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iPhone not only the BlackBerry of small business, it’s becoming the BlackBerry of business, period

Back in 2007, even before I laid my hands on an actual iPhone, I declared that iPhone was the best business phone period!

I made that proclamation based on two things:

1. The interaction model or UI
2. The software stack

And because of these chops, I knew that we had to get Daylite or some incarnation of it on iPhone. Initially we did it via Sync Services where we got contacts and calendar info on iPhone and subsequently we released Daylite Touch (for which we got a Macworld “Best of Show”).

When the iPhone was released the BlackBerry *may* have had an edge, but I knew that edge would not last long. The main reason for that is iPhone’s software stack. RIM’s software stack pales in comparison and my take is the company will simply not be able to keep up. BlackBerry and Windows Mobile are doomed on the software front. There is hope to some degree for Android, but I think it is doomed too. I’m reserving judgement on the Palm Pre for now (too keep the competitive juices flowing, I’m hoping that the Pre is a big success).

Just as Apple is beating the pants off of Windows/Intel in terms of ease of use, stability, security and more, they will do the same thing in the mobile world. The reason: Apple understands that hardware is only part of the solution and that software is king.

Galen Gruman’s Deathmatch rematch: Blackberry versus iPhone makes an even stronger point of this argument. iPhone is now THE smartphone for business, period. In his July 3rd InfoWorld story, he ends with “the BlackBerry is yesterday’s mobile messenger, way past its prime and heading for retirement. The iPhone is light-years ahead of the BlackBerry on almost every count. RIM should be ashamed.”

With advanced apps like Daylite Touch popping up all over the App Store, and Apple’s steady improvements to the iPhone OS (and the capability to distribute it quickly), RIM’s value proposition is getting weaker and weaker.

To be fair, Galen highlights a few places where the BlackBerry beats the iPhone. The saddest one: “The fourth reason to choose a BlackBerry is because you really don’t want employees to use the Web or apps from a mobile device. If that’s your agenda, the BlackBerry will ensure you succeed.”

Being a Canadian company whose founders are doing some great things such as sponsoring the Perimeter Institute and MakeItSeven, I want RIM to succeed, but their long term odds are not looking good right now. Let’s hope they can pull a rabbit out of the proverbial hat.

Until next time…
AJ

Daylite 3.9.3 Now Supports iWork ‘09 Document Merging

We’ve released Daylite 3.9.3, which includes support for document merging with Apple’s iWork ‘09.

We’ve also enhanced the way the Daylite Touch sync list works, and made some other small improvements, including:

• Ability to set whether or not new contacts or organizations are added to the “Daylite Touch” sync list. This is also accessible through the Default Values preference pane.
• The ability to add or remove contacts or organizations in the Touch list via the bulk edit card.
• Added more options for selecting a due date in the task list popup selector.

Daylite version 3.9.3 is a free update for existing (and trial) users, and is available for download here.

If you use Daylite Server, please make sure you download version 3.9.3, available here.

You can check out the release notes for more information.

Billings website is down

Our Billings website is down temporarily (since 9pm EST, June 16). The ISP is working on a fix (a hardware failure of some kind).

We apologize for the inconvenience!

UPDATE: The site(s) came back up at about 8am EST.

Until next time…
AJ

Share Data Between Daylite & Merlin!

LgoConsulting has announced the availability of MerlinDaylite Link, a tool that allows information to be shared between Merlin and Daylite.

The MerlinDaylite-Link allows information to be shared between the two applications. This gives you access to the power of Merlin for professional project management to manage and plan a project, whilst sharing the outcome with Daylite’s team and business management tools. If you use Daylite Touch, you can then use this data on your iPhone.

For more information about the MerlinDaylite-Link, follow this link .

To learn more about Merlin, check out the ProjectWizard’s website.

WhoPaste 1.2 released, now with Daylite Support

WhoPaste 1.2, released this morning, includes support for Daylite.

With WhoPaste, you can create contacts directly from text or spreadsheets - then store in Daylite, Google Contacts (GMail), Entourage and/or Address Book.

Support for Daylite includes contact and organization options for Category, Keywords, Priority, Tagline, and “Flag”.

There’s a free evaluation version version that will allow you to save 20 contacts to any combination of supported data storage.

Billings 3 wins an Apple Design Award!

We are truly honored and humbled to have won an Apple Design Award (ADA) for Billings 3.

For those of you that do not know, the ADA is a highly coveted award. 65 judges screen thousands of submissions to come up with just a few winners.

It is especially coveted because these 65 judges are from Apple and they notice some very subtle things above and beyond the overall app.

We’d also like to congratulate the other winners of the ADA this year.

Until next time…
AJ

Daylite: the ultimate Mac app for your productivity

There’s a great new Daylite review up on MacStories – the first Daylite review in Italian.

MacStories is a blog dedicated to Mac news, reviews, and tutorials. MacStories is a multi-launguage website, written in both English and Italian. To toggle between the two languages, just click the desired language flag on the right nav bar.

To read the review in English, follow this link.

Ryan Cash

Daylite 3.9.2 Released

We’ve released Daylite 3.9.2 which includes some important improvements:

• Improved connection handling for shared databases
• Improved offline synchronization to better handle certain edge cases
• Improved offline synchronization reminder to no longer block DMI when it is up

We tweaked the connection protocol to be more robust, so you’ll need to make sure that all computers are running 3.9.2 (including your offlines). If you use Daylite Delivery, you’ll need version 1.6 which we also released today to accommodate the protocol change.

Daylite version 3.9.2 is a free update for existing (and trial) users, and is available for download here.

You can check out the release notes for more information.

We are hiring! [part two]

We have a new position to fill, this time for customer service. If you are interested or know someone that is, go here.

Sorry, no remotes or outsourcing for this position. We need this person ‘in house’.

Until next time…
AJ

Billings 3.0.5 Now Available

We have a new release of Billings available which contains a few improvements:

• Allows negative retainer entries for refunding part of a retainer to a client
• Changed timed slip log window to allow for editing of start and end time, with date and time for each in separate fields
• Changed timed slip log window to allow for direct entering of the duration

As usual, Billings 3.0.5 is a free upgrade for all Billings 3 users. You can download the update by going to the “Billings” menu and clicking on the “Check for Updates…” item, or download it directly here.

Happy billing!