Survey re IBM software running on IBM i

I've been asked to help make IBM i customers aware of this survey - if you use, or are looking at, IBM Connections, Sametime, or Lotus Notes Traveler, it would be great if you could take a moment to fill it in (it's very short!)
http://spitcher.wufoo.com/forms/make-ibm-i-your-social-collaboration-platform/

Possibilities for extending Windows Phone 7 functionality via Windows Phone Device Manager and TouchXperience

I have finally finished my review of Windows Phone Device Manager.
It's got various embedded images, so it works best as a PDF.
The review is at this link.
UPDATE 5 Dec 2011 - I will update the review when I have time, but be aware that the app works fine on Mango and that the official ChevronWP7 unlock service is now available and working well for the WP7 community.
UPDATE 11 Jan 2012 - Rather less cheerful I'm afraid. ChevronWP7 are not currently issuing unlock tokens, as they have reached the number that Microsoft agreed they could sell, and the WPDM 'My Documents' facility is refusing to launch files properly on my Samsung Omnia with Mango (7740). Am chasing up the latter problem and will update this when I know more.
UPDATE 10 Feb 2012 - I have finally managed to get the review updated (link as before). The above 'My Documents' launch problem is resolved (as far as Mango allows it to be) in WPDM 1.9 - see review. No news on further availability of ChevronWP7 tokens.

Windows Phone 7 Development and Windows Phone Device Manager #7

Latest on this:

WPDM does have access to Marketplace applications and to their data (great news), but only on HTC 'phones (not such great news, especially for me, given that I have a Samsung Omnia 7).

My detailed beta test results are now on the TouchXperience forum, I'm aiming to start writing my review this week.

Windows Phone 7 Development and Windows Phone Device Manager #6

Received a WPDM Registration Key by email - no reference to beta testing, but I logged in to the www.touchxperience.com forum, (eventually) found the 1.4 software, downloaded it, and installed it (guesswork - no instructions provided).

I have got it to work, which is very good news.

There are lots of undocumented things you have to do to make it work and keep it working (e.g. none of the connectivity works unless the automatically installed TouchXperience app is active on the 'phone).

The application clearly has absolutely no knowledge of the existence, let alone the internal storage, of any Marketplace app (which doesn't surprise me at all, but which means it's pretty useless as a backup engine).

More details when I have time (and when I have checked whether I'm allowed to give specifics of the 1.4 version yet, since I am on a private beta).

Windows Phone 7 Development and Windows Phone Device Manager #5

Encouraged by @piaqt, I decided to take option b).

I have made a donation to www.touchxperience.com (which seems to consist of only one person, Julien Schapman) and used the Contact form there to ask to enrol as a beta tester.

More news soon, I hope!

Windows Phone 7 Development and Windows Phone Device Manager #4

Not getting on that well ...

I installed WPDM, but it won't run - just starts and almost immediately stops.

It transpires that I need version 1.4 to coexist with the latest WP Developer Tools, but that version 1.4 is still in private beta, with no date given for a public one.

So either
a) I wait an indeterminate time, or
b) I make a donation to the suppliers of WPDM and they consider (but do not guarantee) making me a beta tester and thus giving me access to 1.4, or
c) I waste the morning's effort installing the Developer Tools, take them off my PC, install the penultimate version, and hope that works with 1.3 (which is quite backlevel in terms of functionality anyway - should I be reviewing it at all, on that basis?), or
d) I decide now that the almost non-existent support that seems to be on offer is never going to allow for use of the product in a business context, and drop the idea (my level of curiosity isn't going to allow this).

Some more depressing news picked up during the above researches is that the product gets inside WP7 by, effectively, loading a manufacturer specific 'adopt authority' DLL.I hope that once Microsoft provide supported unlocking they will give developers a better method than that, otherwise here's another reason for lack of acceptance in a business context.

Windows Phone 7 Development and Windows Phone Device Manager #3

I received another email from Microsoft on Sunday - this didn't actually say 'Geotrust have confirmed you're OK', and it was, very mysteriously, sent to me as an individual, not to the 'company approver' email address (surely it's the company they care about, not the individual? - the company are clearly financially responsible) but I do now appear to be a fully fledged Windows Phone Developer.

I have also succeeded in unlocking my 'phone, but only after searching the developer portal (actually called the App Hub, but referred to, confusingly, by both names) for a meaningless error message about failure to log in to the developer portal - it turned out that this was caused by my IE LAN settings having 'Automatically detect settings' checked.

Hmmm, not at all impressed by any of this, but, as one of my uncles was taught in the Army, 'maintain the objective' - this is all about trying out Windows Phone Device Manager, which I will do over the next couple of days.