Recently I bought my aunt a new mobile phone. When I had asked her if she used her previous phone, she said no, as it was too bulky and the buttons were not the most intuitive to her. My aunt can be considered a senior citizen – she may not be tech savvy, but she is extremely worldly and knows the value of a mobile phone, she just had problems using it.

The phone I selected for her was a Motorola model that was a clamshell phone with large buttons. I gave her the new phone already programmed with every number she would need in it. She liked the smaller size and larger buttons. Though she has it mostly for emergencies, she now carries and uses this phone.

You don’t have to do too many Web searches to find content on devices of all ilk that are unusable. For phones, at least in the US, the emphasis seems to be on "cool and hip" rather than more intuitive, robust functionality. Sure, I am pushing 40, but look around the world and see what they’re using in Europe and Asia. And don’t even ask me the difference between a RAZR and KRZR!

Two new phones have emerged – one in the US and one in Europe – that meet the needs of the growing older population using mobile phones. GreatCall has come out with two models of their Jitterbug phone, one with large number buttons, and another without numbers, but has text buttons for making emergency calls. Each phone is US$147.00, however you have to buy their mobile service plan, as they share the short-sidedness of other phone manufacturers and don’t sell the phone unlocked.

Another phone is coming from Austria’s Emporia Telecom. Its EmporiaLife model has a large screen and just 4 buttons on the surface with a full number pad that can slide out. They are not being sold yet, but my guess is that I will be able to get an unlocked version when they do.

Thanks to John Wall of The M Show for clueing me into the Emporia, which led me to the Jitterbug. He refers to them as a "geezer phone" in his latest edition... and the term geezer is one that could easily fit him or I!

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Whenever I meet with a new client to talk about delivering a new Web site or enhancements to an existing one, I always talk about who may be visiting it. At the end of the discussion, I always add to the list “anyone” as the reality is that if you have a public Web site, truly anyone can see it.

When people think about viewing a Web site, most of the time the though is that it would be viewed online, using a browser. The next natural way is that it is viewed on a handheld device. But what about TV? Last night, one of my client’s, Foresight Childproofing, was featured on a local Minneapolis TV station relating to a child safety story. At the end of the story they showed the home page of their Web site, childproofhome.com. You can watch the story here:

http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_066101558.html

So the next time you think of who will be looking at your Web site, realize it could be a couch potato.

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Many blogs feature a calendar of the current month, where days are bolded to indicate one or more blog posts were written that day.

When I setup The Hot Iron, one of the first things I did was to remove the calendar, and I have done so on other blogs. I did not see a value in the calendar, especially compared with lists of categories and most recent posts. I am now seeing more blogs without calendars.

So what do you think? Would a calendar add value to this blog?

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Have you ever wanted to talk to fellow bloggers in person, without using their comments box? On the weekend of May 11-12 in Chicago, you can have that opportunity.

SOBCon07 is a conference that was born from – you guessed it – blog comments. When I heard about this over the weekend, I realized that I was a small part of those comments. It is being presented by Phil Gerbyshak and Liz Strauss, the latter I have not only communicated with through comments, but using that other device on my desk called a telephone. The agenda includes speakers, presentations and plenty of networking opportunities.

What does SOBcon stand for? SOB, despite what you may think, stands for Successful and Outstanding Bloggers. The name got my attention too!

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This past week I was in Boston, and with the snow storm coming across the Midwest to New England, I wanted to get an idea if I was flying home as planned. On Tuesday morning at 6:30 am Eastern (5:30 am in Chicago) I grabbed some coffee and started up my friend's browser on what ended up being an unscientific quest by a person still waking up to find out the forecast for the Windy City.

My first stop was the Web site for WMAQ, or NBC5 as they prefer to be called. My lovely wife and I just about always watch this station for news. I had been to their Web site before, and though I am not a fan of its layout and design, it's where I started. On the home page there were large red bars across the middle with links to school closings and weather alerts – easy to see with just a few sips of coffee. But as I clicked onto what I saw as the Weather Plus page, the entire Web page started scrolling, and I wasn't touching the mouse! It was an ad for GM for the Auto Show that was expanding before my eyes. As I hadn’t found the forecast, I decided to move on.

After a few more sips of coffee, I ended up on WLS's Web site, or ABC7 as they prefer. There I found weather headlines, just not as bright, and a link to watch a video forecast... from Monday night. At that time, there must have been a video clip available from the morning show, right? Sip more coffee, time to move on.

My next stop was WGN's Web site, who does go by the acronym for the World's Greatest Newspaper. However, they have 3 stations, so at wgn.com I was presented with a plain page with their 3 logos – Channel 9, AM 720 and the Superstation. Choosing the first one, the first thing I saw was a link to a video clip of Tom Skilling... from Monday night. What gives? They have a morning show too. Got another cup of coffee, and moved on.

What ended up being my last stop was the Web site for WBBM, or CBS2 as they prefer. Right front and left of center was a link to a video clip... of a weather forecast from about 15 minutes ago. Yea! As I was watching the video, I took a closer look around the site and saw a clean design, mostly text, with an RSS feeds link at the top of the page.

This was not scientific, and I did not go to WFLD (or Fox Chicago) or CLTV, Chicago's answer to CNN Headline News, as the sites came to mind as my mind was slowly awakening. I finally got my weather forecast, as disappointing as it was, and a new source for news in Chicagoland.

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