{"id":10427,"date":"2011-06-13T20:17:18","date_gmt":"2011-06-14T04:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wapreview.com\/?p=10427"},"modified":"2011-06-15T06:38:08","modified_gmt":"2011-06-15T14:38:08","slug":"my-wild-weekend-at-nokia-unfenced-mobile-bloggers-as-cowboys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wapreview.com\/10427\/","title":{"rendered":"My Wild Weekend At Nokia UnFenced – Mobile Bloggers As Cowboys"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This past weekend Nokia invited me and 19 other mobile bloggers to Las Vegas for a mysterious event. The invite was a bit vague saying, “We\u2019ll be putting the latest, currently available, Nokia devices to the test in the wild west, (also known as Las Vegas) and we want you to join us!” so I didn’t really know what to expect. \u00a0“Currently available” devices indicated to me that we wouldn’t be seeing anything new. But I had hopes that maybe the event would mark the release of the “Anna” firmware for the N8 and E7.<\/p>\n

There were 20 bloggers in all; \u00a0@Inacurate<\/a>,\u00a0@Eddie_Fu<\/a>,\u00a0@paulswansen<\/a>, @jebbrilliant<\/a>,\u00a0@TRENTSENSE<\/a>, @THE_TRUTH34<\/a>, @pseudofinn<\/a>, @mikemacias<\/a>, @Alvetica<\/a>,\u00a0@markguim<\/a>, @gwapz<\/a>, @nokiaknowings<\/a>, @someaudioguy<\/a>, @mobile_ed<\/a> @Hyde13<\/a>, @mobile_luv<\/a>, @blue42richman<\/a> @matthew_dowling<\/a>, @allaboutgeorge<\/a> and myself (@yeswap<\/a>) We flew into Las Vegas on Friday and were wisked by limo to the Green Valley Ranch Resort<\/a> in Las Vegas suburb of Henderson. On arrival we were greeted by Donna Suffling\u00a0(@missdd<\/a>), AdamWoodley\u00a0(@adwood1984<\/a>) and Kathy Garfield\u00a0(@kathygarfield<\/a>) from WOMWorld and Mindy Miller\u00a0(@min108<\/a>) head of social marketing for Nokia North America.<\/p>\n

The “Ranch” turned up to be a huge resort hotel with a large outdoor pool and cabana area, many restaurants and because this is Nevada, a huge casino. \u00a0My room was quiet, spacious and comfortable. I found the staff friendly and helpful, however Donna’s prized leather jacket was stolen from her room so security seems to be an issue.<\/p>\n

Being mobile bloggers, \u00a0we talked mostly about phones and we had plenty of them to compare. Nokia brought a bunch of N8s and C7 Astounds along with an HTC HD7 Windows Phone and a Samsung \u00a0Galaxy S 4G running Android. \u00a0The Nokia’s were available for anyone who wanted to borrow one for two weeks or just for the weekend.The bloggers brought a wide assortment of Android, Rim, Nokia and Apple phones. \u00a0I’d trialed an Astound at CTIA so I stuck with my N8.<\/p>\n

After an afternoon of sipping cool drinks at the poolside bar we were bused over to the Vegas strip for dinner at the PBR Rock Bar and Cafe<\/a> in the Planet Hollywood hotel\/casino. The PBR was a curious mashup of rodeo, sports bar, rock n’ roll and Vegas themes. Dinner portions were outlandishly huge and I don’t think anyone managed to clean their plates. After dinner we discovered the PBR’s mechanical bull. Lenny (@THE_TRUTH34) and Kevin (@nokiaknowings) gave it a try (videos below). The rest of us were too full or too chicken to try.<\/p>\n