Just received a very funny Mail from my Friends of WOM World Nokia, who apparently took a Minute off from Work and played a fun game of “Guess Who”. How? Well, read the Title of my Post!

Now here’s a Question for you: What would YOU do with 40(!) Nokia Booklet 3G’s?

Guess what I would do: Loading pictures of beaches and sunshine on all of them and forget the horribly cold Weather and Snow on the Outside for just a bit!

My Trip started on Jan. 7th, not exactly the best Time to start this, considering the heavy Snowchaos in and around London. Since all was booked, and i had Sunday left if anything goes wrong with my Flight back home from the UK, i decided to start off anyways. The Flight from the Vienna Airport at 13.15 went very smooth and without any problems or delays. 2 hours later, i stepped foot on UK ground and was immediately greeted with blistering, cold weather. Covent Garden, the underground station i had to go, was directly on the Picadilly Line, the underground train that comes from Heathrow Airport. Arrived at Covent Garden and, surprise surprise, i had no idea where to go now. No sign of the Travellodge Hotel i booked my Room in, but that was figured out quite easy, with the help of some friendly UK people – to whoever you are: thanks! Checked in the hotel and waited for Dan Carter to arrive, who decided to go to the WOM World Towers first, thanks dan! lol (joking of course)

WOM World Meetup

This little get together was organized in the weeks before my arrival in London, in order to have a relaxed Evening with like-minded tech heads from all over the blogosphere, with some nice chats, free drinks and foods, thankfully provided by the GREAT People of WOM World Nokia. It was very special for me this Time, as i was about to meet some People again, who i had the Honour to meet in Vegas back in 2007 at the CES event! That’s right, in addition to Dan Carter, i also met Jay Montano again (Jay writes on My Nokia Blog and brought this awesome N900 Cake with him – that thing was epic), Frank Grindrod, Donna Suffling and Director of 1000 Heads, Mike Davison! That was an awesome Rollercoaster Ride of Feelings, its been 3 Years on this Day that we all met and talking to those People again has been amazing.

In addition to the Guys above, i had the honour to meet Chris Stobbs, with whom i had a very nice Conversation about our blogging styles (thanks again for the mention in your recap post at NomadsNirvana – Mobile Info), dani2xll (who writes on her own blog and daily mobile), the ever entertaining Nirave (writing on Mobile-Users) plus my good Friends Tom Hall, Katie Bunting and Lydia Millet, who also work for WOM World Nokia. In Addition to those Guys, who i already “knew”, i had the Pleasure to meet some new Guys, in Paul, Chris, Joel (and probably some more, if i forgot you, SORRY!)

Another Personality i had the Honour to meet at this meet-up has been James Whatley. In case you’ve been sleeping at the other side of the Moon so far, James writes on the really mobile project, as well as his own happy place, and is the newest Member of the 1000heads family. good catch there, guys!  Mr. Whatley proved as one hell of a nice Guy, it was fun having a few words with him, as it was with all the others.

The whole meet-up was a big success, with free drinks with nice people, hot pizzas, some pac-man games, a N900 that saved the big-screen premiere of the n97-mini marichi videos and some drinks in the bar near us. We were accompanied by Mike and Donna on our Way back to the Hotel, which was a very nice treat from them! We arrived pretty late at the Hotel and i was completely tired of the whole Day so i was pretty happy to close my Eyes for the Night, with big Plans for the following day!

Day 2 – Store Invasions, an edible Review and Sightseeing!

Day 2 started delicious, i had my very first english breakfast. baked beans, scrambled eggs,sausage and much more. full stomache and big plans ahead, me and dan started our walk back to WOM World Headquarters to pick up my Cap which i forgot at the meet-up. We decided to come back again later on and started straight off to Regents Street, to have a look at the Nokia Flagship Store there, which is supposed to close next month. I felt right at home, immediately getting my Hands on some of the latest Devices in there, including N97mini, N86 8MP, Booklet 3G, X6, as well as some E-Series Goodies like the E52, E72 and E55. (a little impressions report coming soon on them).

We also saw an incredibly expensive Galore of Nokia 8800 Phones, namely the 8800 black with diamonds, gold version, carbon version and the saphire one. Me and Dan were drooling all over, but decided to leave the beauty in order to experience functionality in the Maemo Lounge, which was a very nicely done Information Place for the Nokia N900 with Lots of Screens showing different Videos.

