Understanding where Ovi Store is coming from

GLOBAL – Mosh is closing. Although this is news to some, it was actually announced back at Mobile World Congress, though in a less obvious form. This from the official press release at Mobile World Congress “The Ovi Store will consolidate the best experiences from the current content services including Download!, MOSH and WidSets to a single channel”. Mosh has been around for a couple of years now and by all accounts has been pretty successful. It was pretty revolutionary when it launched (still is, I reckon) in enabling users to create and share all sorts of content (it’s the all sorts, which seems to be exciting some people). The decision to take the best of Mosh, along with the best of Download! and WidSets and merge it all into one place is a solid one. Why maintain three or four services when you can get one to do the whole lot better.

INTERNATIONAL – I must admit, the difference between Widgets and WidSets had been baffling me for a while. This was compounded when I recently visited the new Widgets.Nokia.com site, clicked on the ‘download widgets’ icon and spotted that the URL had changed to a Widsets address. Point is, I totally appreciate why there has been some confusion over this, fairly voiced by a bunch of people including Symbian Guru.

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Mobile advertising evolves. Good, bad or indifferent?

CANNES, France – Until somewhat recently our mobiles have been hermitic little creatures untainted by advertising, both high impact or viral (other than your network’s name being emblazoned somewhere across your menu screen of course). But with mobile Internet use mushrooming, our little screens have begun to witness the tendrils of temptation creep in. Plus, with online apps such as WidSets now actively encouraging ad slots in a different sort of environment, our intake of mobile advertising is becoming far more significant and less manageable to control. Virtual shopping trolleys at the ready people!

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WidSets update shouts about being social

INTERNATIONAL – If you’re new to Widsets, the concept is dead simple. Basically WidSets is a smart little mobile app that lives on your phone, and goes about distilling your favourite sites and web content in the form of visual bite-size widgets that are simple to collect and navigate. The idea is that you can collect them, share and even create your own, and there are well around 5,700 out there.

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Fresh gaming possibilities for emerging markets

INTERNATIONAL- N-Gage might be stealing the mobile gaming limelight, but it turns out that new videogame horizons could stretch far beyond high-spec wireless mobile multiplayer action.

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Nokia beta Labs – what happens next?

ESPOO, Finland – With new mobile devices becoming ever more capable (think N95 with personal navigation, 5-megapixel camera and a multitude of other audio and video talents) they need to be fed with ever more complex applications.