to log in and change the profile, just slide down. It also disables the Notifications. So stepping into a meeting, just slide down and your phone is muted. You still get the calls and they will show as usual on the display, just no ring tone.

And the camera feature deserves two thumbs up. Not the regular camera mode, everybody has a camera. The option when the phone is locked and you hold the camera icon until the wake-up process is complete. Now you can snap a picture without logging in - this is cool. So many times in the past did the 'Kodak Moment' vanish because I stumbled with the password or just didn't bother. After all, I have the BlackBerry for it's legendary security, so my password is not 123.

The Hub is huge ... in every aspect. We already had all the phone calls, most notifications and email in the previous BlackBerry, but this is the next step with absolutely all notifications. It can be overwhelming at first, but it's configurable. As soon as you get used to the fact that this is the mail file as well, it's all fine. You won't find a mail icon anywhere.

Found Sports Tracker. Used it the first time this morning, very nice. Have to read up on the many features and report back here.

It has 4G and it's fast on the Bell network. I mean really fast. A 4MB app installation is like 'snap' and it's here.

The phone has a HDMI connection. The pictures I took with the BlackBerry phone look great on the TV.

Print-to-Go is there. Possibly the one feature I use most on the BlackBerry PlayBook and now on the BlackBerry Z10

The Screen Print is built in and works the same as the Playbook. Hold both the + and - volumne button and the screen is saved.

No more BES. The BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) worked exceptionally well for so many years. The only issues I ever had were related to moving the BES from one system to another, usually when upgrading the Windows Server software or hardware. The BES did it all, Email, Calendar, Contacts, Memos, Tasks. No more BES means that the new BlackBerry now uses the Notes Traveler to synchronize email. I already have the BlackBerry Mobile Fusion (now called BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10) going, but still need to do some more configuration work. I will report on this topic in another document.

No more Traffic app at first glimps, but the Map application does a fine job as well. Unlike the fancy Traffic app before, the Map navigation works more like a regular Car GPS. Enter the destination and hit go. You get spoken turn by turn instructions and a visual navigation like any other Car GPS. The Navigation mode will not send the phone into standby mode, so the screen stays on and shows the directions. Make sure you plug in the phone while it's in navigation mode, it uses up the battery in no time. I really hope to get some of the nice features from Traffic back, such as the email options that sends ETA or "Sorry I'm late" emails.

No Journal synchronization yet. The plan is to use Remember from Evernote, but it's not yet available.

No Tasks synchronization.

No Travel app. I got used to it to have all my travel data 'sucked' into my calendar. I guess it's back to copy-paste flight, hotel and car rental info into the calendar again. I know there are other applications available, but I liked the simple but functional options in both the Travel and Traffic app. Both applications are (were) from BlackBerry.

Started to use Voice Control that ships with the BB10. Very impressed by the speech to text quality. Very useful when sending a text message. Much faster then opening the contacts, select the phone number and then type the text.

Installed nogago Maps and I am impressed. It's still winter, so I won't have a chance to test all the map features but I will as soon as I get an opportunity to go wild. The BB10 GPS will work without the presence of a cell tower. The orto map features that are stored in the phone will be hours of outdoors fun.

Installed SayIt and did some initial tests. This is a more elaborate speech to text app. Worked very well when looking up phrases to start a google or wikipedia search.

Other features are NFC, Mobile Hotspot, Internet Tethering, VPN and of course the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. I had to reinstall BlackBerry Bridge to link with the PlayBook. Sharing files between the devices and the Remote Control are the two features of the new Bridge.
The next step will be BlackBerryLink which replaces the BlackBerry Desktop. The plan is to synchronize photos and videos.
I'm finding new applications every time I spend half an hour with the BB10. I don't do games, usually. That's where my PlayBooks comes in. But I'm sure I'll find many more interesting applications that I can use on a daily basis.
If you are not a button pusher and accept the fact that BlackBerry Z10 and the PlayBook have no buttons, you will love the devices. They are 100% touch screen and as secure as all previous devices. I just read this moring that the German Government adopted the BlackBerry Z10 for its security features.
Moving up to the BlackBerry Z10 was a good decision.

Been there, done that. Great race as usual and didn't take any pictures this time. The lake was a bit low after the dry summer but it worked out ok. My time was 2:21:08.
I really enjoy the Guelph Lake setting and the Subaru Triathlon races. Thinking about adding another race in 2013, maybe the Milton Triathlon.

The event was great as usual and I like my finish. My time was 1:44:25. Not the best time, but with the lack of training caused by a fracture in my left fibula, I'm not complaining. The new bike worked out very well. Not much else to say except "Looking forward to Guelph Lake 2".

Today at 4:26pm I listend to 680News to catch up on the stock market. The markets went down between one and two percent and RIM dropped to an all time low. The guy who reads the market numbers was asked if he would buy RIM, now that the price is so low. He said "No" with the argument that RIM is "Lightyears Behind" the iPhone. No further details, no clarification, no facts.

So let me understand this. 680News does News, Weather, Traffic, Business and Sports but no Music or other form of entertainment. 680News has "Market Analysts" that supply their opinion. When it comes to the Stock Market, they try to explain why the maket went up or down. If you ask me, the stock market should be governed by the same rules as OLG (Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation). But that's for another discussion.

So back to the "Lightyears Behind" guy to which I will refer as "Buzz" from here on. Does Buzz refer to the iPhone 4S that doesn't have 4G yet? Or the half a million apps that are available for the iPhone? Or the just released iPad with the new Retina Display? Or the "security" that comes with the iPhone or iPad?

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