Just got home from the Nokia N96 launch at the Silver City and apart from the drinks and overload of cheese and parma ham, I took home a Nokia N79 — well at least a certificate that says I can pick up my new phone next week. Wow, what a treat! There was a huge raffle and Nokia / SMART was giving away a bunch of N79’s and N96’s.

You see, I badly needed a new phone and if I had to buy one, I’d go for an unlocked 1st generation iPhone or a Nokia N71 to replace my BlackBerry Pearl which is still in the shop. The Nokia N79 will really fit my needs – I’ve been praying for a sign from above to help me decide on a good buy, and this was it! Here are a few reasons why the N79 is such a good deal:

- I recently lost my iPod nano, and not that I’m very interested in the music aspect of the N79, but rather this unit hails from the N78 that comes with a built in FM transmitter. I’m an avid listener of podcasts and audiobooks on the road so this phone definitely makes up for the iPod + FM transmitter option. And it’s going to be hard to lose this, as it is also going to be my primary cellphone.

- If you’re a fan of the lightness and overall real estate of the N82, you’re going to love everything about the N79 as it has the same light (even lighter?) real estate and better (bigger!) keys. The phone also comes with three interchangeable covers.

- 5MP camera, 802.11g WiFi, GPS, HSDPA conectivity — you can’t go wrong!

I can’t wait for next week!

[photo c/o Nokia PR]

Post from: Cellphone9

Last December, I had written about how I accepted the role to become a Nokia Ambassador for the duration of four months. All the details about it are written here so that I don’t need to expound on this further. Fact of the matter is that one of the primary – if not the only function of an ambassador is to populate a website called Nokia Soul of the Night. There was no money involved and the role of the ambassador is actually very lax as compared to say, a product endorser (brand ambassador is not equal to brand endorser).

I had initially decided to keep all thoughts of my ambassadorship in my personal blog but I’m making an exception for this one post as it is relatively breaking news.

What it basically is: Soul of the Night is a website that allows anybody to upload photos and tag them according to location in several countries in Asia including the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. The site is meant to promote the “soul” of the night by promoting the night life in these countries. It is also a way of showing off the Nokia N82’s Xenon flash capabilities – the camera is supposed to take really good night shots thanks to the flash – and yeah, it delivers.

I do wish though that aside from tags and labels, the site developers should have included a comments section which in turn promotes community building. Comments truly help follow through the community building effort because it is what really promotes conversation in the photos people upload. Now that it is open to the public, I assume that anyone can register and upload their own night shots. I tried uploading shots not taken at night and they were screened after a few days.

What are your opinions about such a campaign? Have you seen anything similar to this done in the past?

Post from: Cellphone9