What better way to truly learn a new mobile device than to use it in real time… with colleagues in a business setting… dressed in suits… on a beach? This was my experience a few weeks back, as I was a guest and participant in the Nokia E73 Mode Beach House on Sunset Beach in Huntington Beach, CA.

Believe it or not, it was as I said – a gathering of mobile technology aficionados, with bloggers, consultants and fans. Most were from southern California, where a few of us were invited from around the US and Canada. The reason for the event was to get hands-on with the Nokia E73 Mode, a close sibling of the Nokia E72 smartphone, which is offered exclusively by T-Mobile. The business setting scenario was for a video shoot on the beach with all of us as participants, complete with planned and unplanned events. The weekend was organized by the gracious and brilliant minds of WOMWorld/Nokia, who handle word-of-mouth marketing for Nokia.

The E73 Mode Beach House was a multi-level house right on Sunset Beach. Those us from out of town – myself, Glenn, Lenny (aka The Truth) and Dennis – along with the WOMWorld crew – Donna, Adam and James – stayed at the beach house for a couple of nights and the house and back deck were converted for the festivities on Saturday night for us and those from the LA area. Some of the people included Jen, Jeb, Al and Mike. It was a reunion of sorts for Jen, Donna, Glenn and I as we all met a couple of years back at Nokia OpenLab in Helsinki. Though time had passed, it didn’t seem like it as we all keep in touch through social media.

Our assignment for the weekend was to make a video of us using the E73 Mode. It offers different “modes” where you can have both a home and work screen, each configured for what you need for each. As the camera crew arrived and were setting up, we were ushered upstairs to get dressed. We were confused as we certainly weren’t walking around the beach house naked. Then we saw what we had to wear – suits, complete with shirts and ties. Then the story came to life – we were working on the beach, but also living, and trying out the E73 Mode as to how it would help us with both modes of our life. As I said it is the sibling of the E72, one which I already own, I was well aware how well this works.

As for the video – nothing was scripted. There was the “story” of us working on the beach, but much of it was improvised, including Glenn surfing in his suit and the volleyball game of the suits vs. the locals, where the mobile geeks won! The video is embedded below, or you can watch the Nokia E73 Mode Beach Party official video on YouTube.

I’ll write more on the E73 Mode later, reviewing its features, and comparing it to the E72 and other mobile devices. In the meantime, enjoy the video, and thanks to Nokia and WOMWorld/Nokia for a great weekend experience, not to mention building a great device.

Editor's Note: I updated several links which have changed since this was first posted. (8/24/2020)

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Diversions • Mobile Technology • Technology • Thrive • (7) Comments • Permalink

As a full-service Web consulting firm, we at Dunkirk Systems, LLC offer social media consulting services to clients. For many of our clients, social media is a new area for themselves and their business. Where they may be familiar with Facebook or Twitter, they may be unsure how this would relate to their business or where to start. This opinion has come from the many conversations I have had with clients as well as colleagues.

To help gain some understanding with social media, I have created a presentation titled “Social Media Primer - Using the Tools of Social Media to Extend Your Reach” which I am offering to everyone using the service SlideShare. The presentation is embedded in this post below, or follow this link to view the Social Media Primer presentation.

Please share any comments or questions you may have on this presentation in the comments of this post. Where this is geared towards those who are new to social media, I welcome thoughts from anyone on this.

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Were you affected by last week’s outage of Chase Bank’s online banking? I was, and so were all of the bank’s customers in the US. Though the money in your account was still accessible via ATM or a branch, you could not access your balances, statements or bill pay over the Web. To add to the over 24-hour outage, there was no announcement from the bank about the problem and no reason given for it either.

Through the outage the login form on the Web site was replaced with a graphic saying online banking was unavailable. Once it was restored, small banner ads on the site linked to an apology Web page for both the outage and lack of communications for a few days. This past Monday morning I received an email from the bank – the only one through this ordeal – apologizing for the outage, and the following is a screen shot of that message.

The text of the message is as follows:

We recently experienced a service interruption that affected the chase.com website and mobile services, and we apologize if this created any difficulties for you. We have resolved the problem, and want to assure you that your account information was not compromised as a result of this outage.

We know that our customers rely upon the 24 hour access to their account information provided by Chase.com. This was not the level of service we know you expect, and we will work hard to better serve and communicate with you.

Your accounts and confidential information remain secure and we want to remind you that Chase will never ask for your personal information or login credentials via email.

Please accept our apology for any inconvenience this may have caused. We're continuing to work hard to maintain your trust and confidence.

We're always here to assist you.

After reading this, there was something glaring at me – no person signed the message.

Where Does The Buck Stop?

