IBM Packs New Email Productivity Into Portable Devices

New Blog and RSS tools accelerate collaboration with online communities

IBM announced a new version of Lotus Notes and Domino designed to help businesses take advantage of advances in hardware and Internet technologies. Major portability and productivity benefits include the ability to carry email, Lotus Notes applications, and web collaboration tools on USB devices such as memory keys or iPods plus powerful new Web extensions that speed collaboration via the Internet.

With this release, users can download and carry their personalized Lotus Notes environment in a pocket-size USB device and then connect to any other laptop or PC to create a replica of their Notes workplace in minutes. The ability to take Lotus Notes on-the-go provides customers greater choice and flexibility in how and where they deploy their collaboration environment.

As new Internet technologies redefine collaboration, companies are seeking ways to utilize the Web to collaborate among business communities. Lotus Notes users can quickly and easily leverage the power of blogs with a new out-of-the-box template to design, create and update blog entries. While traveling, bloggers can add or update their content with Lotus Notes while offline and transfer their updates the next time they connect to the network.

New Real Simple Syndication (RSS) technology in Lotus Notes and Domino allows companies to publish RSS feeds from any Lotus Notes application using an industry standard RSS format for easy viewing and updating. For example, a Lotus Notes database that stores digitally-produced audio files or podcasts can be RSS-enabled to post instantly to selected RSS readers such as iTunes. Once content is updated within Lotus Notes, users are automatically notified of updates via their RSS feed reader of choice.

“Technologies such as blogs, RSS feeds and portable storage devices are changing the way businesses collaborate,” said Michael Rhodin, general manager IBM Lotus. “With this version of Lotus Notes and Domino we are helping organizations take advantage of new industry trends to share ideas and reach new markets.”