Nokia E75 Project ("Teach a Technophobe")
It is my pleasure to anounce to your my involvement in the Teach a Technophobe project being held by WOM World / Nokia! What is it? Well, I'd best start from the beginning otherwise you'll be confused.
First, I'm going to be sent two Nokia E75 units. One of which I will give to someone I know for them to use for the duration of the trial period. Second, we're going to be issued a series of challenges on which we shall compete against others participating in the same project. Third, at the end of the trial period (4 weeks) I'll send both E75 units back. Hopefully, if my partner and I have done well in the challenges, we'll win some little Nokia toy. (A Kiano mapster would be nice to finish off my collection!)
It really is quite a fantastic idea, if I'm honest. If my memory serves me right, I was told that there would be 4 total pairs participating in this project, so I feel honored to be chosen. Also, a quick google search for "E75 Challenge" brings up two blogs where their authors have already received devices for this project. (Aditya's Blog & Lester's Blog) The first is located in India, the second in Singapore. That makes me the third, and I'm located in the northwest corner of the USA. Considering I see it likely that the fourth participant is not likely to be residing in the USA as well, it means we've got a truly international set of participants on our hands!
My only concern with this project was also a major source of excitement...who do I pick to participate with me? The first thought into my head was to ask my father. He's actually quite good with technology, but has a very low tolerance for anything that doesn't work intuitively. He's always complained about every phone he's ever had, regardless of make, model, or operating system. The demands he places on his phones are also usually in-line with everything a Nokia handset is capable of. (The only exception is synchronizing with his corporate server, something which I believe would work if he only had the patience to set it up or allow me to help him with.) To top things off, he's also quite gentle with his technology and would baby an E75 more so than any other phone because he already thinks that "it looks pretty."
However, he's also now located about 2 hours north of where I currently reside. Also, his work schedule would allow him limited amounts of free time, none of which I would ever be able to convince him to spend learning a new phone when he's already spent the time to learn the one he has now. So I decided to look at my set of peers here at school. The majority have GSM handsets, meaning that they'd all be eligible to try out the E75 using their SIM card. Quite a few also have iPhones, which would make for quite an interesting experience on their part. But when I finally asked myself who is the best fit for this phone things became a lot narrower. I wanted someone who at least interacted with a business environment, would be able to utilize all of the features the E75 offered, and wouldn't abuse such a high-end handset.
The end result is my friend Eddy. He holds a job in a bank, is decently tech-oriented, currently owns and uses a Nokia 5310 XpressMusic (and uses most if not all of it's features, I might add), and is actually in the market for a new handset. His current plan is to purchase a carrier-subsizides iPhone when his current plan ends, but he's always been something of a Nokia fan ever since his first handset. The S60 operating system will be a completely new experience for him, and the side-slider design will be new as well. (He's only owned S40 candybar-style handsets up until now.)
Now that I have a partner, on to the challenges. I wonder what they might be? I anticipate a decent amount of email-related messaging, perhaps with a mix of OVI thrown in for good measure. It's a good thing I nabbed the OVI name "maptor" while I had the chance. (;
While I don't forsee it being required, I think that my partner and I shall give Qik video messaging a few tries, and maybe even some VOIP calls. We're already fairly intensive on the SMS/MMS features of our phones, so things should get interesting. I wish I could speak more of the challenges but I really am clueless as to what they've got in store for us. Should be exciting though!
And what of the handsets? The beatiful E75 shall be an absolute blast to use. Having owned an E90 less than 8 months ago, I feel I should be able to judge if the E75 is it's replacement, or another type of E-Series device altogether. Currently owning and using an E71, I'll be able to judge the differences and similarities between the two. I do look forward to testing the side-slide design very much. I've messed around with other manufacturer's side-slide offerings and never really come away impressed. I hardly doubt to feel the same way about Nokia's take, especially after demoing their excellent E66. The large keyboard should be quite interesting as well... I expect to be making some posts to this blog directly from the E75. It's really hard to say what I look forward to most out of the E75 before I finally hold it in my hands
Anyways, I should let you know that I have known about this challenge for about a week now. I've been allowed to spread the word about it ever since I was a confirmed participant, I just never felt the urge to do so until now. Why now? Well, among other reasons, because I was expecting a package to arrive from DHL today containing the two E75 devices, one of which will be enclosed in a briefcase (this much I have gathered from reading the other two blogs). And, during the span of writing this entry, I heard a knock at the door and opened to find a DHL driver with a brief-case sized box under his arm. (;
Time to go unbox it. I'll upload pictures in a little bit!
