SYMBIAN ON THE LINE

Well, that was something.

Something worth 600 euros for each cause supported by each of the 6 Twestivals that were part of this amazing journey: Birmingham, Oxford, Helsinki, Brussels, Bucharest and Dubai.

If you read my last post and/or followed my Twitter stream, you know that there was quite a bit of live content broadcasted while in Romania, using an extraordinary service I had just heard about a day before I left (thanks to Phil Campbell and Rupert Howe, fellow N86Tour-ists): Bambuser. This worked in Romania, because, to put it shortly, the mobile networks around here are better and more reliable than those in Oxford (see how I did not say the UK? - truth is I couldn't have said that, since I really don't know how coverage is anywhere else but Oxford).

And now, brace yourselves. I'm going to try and make a summary of everything I can still remember from these days.

I left Timisoara for Bucharest on Friday, my first time in an ATR 42-500, a plane smaller than most buses, at least considering inside space. A pretty uneventful flight later, I was in Bucharest, meeting Rupert Howe, who was coming from Helsinki, at the airport. It was the first time we had ever met, so we sat for a cup of coffee and basically shot as many questions as possible per minute at each other, driven by immense curiosity of what both of us were about and had been up to.

A sickening (but very fast, by Bucharest standards of horrific traffic) taxi ride later, we arrived at the hotel and decided on a plan for the day. During the taxi ride, Rupert interviewed me, and I tried to introduce myself to the world as best I could.

At the hotel, Rupert handed me one of the N86s that he brought with him. He had 3 (at times I wonder how he got through airport security with no questions asked), one for the raffle at the Bucharest Twestival, and two for our use during the Tour. We decided to rest for an hour, mostly so we could get the N86s charged. It is then when I discovered how slow charging via USB cable can be compared to charging via mains.

We walked around Bucharest for a couple of hours, I tried to show Rupert as much as possible, but in the end we missed loads of interesting spots, because of both lack of time, and the fact that the city is very spread out, tourist attraction-wise.

After that we had lunch, for which we waited for more than an hour (I did tell him I'm bad at recommending stuff to eat or places to dine to friends, they always seem to hate what I loved, this time I was bad at picking the place apparently), and then promptly ingested in probably under 5 minutes. We were that hungry.

From there it was on to the Bucharest Twestival. Met a lot of interesting people, interviewed quite a few, including the main organizer of the Twestival and the man running the charity that was chosen to be supported, who managed to impress both Rupert and me. A lot.

Walked around the venue filming it, joked about being at a pool party (yes, there was a pool there, but it was too cold and people apparently had too little to drink to try diving into it), interviewed some more people, and, then... IT happened.

Two N86s, one N95 (with a spare battery), one N82 and one N93. All drained. The only charger we had on us... well, the phones did show the charging animation while plugged into it, but even after more than an hour, did not turn on. I can't say this louder: only buy original chargers, people! And never rely on USB charging if time is of the essence and you need to charge your device fast!

Lesson learned.

Back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep, and the next morning we went back to the airport. A lot earlier than we should have too, because we both forgot it was Saturday, and hence the traffic was really bearable.

Arrived at Heathrow, where we went our separate ways. Rupert went home, and I got on a bus to Oxford. I now had two N86s in my pockets!

Got out of the bus in Oxford, on a very busy street, and waited for a GPS fix so I could walk to the hotel assisted by Nokia Maps. A few minutes later, and still no GPS fix, Nokia Maps crashed and would not start again. Note that this was happening on my N95, as both N86s were out of battery still (well, one had one battery bar after charging via USB for a couple of hours in Bucharest during the night, but I thought I'd spare it). So lesson number two: always keep your software up-to-date. I had not upgraded Nokia Maps from v2 I had on my N95, and a little bird tells me that had I done that, I might have had no crashy issues.

I did manage to find the hotel after all, the old-fashioned way (somehow I love how technology fails exactly when it's extremely important that it doesn't), by asking a police woman for directions.

Checked in, walked around the hotel premises (huge, by the way), made another failed attempt to charge the phones via USB, and the day was finally saved by Tom from WOM World who came by and left me a proper mains charger.

