Nokia’s Ovi Service Gets Single Sign-In; Launches “Mail On Ovi” To Series 40 Handsets
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A slew of announcements from Nokia:
— One sign-in for Ovi.com: Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has combined all the sign-ins for Ovi.com and for its media sharing service, finally getting rid of what was one of the biggest, most annoying hurdles of its internet services, reports Reuters. Ovi.com, which means door in Finnish, is a collection of all of the handset makers services, built from its purchases of some dozen companies, such as its $8.1 billion purchase of navigation company Navteq. In the past, each service under the Ovi umbrella required its own username and password, limiting its uptake. In the third quarter, internet services has generated 115 million euros in revenues for the handset maker.
— Mail on Ovi live in Beta: Nokia announced today that its free email account Mail on Ovi is now up and running in beta mode and can be set up directly on its Series 40 handsets without requiring a PC. Consumers can choose from 12 languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Hindi, Bengali, Tagalog, Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia. Nokia said in a statement that the intent of launching with the mainstream S40 series was to capture consumers in emerging markets, rather than focusing purely on push email for the world’s more advanced mobile users. For many of these consumers, a Mail On Ovi account would be their first email account. (release).
More after the jump...
Nokia’s Beta Labs teams meanwhile, have been busy working on new apps and improving existing ones, according to its Beta Labs Blogs:
— Nokia Audiobooks major overhaul: The application that allows users to download and listed to audiobooks has been revamped. Users no longer have to figure out which specific phone they have and whether it is compatible, the new app does this for them. There’s also better usability when the application is running, letting users easily switch to their idle screen. Among other improvements, there’s also a new simple library manager, in which displays all books on a users’ PC and phone and allows them to transfer and delete books between phone and PC. PC-SUITE data transfer is now supported which means consumers can transfer files through Bluetooth.
— Step-Counter updated: Does what it says—that is count the steps the user takes. The app, rolled out in May this year, has been updated to offer wider support of devices, including the N95, N95 8GB, N82, N93i, 6210, N79, N85, N96. It also allows for easier exporting and allows for personalized sound alerts. The new app can be used with Nokia Wellness Diary which automatically imports summary data from the Step Counter.
— One for the math whizzes: The Beta Labs team in Beijing have rolled out a new application, the Nokia Handwriting Calculator, which lets users calculate handwritten math expressions with a touch-screen Nokia device, and with a Windows PC. According to the blog, Nokia expects to use the underlying handwriting recognition technology to create more apps using handwriting in the future.
— Conversation app returns: Nokia has reinstated its Conversation app, and made it available for a wider range of devices, including S60 3rd Edition devices. Conversation lets users follow communication with contacts as separate streams of conversations, all organized by individual contacts. Sounds like it’s a huge pain though to install still. Nokia Beta Labs notes that there are “several versions and installation packages,” down to technical issues and advises users to “choose wisely.” Plus if a user has any earlier versions of Conversation, Gizmo and/or Nokia Chat installed, the installation procedure is a “bit tricky”.
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