Tag Archive for ‘apps’ at Ovi blog

Tag Archive for 'apps'

Share the Love with Ovi!

Published

on March 16, 2010

. 0 Comments

Do you tweet? It’s amazing how the simple act of texting out a few words about what you’re doing (I just opened my soda. Refreshing!) make it seem so much more important. Twitter has turned my ordinary everyday life into a global media event (that people follow!). Whenever I get something new from Store, I tweet about it of course, and people often reply “I want that too! Where can I get it?” So, with that in mind we created this nifty Twitter widget that tweets when you get a cool new app for your phone from Store. It is broadcast multitasking at its best!

You can also share the widget easily on, for example, your own blog or Facebook profile by clicking ‘Share this Widget’. Easy!

So check out the widget right here and try it out. It’s really something to tweet about.

-Eric

Open Screen Project Fund: Get your idea published at Ovi

Published

Udo Szabo

on March 15, 2010

in Ovi by Nokia and Store

. 0 Comments

Hello Web Developers!

My name is Udo Szabo and I work with the Ovi & web developer offering at Nokia. I spend a big part of my days to understand how the web and mobility evolve and the opportunities this brings for developers, publishers and local businesses to connect people in new and better ways.

If you think about amazing web experiences, Adobe Flash is the first that comes to mind. This is why Nokia teamed up with Adobe last year on the Open Screen Project Fund.

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The Open Screen Project is a 10 USD million development fund that offers grants to any developer and publisher who want to create amazing apps based on Flash technologies. These apps will run on Nokia devices, as well as desktops and other consumer electronics. At Nokia we have been busy getting more than 300 million Flash-enabled devices in the hands of consumers up to date, and with the increasing appetite for apps we believe that this is a great opportunity. Connecting developers, publishers and consumers through amazing apps is the goal of the Open Screen Project Fund.

With 12 months into the project we are happy to tell you that the response has been great. To date, over 60 grants were given to developers on six continents, which resulted in a flow of new apps, available in the Store today. The apps range from large global publishers like CNN and Reuters to small, local companies like Eros International from India who received funding for a fantastic app called Eros Bollywood.

The Eros Bollywood video app cleverly combines the rich media capabilities of Flash with the flexible formatting capabilities of web technologies into a spectacular experience. Now millions of Bollywood fans have easy access to exclusive videos including trailers, behind the scenes footage, interviews with the biggest stars, and clips from the latest Bollywood movies. The app works best with Nokia touch devices like the X6 or N97 mini, and is available for free in the Store – check out the preview below!

The Open Screen Project Fund will continue to support Flash developers large and small around the world until December 2010. So if you have an idea or even a first prototype make sure to visit the fund’s website.

This is just one of the activities we will have for Web developers this year. Join us today and shape the conversation @OviDeveloper on Twitter.

-Udo

Skype for Symbian app now available in Store

Published

Niini

on March 10, 2010

in Ovi by Nokia and Store

. 4 Comments

I remember when I studied in Austria for a semester a couple of years back. Wie geht’s, everyone! I realized quite quickly (namely, after my first 100 € phone bill) that I can’t keep calling my parents in Finland via my phone all the time, which is when I discovered the joys of Skype. Unfortunately, back then you were tied to your laptop and headphones if you wanted to make calls via Skype, which basically meant you had to schedule a time when both of you would be sitting by the computer, waiting for the metaphorical phone to ring. I mean, that’s like using a landline! Ew!

But, fortunately the times are a-changing again: just last week Skype and Nokia announced the fruit of their joint venture, the Skype for Symbian app that is now available for absolutely free download in Store. The Skype app will allow more than 200 million Nokia smartphone users worldwide to use Skype on the move, over either a WiFi or mobile data connection (GPRS, EDGE, 3G).

But what does this mean, exactly? Well, just that you can now… SkypeFrontSQ-192x192_

- Make free Skype-to-Skype calls to other Skype users pretty much anywhere in the world
- Save some serious dough on calls and texts (SMS) to phones abroad
- Send and receive instant messages to and from individuals or groups
- Share pictures, videos and other files
- See when Skype contacts are online and available to call or IM
- Easily import names and numbers from the phone’s address book

The Skype app is revolutionary because, like Russ Shaw, General Manager, Mobile at Skype, put it: “Making Skype [for Symbian] available directly to consumers will help millions of users keep in contact with the people that are important to them without worrying about the cost, distance or whether they are away from a computer.”

The initial Skype for Symbian application is compatible with the following Nokia touchscreen models: Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia X6, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Nokia 5530 and the following non-touch devices: Nokia E72, Nokia E71, Nokia E90, Nokia E63, Nokia E66, Nokia E51, Nokia N96, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8Gb, Nokia N85, Nokia N82, Nokia N81, Nokia N81 8 Gb, Nokia N79, Nokia N78, Nokia 6220 classic, Nokia 6210 Navigator and Nokia 5320.

