One of the key features of the Ovi Store is that of discovery and recommendation – something that will become even more powerful (than you can possibly imagine, tm. every bad movie I've ever been in). In the last week, browsing the Ovi Store, I've come across some new (to me) applications and lots of indications that the the Store is “more than just apps” and will prove to be one of the most useful resources to developers and consumers alike. So what delights have I found? Read on....
Facebook for Nokia
To be honest, the dearth of Facebook applications on S60 has been a puzzling one, especially given the relatively high number of those made for Twitter. Perhaps that's because Facebook is seen as a 'lesser' network by developers; perhaps the mobile website was enough; or perhaps it wasn't sexy enough. In any case Nokia have now released a Facebook widget for the S60 platform (currently 5th Edition only, but sure to make its way down to 3rd Edition, I think) and it's available through the Ovi Store.
It might not be as slick as it could be, but it provides both a clear and easy interface to Facebook, and also shows how the Ovi Store can be used for a single application to reach out to the mainstream. With ease of discovery and ease of installation (compared to going via a computer and having the user play with SISx files), this is how it should be done.
Speed Racer - Video Series
One of the intriguing possibilities of the Ovi Store is to act as a marketplace for audio and video products. By providing a place for people to discover content and more importantly pay the creator (or the company that licences the content for mobile), Ovi could be a key revenue generator of podcasters and short film makers right up to the team behind Britain's Got Talent and their popular clips from the show.
The anime series Speed Racer (or Mach Go Go Go, deepening on where you get your translation) may have inspired a motion picture last year, but the first six episodes of the original series are available to download through the video section of the store. And you can be sure that the video file will play on your device! I also love the note that "this is a larger than normal file (31MB) so check your data plan first"!
Handwriting Calculator by Nokia Beta Labs
And of course Nokia can use the Ovi Store to get some more visibility to their frankly wonderful Beta Labs products – applications that could make the grade in later versions of S60 (or given the lead time, more realistically the Symbian Foundation OS), that all deserve the beta tag but are rather good in their own right. Handwriting Calculator, obviously for the 5th Gen touchscreen devices, allows you to use your stylus (or fingernail!) to scrawl down a sum, and the handwriting recognition engine will work out the sum, even with complicated divisions, factors and brackets.
A nice piece of work, and even with Nokia's warning that (being beta) it may change at any time, or even disappear, it's still worth the free download.
Universe Theme and Icons
The Ovi Store is not just for applications, though. It is a true multimedia store, so expect to find lots of themes, wallpapers and ringtones if you go looking for them. One of the theme packs that has been doing well in the first week or so is the “Universe” theme. I've always liked the idea that all icons are in a “round button” style – for which I blame Palm OS, by the way - and Universe takes that idea and runs with it.
Ringtones, via SMS and MMS delivery, are still big business, and wallpapers are also part of that eco-system. There's a huge vein of consumers out there that are looking for these customisation options for their phone. It's a shame the Ovi Store doesn't have a way of doing a full preview of a theme on your phone, because £3 for a theme pack is still a hefty line item on your mobile phone bill.
Mippin
We've looked at Mippin a couple of times before on All About Symbian (here's the review of the full service). Rather than take a full web page of a site and transcode it to a simpler layout for a smartphone screen, Mippin takes the RSS feed of the site and formats it as a regular web page – yes it's a lightweight feed reader, but it avoids the perceived complexity and gets you 'just the information' as quickly as possible. While the S60 browser could cope with many sites), the S40 browsers need to use their screen estate with a little bit more frugality – and there's something nice about getting just a block of text on S60 with little scrolling around the screen.
Reuters Picture News
And if text isn't your thing, then Reuters Picture News browser will make a nice little change. Taking the approach of a slideshow that runs on your phone, bringing up pictures of the latest headlines with short text available behind the press of a button, the Reuters Picture news is different to looking at a site such as BBC News, makes best use of your screen, and you can leave it to 'play back' while it sits on your desk – might want to plug in the charger though!
Bejeweled and Bejeweled Twist
And then there's the gaming side of Ovi, and there's rather a lot of it (so much so that you might want to bookmark our re-branded site, www.ovigaming.com). Expect games to be some of the top downloads in the store, and Bejeweled Twist is going to be a top performer. It's an update from the original Bejewelled game by PopCap games, and in this version the Twist is that rather than exchanging adjacent tiles on the game grid to make 3, 4 or 5 in a row of the same tiles (and thus making them disappear) you twist a 2x2 group of tiles clockwise or anti-clockwise, again to make a line of similar tiles. It's simple and addictive, and is just enough of an update to make it value for money even if you have already purchased the original.
-- Ewan Spence, June 2009.