And Social Messaging beta for Nokia Messaging

Sep 2, 2009 13:38 GMT  ·  By

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia announced a wide range of novelties today at the Nokia World 09 in Stuttgart, Germany. Among them, we already spotted three new mobile phones, the Nokia N97 mini, Nokia X6 and Nokia X3, yet there are other things that should be mentioned too, such as Ovi lifecasting, Ovi Maps beta for S60 5th Edition and Social Messaging beta for Nokia Messaging.

The new Ovi lifecasting feature introduced today enables users to share their location with their Facebook friends. An Ovi lifecasting widget is also available for download, offering fast access to the new feature directly from the handset's home screen. The Nokia N97 mini is set to come with the new functionality included right from the start, while the Nokia N97 users need to install the new software on their handsets.

As for the new Beta version of Ovi Maps for S60 5th Edition (touch devices), it comes with touch access to a range of new content and services. According to the Nokia Beta Labs, the new services are aimed mainly at the user's location and surroundings. Among the novelties, we can count a new one-box search, a Favorites option, synchronization of favorite places with Ovi, and enhanced personalization when it comes to the maps.ovi.com experience.

Other new features have been included as well, such as text-to-speech for Drive, the car navigation service, and voice guidance for Walk. Moreover, both services now feature voice instructions including street names during navigation. Not to mention the weather forecasts that Ovi Maps Beta delivers, or the Events feature.

Nokia Messaging, the already highly popular service, now sports Social Messaging beta. The new client comes as a preview release at the moment, and its features list shows a contextual homescreen widget, support for the Nokia N97 and Nokia 6700 classic, or the possibility to post thoughts and photos from the camera or gallery, to share the current location or view friends’ location.

“This new client is the start of what will become the multi-community social networking client. As a part of Nokia Messaging, we expect operators to offer email, IM and in the future, mobile social networking all for one fixed low price. If you aren’t using the email or IM with Nokia Messaging, be sure to visit the email site and the E75 IM Beta to set up email and IM on your Nokia device. We continue to add support for more devices and communities in all parts of Nokia Messaging,” is what the Nokia Messaging team stated.