Thanks to the great folks at WOMWorld/Nokia, I will be evaluating the new Nokia E72 device for the next few weeks. It arrived last week, and here is a video I made of my first impressions as I was unboxing it.

If you cannot see the video above, follow this link to watch my Nokia E72 Unboxing Video.

I will use it as my primary device, as I have switched my T-Mobile SIM from my Nokia E70 device to this. I am going to give it some time and really try it out, including installing the new Ovi Store and several apps, including Qik, ShoZu, Facebook and a Twitter client. I also plan on reading the instruction manual – seriously.

For the sake of full disclosure, and to avoid fines from the bureaucrats at the FTC, here’s the deal with me evaluating this device. I have been lent the device, and will be sending it back to WOMWorld/Nokia once completed. I am not being paid anything for evaluating this device, and I have not been asked or directed as to what to say. Also, in 2008 I was invited to participate in Nokia’s first OpenLab, and you can read more about it at psurl.com/fuftc.

Watch The Hot Iron for a full report when I am done reviewing it, or if I decide to share something in the interim, like photos or videos or who knows what! I will be sharing thoughts on it on Twitter - follow me @thehotiron.

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Mobile Technology • (0) Comments • Permalink

Here’s your opportunity to get a great domain name - BostonPoint.com. I have decided to sell this domain name, and am using Bido.com, the social domain name auction service.

BostonPoint.com is a great geographic domain name, or commonly referred to as a “geo-domain.” In reference to Boston it can have many uses, and accompanied by the word “point” it can be used for mapping, tourist destinations or any business to highlight.

There is no reserve for the auction of BostonPoint.com, and the opening bud starts at US$28. The auction will be on Wednesday, December 16 at 2:00 pm ET, 1:00 pm CT. You must register with Bido to participate in the auction. Even if you’re just interested in watching it, the Bido site has some unique features.

See you at Bido on December 16, and bid early and often on BostonPoint.com!

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Announcements • Domain Names • Technology • (0) Comments • Permalink

This sign came into my line of sight today, and it made me laugh. It also made me think about Web site architecture.

In this photo, which was taken in Chicago’s Millennium Park, you see a sign reading, “Restrooms Closed. Please use restrooms on east side of Park” and is in front of gates on a stairway by the Pritzker Pavilion. What made me chuckle was the assumptions made by whomever decided what would go on this sign, which include:

• The person reading it knows where they are
• The person reading it knows what direction they are facing
• The person reading it knows how to get to the east side
• The person reading it knows where on the east side of the park the restrooms are
• The person reading it knows English, but I’ll give them a pass on this one for now

What is also in the picture is the entrance to the restrooms on the east side of the park, which is to the far right of the red seats. Though they are so close, they are so far, especially when there usually isn’t anyone to direct you to where you are and where to go.

Similar Assumptions Made Online

Unfortunately assumptions of this sort are not exclusive to the offline world. Many times I find myself on a Web site and I have no idea how to get to where I want to go. I get more frustrated as I design and develop Web sites and I feel I should know how to get there.

This frustration is usually a result of the first assumption above, whomever designed the architecture and/or content of the Web site assumes the Web visitor has some knowledge of the entity or person the Web site is for. It can be as simple as the choice of words used in the navigation which may be unique to those “in the know” or it may mimic the offline structure of the entity.

So what can be done to prevent this? First off, knowing who your target audience is for your Web site is important. If you know who will be clicking around, you can design and develop to meet their expectations. Secondly, having an understanding of what your target audience is looking for will help in the presentation of this information. We always want to say what we want, and people are looking for what they are looking for. Finding the overlap in these expectations is where the magic happens, and makes the Web site successful. Finally, continuous review of the Web site’s analytics will tell you how successful you are doing. Many times designers and developers feel they must make something completely unique in their design. Where this surely shows their talent, true talent comes from creative design with high functionality.

If you go in with no assumptions and simply use hard data, you will be more successful in the end. And you also won’t be needlessly hunting around for a toilet in the Windy City.

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Business • Technology • (3) Comments • Permalink

To all my friends and family and readers of The Hot Iron in the US and those who celebrate Thanksgiving around the world, may you have a safe and happy holiday, and most importantly - a great turkey! The photo above is of our turkey which, as I write this, is cooking and filling the room with some great smells! As there are plenty of photos out there of cooked turkeys, why not show what the bird looks like before?

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Announcements • Diversions • (3) Comments • Permalink

You set up your blog, you write frequently, you have a great subscriber base, so you’re done, right? Hardly. A blog is only as good as its most recent posts, and in order to keep people thinking you’re good they must be reading, and with every post you must compel them to do so, and it starts with the title.

What’s Old Is New Again

The title of your blog post is like the headline of a news story in the newspaper. It must be true to the topic, yet have an element of sales to get someone to read it. Especially today, where people do not go out of their way to buy a newspaper and rather have a lot to choose from online, the title of the blog post has to resonate with them and be the entre to your writing.

It’s Not Just You

As the choices of what to read are almost limitless, coupled with the lack of attention span and overall time of the reader, people need to understand in seconds what your post is about and make a decision to read it or not. And in many cases, it has nothing to do with you personally, but moreso with your competition. Many people read blog posts with a blog feed aggregator such as Google Reader. If they go a few days – or even hours – without reading, the number of unread posts can quickly accumulate, as shown with the accompanying screen shot from my own Google Reader account. When faced with this, people will just scan headlines to get beyond the sheer number of posts and back to a manageable number for a later time. Your wonderful, thoughtful writing can be a victim of someone’s lack of time if it doesn’t catch their attention.

Where many times the headline comes first then the text of the post itself, before you go live with it, review the headline to see if it matches what you just wrote. If not, take a few seconds to adjust it, and this time invested may mean all the difference for someone else to take a few seconds to read what you wrote.

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Blogging • Business • (0) Comments • Permalink