Getting Down To Business, and Play With The Nokia E73 Mode California Beach House Style
Written by @gletham
Friday, 27 August 2010
I recently had the good fortune to take part in a fun and interesting Nokia-planned event, designed to introduce several of us geeky, mobile, tech blogger types to the recently launched Nokia E73 Mode smartphone (think Business "mode" and pleasure "mode").
There were 4 of us in total who were flown into Huntington Beach, California for the event and we were accompanied by several of the talented and creative Nokia PR extension from WomWorld as well as some of the local bloggers, techno geeks, and others who just like the beach, mobile stuff, and free booze and shwag! We were locked up (not really) in an ocean front beach house, each provided with our own E73 Mode, fed delicious food at regularly scheduled interviews, and given access to all the coffee, Red Bull, and alcohol that we needed (and yes, we were all very well behaved ;0). I couldn't help feeling somewhat like Mike, the Situation, from Jersey Shore as I wandered the beach house and thought about the environment - all that was missing was Snookie, a hot tub, and a few grenades!!
Indeed loads of fun and a beautiful setting, the event was well planned and had a pretty full agenda... I'll tell you now that my Saturday was completely full and busy enough that lunch was missed (forgotten really) and the day flew by so fast I could hardly believe it! Equipped with the E73 Mode smartphones, the 4 of us (Mike @thehotiron, Lenny @The_Truth34, Dennis @yeswap, and myself @gletham) were equipped with all the technology we needed (including the E73 Mode), access to refreshments, a beautiful environment to photograph and film, and provided loads of encouragement to have fun on the beach - complete with toys and high powered machinery including: beach volleyballs, surf boards, kayaks, and even jet skis! The objective here was for us to discuss and collaborate on our experiences, chat about mobile technology, and put to use our newly acquired E73 Mode trials to the test. (With this sharp looking device, we attracted no grenades on the beach!)
The bloggers get some instructions from the video crew
The Nokia E73 Mode
The event was relatively short, the 4 bloggers showing up at the beach house on Friday evening and departing Sunday mid-morning - that gave us about 36 hours of fun and down-to-business time with the devices. In typical WOM event fashion, much of the focus here was on having a group of mobile geeks get together and discuss the device, mobile technology, and basic mobile geekness! Our Friday evening was spent getting acquainted with each other, scoping out all the nooks and crannies of the 3 level beach house, eating and drinking some darn fine food and drink (applause to @missdd for preparing an awesome meal) and discussing the Nokia E73 mode, it's capabilities, and rehashing the mobile/Symbian ecosystem based on our recent experiences... in short, loads of fun! Topics of discussion around the dinner table included mobile social media, Ovi store, the recent devices, mobile tech events and meet-ups, the camera functionality, and our list of wishes for specs and apps to come pre-loaded on devices. We never did solve any of the World's problems, nor did we dream up the perfect mobile device, however, we did stay up till the wee hours and enjoyed some decent wine and a fine cigar in doing so!
Saturday was down to business... or was it pleasure?? Basically a bit of both as we had a full day in store for us, mainly made up of a variety of So. Cal beach activities that we were to participate in while dressed for a Presidential Inauguration Ball! Obviously, our dress code for the day was meant to emphasize the business aspects of the E73 Mode - push email, Sync, corporate access to email, web access, instant messaging, and a host of office & productivity apps like QuickOffice, Adobe reader, Zip file manager, card reader/scanner, Bluetooth, WiFi, and mobile presentation software.
