The first plugin is the Files plugin. The plugin allows you to access, share, and search all of your files. You can also view files that you have shared, files that have been shared with you, files that belong to a particular person, or all public files. Of course, having access to your files from your desktop is not a new capability per se. Users, including Mac users, have been able to use the free Adobe Drive software to access the files from Windows Explorer or Mac's Finder for quite some time.
Once you find the file you want, you can double-click to open the file or you can drag-n-drop the file into a new email message or instant message. IT will certainly love this feature since it will reduce the bandwidth required to constantly send files back and forth and it will also reduce storage needs. End-users will also like this feature because it'll help them save space and not hit their email quotas.
Here you can see the various views provided by the plugin.
One of the features that I really like is the ability to drag-n-drop files from my desktop directly into the plugin. When I do so, a dialog comes up asking if I want to upload the file to my personal file share, share with a one or more people, or simply make it private. I like this feature because I no longer have to manually open a browser, log on to the system, upload the file, etc. I can do it from a single drag-n-drop action and even notify users that I've uploaded a file.
The other plugin that was released was the microblogging or Status Updates plugin. The plugin integrates directly into my mail client and I can keep up with what's going on in my organization directly from the sidebar. Of course, applications like Connections Glue have existed for a while (which I **really** like), but I have to say that I like how it's nicely integrated into my email client.
As usual, the plugins are available for free and can be downloaded from the Lotus App Catalog. The direct link for the Files plugin is here and the direct link for the Status Updates plugin is here.
Article first published as IBM Releases New Mac OS Plugin for Connections on Technorati.