As you read this I will be frantically packing my gear and even some clothes for the Microsoft TechEd Europe Conference in Berlin, Germany next week, from November 8-10. I have been invited to the conference by Nokia and the people at WOMWorld/Nokia.

For those not familiar with the conference, it is one of many such global events held my Microsoft every year. I attended a few back over a decade ago when I was working on the KWorld project at KPMG and Microsoft was a major partner with us. Sessions and speakers talk about the current state and future direction of technology and how Microsoft products fit into those directions. In short, it's a geefest! My connection through Nokia is around enterprise mobile technology, otherwise known as how businesses are using smartphones and other portable wireless devices.

Questions And More Questions

In addition to the speakers and breakout sessions I will be attending, I, along with Dennis of Wap Review, will have the opportunity to have face-to-face Q&A sessions with several Nokia executives who work with enterprise mobile. I am eager to hear what they have to say, and of course already have a list of questions in mind. If anyone reading this has any questions, please feel free to post them in the comments.

This should be an interesting conference, and a great learning experience. Nokia soon will be releasing its E7 device, the enterprise version of its recently launched N8 device. I am of course hoping to get my hands on an E7, as well as talk about it and the entire enterprise mobile arena, which is certainly a busy place.

An Amazing City

Of course I will be taking in some of Berlin. I visited the German capital several years ago, and had a great time. The mix of culture, history and modernism makes it a must-visit place. Not to mention some great chocolate!

Watch The Hot Iron and @thehotiron and #tee10 – the conference’s hashtag - on Twitter for updates on the event and any notes and news from the conference. I will write a recap when I get back. I should close with the fact that Nokia is sponsoring my trip, and here’s more information about my relationship with Nokia which is being stated specifically to keep the US Federal Trade Commission off my back!

Did you enjoy reading this? You are welcome to subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS feed or by email.

Announcements • Mobile Technology • Strategize • Technology • (3) Comments • Permalink

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)

---

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

---

Did you enjoy this? Subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS/XML feed or Read by Email

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

Sunscreen – check. Sand shoes – check. Desire to check email while on the beach – check!

I’m off to southern California for the Nokia E73 Mode beach party to be held on Sunset Beach in Huntington Beach, CA. The folks from the word-of-mouth marketing team of Nokia, WOMWorld/Nokia, have invited me and others from around the country, as well as a number of folks from the LA area, to participate in this unique event, which you can read more about here.

While we take advantage of the sun and beach, we’ll be trying out the new Nokia E73 Mode mobile device, which is available at T-Mobile in the US. It appears to me to be similar to my E72 device, and I will find out first-hand for sure this weekend.

If you’re so inclined, you can follow along on Twitter, and we’ll be will be using the hashtag #e73mode. I’ll also be checking out the camera and may do some video streaming, though my main focus will be on how the E73 can fit into my work life. Seriously!

Thanks again to the folks from WOMWorld/Nokia for inviting me out to this great event. And for the sake of full disclosure, or more like to keep the FTC from coming after me, you can read about my relationship with Nokia.

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

---

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

---

Did you enjoy this? Subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS/XML feed or Read by Email

Diversions • Mobile Technology • Thrive • (4) Comments • Permalink

As a Web site owner, today you must do everything you can to draw traffic to your Web site. There are the obvious methods of doing so – links to your Web site, search engine optimization (SEO) and search marketing. All of these are an ongoing process which of course will take time and money.

Many people forget something obvious – visually drawing traffic to your site. The most common way this plays out is when you are navigating bookmarks or manually typing a URL in your browser address bar and a list of previously-visited Web sites appears. Along with those addresses and Web site titles, there may also be an icon appearing. This is called a favicon, and your Web site should not be without one.

Favicon is a contraction of “favorites icon” and is yet another way for your Web site to stand out. It is technically an icon file on your Web server that is referenced in your Web pages and is displayed in the browser. Below is an example of favicons which appear both on the address bar and tabs of my Firefox browser.

If you bookmark a Web page that has a favicon, it will also appear in your list of bookmarks, as shown in the accompanying screenshot. Favicons may also appear on mobile browsers as well. Note however favicons may not appear on older browser versions, as I have written before are still out there and in use. Most all current browsers will display them. As you can see, a favicon will help your Web page stand out among the others. It can also reinforce your branding beyond the Web page itself, helping lead people back to your Web site if they liked what they saw the first time.

So what happens if your Web site does not have a favicon? You will see a blank rectangle resembling a piece of paper or simply nothing where the favicon would be, as shown in the accompanying screenshot. As a result, the title of the particular Web page which was bookmarked will have to do all of the work to visually draw people. Again, how does the saying go, a picture is worth 1,000 words?

If your Web site does not have a favicon, contact your Web site designer or developer and ask for one. Of course if you are unsuccessful, you can always contact us at Dunkirk Systems, LLC and we would be more than glad to work with you to make it happen. A favicon is a literally small file that can have a large impact on your Web site.

Did you enjoy reading this? You are welcome to subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS feed or by email.

Build • Mobile Technology • Web Design • Web Development • (0) Comments • Permalink

Walking to the office today something caught my eye that I had to share, as pictured below.

Across from the former Marshall Field’s department store in Chicago on Washington Street is a bus stop. On that bus stop is an ad in Spanish for Google Android mobile phones. Prominent in the lower right corner of the ad is a QR code. What got my attention was the contrast of the old vs. new retail. The Field’s building, over a century old, with its iconic clock in comparison to the QR code on a non-English ad for a mobile device from a vendor barely over a decade old.

The real question is if these will continue to be 2 completely different retail concepts, or if they will come together as one?

Did you enjoy reading this? You are welcome to subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS feed or by email.

Business • Mobile Technology • QR Codes • Technology • Thrive • (1) Comments • Permalink