You don’t have to look any further than the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to see a poor example of corporate communications. Once the global oil giant realized the severity of the issue, it put its CEO Tony Hayward out front as the human face of the mechanical disaster. Over the weeks following BP commercials featured employees who were responsible for various aspects of the cleanup. These people didn’t necessarily make the problem any better, but they showed there were people behind the problem.

Even a few months back when Intuit’s QuickBooks Online had several days of outages, emails and blog posts were signed by management. Once again, it didn’t change the situation, but it showed someone was responsible; it showed where the bucked stopped.

This was not the case with Chase Bank. No person – not the CEO, or any Vice President – signed their name or came forward. This impersonal approach was certainly not for lack of staff or resources, so why did nobody own up to the problem?

As a former customer of Washington Mutual, which was taken over by the FDIC and sold to Chase Bank overnight a few years ago, the change to Chase was a huge contrast to me in the approach to serving its customers. WaMu’s free-standing kiosks where you could actually talk to and shake hands with a teller were replaced by tellers behind bullet-proof glass. I could only imagine there would be a person owning up to the issues with their online banking platform if it happened under WaMu’s umbrage. This removal of personal connections with customers is what, as a Chase customer, one has to deal with.

Interestingly, it was during this outage that I moved my business banking to PNC Bank. The decision to do so was not related to the outage, rather it was due to a PNC manager asking me for my business. Also interestingly, this manager was formerly with WaMu and then Chase, and left there for PNC. He knew my business, what I needed, and showed me how much better PNC can accommodate it. Yes, a personal connection was the reason for my change.

What did you think of the bank’s handling of communication? Does it matter to you if there’s personal accountability to such a problem? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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The next likemind will be Friday, September 17, 2010 in dozens of cities around the world.

In Chicago, it will be at Argo Tea, 140 S Dearborn St. at the corner of Adams and Dearborn Streets in the Loop from 8:00 am to 10:00 am.

I call likemind a gathering of creative-minded people, from various disciplines including Internet, advertising, art, social media, et. al. For more on likemind, read this great article on likemind Chicago from the Newcity and likemind from the New York Times.

No RSVP is required. You are also welcome to join the likemind Chicago Facebook group.

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Announcements • Business • Technology • Thrive • (0) Comments • Permalink

Although I don’t want to come off as repeating myself, paper retail receipts are out of hand. Where such receipts are important and necessary in documenting financial transactions, they can also become a cumbersome mess that can easily get out of control. Now some of you reading this may think I am going to an extreme, and you may not even save and reconcile to receipts. But I always have personally, and I have to for my Web consulting business, as any business owner should.

Here are a few more ideas I have regarding receipts, which build upon my initial rant conversation on retail receipts. As I don’t have the time, money or energy to act on these right now, I put these out there for anyone to take a stab at. Even if someone is successful and becomes a billionaire with some of them, it will eventually make my life easier!

Receipt File Format Standard – Call it the vCard or iCal standard for retail receipts. This would me an XML file structure for storing all of the data of a receipt into a file. This file will be in lieu of a paper receipt, and identifiable to the retailer by a unique serial number… which most receipts have today anyway. For the sake of discussion here, let’s call it vReceipt.

Deliver vReceipt files by SMS, Email or Web – Once a retailer creates a vReceipt, it needs to get to the customer. It could be delivered to them by any number of methods. If a customer provides their mobile number, it could be sent by SMS. If they provide their email, it could come in a message. The retailer could create a custom QR code for the transaction, and upon the customer scanning it, they could download the vReceipt from the Web. If the customer has a “membership” account with the retailer, the receipt could be delivered via their Web site.

Retailer transmits vReceipt data to third-party service via app – Why not have an app for that? When you check out, your app can show a QR code which can be scanned, then the retailer would transfer the receipt to the 3rd-party service. This service could be Quicken or your bank or a new service you use to track expenses.

Processing vReceipts Makes Expense Tracking Easy – Even though services like QuickBooks Online already sync with your bank, vReceipts can break down the transaction onto its pieces. Were 7 items purchased for work, one was a gift and the rest for the house? A vReceipt will know what was purchased, and will pre-populate the category of an item, or accept whatever override you have for it.

vReceipts App Can Be Used for Returns, Exchanges and Taxes – vReceipts should not just be for figuring out how much you spent on Pringles last year. As a replacement for paper, they should carry all the weight and responsibility of their soon-to-be-defunct paper counterparts. The identifiable information from the retailer should suffice for returns, exchanges, as well as proof for expenses for tax purposes. They would ideally replace having to fax receipts to your employer after you submit your expense report online as well.

What do you think of my ideas around vReceipts? Feel free to compliment, tear apart of use for your own, and your comments are welcome here, which along with vReceipts won’t consume any paper.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Business • QR Codes • Strategize • Technology • Web Development • (6) Comments • Permalink