Virgin Mobile (the UK MVNO under Richard Branson’s Virgin Group) has launched an interesting summer promotion on S60 5th Edition handsets, in conjunction with Nokia, and it ties in with one of the largest summer music events - the V Festival. Branded editions of the Nokia X6 and 5230 are now available from the company, along with some rather nice software tweaks.

The X6v and the 5230v come with all the usual applications of the un-v’ed handsets (and the free GPS and navigation is highlighted, as you’d expect!), but by specifically targeting these handsets to festival goers, Virgin Mobile are increasing the value of the handset to V Festival attendees – let’s face it,  picking up an £80 phone for the weekend that you’d be happy to lose isn’t unknown, so why not get one tailored for the weekend in the 5230? And if you want something with more oomph and capability, then the X6 is ready to pick up the slack in the background.

With Shazam part of the firmware here, that’s an obvious app to highlight, although I wonder how well that will cope with live music from bands like The Divine Comedy with the whole crowd singing "My Lovely Horse"  alongside Neil Hannon.

Attention is also drawn to the Ovi Music Store, with new 5230v owners given ten free downloads from the store – more than enough to grab the highlights from your favourite band at the show. But how to find those bands? Well, that’s where the dedicated V Festival application comes in.

Also available through the Ovi Store (and we’ll take a closer look at this app nearer to the Festival), it’s a vast improvement on the java application the Festival team put together a few years ago, and should be more useful than picking up a programme on the day (and be thankful that Symbian is so frugal on your battery life!)

Bundling in information on the Festival, such as how to get there, where the bars are, when and who is playing, last minute changes to the line up, it should be much more interactive than a printed program. You’ll be able to build your own schedule of bands and events, tie this into the integrated map, and share what your plans are, while watching the Twitter and Facebook feeds the app pulls in.

At the moment, the application is in its first variant, and it will be built on over time, hence I'll be looking at it a little bit closer to late August, when V Festival is running – but if you’re planning to go, this is a smart bundle to look at.

-- Ewan Spence, June 2010.