Notice the little countdown on the right? Apparently it’s a countdown for some big Nokia related event this Thursday. We’re not sure what it is, but judging by the invitations going around, there’s a big chance this could be OVI related. Perhaps the rumored OVI store 2.0, including a new OVI store app? How about the announcement of a new device, like the rumored N87? Or that the Nokia will be opening a new manufacturing plant orbiting around the earth? Ok, the chances of that last one are slim, but it could be anything.

In Nokia’s terms, a countdown means something. We’ll see what it is on Thursday.

What do you think it could be?

Set your Calendar for the 11th of March. (Yes that’s in two days!) Nokia has an event planned that’s set to start at 10 Central European Time with the title: “Your Music Player is Ringing” Chances we’ll see a flagship music device and maybe, just maybe one or two midrange music-based devices. It’s been a while since the N81 and N81 8GB were released, so it’s a safe bet that the device in question will be a replacement for the N81/N91. Notice the two Q&A sessions, this usually means one for each device or a device and a service. As always, expect a leak tomorrow or just right before the launch. What devices or services do you think we’ll see?

What does the great Stavros do when he’s not creating the greatest work of art EVER? He holds a press conference of course! Head on over to Stavros’ bloggy using the internet and get enlightened as Stavros answers not only questions regarding this masterpiece, but also Stavros’ genius in general. Strangely he’s not using the black N82, is it still resting in the safe? We even get a peek at the upcoming N96 which Stavros already seems to have gotten his hands on! It still a mystery whether Stavros will switch to the new device and strangely enough the question regarding Doctor Shopova seems to have been forgotten, I wonder…

It seems that the theme these days is geotagging and GPS. By now most of you are familiar with the Nseries Urbanista Diaries, well this time Nokia has teamed up with CNN, National Geographic , Wallpaper and Lonely planet and hooked them up with the superb N82 + Sports Tracker combo. In similar fashion to the Urbanista Diaries you can follow the journalists, anchors and even an Anthropologist and a Biochemist as they document the experience.

In the case of National Geographic, interestingly enough you follow Anthropologist Dr. Renee Friedman in Egypt and Biochemist Valerie Clark as they provide a photographic document of their studies. You can also follow Primatologist Catherine Workman in Vietnam (Coming soon). With CNN you follow news anchor Richard Quest as he reports on various stories from around the globe. You can also follow CNN’s Dale Fountain, driver of CNN’s High-tech mobile studio “The Election Express” as he follows the race for the White House throughout the US.(Coming Soon). If your more into fashion you might interested in Wallpaper’s coverage at various Fashion Week events as they travel to London, Paris and Milan to show you what’s hot on the catwalk and various after show parties.  And lastly, in the case of Lonely Planet you follow their journalists as they travel the globe as they discover the best places to visit.

Alternatively you embed the Widgets on your own blog here.

CNN, National Geographic, Wallpaper and Lonely Planet armed with N82 put a twist on journalism

Once you think about, you could say Stavros is like one crazy Nseries Urbanista Diarist with a few plans of his own.  This is probably one of the funniest and creative events that the guys at WOM World have come up with. Basically, Stavros will be using the N82 just like the Urbanista Diarists, but this time not to document the experience but to create art! The idea is to create an image using the interconnected GPS location points, creating what is called Position Art. I have previously criticized Nokia’s earlier events, mini sites, launch and viral video’s because they fail to show the consumer what is possible with the Nseries devices. The N96 launch video surprisingly showed almost every single feature of the N96 with a twist of comedy. The Stavros event is another success as it showcases the possibilities of the N82 as an excellent GPS tool with many creative uses and I do have to admit that they put it all in a very funny package. Behind the hilarious character I can see some legitimate uses for the N82 and its built-in GPS to create art and once I think about it, it would be fun to try to create an image using the N95 8GB and sports tracker.

