Nokia N810 Giveaway

At Gilroy's Garlic Festival

Nokia N810 Photo used with attribution from KhE é¾™’s photostream’s abiding by Creative Commons

Update:
Well, I’m under the amount of followers that I said I would reach before I announced this contest, but I’m doing this because I don’t want to perceived as bribing followers.

Next time, I won’t tie this event to how many followers I have, as it’s raised some eyebrows, and I don’t want to come off as trying to game people to follow me.

I’ll never do it that way again, so sorry (I’ve apologized in public), if I came across this way. I honestly want to give back.

Ok, now that my intentions are known, on to the giveaway.


This is a hidden page on my site, it doesn’t appear on my main feed, and you’re probably seeing this from my Tweet.

I’m giving away a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, which I’ve been reviewing from Nokia. As an analyst I’m expected to review not just social computing web products, but also input and output devices as they impact the experience. To be objective, I don’t keep any of the products that I’m reviewing, instead, if I like it enough, I’m willing to buy it with my own money after giving it away, more details here.

Here’s my honest review of the product…

Nokia N810 Review: Powerful wifi tablet has promises, but leaves me yearning for next generation
Here’s my review on the Nokia N810, it’s a useful mobile supplement, meaning it’s a great product for the living room, such as a small internet radio or output device on planes, or for use at tech conferences that are wifi enabled. I found the keyboard keys easier to use than any mobile device, yet would still opt for a laptop. It doesn’t tie to any cell networks (it’s not a phone) but if you’re connected to a wifi network you can dial with the onboard skype application. For a device focused on social media market, there were a few issues with the browser, for example, it would not render the twitter reply page (just code) an some flash applications didn’t behave, as there isn’t an easy way to right click or hover mouse (it comes with a small stylus). I suspect direct competition will come from the iPod touch, which is directly in the same market, and price range not too far off.

All in all this device is really a transition device, I expect the next generation version to offer the functionality I would come to expect, and as result, I would never buy this device with my own money, as I’d save a few extra dollars and purchase a second laptop.

Giveaway Instructions
Now, I’m giving it away to one person, I’ll send the product to you charge on delivery, and I hold no liability for it. It’s in great condition, like new. It would be nice if you could take a picture with it, and I’ll embed it on this post.

I’ll be giving it away to who bests answers the following question: “24 months from now, where will Twitter be? What will Twitter look like, how will we use it differently than today?”

I’m looking for responses that are forward thinking –but you back up why you predict it will head this way. I’ve got my ideas, but it’ll be interesting to see how others react. And no, I’m not using this for any type of formal research, it’s just a way for me to reward a smart forward-thinker in my network rather than do a random survey.

I’ll cap the contest off at the first 25 real responses to preserve my sanity, I’ll choose the best answer and update this post announcing the winner. Thanks again for following me, hope this is a nice way of saying thanks for following me on Twitter.

Thank you again, for being part of my Twitter network, I’m grateful.


Announcing the Winner: Andrew Finkle
Evening: I’ve narrowed down 8 responses, all of the great to excellent, will narrow down by tomorrow.

Next Day: I filtered it down to just a few more, and really enjoyed the response from Andrew Finkle who suggests that Twitter will be more of a platform with mixed use. I’ve embedded his answer below and sent him a congratulatory email requesting his address.

Twitter will look more like an operating system in 2 years. The Majority of its users will not even have to go to twitter.com to use the service. Twitter will instead be the platform whereby others embed twitter functionality directly into their own applications. As a result, Twitter will be different things, to different people.
For some, the twitter OS will allow them to join a social network on the fly. This might be based on the location of a tweet, the content of the tweet, the profile of the tweeter. Some Tweeters will not even be human, they will be anyone or anyTHING.
A Tweet will be whatever one wants it to be (not constrained by 140 characters of text)..A Tweet might be multimedia,voice,video,etc.
The truest value of Twitter will be how it allows one to broadcast whatever (voice,video,data), to whoever (followers,family,friends,readers (a better RSS), however (via browser,sms,email,etc)
Twitter will be one of the most valuable net properties (along with Firefox)…why? Because they are OPEN. They ARE the ecosystem.