Ovi, Finnish for ‘door’ acts as your gateway to the Internet, and Nokia’s own Internet-based services including N-Gage gaming, Nokia Music Store and Nokia Maps. We’ll also see a host of other Internet-based services, including Nokia Photos, coming under Ovi’s umbrella over the coming months.

Ovi, Finnish for ‘door’ acts as your gateway to the Internet, and Nokia’s own Internet-based services including N-Gage gaming, Nokia Music Store and Nokia Maps. We’ll also see a host of other Internet-based services, including Nokia Photos, coming under Ovi’s umbrella over the coming months.

Ovi is available directly from your N-series handset, or your PC. The first version will go live later in the year, right now we have to make do with a flash presentation. Bringing all your media together in one place is definitely a good idea, as it’ll make sharing content straight from your phone a cinch. It’ll also pave the way for new content including music and games. Conspicuous by its absence though was video. No news right now we suspect Nokia TV or Nokia Video must be in the offing.

So lets take a look inside the box. First up is N-Gage. Revived from the near dead, the mobile gaming platform is back with avengance and an elegant Xbox Live style interface. There’s a raft of new games on offer and they can all be played, tried and bought directly on your phone. You can also use Ovi.com to access your N-Gage portal and manage your account. You can buy games with a credit card or have them added to your monthly phone bill. Nice. You can also read games reviews, check out what your buddies are playing and preview new games. Each game will hit you between six and 10 Euros each (£4-7). N-Gage is set to go global in November. The N0-Gage app can be downloaded and installed on existing phones and will come standard on the new

N81 8GB and N95 8GB when it launches.

New games are coming thick and fast with Tiger Woods PGA Tour, The Sims 2 Pets, Tetris coming to join the previously announced Crash Bandicoot.

The Nokia Music store will go live in the autumn across Europe and Asia and sport millions of tracks from EU1 and albums from EU10 (about the same as iTunes). You’ll be able to buy tracks directly from your phone or from your desktop and you’ll only need to download once, transferring tracks from your phone to your desktop and vice versa. Pre-pay vouchers, Pay Pal and credit cards are all supported for you to hand over your hard earned.

The Nokia Music Store also offers an unlimited music streaming service direct to your desktop to encourage you to try out new music. Dynamic music recomendation is built in alongside genre-specific instant playlists. Think Finetune meets iTunes.

Tracks are offered up in 192Kbps audio in Windows Media Audio format. And yes, they’ll be DRM protected, so will only play on compatible devices.

Check the latest from the Nokia Go:Play Event

N95 video hands on

N81 video hands on

Lowdown on Ovi, N-Gage and Nokia Music Store

iPhone Killer

N95 8GB lowdown

N81 8GB lowdown

http://noknok.tv/news/ovi-ngage-and-the-nokia-music-store/