Right across the Street we decided to invade the Apple Store as well. And as much as i’m a Nokia Fan, i have to admit that the whole Appearance of the Apple Store was nicely done. A Ton of Apple gadgets ready to get your Hands on. The 2-storied Store with the big Apple Signs in its Windows was packed – and i mean packed. It was hard sometimes to get your Hands on some of the Toys at the Tables, because so many People were waiting to try them. The sad part about is, that there weren’t much more than 5 People at once in the Nokia Store at the opposite Side.

While i’m still not really interested in getting an iPhone, i must say that the Macbooks, or lets better say, the Mac OS has really attracted me. it’s so nice to use and it’s built in Applications put Windows to shame, by far. As for my next laptop choice, i think that’s almost clear now. A million of different speakers, bags, earphones and whatnot for the iphone, the helpdesk called “genius bar”, live tutorials from the apple staff and lots more gave a really good impression in their Store. Hats off, Apple.

Its a Shame how people forget their previous Lifes, right dan?!

After we have left the Apple Store, Dan picked up a T-Mobile UK Simcard with unlimited Data Usage for the rest of the trip. finally able to twitpic again without worrying about a gianormous Phone Bill, we dan and i decided to travel to the world-famous Madame Tussauds Museum of Wax Figures. This has been one of the things i really wanted to do on my next Trip to london and it was a blast. Being tricked right at the beginning by a wax-figure that looked like a photographer that was constantly shooting pics of Will Smith and some more nice treats, we had lots of fun. Nearly every major Moviestar, Politicians, Musicstar and much more have been there, and yes, they all looked very real, scary sometimes! At last i have been tricked again by a “Statue” that appeared to be real, when i was trying to picture with him and myself. That was a good laugh, while i walked away embarrassed

After the Blast that was Madame Tussauds, we returned to the Bar from the Day before, in order to have Lunch with Katie, Lids and Donna from WOM World. (Thanks a lot guys!) My Chickenburger was a tasty Way to fill my Stomache, but we were told to save our Dessert for later, as the Girls had another Surprise for us. The Surprise was another tasty one – we both were invited to do a.. well, let’s say different Way to express our Opinions about the Nokia N900, Blackberry and Apple. Different? Well, watch the Video and judge yourself, all i can say is, this was the best Way EVER to do a Review!!

As you can imagine, that was a whole Lot of Fun! Next up, was a bus sightseeing tour, for which we’ve bought the Ticket earlier this Day. The Roof of the Bus was partly opened, so as you can image, it was a pretty cold, but good Experience, being on the Road and watching almost all the Sights London had to offer. On our 2h long tour we saw good old Big Ben, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, the first ever Hardrock Cafe and so much more. Unfortunately the sun went down early again, so i couldnt take much more Pictures but the few i made can give you a great Idea of what went down on our Sightseeing Bus Tour!

We went for a little souvenir shopping to end this unforgiving cold Evening before walking back to the Hotel. The Evening saw me fullfilling my last “Task” for this Mission: Trying fish & chips! I missed doing this on the Ovi good things trip, so we decided to have Dinner in the Hotel that night and i decided to finally give it a try – and it was well worth it, good stuff! After some unsuccessfull Attempts to upload Pictures, i decided to perform some Shuteye early, in order to be fresh for the next Day.

After another great breakfast, all that was left was packing, go to the utrain station again and hope for some good weather for my flight back home. I must say i was extremely lucky, as my flight was right at time – as opposed to the more than 50 flights that were cancelled later this afternoon. I landed very smooth back home in Austria, my head filled with some great Memories of the whole trip and the Meetup.

First, a big THANK YOU goes out do Dan Carter, for spending the whole Time with me, and come along with me on to all the Sights we saw. Second, an another big THANK YOU goes out to the whole WOM World Team for making this Trip so special and giving me the Opportunity to meet some old and new Friends on this great meet-up. I surely had a blast there and i would absolutely love to do it again. Third, a special thanks goes out to Chris Stobbs, with whom i had this brilliant conversation about our blogging styles and for the sharing of our opinions on Nokia. I have the upmost respect for guys like you, who are not afraid to speak their mind and tell people what they think – straight in their face . and of course, last but not least, a big thanks and hello to everyone who attended the WOM World meet-up thursday night. it was fun seeing you all in person, have fun with you, talk about Nokia and just having a good Time side by side with like-minded personalities from the blogosphere. it was an honour to meet you and as i said, i would love to do it again sometime! – oh and by the way James, we’re going to cook this chocolate chili soon!