Switching modes... obviously the day wasn't all business as a big part of the functionality and capabilities of the E73 mode is the Personal/Pleasure features and specs. To make our point about using the device for "fun", our group (which now included not only the 4 invited guest bloggers, but also a host of local mobile tech geeks and bloggers - thanks to all of you for showing up for a fun day). And so the day was spent hanging out on the beach, playing volleyball, walking in the sand, kayaking, playing in the surf, jet skiing, and even a little bit of surfing (sort of). Still in our business attire, we proceeded to carry on as "normal" as possible having some beach fun, all the while configuring and using our E73 mode smartphones in a mix of business & pleasure tasks. We took photos, videos, posted blogs, checked email, tweeted, updated our facebooks, Bluetoothed data etc... all while on the beach and continuing to share and discuss our thoughts about the device with each other. Oh, all the while during these activities we were constantly photographed, interviewed, and filmed by a crew of professionals hired by Nokia, their job being to document the experience and eventually come up with something fun to share with the World... I can't wait to see the results.
Image Gallery - Images from the E73 Mode Beach House Event
Note: A big kudo and thanks to the local, So Cal tech bloggers who showed up and took part in the event... these guys made it a huge success - thanks!
@msjen
@jebbrilliant
@MikeMacias
@ActualAsianMale
@BoostApps
@gwapz - virtually there from New York!
If I missed u I'm sorry.. please DM me @gletham
For those of you who were following the twitter hashtag #E73mode in real-time during the event, you no doubt noticed that for much of the day the participants of the event (which by then also included a number of local tech bloggers who were invited along for the ride) were dressed in business attire, complete with Nokia-colored ties, handsome E73 ball caps, and flip flops! Obviously the message here was that this device is very suitable not only for the business user but is also a practical mobile solution for social use outside of the office. That's where the "Mode" part of the device naming comes into play. The E73 Mode is cleverly packaged with the functionality to enable users to quickly switch modes, going from a device tailored for business needs (think one-click access to your corporate email, gMail, calendar, and office apps) to a sleek device themed for night time fun, complemented by a host of fun apps now available from the home screen, including facebook, twitter, youtube, and your music collection. The E73 Mode is definitely designed to accommodate both lifestyles - and looks darned good doing it too I might say!
A QuickLook at the Good and the Not-So-Good
Some of the things I really like about the E73 Mode:
Stylish - the E73, like the E71 is very stylish and will turn heads
Feels Great - the size and weight of this device are perfect... holding it in your hand it feels, solid and really does make you feel like you're holding an amazing, high-end mobile device
Size - I love the size, it provides a full QWERTY keyboard, large screen and thin, sleek design that fits comfortably in shirt or pants pocket - due to the weight though I prefer it in my pants pocket
Camera - the 5 megapixel camera in typical Nokia fashion is awesome! Capture is fast and simple, rarely do photos appear blurry, the options are plenty, and the quick upload from the camera to Ovi and facebook is a nice and handy feature.
Panorama Pics - the panorama option is so cool and loads of fun although the app is not quite perfect... but its pretty close!
Modes - one click switch from day/Biz to evening/fun mode is cool. Change settings and a new custom look results along with a different, customizable set of widgets on the home screen
E73 Mode Things I'm not so Impressed With:
WiFi Connect - Connecting to WiFi wasn't as instant as I would like, each time adding a new hotspot required going into the settings and configuring the device to recognize and add the hotspot - this really should be easier.
More Apps - I'd love to see a few more productivity apps come bundled on the device. I'm sure that Nokia could come up with about 5 more apps to ship with it (Gravity for Twitter, Screen Capture, foursquare, and maybe a couple of games)
Camera - Ideally, particularly for outdoor operation when busy or with hands full, I'd like the camera to time out of the capture mode and be ready to snap another picture. Having to always hit "Back" to take another photo is a bit annoying.
Case - likely a personal preference but I'd also love to see such an impressive device come boxed with a simple, clear, yet somewhat rugged case or holder for a little added protection.
Camera cover - another personal preference but I love taking photos but I also want to protect my camera lense so a sliding camera lens cover would be useful.
Swappable Back plates - another style feature, Shipping the device with another back cover plate (maybe a cool, matt black cover) would be nice, particularly to go from Business to pleasure mode.
White - Nokia and others know that we all love the white devices.. imagine if this stylish bad-boy was also available in white?? WOW!
E73 Mode Image Gallery - Images of the Device & Images Captured With It
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