The invitation is open to everyone so if you’d like to come and join, bring your friends! We’ll be meeting at Seven Dials near Covent Garden at 2:00pm sharp. The tour should last no longer than a couple of hours and at the end of the tour, there’ll be a few drinks put aside at a secret London bar…

You’ll be able to follow everything that’s going on whilst the tour is happening (as well as about the competition) through the tweets from @nokia_connects and by following the hashtag #nokiamaps. Hope you can make it!

In other news, for the phase II Mapstronaut competition, we’ve had entries flying in from all over the world (literally, some places that I’ve never heard of) during the time period of December 6 to December 14, 7pm Berlin time. A big thank you to everyone who took part in the competition – you’ve all played an amazing part in the story of Nokia Maps, helping us populate some of the world’s most amazing hidden places so that when you’re on holiday, you’ll be able to find all the best local spots that no one else knows about!

From today evening, two entries from each category will be hosted on the Nokia Maps blog. You will then get the chance to vote for your favorite entry. On the Thursday 22^nd after 8 days of voting, the entry with the most votes will be deemed the WINNER and will take home the €1000 to spend at their suggestion.

I’m going to start with Socially, which is one of those apps that just continues to mature and become more sophisticated with each new release from the developers at Antarix. As I noted in a recent review in the Ovi Daily App, “Socially packs a lot of goodies into its neat and well-organized package of social media information sharing.”

Socially is set up so you can easily sync it with your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Foursquare accounts. You can enable any of those four services in just a few steps by allowing those services to be accessed by the Socially application. You will have to do this individually for each service, but once you set it up, you’re good to go.

Then, whenever you have something to say, or Tweet, or post to your wall, one comment does it all. From the home screen of Socially, click on the icon for the speech bubble, and you will have a prompt to “Say something” – and below that text-input box you will see that all of the services you have enabled will be checked, so you can post to any or all four of those services at once. You can also add your location to your updates, if you want. In all honesty, I am just beginning to explain what this app can do – for the full details, take a look at the review. Socially is free to download in Store, and it works with a broad range of Nokia Symbian smartphones.

What’s that? You’re addicted to IM? Well, in that case you need WhatsApp Messenger. This app makes it possible for you to have instant message conversations with anyone else that also has the app installed – even among your friends that don’t happen to have Nokia devices (yes, there are some folks out there who use other types of devices!) – you know the ones I mean.

And, unlike other apps for IM chatting that you will find, WhatsApp does not require that you connect it to other IM-style accounts like AIM, or Yahoo Messenger. You conduct all of the chats directly from the WhatsApp client. As long as you and your chatting friend both have the app installed, you’re good to go. It is really very smart thinking.

WhatsApp is free for the first year, and available for download in Store. After the first year, the service costs $1.99 (USD) per year. The app is compatible with most Nokia Symbian OS smartphones – there is a list on the WhatsApp website.

Finally – for today – let’s consider one more free app that packs a punch, and that is Snaptu. This mobile app offers one-click access to a wide range of social media sharing sites and tools, but it also provides access to a handy catalog of other web-based services, as well as news, weather – even games.

The app has a cool widget-like design, so each service is easy to identify and use right away. My explanation will not do it justice  … happily the developer behind Snaptu put together a little video – complete with snappy soundtrack! – to show off what this app can do for you:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Snaptu is free to download in Store, and is available for both Nokia Symbian OS devices, as well as Series 40 devices.

What apps do you use for to communicate and share on the go? Tell us about the apps that float your social media boat in the Comments sections below.

And if you are regularly reading our Blog you know how to use it in offline mode, how to plan your route on web and sync it with your Nokia, how to share your whereabouts and the places you like to go, …
Anything you like to add to the list we didn’t cover on the Blog yet? Let me know in the comment section below!

-Pino (@haikus)

How is this possible? By integrating in-app ads into their games HandyGames can offer the games free-of-charge. The ads do not take away from the core game experience and are very unobtrusive, making it a perfect trade-off for tight budget gamers. One note, because the ads need an internet connection it’s recommended you play these games via WiFi.

Three of my favourites so far are:

1. Guns and Glory FREE: one of the best tower defense mobile games I’ve ever played; this fast-paced strategy game will test you to the limits. Click here to get it.
2. Shark or Die FREE: a great casual game; swim around and chomp swimmers as you upgrade your shark with more powers. Click here to get it.
3. Townsmen 6: another great strategy game; build your city and conquer Frances Departments. Click here to get it.

In the comments let me know what other free games you’re playing or would like to see come to Ovi.

Happy Gaming,
Myles

What sets Ultimate Alien Pinball apart from its competitors is the soundtrack. Pinball is a great way to pass the time but the experience is much more enjoyable when you can listen to some great music at the same time. Luckily 3D Arts creation also has very slick graphics so the game looks incredible.

For the competitive types out there the game features a Global Scoreboard, allowing to see how you compare to players all over the world. Unfortunately I’m nowhere near the current record of 125,000,000 points but I’m practicing as much as I can! One small note, the sound can only be adjusted after you click through to the main menu so ensure you have your phone on silent or headphones attached before starting it up if you’re in a quiet area.

Ultimate Alien Pinball FREE is available for most touch devices on the Store. For those who do not like looking at in-game ads there’s also a full ad-free version you can buy for $1.99 (USD).