So head over to Store right now to download the free Skype application for your Nokia device! Also, for more information on Skype for Symbian, including the latest supported handset list, see http://www.skype.com/go/symbian.

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Get into the Winter Sports Spirit with Ovi

Published

Niini

on February 25, 2010

in Ovi by Nokia and Promotions

. 0 Comments

Greetings to all you winter-sports-fanatics out there!

We hope you’re enjoying the Vancouver winter Olympics. I know I am, since Finns just got their first (silver, but still!) medal last week! Congrats to snowboarder Peetu Piiroinen! And since we’re talking about snowboarding (phew, thank goodness it wasn’t curling that got us the first medal, because that would have made my story transition real hard), I’d like to tell you about our Oakley promotion and Powder Mountain competition, both of which I’m pretty stoked about!

Oakley_735x278

First off, shoop-shoop-shoop over to our promotions page at Ovi.com/promotions and take a look at the content we have gathered for you guys. In addition to sweet winter sports apps, ringtones, and themes from Store, we have exclusive Tweets, pictures and videos from snowboarders such as Gretchen Bleiler and Shaun White.

Also, since right about now you probably wish you were on a gorgeous, snowy mountaintop as well, fear not! We have a contest up where you can win a trip to Canada’s Powder Mountain, complete with flights, accommodation and Cat Skiing passes. Being a Nokia employee, I can’t participate, but don’t worry about me, I’m having plenty of fun, uh, walking to work:

Finnish Winter

Apps for the Office Life…

Published

Mike Man

on February 23, 2010

in Ovi by Nokia and Store

. 1 Comment

Here in the Vancouver Nokia office, we happen to be quite a fun-loving group. Most of our Games team has been based here for the last few years, and now quite a few of us from the Store are also based here.

If you’ve ever worked in an office, you know that generally it has a sort of library mentality where we keep our voices down and if you get too loud you cover your mouth and duck with embarassment. An implicit rule of thumb that may be too implicit for some (although now there have been quite a few sudden cheers here in our office with the Olympics going on practically next door). Every office does have its loud group/team etc., and in my case it’s my boss. Aside from his random 19th Century British cultural references, 80’s rap music allusions, and inexplicable meowing (yes, like a cat..), his bursts of laughter can be heard across the floor. And such, we’ve decided to have fun with this.

My cube-mates and I have started a pool for a buck each, to count how many times a day we hear the bursts of laughter. We took a Nokia 5230 touch device, went to Store and installed Counter Touch (a simple 2EUR app that does what the name implies), BackLight (a 1EUR app that keeps your device from sleeping), and plugged it in so we could keep it running all day. We placed the device in the middle wall of our four cubes so that whoever hears that burst of laughter first can just tap the counter. Makes for some good times a la the Store!

The count so far for the past 3 days are 11, 2 and 16. Our pool starts at 20 so we have all grossly over-estimated.

Now every time my boss laughs we all get excited reaching for the buzzer. Suppose it isn’t cheating if we go tell him jokes, especially ones with Cockney slang, Flava Flav, and felines. Wonder if he’ll catch wind of this post…

Gotta enjoy the simpler things in office life.

-Mike

CounterTouch

Get ready for Valentine’s Day with the Romance Channel

Published

Niini

on February 13, 2010

in Ovi by Nokia and Store

. 2 Comments

Hi guys! Now that Valentine’s Day is getting close, we’d like to tell you about this wonderful channel we created specifically in Store that is just perfect to start off your Feb 14th celebrations. It’s called the Romance Channel, and you can find it here.

The channel contains content such as romantic Lonely Planet city guides from Florence, Las Vegas, London, Rome, New York and, of course, Paris (at a mere €3 a pop) and lovey-dovey wall papers, themes, games and more!

Staff favorites include the (free) Pico Fireplace Lite, Lonely Planet Rome City guide and the Heart in Joy wallpaper. What are your favorites?

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!!

-Niini

Introducing the Nokia Gig Finder app!

Published

Steven Stewart

on February 6, 2010

in Music and Ovi by Nokia

. 4 Comments

Hi, it’s Steven from the Music team here. We have a cool new music app called “Gig Finder” that I would like to introduce to you. Whether you are the ultimate music fan or if you are just looking for something to do, Gig Finder helps you find the best music entertainment near you. Search for concerts and live shows, purchase tickets directly from your mobile and get relevant recommendations based on your personal music tastes and location.

Download the app for free here

Screenshot0177 Whether it’s international music starts or upcoming buzzmakers, the Gig Finder brings you smart recommendations and helps you find all the information you need to get the best tickets for music events right from your phone. The Gig Finder will also fetch you the directions to the event with a direct link from Maps and allow you to share the information about the gig to Facebook or via SMS or email. Events link directly to the artist pages in Nokia Music Store / Ovi Music (when available in your country) so you can preview or download music before or after seeing your favourite artists live.