As usual, i have prepared a Flickr Set with a Ton of Pictures from my Trip to London, check it out by clicking the Flickr Logo! In case you attended the meet-up and want some of that pictures full size, let me know and i get back to you!

And also, if you want to read some more opinions on the meet-up, my Friends have each put up a nice Article with Lots of more Pictures from the actual Meetup:

• WomWorldNokia WWNMeet – by dani2xll
• WWN Meetup: The Aftermath – by Nirave
• WomWorld/Nokia Meet-up was awesome – by Chris Stobbs
• WOMWorldNokia Meetup – by Jay Montano

I have recently posted all the Details about my upcoming 3 Day London Trip right here on my Blog, in case you wanna meet me and my Friend Dan Carter from World of Nokia and most recently Android Today!

And now here comes the cool Part, my Friends from WOM World Nokia have just announced that there will be a WOM World Nokia Meetup right in their Headquarters this Thursday evening, starting from 18.30! Cool Thing, i like it and i’m sure as hell will be there, so if you wanna sit down, have a drink with me and Dan and chat about everything Nokia, head over to WOM World’s Meet-up Post and let them know you’re coming!!

I thought maybe someone is interested to see the short Interview i did for Nokia? This was Part of my Trip to find the good Things with the WOM World Team and 10 selected Bloggers from all over the World in London 2 Weeks ago. The Video contains Questions about myself, where i blog, where and how i buy Phones and what i wanna see in future Nokia Devices. I would’ve had a lot more to say on the last Matter, but i guess the N86 would’ve just run out of Memory then Anyways, i enjoyed the Interview and hope you do too!

The Flight to London Heathrow went very smooth, and as promised by the WOM World Team, we were picked up at the Airport by a Cab Driver! We also met Taimas, who is the Boss behind http://www.dailymobile.se. Taimas was a really cool Guy and i had a lot of Fun picking at the swedish Guy hehe, and in return he picked at me! nah, seriously we had a lot of fun We arrived in our Hotel where we met the some of the WOM World Team and the other Bloggers – here’s the good Things Crew:

Jay Montano – mynokiablog.com: I had the Pleasure of meeting Jay in Vegas back in 2007! Jay is a one-man-entertainment Show and at the same Time, blessed with great Knowledge about what’s going on in the Nokia World!

Glenn Letham – http://www.gisuser.com, http://www.symbianone.com and more: Glenn came over from the US to join us on our Trip to find the good Things! A very cool Guy, who concentrates a Lot on Navigation-related Topics and the easiest-to-understand Person lol .. i dont like the UK English! haha..

(left) Ibrahim Jogee – http://www.thenokiareview.com: Nice Guy from Manchester, UK who was lucky enough to chat a bit with Alexandra Burke, Winner of X-Factor 2008 in the UK. We met Alexandra on the 2nd Day, more on that later
(right) Taimas Arbabi – http://www.dailymobile.se: Mr. Sweden, Mr. iPhone .. Taimas was really awesome to hang out with, we really had a Lot of Fun together. Daily Mobile is also going big, so it was certain we should have him around.

(left) Jonathan Choo – http://jonchoo.blogspot.com: I didnt know Jon before the Trip, but he turned out to be a nice Guy! Watch out for his Blog, his Posts are a very good Read!
(right) Varun Krishnan – http://www.fonearena.com: Coming from India, Varun surely had the longest Trip of us all. I had a great Time chatting with him about the Mobile Phone Scene in India, and in return he really enjoyed playing with my HTC Hero hehe ..

Jerome – http://mapperz.blogspot.com: Jerome is also running a maps and navigation related Blog!

Roman Schweigler - http://www.s60inside.at.tf: Roman runs the only german-speaking Blog on our Trip. He was my travelling Buddy the whole Time and meeting him was great Fun too!

