Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Clusterfuck award 2007 -- the Nokia World Press Room

Sometimes going to international events, I make a bet with myself that something may happen to justify the use of the term clusterfuck. It happened at 3GSM World in Barcelona in 2006, where the Qualcomm sponsored press room went down-- no power, no internet, almost nothing. It did get fixed later.
This year's clusterfuck award goes to the Nokia World press room in Amsterdam, which promises free WiFi but actually tries to drag you into a Boingo subscription through a one week free trial with software that can only be downloaded for a PC (I have a Mac) or a Nokia phone. In addition, there are almost no power outlets for one's own laptop in the press room, just lots of IBM think pads or some other faceless laptop chained to the table and attached to a LAN. I am not happy unplugging these or mooching the LAN, but I will do that. What else can I do.

Oh yes, and the press work room is severely overcrowded. No place to sit, no place to mooch a LAN cable. No internet connection unless you join BoingoWorld. Doesn't anyone arranging these events ever learn that it is bad to fuck with the press?

Good news-- OVI, the Nokia WebNG (as in next generation) application/platform will be available for Mac. Well, as the Swedes say – good morning axe handle at last! Also, all Universal Music's songs will be available for free download for a year on any new Nokia music capable phone. Great news for kids and 20 somethings and yes, I have an iPod and an N95 too!

More later. Gotta write for my Latvian blog who is paying salary for me to be here.

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