Happy Gaming,
Myles

You probably though we were done after we announced a whil back that Nokia has two new awesome games – Bounce Boing Battle and Ovi Maps Challenge – hitting the Store right now? Far from it! We here at Ovi are feeling generous today, so we decided to make a whole bunch of our most popular games free of charge for you! Yup! For a limited time only, you can get the following games for free (meaning: 0€/$/£!) from Store (device compatibility information available from Store):

Ovi Maps Racing: Who wants to race? In Ovi Maps Racing, you use the GPS in your device to find your location (Europe and North America), then customize a track around your neighborhood, and finally fire up those engines! Vroom!

Space Impact: Meteor Shield: By using the digital compass (also known as magnetometer) on your device, you can defend Earth against meteorite showers and alien hordes. Simply take aim and blast the falling rocks to rubble. Boom.

Exclusion: this puzzle game is all about clearing your mind and r-e-l-a-x-i-n-g… Your objective is to clear both your mind and the playing field of Memes! P.S. We made an Ovi Podcast about this game!

Climate Mission: Test your wits and learn more about climate change at the same time. Staff favourite!

Big Roll in Paradise: This game takes the popular game of Bocce and throws in a variety of ball types, surfaces and objects to interact with. You can challenge a cast of players with mystic artifacts to uncover the secrets of The Island… mystery…

…and, of course, the just-announced Bounce Boing Battle and Ovi Maps Challenge are naturally also free of charge

Now, how much does Ovi love ya, eh?

Let us know in the comments section which of those free games is your ultimate favourite!

In Exclusion your objective is to clear both your mind and the playing field of Memes. These memes will appear in different shapes, such as hearts, diamonds and pirates. Draw lines through the playing field and exclude symbols of matching type on one side to remove them. You can play Exclusion as a relaxing pastime or try for the highest score or fastest time!

Remember also to check out our recent post about Exclusion while you’re listening to the podcast

Enjoy!

P.S. With whom or on what topic would you like for us to do an Ovi Podcast? Let us know in the Comments section!

And like many of you, I switch between corporate and personal email accounts to keep up with all parts of my life…  My sister writes to me daily on my Ovi Mail account to share news from my family and let me know the latest political developments in my home country. She also loves her two nieces very much and wants daily updates on them. I answer her emails and then check to see what’s new on Ovi Music… but that’s another story which I will tell in another post.

So you can easily say that email is a huge part of my day. Now imagine there’s another me living in a country with limited access to the fixed Internet or PC. That person’s only chance to stay in touch with friends, family and business partners is via her mobile device with an easy-to-use email account. This is why we created Ovi Mail: a free email account that can be created directly from a Nokia phone, no PC required. We know that 25% of world population already has an email address, and for the other 75% there is Ovi Mail: a free email account from Nokia that is easy to create, set up and use so consumers everywhere can stay in touch with the important people in their lives.

When the service was launched at the beginning of 2009 few people imagined we would celebrate 10M Ovi Mail accounts by June 2010.  This milestone really shows that consumers value the “ease of use and relevance of the service” – to quote one of my colleagues who proudly emailed us when Ovi Mail won the Best Value Added Service 2009 Award in Indonesia just a couple of weeks ago.

Ovi Mail is designed for first time email users in emerging markets and has been very successful in countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh (see our post about Ovi Mail in Bangladesh here), India, China, Kenya, Nigeria and Thailand and many others around the globe. In these emerging markets Nokia has helped bridge the “digital divide” by bringing mobile email to everyone. And although Ovi Mail is highly popular in emerging markets as the first and only email account, it is also broadly used by people with other email accounts because their Ovi ID allows them access to the full range of Ovi services, including Ovi Mail.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So, today we are celebrating a key milestone: 10 million Ovi Mail accounts, in less than 18 months since launch, in 26 languages, and on almost 200 Nokia devices. Quite impressive, don’t you think? Celebrate with us and tell us your story on how you first used Ovi Mail in the Comments section, via Twitter (use hash tag #OvibyNokia) or via email to ilsebzimmer@ovi.com

-Ilse

Riku Suomela, producer of Exclusion and Space Impact: Meteor Shield (see our post about this game here) tells us that “The initial idea behind Exclusion was to make it a relaxation game and I think we succeeded well with our goals.”

“With Exclusion our goal was also to create a great gaming experience on both, touch devices and phones with traditional keypad.” says Riku and continues, “Keeping the game controls very simple allowed us to make just this and I am very happy with how well the game works”

We did an in-depth interview with Riku Suomela that will released soon as a podcast here at the Ovi Blog, so stay tuned for it!

With touch screen devices, such as the Nokia X6 and Nokia N97 mini, lines are drawn simply by moving a finger on the screen. Devices with keypad such as the Nokia C3 and Nokia E71, allow players to draw lines with the device cursor.

Exclusion is now available for you to download and try out free of charge from Store. Have you tried playing the game already? Please let us know how you liked Exclusion in the comments section below! I mean, unless you’re too relaxed to do anything right now…

-Jan

P.S. The game has a secret in it that will unveil itself to you when you play it…

I don’t want to give away too much of the video, but it involves a long beard. Did I get you interested? Check out the video right here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

What gave inspiration for the video was basically a simple observation that really bugged us: how on earth are people still getting lost in 2010? I mean, come on.

Well, we’re well on our way to remedy that unfortunate situation. As you know, our Nokia smartphones are all GPS-enabled, the equivalent of a top-of-the-range SatNav. And as you probably know as well, in January Nokia gave away navigation for free on Nokia smartphones in the form of Ovi Maps – it’s free and it’s forever. Because we believe that everyone should be able to find their way back home.

If you haven’t already, get your free navigation right here.