Christian Haslam – httP://worldofnokia.co.uk: My Team Mate on the Treasure Hunt we had on Day 1. That was some great Fun (Destination: 800 Miles away!?), though we didn’t win lol Chris is writing on Dan Carters World of Nokia Blog, which i recommend to everyone!

and the WOM World Team (or say, a Part of it):

Katie Bunting and Lid Millet

Tom Hall – responsible for everything that goes on the WOM World Nokia Front Page. We also had Dominic on Board, but i’m not having a decent Pic of him, sorry for that!

After a first Drink, we had a bit of Time to get to know each other. Tom did a short Briefing, informing us that we’re going on a little Ovi Maps Treasure Hunt. We were separated into Groups of 2 People each (one from the UK and one from other Countries so we didn’t get completely lost!) and the Task was the Following: Each Group got different Coordinates, to which we have to walk/drive/tube where a Member of the WOM World Team was waiting for us, giving us our next Coordinates! On each Coordinate we had to a) twitpic the GPS Map Location via the built-in Screenshot Function and b) twitpic a Picture of our current Location. The whole Route needed to be recorded via Sports Tracker. Luckily for us Foreigners, each Location turned out to be a Sight from London. Through the Course of our Route i got to see Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, the London Eye and last but not least the Tower of London. Battery was the bad Word of the Trip, as the Batteries of our N97′s were slowly dying away throughout the Days lol, this coupled with some GPS Lock Problems made the whole Trip pretty exciting, but yet great Fun. The Price of this Treasure Hunt for the winning Team were 3 N97 Mini Trial Devices, with which every Team Member can do whatever he wants (keep them, give them away to Community Members, etc). The winning Team were Taimas and Ibrahim by the Way The whole Treasure Hunt was pretty exhausting, so we decided to stop at a little Snack Shop, where i got myself a “Steak and Cheese Panini”, which was extremely delicious. This was something we don’t have here in Austria, but i do really like such little Take Away Snacks. We ended up at one Point, with Ovi Maps stating that we’re “just 800 Miles” away from our Destination by the way.. i thought “hey nice, i’m gonna get back home today”

Our final Destination has been the Tower of London. Tom told us that we’re going to hijack a Boat, kick out all the Tourists and pirate on the River Thames with it. Just kidding, actually WOM World has RENTED a whole Boat for us, with a little Bar just for us 10! .. I was definitely excited about that one hehe, great Stuff, shows once again how good the WOM People really are. While on the Boat, we were shipping along some great Sights, including the London Eye and Big Ben. The definitive Highlight from the Tourists Side was the lighted Tower Bridge at Night – this was an absolute wonderfull Sight for me. Next to the Tower Bridge was a HUGE Nokia Signpost Arrow. And i mean HUGE! .. It was fully lightened and had a big LED Display (or lots of small LEDs, not sure) on it, and was constantly showing Messages from all over the Day. Its Fun the see your Name on this Arrow, i can tell you that hehe!! We rounded this Day with a delicious Meal on the Boat, including a Pork Steak, Salmon, a weird Lasagne Mixture Type of Thing, and some Kind of Noodle Salad, which i can’t exactly remember what it was made with. All served with a tasty Salad and some Bread plus Drinks “all you can drink”-type. We were heading back to the Hotel then for another Drink, with some of us heading to their Rooms pretty quick, myself included. I had some bad Luck, as my Room was located on the 6th Floor, which had a very very weak WLAN Signal. Since i couldn’t really connect to the Internet with my Laptop, i decided to call it a Day and head to Bed at around Midnight..

DAY 2

Day 2 began with a delicious Breakfast in the Hotel and a quick Briefing of what we’re expecting to see today. We got some Hardhats and a Security West, as this was required at one of our Tasks this Day – wth? .. We went by Tube to London Bridge this Time, again heading to the Nokia Signpost Arrow. We got nearer to it this Day and it was even more impressive to see it. Wow .. The Sign was saying “Vote for Alexandra” this Day, but we all had no Idea at all, who Alexandra actually was. Our Crew entered Town Hall, where we got into a big Conference/Press Room, with Lots of Journalists in there, all equipped with Cameras the Size of my Head lol .. Few Minutes later, Ibrahim came running along and explained enthusiastic, that Alexandra Burke was here in Person! For those of you who dont know her: Alexandra was the Winner of 2008′s Edition of X-Factor, a Signing Talent Show in the UK. I have to say that i didn’t know her before, but she was a nice, beautiful young Woman, even took Time to have a quick Word with us, before we were manhandled by the Dumb Ass Security Guys she had with her. Seriously, did we look so bad or dangerous, that you couldn’t allow her have a few Words or Pictures with her!? WTF? .. Jay and Ibrahim were lucky enough to score a quick Picture with her. Miss Burke apparently loved Jay’s Gorillapod and she also digged Ibrahim’s Nokia N97 hehe..

