Leaders in the mobile technology and cell phone market will gather, collaborate, and network in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress in a couple of weeks. We’ll probably even see some product announcements. I just got an overview of Nokia’s activities during the conference so you can prepare for what’s to come.

An improvised explosive device was defused by police outside a concert hall in Chechen Republic, Russia. A police spokesman told RIA Novosti the bomb contained 6 kg of TNT, chipped iron rods, screws, and a Nokia cell phone. Thankfully, the police intervened in time and no one was hurt.

Former Nokia employees told the New York Times in an article published over the weekend that Nokia’s early success caused their failure to respond to the iPhone. They said Nokia became complacent and didn’t know what consumers wanted. A spokesperson for Nokia noted that these former employees were, “managers with individual roles or leaders of small teams,” but I find their opinions worth reading.

One of the things shown off at Nokia World was the Booklet 3G, a Windows-based mini laptop with up to 12 hours of battery, 10.1in display, built-in SIM slot, A-GPS, front-facing camera, and more. I’ve asked a Nokia spokesperson at the event to give me an overview of the device in front of camera. Take a look.

As some of you may recall, when Nokia Chat launched around August of last year, an enterprising Howard Forums member wrote a small bot that would echo messages sent to it to other users who had sent the bot a message, forming an ersatz IRC channel. Unfortunately, this bot was pulled offline within a few months, and the thrill of a new Nokia service had worn off long before then with users drifting back to the more mainstream chat networks such as MSN and Y!IM.