The whole point of the Nokia launch party at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town was to celebrate and introduce Nokia OVI to the South African crowd. Nokia OVI is an innovative tool and solution to keeping you in touch with your world — all from your cellphone.

Nokia have always stood out as making tough and reliable phones, but phones do get stolen, lost or dropped in the ocean on booze cruises. This is where Nokia OVI shines, so let’s take a look at a few of the features:

OVI for contacts:

You can sync your calendar and contacts on OVI, and you will see this updated information whether you access OVI from your mobile or your PC. Your calendar and contacts can be backed up on OVI, so if you lose your phone — never fear, all that information is not lost. On OVI you can add, edit and track your contacts, appointments and to do lists. When you edit this information online, it’s a simple process to update this information to your mobile.

Share on OVI:

We often take photos on our mobiles and just keep them there where they don’t get seen. Now with OVI, you simply take a photo on your mobile, then access OVI from your mobile and you can share all your photos and videos with friends and family. The storage on OVI is free and unlimited, so you can access all your media from one place. You can access your media from your PC, mobile or Mac.

Another great feature is that you can share your media with just one person, or a group, or you can make it available to the entire world. The choice lies in your hands.

OVI Files:

You can now use your phone to access files on your PC when you just can’t be at your PC. Photos, videos, audio, Office documents and Adobe PDF files can be accessed while you are on the move.

All of this is great but what phone to use? The Nokia N96 is the all in one tool incorporating a 5 megapixel camera so you never have to see those grainy images again, like you did with the first camera phones. It also has a massive 16GB memory. Check out the Nokia N96 by clicking here. Also look out for the Nokia 8500 touch screen phone in South Africa next year.

I had a play around with it at the Nokia launch party and it’s quite something.

I really think Nokia have launched a fabulous product here and it’s something that is going to get much bigger once everyone is using compatible phones. Now if Nokia would be so kind as to send me an N96 we can do a proper test session!

Click here and take a browse around OVI by Nokia, signing up is free.

Sean Lloyd

Editor