Nokia Ovi Blog

Monthly Archive for September, 2009

Keepin’ It Green

Published
by
Riitta Jantunen
on September 28, 2009
in Ovi by Nokia
. 10 Comments

riitta jantunenHi, my name is Riitta Jantunen and I’m part of the Sustainable Lifestyle Solutions team at Nokia. 

As my group’s name implies, whether in the office or out, I like to do simple, common-sense things that make our modern lifestyle a bit more sustainable. Recycling and using public transporation are no-brainers these days, but there’s so much more we can do, like visiting local food markets, organic restaurants and vintage clothing stores. Even during my foreign travel, I try to look for solutions to make my trip a bit more sustainable. After all, it’s the small things we do everyday that makes a difference for our surroundings.

 That’s one reason why I was so excited to join my current team this spring. Our mission is to make a sustainable lifestyle easier for people. Green Explorer is one example of this: 

Green Explorer is a sustainable lifestyle guide powered by Nokia, helping people to lead a greener lifestyle and discover the “treasures” around them. From the Green Explorer web site, you can find information on local water quality, recycling practices and public transporation; read interesting viewpoints from the sustainable lifestyle blog; and check out local World Wildlife Fund projects and UNESCO World Heritage sites nearby- just to give you a few examples.

If you ask what’s my favorite part of Green Explorer – -I’d have to say it’s the ability to share my “green” experiences on the go. The service is available through both web and mobile phone. But what’s really handy is that I can save my favorites to a mobile notebook with the Green Explorer widget, which is available in the Ovi Store for several Symbian devices. http://store.ovi.com

With Green Explorer, anybody can join in the “green” experience. It makes me proud to belong to a team involved in this important work. Nokia was rated world’s most sustainable technology company by the 2009 -10 Dow Jones Sustainability Index. So let’s use mobile technology to help us live more sustainable lives.

As a free Ovi service, Green Explorer can be accessed with the same Nokia account that’s valid for all Ovi services. Check it out for yourself at http://greenexplorer.ovi.com !

Regards, Riitta

Virginia Woolf has the sads, but still enjoys Ovi Music

Published
by
niini
on September 26, 2009
in Ovi by Nokia
. 1 Comment

Virginia Woolf is one of my favourite authors. Well, actually I just saw that movie about her where Nicole Kidman had a prosthetic nose. Good times.

However, I do know that Virginia was a celebrated novelist, a prominent feminist and overall a fantastically intelligent lady. One of her most memorable quotes include “Lock up your libraries if you like, but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind” from 1929’s “A Room of One’s Own”. You tell ‘em, Gi-Gi! That’s how it’s done! But do you guys know what I always say? Don’t read the following tweet if you’re a rabid fan of Nick Cave’s. Enjoy!

OVI_Twit_Virginia_082809

Let us know what you think about the Historical Ovi Tweets below! Also, kudos to our friends @ HistoricalTweets.com who picked up a couple of our tweets on their blog this week! Check them out!

Ovi Store Scheduled Maintence

Published
by
EricJohn
on September 22, 2009
in Ovi by Nokia
. 12 Comments

Hello Ovi Store Users,
Please be advised, this week Ovi Store will be conducting scheduled maintenance at the following times:
- Wednesday September 23rd at 8 PM EST the service will be unavailable for a few minutes.
- Thursday, September 24th at 8 PM EST the service will be unavailable for a bit longer.
We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience. We’ll resume Ovi Store service as soon as possible!
Best – Eric

Breaking: Odysseus tweets about Ovi Maps

Published
by
niini
on September 18, 2009
in Ovi by Nokia
. 5 Comments

Hi, everyone! My name is Niini, and I’ll be posting the next couple of Historical Ovi Tweets.

Madho started off with Charles Darwin (and Bob, of course), and I’ll continue with the tweet of my homeboy, the great Greek king and all-around busybody Odysseus. Fun fact: even though Odysseus was portrayed as a hero in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the Romans considered him a “cruel”, “villainous” and “deceitful” character (source). This may or may not be true, but we here at Ovi strongly believe that Odysseus could have easily been a bit testy once or twice because he didn’t have immediate access to Ovi Maps and this caused the personality clash with the Romans who are, of course, renowned for their sensitivity.

Don’t believe us? Check out this authentic tweet!

OVI_Twit_Odysseus_082809

As before, we encourage you to post your own ideas for Historical Ovi Tweets in the comments section or directly to madho (at) ovi (dot) com. We’d love to hear your suggestions!