The first release of Gig Finder includes information about gigs in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Ireland.

So, for example, if I were dying to see where Rihanna is performing in those countries, this is what I would do

1. Type in the name of the artist

2. Leave the country and dates blank if I want to see all results.

3. Select SEARCH.

4. Look through the results and choose the venue and date you want.

5. Compare prices and seats and buy tickets directly from your phone.

6. Click MAPS to get directions to the venue.

7. Under the ARTIST tab, click GO TO STORE to get music from the artist to prepare you for the concert.

8. Select the STAR icon to Add to Profile so you can get automatic notifications about this artist and help Gig Finder learn your music tastes for smarter recommendations.

Also, remember that we will continue to develop and enhance the Gig Finder based on your feedback, so please let us know of any improvements you would like to see to make it even easier to bring you closer to the music and artists you love.

Gig Finder works with Nokia devices based on S60 5th Edition: N97, N97 mini, X6, 5800, 5530 & 5230.

Cheers,
Steven

PS. Gig Finder will also be available at the Store soon!

Free Apps for January

Published

William Tepfenhardt

on January 25, 2010

in Ovi by Nokia and Store

. 7 Comments

If you are like me, January is always a difficult month. Between the weather and the post-holiday doldrums, it definitely takes a toll on you, but it shouldn’t have to be so difficult! That is why the kind folks at Polarbit and Store have decided to offer 4 free games for a limited time. Plenty of gaming fun to keep you busy at home, school or at the office (which is what keeps me entertained during those long wintery days in Helsinki). Get them for your Nokia 5800, N97, N97 Mini, X6, 5230 or 5530.

With Armageddon Squadron go back to WWII and climb aboard some of the best known aircraft from the era and go through bombing raids and dogfights against your enemies. No one ever gets tired of great car racing games, and Raging Thunder keeps the thrills going with some great 3D racing. Wave Blazer takes you to the oceans with a four-thousand horsepower engine which will leave you breathless as you glide over the water at high speeds. Can’t get enough of playing first person shooters at home on your consoles? Well what would be better than taking it on the go with Toon Warz!

wave blazer.png All these games can also be played Multiplayer (Beta) over WLAN, so enjoy the competition against your friends.

Go to Store now to get them for your mobile!

Magical apps (captured on film)

Published

Eric

on January 20, 2010

in Ovi by Nokia and Store

. 2 Comments

Known for combining realistic and magical elements in his music videos for bands like The Fray and Bloc Party, director Hiro Murai now brings his creative powers to the world of apps available on Store. In our brand new Store video (below), towns and cities emerge from the earth and become connected, a quizzical robot discovers the power of citizen journalism and a cuckoo takes flight with its urgent tweets. In Murai’s world, apps like Facebook, Qik and Gravity become immersive, sensory experiences.

The goal of this video is straightforward, as told by Nokia Senior Marketing Manager, John Bartleson: “We want to get people excited about all the amazing things they can do with their Nokia by using the great content available through Store”. And no doubt they will after this video makes its way around the internet.

Have a look for yourself and post your thoughts below.

Enjoy!

- Ovi Store Team

Scheduled Store maintenance Thurs Eve 12/17

Published

Eric

on December 16, 2009

in Ovi by Nokia and Store

. 17 Comments

Dear Store Users,
We’ll be making some updates to the Store this week that will require us to take the service offline for a short while Thursday evening 12/17 at 7 PM EST. The Store will be offline for roughly three hours.

Again, we appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience. We’ll resume the service as soon as possible.

Sincerely, the Store Team

InnOviate competition winners announced!

Published

Niini

on November 27, 2009

in Just For Fun, Ovi by Nokia and Promotions

. 7 Comments

We asked you to do something innOviative (see what I did there?) with apps available on Store and boy did you guys deliver! That’s right: the long-awaited InnOviate competition winners have been announced, and here they are! Drumrolls, please.

The winner is Timothy Jeffcoat who mixed the Strobe Touch app on his Nokia 5800 XpressMusic with some big balloons and some even bigger beats to create a cool coloured light show. Simple but effective, eh?

Timothy wins a Nokia N900 and a Nokia N97 mini.

Our runner-up Tanapruk Tangphianphan took the Nokia Handwriting Calculator app and added a TV using a video-out cable. The result? An improvised maths tutorial, complete with an interactive whiteboard to capture and display calculations.

Tanapruk wins a Nokia N97.

Our other runner-up, Sergio Silva came up with an ingenious treasure hunt that brought in a whole collection of apps, including SMS Preview, Ovi Maps, UpCode, Nokia Magnifier, and YouTube.

Sergio wins a Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905.

