SNAP Mobile in Lapland

Here is another Finish tradition. Key meetings are held in the snow-covered forest far away from the city. The temperture outside was minus 7 degree. Kittila is 2 hours by air from Helsinki, located within the arctic circle. SNAP Mobile is meeting up with collegues in Games.
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We stayed and had many strategy discussions in this cottage. The place "Levi" is Finish famous ski resourt. 2 minutes away from slope. While seeing skiers walking by through the window, we spent a lot of time in team discussion to form a next new direction in operations.

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Here is the team. After heated discussion in various topics, time for appetite! We visited a beautiful cottage/restaurant for lunch. The grilled fish served in this restaurant was excellent. A man from the land of Sushi was very impressed;-). This farm(?) seems very old (150 years old?) and even had Santa Clause post office!

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OK. First time I see a raindeer besides the one on a plate. None of them had horns. They looked very gentle and nice. Probably I should focus on fish from now on in the restaurant...

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Fortunately, we had a chance to do some team activities. The organizer knows what to do to make the team as one...intellectual/active discussion, dine, wine and exercise! Bunch of us went to a snowmobile trip across forests. Traveled 65 kilo meters in 3 hours...reaching over 70 mph/110 kmh in speed (seriously, it was fast...maybe too fast...). At the end of trip, we reached the top of Levi ski resort. Quiet and pleasant moment.

SNAP Mobile in Taiwan

OK. The manager who was absent in previous blog was in fact in Taipe Taiwan to meet up with local partners. Here is Nokia Taiwan office building. The office was very cozy. Small but very efficient teams were present there.
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After lunch, we have visited 7-11. I have been wondering why they sell so many CDs in 7-11. It turned out that actually they are not CDs but they are online computer games. Since credic card is not that common especially for younger customers, these retailers are selling "pre-paid" access code to these online games. Mobile online games should be using similar sales strategy soon...

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I have visited our partner's office. Very cozy and pepople were working pretty hard.

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Lunch time in Thai food restaurant. They are checking out yummy desert.

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Of course, we had to vist KTV (Karaoke Room) at least once! The food (and beer) served there was amazingly good. I am picky about rice but the rice served there was yummy as well. I heard that the food was so popular among KTV customers, the owner decided to open a restaurant. With that taste, I agree. It was nice and relaxing night before flying back to US.

While the manager is away the employee will play

So our manager was out for a week, it was awesome! We just mostly hung around and watch tv, played Wii and most of us went home at 3pm. Oneday Heidi had this awesome idea to throw a party, it was sooo much fun. We will have to do this again next time the manager is out :)

Web Dude is feeling a little down because the manager will be back tomorrow.

There goes the part

Peter partied waaay to much this week and barely got any work done!

Is Kicking back or past out?

When the SNAPmobile is manager, other manger can let down their hair -Cheers!

Capt'n Morgan it's my favorite!

Some game publisher heard that the manager was out so they stopped by to party with us.

GDC -> Let's hit beach!

Yes. All of our friends are here in SF for GDC. Mirai from Tokyo visiting us to represent our publisher partner and Krys is from Vancouver representing N-Gage dev support. We decided to hit Lindamar beach on Sunday morning. We had a bit cloudy (almost sunnty) day. The shape of wave was very good along with fair size (4-6 ft).

They paddled really hard...I saw them catching many waves. We had a great time!

Hey, if you have a chance to vist our team, we will take you there, no problem.

Erik Farewell

Our Product Manager is up to new challenge in NY. Bunch of us got together to celebrate his departure to new adventure. This Thai restaurant is good for lunch and drinks! We got to start having more of these beer bust again! (we usuall have more in summer time...)

Helsinki Visit

First time this year, I had a chance to visit our headquarter to join R&D meeting. It started snowing the day I arrived.
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I learned so much to be in the meeting. It is always benefitial to learn new field.

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Is this typical or what? After long day of discussion and information sharing, Finish tradition kicks in. Yes, we went to "real" wood burn Sauna next to ocean.

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And, lots of beeeeerrrrrr.
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Storm Hit San Francisco

The weather that once inspired the song "California Dreamin' " was closer to a nightmare across the Golden State Friday as the latest in a series of winter storms brought dangerous amounts of rain and snow to the region. Power was out for an estimated 5,300 PG&E customers in the North Bay; Thankfully SNAPMobile's office in San Francisco continued to have Power.

I wonder if this down powerline has anything to do with it.

Power outages and fallen trees were the biggest problems during Friday's storm, trees are down near the SNAPMobile's office in San Francisco. Winds reached 55 miles per hour (90 kph)>, can you say Gail Force?

A friend visit from Dubai!

Our friend, Gregory, has been visiting us in SF to tell us what's happening in Middle East and Africa regions. We were planning to hit beach together today but gave up due to his cold. Well, let's at least take a pic with our board!

Swell is coming!

Though it is windy, SNAP Mobile Surf Team, decided to hit beach since a huge swell is coming! Hitting a road on highway 280!

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Almost there. It's rather windy...

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See the rough waves behind him! Well, he is determined and going in. Nice smile before hard paddling...

SnapMobile Holiday Party

Dya and Lisa (Husband and Wife) volunteered their house for the SnapMobile Holiday party; there was pleanty of food & drink not to mention the house was decked out with Holiday decorations.



Here the SnapMobile Party goers, look at all the smiles :)


Lisa hard at work decorating the tree before the party, Lisa makes a good " Imagineer ".

Lisa making sure every thing on the tree is just place right on the tree.

Our master Sushi Chef preparing a ton of sushi.

Peter was kind enough to crave the meats.

Our Sue Chef Heidi preparing to plate food.

Executive Chef Dya surveys the dinning room.