Outlook Issue Tracking Tool Updated

Today kalmstrom.com has published an update of PF HelpDesk, to solve some irritating bugs. We had hoped to add the SQL Azure database alternative and some other improvements from the Plans page in this release also, but those new features are unfortunately not sufficiently tested yet. However, yesterday Sigge had to tell four Members to restart Outlook because they got an error message due to slow Outlook response, and that is at least three too many!

Two other problems also needed to be solved urgently: for some users blank tickets were created in the database, and running the Maintenance utility in the Settings could make all tickets set to closed, not only the ones that had been manually deleted from Outlook. We are grateful to the Members who reported these issues to us, as we had not discovered them in our tests. Now they are fixed together with the slow Outlook response error. Work with the enhancements continues with high priority, so we hope to soon give you another update with these included.

Las Vegas Great But CES A Disappointment

Once again Peter is giving you some impressions from a journey. This time he went to Las Vegas, and as you can see above he had some fun there also! Welcome to read his report:

"I have finally settled down after a rather hectic 8 days trip to the US. It was interesting and very enjoyable. The main reason for going was to visit the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which is something I have been wanting to do for many years now. I have been to CEBIT in Germany several times, but CES was a first for me. My son Joakim also joined in on the trip, and as it was his first such show at all our hopes were high!

We had a great time, but the conclusion for me is that the internet is a much better place for really seeing something new. There was nothing new at CES that I had not read about online before. However, I did meet some interesting people and found some ideas that might become new kalmstrom.com business ventures in the future.

Some other conclusions I came to:

• iOS rules the handheld marketplace and will continue to do for quite some time. Android is highly questionable from a usability standpoint, and Windows Mobile 7 was hardly even mentioned at CES. On both smart-phones and tablets Apple is far ahead. It will be extremely interesting to see what Microsoft and Google can come up with, once they catch up in a few years. I am delighted with the direction that iOS is taking software usage in general: usability, focus on the 80% functionality that really matters and mobility.
• 3D TVs, no matter how large, do not really impress me at all. 3D PC screens with NVidia gaming gear, that is impressive and worth looking at. Since I don´t play games it is nothing for me, but Joakim was quite enthusiastic about it!
• There is a huge number of hardware manufacturers doing the same thing. I am sure they are all very competent, but the lack of diversity in hardware is a bit sad to see.

Las Vegas is great, except for the gaming areas ;-) We ate at some nice restaurants and especially enjoyed the desert around the city. Even if I don't think I will go back for the CES I would love to see more of that part of the US.

Peter Kalmstrom
CEO, kalmstrom.com Business Solutions"

Easier Resource Booking With Calendar Browser C7, Released Today

The kalmstrom.com team is happy to announce that we today have released version 7 of Calendar Browser for Outlook. This resource booking tool was one of the first that Peter built, and it has been very popular during its ten years on the market. Calendar Browser has of course been updated many times before, but we always kept the folder homepage design. When Office 2010 was published our developers faced a big problem, since it proved impossible to keep the homepage in Calendar Browser. Peter and Jayant finally found a solution - they always do! - and now we can give you a Calendar Browser that supports Office 2010.

As Calendar Browser V7 takes advantage of the possibilities given by the Fluent Interface/Ribbon it is even easier to use than the old version. The resource calendars are now visible directly in in the Outlook calendar view, and more standard calendar features are used. This also means that version 7 can only be used with Outlook 2007 and 2010. For the future this is the right way to go, but it means that we no longer can give an alternative for resource booking with Outlook 2003, which does not have the Ribbon. Community Members who have not upgraded to Outlook 2007 or 2010 will of course still get support for their Calendar Browser V6, but we no longer offer it to new customers.

Welcome to download and try the new Calendar Browser! If you are already a Calendar Browser Community Member, I recommend you to upgrade to version 7 (first upgrade your Office if needed). The responsible for Calendar Browser at each Calendar Browser Member organization will soon receive an e-mail with more info about version 7 and the upgrade. I hope you all will enjoy our rebuilt  tool!

New Website Design For kalmstrom.com

Our website at http://www.kalmstrom.com/ has been changed. Some things must still be enhanced, but now you will see the difference as soon as you enter the site. The most important for the kalmstrom.com website and products is functionality, not looks, but I hope you will find the new layout and colors more interesting. The easy navigation and clear descriptions and instructions that we have been praised for are of course still the same. These are updated continuously, as soon as we discover a problem.

Peter's first website was built with frames, and when I took over the management I waited long to change that. It had an Outlook-like navigation three to the left that we all liked very much, and it needed those frames. Finally we let it go to and built this new site with a simpler design. If you have suggestions on how to improve it further you are very welcome to contact me!

iNameDays Adds Name Days To Your Default iPhone Calendar

The second name days product from kalmstrom.com Business Solution will hopefully soon be released. We have had a working product for a while, but no good design. Now everything is falling into place, and I can show you how the first screen will look in an iPhone. There might still be some minor changes, but we expect to see iNameDays at App Store in the near future.

There are already several apps on the market that add name days to a separate calendar, but iNameDays will add them to the default iOS calendar instead. We know many of you are waiting for this possibility for your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, so please have patience for a while more. In the meantime you are of course welcome to use our free NameDays for your other calendars.

Name Days For Yahoo! Calendar

My first blog post for 2011 happens to be about our most popular product, NameDays, which adds name days to different kinds of calendars and which is totally free. When we released NameDays V4 we had tested it on several different calendars, but not the Yahoo! Calendar.

When asked about it I had to try of course, and YES! it worked also. The Yahoo! Calendar asks for an e-mail or iCal address, but the address to the kalmstrom.com ICS file works just as fine. Therefore we have today a new demonstration on how to subscribe to NameDays if you use the Yahoo! Calendar.

Do you prefer another calendar, one that is not mentioned on our website? Please contact us, or try for yourself. Maybe our ICS files work for you also?