Congratulations to all our winners and a big thank you to everyone who submitted their work!

A couple of more days left on InnOviate competition!

Published

Niini

on November 4, 2009

in Ovi by Nokia and Promotions

. 4 Comments

Have you already submitted your potentially prize-winning entry to the InnOviate competition? If not, then get on it STAT! If you don’t yet know what this InnOviate thing is all about, here’s a quick lowdown:

So basically we want you to grab a friend to hold the camera (or whatever needs holding), make a video, photo, recording, blog post etc. on you using (or misusing!) an app, ringtone, wallpaper or anything you can find in Store in an innovative way and submit your entry here.

You have until Friday November 6th 2009, so be quick! The prizes for the winning entry are pretty good too… you get to choose two items from the following products: Nokia N97, Nokia N97 Mini, Nokia N900 and Nokia BH-905!

Get creative!

Redownload for Store: Easier to Restore Lost Content to Your Nokia Device

Published

michael bramlage

on October 28, 2009

in Ovi by Nokia and Store

. 26 Comments

I’m pleased to share the news that we’ve made redownloading of premium content available for Store users. Redownloading is as simple as it sounds – it lets Ovi Store users, who previously purchased and downloaded content to their device, to redownload, recover, and restore the content in the event that something happens to it. Think of it as content insurance.

Every day, millions of users from more than 180 countries, using a wide range of Nokia devices have discovered, purchased, and downloaded cool new apps and games, like Shazam, Gravity, and Pac-Man (my personal favorite) from the Store. They use these apps and games to enhance their lives—to discover new music, to stay in touch with their friends and followers, or to simply entertain themselves and pass the time by playing a classic arcade game. However, as with any digital content, there is the risk of loss or breakage. Was the file downloaded properly? Did you lose your network connection while downloading? Was the content accidentally deleted? Did a software update render the content incompatible? Did you reset your device? All of these events can occur, and can make it challenging for you to enjoy the wide range of apps, games, ringtones, podcasts, and video clips from Ovi Store.

With this latest Store release, we’ve added a simple way for you to restore content that you purchased and downloaded through Store to your device. We take very seriously the fulfillment of content that is acquired through the Store, and while we can’t prevent certain events that may cause damage or the loss of content, we can make it easier for you to re-acquire it. Please watch this short tutorial below to learn more about how to redownload previously purchased content.

As the tutorial explains, if you use the Store through our mobile client application, you’ll be required to upgrade to the newest version on S60 devices—look for version 1.5(387) or higher—and on Series 40 devices—look for version 1.6.1 or higher—to take advantage of redownloading. The latest version of Ovi store for S60 devices is rolling out now while the Series 40 version will begin rolling out at the end of this week. If you receive a prompt to update your client, please accept it!

If you shop the Store through our mobile web site at store.ovi.com on your Nokia mobile browser, the feature is enabled today.

And regardless of how you shop the Store, we will honor purchases made before this new version, so if you purchased the BlockGO game in August and it didn’t download properly, give it another shot by visiting the My Stuff section of the store.

We hope content redownloading will improve the way you use and enjoy content acquired through the Store by providing a simple, easy, and no-hassle way to make you and your content whole again.

- Michael

PS: We also updated our search experience, making it easier to access what you’re looking for across our entire content catalog. We highly value your feedback, so let us know what you think.

Where 2.0: Opening up Ovi

Published

Aapo Bovellan

on May 21, 2009

in Ovi by Nokia

. 14 Comments

Since the launch of Ovi by Nokia, we have emphasized that we want Ovi to be open for developers. We took the first step recently by opening Ovi Store for developers and publishers of all types of content: apps, themes, videos and more at publish.ovi.com. The development community has been busy ever since submitting amazing content.

Today in Where 2.0, San Jose, we are announcing another significant step: we are beginning to open up one of our hottest properties, Ovi Maps, to developers. With the introduction of the Ovi Maps Player API developers can bring Ovi Maps to their websites, complete with cutting edge features such as 3D view, satellite and terrain views and customizable visuals. The Ovi Maps Player can also be mashed up with content from other services, such as the terrific content from the Associated Press.

To give you an idea of what the Ovi Maps Player API does, we produced a short video of the cool things you can do, along with first hands-on experiences from some of our truly innovative partners – Lonely Planet and AKQA.

We are opening up Ovi in a very deliberate way. We want to provide functionality that is uniquely useful, but also delivered in a way that’s easy to develop with and well polished. For this reason we begin with an invitation based beta for Ovi Maps Player. This is just the first step of many.

Also, today we are joining forces with our friends at Forum Nokia, launching a permanent, Ovi specific section in Forum Nokia – www.forum.nokia.com/ovi. This will become the home base for all developer resources, news and supports related to Ovi.

Join us in building Ovi – for developers.

- Aapo Bovellan

Ovi blog