Nokia's Download! system, integrated into every S60 device, has finally had one of my long-standing bugbears fixed. Never mind that the whole thing is now seemingly administered by Jamster  (explaining all the '1 of 3' 'costs' listed throughout some of the app pages), the core 'Applications' section now has freeware marked as '0' (i.e. costs nothing), while trialware and demos now appear, less misleadingly (they used to say '0' too), as 'Try for free'. There's also the new 'Payment in application', in readiness for Ovi. See below.

The extra methods and payment options seem to set the scene for Ovi, of course - we're expecting that, in just under two weeks time, Download! will change dramatically on compatible devices to show a prominent icon to download an Ovi store client (akin to Apple's App Store program). This is likely to initially be made available for S60 3rd Edition feature Pack 2 and S60 5th Edition phones, though (famously) the N97 will be the first phone to ship with the client preinstalled. S60 3rd Edition FP1 phones that are compatiable with the Ovi Store client include the Nokia E63, E66 and E71. Other S60 3.1 devices and all Nokia S60 3.0 devices will be supported via an XHTML mobile site.

Steve Litchfield