In another GPS related news fellow Urbanista Diarist Ryan Gallagher has returned home meaning that the Nseries Urbanista Diaries has sadly come to an end. But Ryan returns home with some interesting news that he has had a talk with a few guys from the Nokia team and is reporting that they indicated that many of their international offices now want to start organizing Urbanista projects.  So this means that we haven’t seen the last of GPS related events like the Urbanista Diaries and Stavros and his art. I wonder what they’ll come up with next…

I’m a bit late with this one, but a few weeks ago Curacao celebrated its 2008 edition of Carnival, one of our main National celebrations. Basically the month of January and a part of February is dedicated to various Carnival parties called: “Jump-ins” and “Jump-ups” where the main difference is that one is held indoors while the other is done marching along the streets of Curacao. During this season of festivities specially created song festival are held to crown the best singer with his or her song as the “Tumba King or Queen” that will accompany the main parade. This is followed by the Children’s Carnival and the Teener  Parade. The carnival festivities will reach its height with the Grand Carnival parade. People take this so serious that they build sometimes elaborate and nicely decorated sitting areas alongside the route called “stands” so that they can sit, dance, eat and drink in the comfort of their stands and enjoy the Carnival, while others are happy with just a few chairs and umbrella.

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As part of the Nseries Urbanista event starting this week, there is also going to be a weekly competition. Followers of the journey can guess the location of images, shown on the www.Nseries.com page, taken by each of the Urbanista’s during their trips. The weekly winner will be selected at random from the correct answers and will receive a Nokia N82 as their prize. To aid you in this competition there will be a specially created Urbanista Widget to follow the exact progress of the Urbanista’s. This Widget can be embedded into the various blogs and will go live here at The Nokia Guide on the 12th, but the Urbanista site itself will not go live until the 14^th. So stay tuned here at The Nokia Guide for your chance to win the N82!!!

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As you read this, the mobile community has gathered in Amsterdam and besides Darla, Ricky, Rafe, Ewan, Jay and Teo there are members from All About Symbian, Mobile Burn and Symbian Freak.  While we wait for them to post the juicy info they have gathered in Amsterdam let’s talk about an event that will be held tomorrow on Wednesday the 5^th of December at 19:00 GMT.  The event is organized by WOM World and hosted by two of my friends from WOM World: Donna and Frank. So what’s exactly going to happen? Members from three mobile communities are going to go head-to-head in a Nokia themed quiz. The winning community will guarantee 5 of their members (selected by the team captain) an N82 trial. You at home will be able to test your own knowledge and follow their progress as it will be streamed live using Ustream.tv.

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Yesterday was a very exciting day as Miss Curacao Teenager (and girlfriend) Laurien returned to her native island of Curacao after winning the Miss Caribbean Hibiscus 2008 pageant and having taken part in the Dubai International Fashion Week. A group of friends, family, fans and people from the Curacao fashion community had joined together at the airport to welcome Laurien. Let’s just say that she wasn’t aware of the festivities planned for her so we got to see a few tears here and there. All of this was followed by a small night-time parade that ended in a night of partying! Of course I was there armed with the Nokia N82 to capture the moment. As you can see from the images the flash makes a world of a difference and completely replaced my digital camera that I had forgotten to recharge. Anywho, congrats to Laurien as she will be staying just a few days on the island as she will shortly have to leave again to attend some fashion shows in Europe.

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To update you on the Nseries Urbanista blogger global relay race I had talked about a few days ago, I can now confirm the identity of two other participants. One of them isn’t unknown to the Nokia/S60 community, I’m talking about Mobileburn’s Jay a.k.a. Jose_R.A.M. The other confirmed participant is Ms Jen, from the Black Phoebe blog who also uses Nseries for moblogging. As you guys already know this trip is going to be highly interactive, but I was passed along a few details that I didn’t know about. It seems each participant will get a customized widget on their sites/blog which will be streaming all their produced content during the trip. It will make use out of what seems like a modified version of the Nokia SportsTracker app. It will track our route across an image of the world, on which you will be able to click down on certain locations which will then reveal thumbnail images with text produced by each participants.  This trip is getting even more amazing as the details get in. I just got to confirm now who the 4^th blogger is going to be. Let me see what other crazy stuff I can convince the WOM World team, especially Siobhan to add to the trip