Some Ovi fun with historical tweets

Published
by
madho
on September 15, 2009
in Ovi by Nokia
. 3 Comments

Here on the Ovi team, we love the web.  Some (like our product teams) say it’s because we spend all of our days online and working hard to make things that help people feel closer  to what they love.  Some (like my brother) say it’s because we are naturally in love with the web.  I agree with both of them, but also want to add– it doesn’t hurt that we get every meme in our mailbox:)

Since there are some of us (@ovibynokia , @madho) that tweet frequently, one of the memes that we’ve followed is #Historical Tweets (and we encourage you to enjoy their work)

we couldn’t resist making a few of our own:

darwin_HistoricalTweet_LowRes

But this is the only one I’ll share. :)   Samuli, in fact, used some of these in his work last week at Nokia World, in Stuttgart.

I also want to take a moment to introduce Niini, our talented colleague who dreamed up the idea.  Niini will be joining us from time to time to share some the terrific work that she’s doing, starting with many of the SFW tweets:)

Cheers

@madho

PS: feel free to post your own in the comments, and you can email us @ madho (at) ovi (dot) com  we’ll choose some of our favorites and repost/retweet them

Ovi SDK + you = Ovi Apps for everyone

Published
by
admin
on September 3, 2009
in Ovi by Nokia
. 14 Comments

 Hi- my name is Martin Ramsin– I’m in our Social Location team and am the product manager for the Ovi SDK, which we announced today at Nokia World in Stuttgart.

Ovi SDK is a developer toolkit we’ve been working on for the past year that exposes JavaScript APIs to Ovi Services on mobile. The Ovi SDK, available right now in beta, enables you to create contextual apps for Nokia devices, we call them Ovi apps.

The first APIs that are available are for mapping and navigation.  The Ovi Maps player API for web has been in beta for a few months and now we bring those to mobile. High level JavaScript APIs to vector based 3D maps, satellite pictures and a whole lot more. Map data is based on Navteq maps with best in class data and global coverage. And best of all, for you we make it both open and  free.  The Ovi Navigation player API introduces turn by turn navigation and routing APIs for pedestrian and car navigation.  Again, for you, free.

We call these Ovi APIs “players” because they are like media players: easy to embed in your web site, and now easy to use in your mobile app. With one line of code, your app can enable car navigation or pedestrian navigation to the destination.

The Ovi SDK is based on web technologies. With basic knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript, You can create Ovi apps for mobile and embed the Maps player in your web site. We have even gone one step further in the SDK by including a UI library for mobile devices that automatically scale to different device form factors.

The SDK itself is runs as a plugin in your Firefox (on PC) and Safari (on Mac) browser.

Ovi apps are contextual. What does that mean? It means that the apps put the user in the center. Literally. By using positioning APIs and time, the app can filter out information that is relevant for the user “right here, right now” without the need for even a search query.

The map is great for visually display large amount of data on small screens. With navigation, the Ovi Apps can bridge the virtual and real world by guiding the users to a location he or she has discovered.  

Ovi SDK is launched today as a developer preview (i.e. in an early beta) to get your feedback. Go to http://www.forum.nokia.com/ovi, apply for the beta program, join the conversation in the discussion boards and let us know what you think!

 Cheers from all of us on the team– we’re excted to see the amazing things that we know you will make! 

Martin

lifecasting with Ovi and Facebook

Published
by
madho
on September 3, 2009
in Ovi by Nokia
. 7 Comments

I have been very excited to be here at Nokia World in Stuttgart with my colleagues from Ovi.  Yesterday, we announced something that I’m incredibly excited about…lifecasting


This is what we hope is the next chapter of social networking – where we can combine aspects of our physical and online worlds. Ovi is happy to be the first to help you publish your location and status updates directly to your Facebook account from the home screen of your mobile phone. Lifecasting is designed to go beyond just publishing your status – it’s about building closer connections with people. We hope it will encourage new kinds of interactions.

Here’s how to lifecast:

1. Add the home screen widget: You can start lifecasting from the home screen of your Nokia N97. Simply download the widget and then add it to your home screen.

2. Select where you are: Your Nokia N97 detects your real life location via GPS/A-GPS or network positioning. You can share the street address of your location or a meaningful place from the nearby points of interest or a favorite place saved on your Ovi Maps Beta.

3. Enter your status: With lifecasting you can also let others know what you’re up to.

4. Attach a photo: To capture the moment and make it more memorable, you can take a photo and share it with friends.

5. Go to Facebook: Open your Facebook profile and see what you’re lifecasting. See if your friends have left comments and keep the conversation going.

Capture your life story as it happens. Download the Ovi lifecasting widget from Nokia Beta Labs at http://betalabs.nokia.com/betas/view/ovi-lifecasting

happy lifecasting!

madho