Also on this Event we got handed a Nokia Press Release, where we got to know what the Good Things really are: Good Things is a new Service on OVI Maps, where Users can “favourize” a Place and upload them to Users all over the World. Once you’re in the respective Country, check out the good Things there. Restaurants, Bars, no matter what, put it on Ovi Maps and share the good Things with the World! It also marked the Launch of the Nokia N97 Mini, which apparently has OVI Good Things sporting already. We didn’t really get to know much more about it, as this whole Meeting in Town Hall was more to support Alexandra Burke’s Cooperation with Nokia, which by the Way can be found here: http://www.nokiagoodthings.co.uk! With some simple Votes you can win an exclusive Concert from Alexandra Burke in your Hometown  

Next Stop has been the huge Facility where the Nokia Signpost Arrow was located. The whole Sight was secure as Fort Know, we all had to sign up to get Entrance, plus we had to wear sturdy Boots, a Hardhat and Security Wests hehe. The whole Area had 4 Security Cameras and Security Personell going on. We all kinda looked like Bob the Builder, which was Fun to watch. Jay was super prepared, as he wore his Stuff from the Beginning lol After Security Instructions, we had a Chat with some Guys, responsible for the Nokia Signpost Arrow, plus a little Insight in the “Headquarters” .. My Friend Jay has some very nice Videos of it, check them out: Video 1 and Video 2. Impressive Facts? The Arrow is the Size of 2 London Busses, the LEDs are worth 500.000 Pounds!!

After this nice little Trip we headed back to our Hotel once again, meeting up with Arshia Varlet, Pino and Danesh (all working for Nokia), with the latter 2 connected via Phone, doing the best to answer our Questions regarding Ovi Maps and the good Things. The Tricky thing here was the Fact that we basically didn’t know nothing, what exactly the good Things are. So it turned out to be a basic Q+A Round, with the Nokia Product Managers trying to do their Best. Again Jay did some excellent Work here and recorded the whole Q+As with his Cam. I was trying to do the same, but my Cam gave me Battery Warnings already, so i decided to skip that! If you wanna know what went down at the Q+A Session, check out this here: My Nokia Blog – Q+A Session Ovi Maps
Time passed by fast this Friday and it was already Noon, when the Guys of WOM World informed us, that we’re going to be interviewed by them, with the Videos going directly to Nokia. All our Feedback will be watched by Nokia, hopefully for some good Improvements. After basic Introductions we were asked what we would like to see/change on upcoming Devices. My Answer has consisted of 2 Answers: First a complete Overhaul of the Symbian OS and second, Social Integration everywhere, something that Nokia/Symbian has COMPLETELY left out – seeing our Social networked Society grow it’s something that just has to be there and can’t be left out anymore!!
With that said, we closed this Trip with a final Meal we all had together, with some very relaxed Chats and Talks about everything Nokia, the Trip, WOM World and whatnot. Pretty soon after the Dinner, me, Taimas and Roman had to leave to the Airport already, so we can catch our Flights in Time! I did some Souvenir Shopping on the Airport and that was pretty much it – my 2 Days in London

Conclusion: I’ve already expressed this Opinion – while it was fantastic from the Tourists Side of Michael, it was great to see all the famous Sights of London. But on the other Hand i have expected much more from the Nokia Side. We didn’t get to see a Demo of the good Things, also there was no N97 Mini for us to trial, so WOM World gave us “just” Nokia N97s. I’ve also expressed my Feelings to the WOM Guys after the Trip, as i was sure it wasn’t really their Faults and i was right – it was not possible for them to make some N97 Mini’s ready.. Overall it was an awesome Experience! Meeting new Guys, seeing some of Londons most famous Sights, all coupled with good Food, Drinks a most important, Lots of Fun!

Full Picture & Video Galleries:

Pictures – Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hellmichael/sets/

Pictures – Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1 … =615426684 (Day 1) and
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1 … =615426684 (Day 2)

Videos (yeah nothing really spectacular):
http://www.youtube.com/user/xMichaelSFx