Nokia Partners With Facebook

Array of announcements at Nokia’s annual get together in Germany

Nokia announced some new products and services at the annual Nokia World Exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany, including lifecasting with Ovi, a partnership with the world’s largest social network, Facebook.

Lifecasting with Ovi is the first application to let people publish their location and status updates directly to their Facebook account from the homescreen of a mobile device.

Lifecasting goes beyond just publishing your status – it is about building deeper and closer connections between people. It triggers new kinds of communication patterns, such as sending messages or status updates or even navigating to a friend or a place.
Lifecasting will premiere on the Nokia N97 mini, companion to the Nokia N97. TheNokia N97 mini is a smaller mobile computer with stainless-steel cues, featuring a tilting 3.2-inch touch display, QWERTY keyboard and customisable homescreen.

Lifecasting with Ovi will be available for both the Nokia N97 and Nokia N97 mini via Nokia Beta Labs.

The Nokia N97 mini features new software which will be released in October as a free update for the Nokia N97. The software brings new homescreen widgets and additional usability improvements including flick scrolling.

The Nokia N97 mini is powered by a new Ovi Maps experience which makes searching, finding and navigating even easier. In addition to global pedestrian navigation, people can access premium content from Lonely Planet, Michelin and Wcities.

Users can personalise the homescreen of their device even further with thousands of different applications and services available from the Ovi Store. From games, videos and podcasts to productivity tools and web services, Ovi Store is the easiest way to fill the Nokia N97 mini’s homescreen with applications that reflect individual tastes, claims Nokia.