2013 promises to be an amazing year for the advancement of certain technologies, and I truly think the end of others. Here are some of my predictions for 2013 for IBM Notes and Domino, trends in enterprise and consumer technology, and more.

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The release of RIM's BlackBerry Mobile Fusion has me honestly thinking that I'm missing out on some evolved platform and device experience since I gave up my BlackBerry Bold for my iPhone 4. And since I'm an amazingly selfish person, I've all but abandoned any BlackBerry platform mobile device development efforts.

... and I was a huge BlackBerry fanboy. Remember Showtime, my BES channel push utility for the IBM Lotus Notes client?! It was even showcased during a WES presentation in 2009!

But today I don't have a BlackBerry device (not counting my v5 OS-running BlackBerry Curve that is now the family extra mobile), be it a BlackBerry Bold, Playbook, or any of the like. Thus, my interest in writing for that platform has waned.

... that is, unless there is a solid need for supporting that platform by you, Constant Reader!

So instead of simply putting out a blog post to get an idea as to what devices you use personally as well as which devices you have to support in your company, I thought I'd have a little fun and try out a survey service...

(Click thru for the complete article and a free $5 app of your choosing...)

Having recently built-out my new laptop - a Dell Mobile Precision M6500 - I thought I'd quickly share the list of apps that I use as a Lotus Notes Domino XPages Developer. I'll break this up into a few categories, and offer/ask that you add (via comment) anything that helps you as an IBM Lotus Notes Domino and XPages application developer...

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I know, I didn't give you that much advanced notice, and despite another XPages webinar that was scheduled for the same exact time, we had a really decent turn-out.

If you missed my recent webinar on Mobilizing Apps with XPages, have no fear: as with all of GBS Group Talk webinars, we recorded it, and have made it available for playback.

Again, from our much-more-eloquent-than-me Marketing Team:

Learn about creating smartphone and mobile device-friendly User Interfaces and User Experiences for your existing traditional IBM Lotus Notes Client applications. In this 1 hour session we'll discuss development and architectural considerations as well as valuable techniques and code you can use to create a Mobile XPages app.

You can view this webinar, download the slidedeck in PDF format, and even download the example/demo NotesDatabases at gbs.com/en/videos.

New Demo Video Coming Shortly!

Junction Lite allows you to create NotesDocuments in a defined target NotesDatabase from data in a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet.

Each Job Document allows you to define a source Spreadsheet, a target NotesDatabase, and additional @Formula-driven NotesItems that are evaluated at import Runtime.

The idea is simple: Each Row in your Spreadsheet == 1 new NotesDocument in the defined target NotesDatabase!

As of version 1.1, you can now choose a Job Document Type:

Type	Function
Import	1 Row == 1 NotesDocument, aka direct import of the Excel Spreadsheet into the NotesDatabase.
Merge-Only	Using the first column of your Excel Spreadsheet to match the first [sorted] Column of your Target Notes View, you can now merge/update existing NotesData from a spreadsheet.
Merge and Import	When a match is found [see above], the NotesDocument is merged/updated. When there is no match for the defined key, the Row will be imported as a new NotesDocument in the NotesDatabase.

Junction Lite allows you to import data sourced from Microsoft Access, SQL, or any other spreadsheet-generated data source.

Sales people tracking their leads and customer contacts in Excel? Bring that business-sensitive information into a Lotus Notes application within minutes with Junction Lite!

Licensing

As with all of my other $5 apps, this application is licensed per Lotus Domino Domain.

This means you have unlimited usage of Junction Lite v1.1 within your single Lotus Domino Domain for the low purchase price of $5 USD.

Additionally, those of you with licensed copies of Junction Lite v1.0 can download the v1.1 at no additional charge!

Simply use the download URL supplied at the time of purchase (you should have a follow-up email from ctoohey@dominoguru.com with the link) or simply email me at the aforementioned address and I will get you the download URL.

Purchase Information

Or you can click (and share!) the following direct purchase link:

http://abbr.dominoguru.com/junction_purchase