By Chandra Devi

At the recent Nokia World event in Barcelona, Spain, Nokia revealed the N97, which it labelled as "the world's most advanced mobile computer". The company believes that the device alongside its Ovi Internet services will transform the way people connect to the Internet and to each other, apart from introducing a more personalised Internet experience for users.

Building on the capabilities and popularity of the N96, Nokia's N97 features a bigger touch-screen, enhanced camera features, greater processing power, bigger memory and multiple sensors, making it a truly mobile computer.

Company executive vice president, markets Anssi Vanjoki said the device is designed for the Internet savvy. "It has features that make it easy for users to update social networks automatically with real-time information, enabling the ability to update their 'status' and share their location and related pictures or videos with approved friends."

With built-in A-GPS sensors and an electronic compass, the N97 introduces the concept of "social location", or "so lo", which enables users to share their social location with others.

The device has a large, tilting 3.5-inch touch display and full Qwerty keyboard for easy Web browsing, flash video streaming, gaming, blogging, chatting, posting, sending text and e-mailing. It also enables easy personalisation of the home screen with frequently updated widgets of favourite Web services and social networking sites.

The N97 also has a five-megapixel camera with high-quality Carl Zeiss optics, 16:9 aspect ratio and DVD-quality video capture, and support for services such as Share on Ovi for data sharing over high-speed downlink packet access and wireless local area network. And it supports the Nokia Music Store and continuous playback of up to 1.5 days.

The device has ample storage of up to 48 gigabytes comprising 32GB onboard memory and expandable with a 16GB microSD.

The N97 is Nokia's second touch-screen device running on the S60 fifth-edition smartphone platform. The first device was the 5800 XpressMusic.

According to Nokia's director, product and technical marketing Sari Stahlberg, the S60 fifth-edition platform has advanced features which enable innovations on smartphone products. A handset such as the N97 running on S60 fifth-edition, she explained, is able to offer users an engaging experience with support for a touch-screen interface, Qwerty keyboard, stylus and handwriting recognition.

"There is now optimal use of the input methods and users can select the method they are most comfortable with," she added.

Another key feature of the phone's operating system is support for widgets and other Internet applications which Stahlberg said are open for third-party development. She also said Nokia is open to the idea of third parties developing applications on Nokia devices, which will help create a more interesting and personalised experience for users.

The N97 will be available in the first half of next year at E550 (RM2,570) before taxes or subsidies.

Maps on Ovi

This free service allows users to pre-plan their journey on their PC and synchronise with their mobile, giving access to pre-planned routes and favourite destinations while on the move.

With the Nokia Point & Find feature, users can personalise their mapping experience. The feature allows users to snap pictures of places or objects and discover information from the Internet of the place or object. Users can also tag real-world objects and places so they can utilise information from other members of the Nokia Point & Find community.

Other new options for Nokia Maps include instant access to real-time information such as camera alerts, safety spots and traffic information for selected countries, and city event guides which give real-time information for events and movies in over 450 destinations.

New Ovi services

n At the opening of Nokia World 2008, Nokia's president and chief executive officer Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo highlighted the developments in the company's Ovi services. Among them are Maps on Ovi, Mail on Ovi and Nokia Messaging.

Kallasvuo said Maps on Ovi, built on the company's mobile mapping and navigation service, is much more than the regular mapping tool.

The company is also working on a more personalised online mapping experience with the Nokia Point & Find feature, which allows users to snap pictures of places and discover information of the places and share it with friends. This is made possible with new features included in Nokia Maps such as high-resolution aerial images, three-dimensional landmarks for 216 cities and terrain maps.

Mail on Ovi and Nokia Messaging, Kallasvuo said, will enable consumer instant messaging and e-mail service on Nokia devices and open doors for endless communication possibilities on the mobile phone for everyone.

He pointed out that Nokia is focusing the free Mail on Ovi service in emerging markets where access to PCs and the ability to have a personal e-mail account of their own have been hindered by cost and availability. But many people in these very same emerging markets have Nokia devices, which unknown to them, are e-mail-optimised. The aim of the Mail on Ovi service is to provide these users an opportunity to discover the mobile Internet and allow first-time e-mail users to set up an e-mail account on their mobile phones, Kallasvuo said.

"Some 75 per cent of the world's population who have not used e-mail will have their first e-mail experience on a mobile phone. Mail on Ovi will bring mobile e-mail to everyone and not just for a privileged few."

Nokia Messaging

This service will give users access to their existing e-mail and instant messaging accounts from Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Hotmail, Gmail and Google.Talk, and AOL Mail. It also supports e-mail solutions from thousands of Internet service providers around the world on majority of Nokia devices.

For now, the Nokia Messaging push e-mail service is available for free as a limited-period beta trial. The application is workable on Nokia S60 devices such as the E71 and N95.

Users only need to visit email.nokia.com and install the service on their devices.

The service will be made available commercially in the first quarter of next year in Australia, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom and Venezuela, and in selected countries later in the year.

Mail on Ovi

Supported on Nokia Series 40 devices, Mail on Ovi allows first-time e-mail users to create and access e-mail online and on their mobile device for free (username@ovi.com).

An online portal for Mail on Ovi has been introduced by Nokia to enable PC users to create and access Ovi

e-mail accounts and have cross-access to other Ovi services with a single sign-on account. The personal e-mail service offers 1GB mailbox together with spam and virus protection.

The service supports over 12 languages such as English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Hindi, Tagalog, Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia. More languages will be added later. The Web access version will be launched in February next year.