Monthly Archives: April 2009

MONACO, Monte Carlo – 10 developers went head to head this week in a Calling All Innovators Hackathon event, to create a winning app in just 24 hours. Three finalists were chosen at the closing of the Nokia Developer Summit 2009 event yesterday but there could only be one winner.

With its Social Location Widget, Plusmo scooped the top prize of €15,000 and four weeks spotlight promotion in the Ovi Store, which launches next month. Inova IT and it’s Shoppy widget picked up the first runner-up prize, and with it €7,000 and three weeks of spotlight promotion. Taking the second runner up prize of €3,000 and two weeks promotion was PavingWays with their Travel Planner app.

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MEXICO – Only yesterday we saw the Nokia 5800 Comes With Music shake its hips for the first time on Brazilian soil, and now it’s official that the 5800 Comes With Music offering is hitting Mexico tomorrow, May 1st, exclusively through Telcel.

Read on for first details of the 5800 and Nokia’s all-you-can-devour music download service as they prepare to march into Mexico tomorrow. Plus, find out where it will be available and how easy it will be for people to download tunes on the move all across Mexico thanks to Telcel’s widespread 3G coverage.
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Having files spread between your phone and PC can be a pain, so Nokia nurtured Ovi Files into existence, enabling you to send files back home via your Nokia handset and grab items from the PC wherever they are, even when the PC at home is switched off.

The brilliance of Ovi Files hinges around Nokia’s Ovi Files Connector software, which lets the mobile tap into a PC from afar. The software can also sync important files from the PC to online storage provided by Nokia via a free sign-up and means you’ll always be able to access them.

With a choice of 10GB or 30GB there’s plenty of space for your Anytime Files, and the Files on Ovi Connector makes sure they’re always updated, and constantly available, whether the PC is switched on or not. Of course, you’re not limited to tapping into Ovi Files through your phone. If you can find another internet-connected PC, Nokia’s web-interface will let you browse files on the big screen too.

What we say

What they say

“You left a vital file on your work computer. Rather than smack your forehead and say, “D’oh!” you can use Nokia’s Files on Ovi to retrieve the files using your mobile phone… could be a lifesaver, depending on how forgetful you happen to be.”

Eric Zeman, informationweek.com

If you only do one thing

Try Anytime Files. It’ll let you sync your files to the web in a safe and secure way, and once you’ve got used to tapping into them from your phone you’ll never need to worry about copying them by hand again.

Miscellany

The philosophy of filing

The art of keeping files and being organized has puzzled some of the greatest thinkers of all time. Do you agree with their thoughts?

  • Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life – Immanuel Kant, philosopher.
  • I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them – Isaac Asimov, novelist.
  • Is not the whole world a vast house of assignation to which the filing system has been lost? – Quentin Crisp, writer.
  • If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into a committee – that will do them in. – Bradley’s Bromide.
  • Poor fellow, he suffers from files. – Aneurin Bevan, politician.

GLOBAL – “We just put it up there, and more than a quarter of a million people signed up”. So said Purnima Kochikar, director of consumer messaging at Nokia, in a speech to developers this morning at the Nokia Developer Summit in Monaco. And that’s just in four months, with little or no marketing behind the service.

Ovi Mail is designed as a consumer email service where the users don’t need to access a PC to set up an account – the whole thing can be done right there on the device. And it shows too, as the service was designed mostly for those of us who don’t have ready access to a computer, and aims to help the other part of the world to get online and connected. The result? 10 of the top 12 countries using the service are emerging markets.

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SAO PAULO, Brazil -The Nokia 5800, with Comes With Music close in tow, has grown into something bigger than perhaps anyone could imagine it would have become, with already over 3 million sold (and could possibly become the most popular device in Nokia’s history as OPK explained last week). Today marks another milestone, as the 5800 Comes With Music has now officially set foot of the sandy shores of Brazil.

We took stock of the achievements of Comes With Music last month (read more), a service that has become inextricably linked to the poster-child 5800 (though by no means exclusively, with CWM available on the N95 8GB and other XpressMusic devices). And it’s no secret that here on Conversations we’re fans of the service, so we’re really pleased to see it hit the home of samba – both Charlie and I are half Brazilian, which sort of makes the Conversations team a quarter Brazilian! But I digress. Read on to find out more about the 5800 Comes With Music in Brazil, along with details of how you can get hold of it and full details on the local Brazilian record labels that are now available via Comes With Music.
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The world’s first all-you-can-eat (and keep forever) download service for mobile phones blitzed its way to Nokia handsets in 2008, initially giving new owners of the Nokia N95 8GB and Nokia 5310 access to unlimited music downloads in the shape of Comes With Music.

The Nokia N96 joined the ranks of Comes With Music handsets shortly afterwards, bringing its roomy 16GB of built-in storage and letting music lovers carry over 3,500 songs in their pockets and download new tracks on the go.

As soon as it launched, Comes With Music ruffled the feathers of rival music services, since Nokia had support from all four major music labels, and tons of indie labels too, which it continues to grow. That meant the entire top 40 was available, as well as armfuls of back catalogue tracks, from day one. Comes With Music was an instant wave-maker, and put Nokia firmly in the entertainment, as well as mobile phone, business.

What we say

If you only do one thing

Slot a bigger memory card in your Comes With Music handset. You won’t be able to resist the temptation of downloading more tracks than your phone can hold in its internal memory, but by installing a bigger microSD card you’ll upgrade the storage and, hey-presto, it’ll be able to carry more songs.

What they say

“Audiophiles thought Christmas had downloaded early with news that Nokia Comes with Music is now available… we’re impressed”
Rhiain Morgan, T3.com

Miscellany

The lowdown on downloads

Music downloads aren’t just handy, they’re the future of the record industry, and Nokia Comes With Music is right at the forefront of the revolution. Here are a few facts about the biggest change to music since the wax cylinder:

Downloads in the charts…
Downloaded music sales were recognised by the charts in September 2004, and are now included in the overall UK Charts, along with other media. – The Official Charts

The soaring popularity of music downloads…
A third of all music purchases were made online in 2008 – Yahoo Finance

The power of music downloads…
Lil Wayne’s Lollipop was the best selling download of 2008, shifting 9.1 million copies online. Coldplay’s Viva La Vida beat it to the overall number one slot, but included high street CD sales. – IFPI

The future of Comes With Music…
Analysts expect unlimited music download services to balloon, with a whopping 2.1 billion tracks downloaded through the likes of Nokia Comes With Music. – Music Ally

How much music could you download?
Comes With Music lets you download as much as you like for up to 18 months. Since the average track takes around 30 seconds to download, we make that over 1.5 million tracks you could download for free!