Sunday morning, with a fully charged N86 in my pocket, I walked around Oxford. A rather impromptu walk no less, since I decided not to check any tourist guides or maps, and just see where and how far I could get packing just my sense of orientation. A rather anti-technology stance, you might say, but you'd be wrong. It was only due to my undying "love" for the tourist-attraction-traps in general.

I only photographed during this mini-trip. I also had Gravity, a Twitter client, running for most of it, but it wasn't auto-updating. And in just over 3 hours, the N86 was shouting "Battery low!" at me every few seconds. Granted, I never put it back into my pocket once I took it out, I did constantly use it. But still...

So after an interesting lunch at a Pizza Hut (don't ask, and don't make jokes about how I did my best to avoid tourist traps but ate at a place probably only serving tourists, ok?), and by interesting I mean I got someone else's order instead of mine, I went back to the hotel.

By that time, Phil Campbell, had arrived from Dubai, so we had a couple of drinks and he interviewed me (audio-only) using his instantly envy-inducing tech found in his backpack - one completely filled only with tech gear. He then left for the Twestival and I stuck around at the hotel waiting for Ant, another fellow N86Tour-ist, and then we both got to the Oxford Twestival eventually.

Where I must have found (stumbled upon?) nirvana. For more than three hours, I just talked, and talked, and talked (with the exception of about half an hour of recording the auction they had there, which included the N86 to be given away), to like-minded people, to the amazing folks at 1000heads/WOM World who organized this insane Tour, to my fellow Tour-ists (for the first time we were all in the same place at the same time!), to, just, great people.

Very good conversations, very interesting people, what more could one ask for? (I suppose the WOM World folk could have asked for, umm, more video... -let's hope not).

The night at the Twestival's venue came to an abrupt ending when we were told that it's closing time, so then, after some peeps got something to eat, Phil, Ant and I headed back to the hotel and Rupert headed back to London. Phil immediately crashed, which, considering he was probably the champion of miles travelled, is understandable, while Ant and I just sat and talked for a couple of hours about any and every imaginable subject.

Next morning, sadness almost conquered me when I realised it was time to head back home. Bus to Heathrow, Heathrow to Bucharest, then, a 3+ hour stopover later, the final flight home. By the way, if you're ever at OTP airport in Bucharest, note that after 6:30pm there is no restaurant open. Not one.

Final thoughts?

For me, this was a great opportunity to meet new and interesting people. In itself, the N86Tour was an insane (in the good sense, naturally) idea, one that came together and happened all within a very short time frame. And for that, I really do need to thank WOM World and congratulate the other Tour-ists: Vikki Chowney, Phil Campbell, Rupert Howe and Anthony Carroll.

They probably did a way better job filming and photographing than I did.

And this brings me back to the title of this post. I don't consider myself a videoblogger or a photoblogger. Most of the time, I don't even consider myself a blogger. There was a time when I wanted to become one. Now I just post thoughts. Whenever something doesn't fit in Twitter's 140 characters, I have an entire Blog Network (hoping everyone got that pun by now) at my disposal. And with Posterous, I have the best blogging platform there is at the moment, for posting thoughts. If I ever break news, it will probably be on Twitter, or whatever comes next after it. If you ever see a review written by me, of anything, you should know it's not actually a review. Why would I do that? There are hundreds of reviews of anything, be it gadget or software, out there. I don't like duplicate content (and neither does Google), and I especially don't like duplicate content that is unintentional. You know, when 50 blogs write about the same subject and their only source is a 200 word press release. That kind of thing.

Don't confuse me with something I'm not, that's what I'm saying. I was humbled by the fact that I got the chance to be on the N86Tour and I hope that the content I produced was at least barely decent. I may one day become the world's top videoblogger, but I can't realistically say that will ever happen. :)

All the content that was produced during the N86Tour, by me and all the other Tour-ists, will be available soon on a dedicated mother-of-all-mashups site created by WOM World. Watch this space for when it will go live.

Thank you for following this, if you have, and to all the people I've met during the past few days, thank you for being who and how you all are.