Ovi Share Blog - Share Your Photos and Videos. Anytime. Anywhere.

Share Your Best

Hey Sharers,

Recently the S60 Ambassadors over at Consumed by S60 wrapped up their Share on Ovi Ambassadors campaign. This program encouraged participants to post a photo or piece of media related to an identified subject every week. Participants would simply tag their media with a keyword and share it with the world.

The campaign was such a great success that we decided to continue it here on the Share on Ovi blog. As you know, Share on Ovi is all about Sharing media with friends, family, and the whole world. We want to give you the opportunity to show us and the rest of the Share community some of your cool photos.

To kick things off, we are going to start with an open invitation for you to share your “best” photo. Whatever photo you feel is your greatest work, we want to see it! Add the tag “Best1” to your photo or photos to be included. View Entries

To tag an existing piece of media, select the “Edit media” option from the Action List. Add your tag or tags and click Save Changes.

Check back in a couple weeks for the next subject. If you have any ideas for future subjects, enter a comment here to let us know.

-OviKris

New Views on Share!

The most recent update to Share on Ovi includes a couple really cool new features and enhancements. Here’s the overview:

PicLens

PicLens is an innovative and unique way to immerse yourself in the media viewing experience. Install PicLens to view and browse media on Share in a full screen, interactive mode. PicLens is easy to install and use. Visit www.piclens.com to download and install the plug-in. After installation, simply mouse over media on Share and click on the PicLens play button that appears in the lower left hand corner to view. The PicLens viewing option is available on all Share pages with the RSS indicator displayed in the footer.

Large Image View

We heard your feedback! Members in the Support Forums suggested we increase the size of the Large image view. We did. When you click on an image to view a larger version you now have the option to view Medium, Large, Extra Large, and the Original. Depending on the original file, the Extra Large view will create images as wide as 1280 pixels.

   

New photos posted to Share will present the Extra Large view immediately. It will take some time to render the new size view for existing photos. Be on the lookout for the updated view of your media.

New Introduction Video
In additional to the above mentioned features and enhancements, we have also created a new Share on Ovi Introduction video. Whether you are new to Share or a longtime veteran, take a look at the video. It is a great overview of all the great capabilities Share on Ovi has to offer.

Your feedback and thoughts are always appreciated. Feel free to comment here or start a feedback thread in our forums.

Thank you for using Share on Ovi for your personal media sharing needs.

S60 Ambassadors

Are you a lucky owner of a S60 device? Interested in sharing your thoughts, opinions, and feedback about S60 with others? Check out the S60 Ambassador Program.

S60 Ambassadors own S60 devices and are enthusiastic about learning more about S60 and spreading the word to others. Take a look at http://www.ambassadors.s60.com to learn more about the program.

Current S60 Ambassadors have been making good use of Share on Ovi. The “Consumed by S60” blog has been featuring weekly campaigns encouraging members to upload specific media topics to Share on Ovi. Check it out!

Reflecting on Pangea Day 2008

As many of you know, Share on Ovi recently supported the 2008 Pangea Day celebrations that took place around the world on May 10th. The event was a great success! Millions of people world wide joined together to celebrate life by sharing inspirational films and media. The Pangea Day event was just the start. Pangea Day provided a time for many of us to reflect on the fact that even though we may be separated by boarders, oceans, and cultural differences, we are all more alike they we may have thought. The films shared during the event allowed us to have a small glimpse into the lives of others. It is not watching the films, however, that makes the difference, it is what you decide to do after the fact that can make an impact. Cameron Diaz summed it up well when she said, “This is beautiful…films can’t change the world but the people who watch them can.”

All total Share on Ovi ended up hosting over 6,300 pieces of unique media for the event. If you haven’t already done so, please take some time to review the media at pangeaday.org. As part of Pangea Day, Nokia sponsored a Mobile Filmmaking contest. The contest provided an outlet for amateur film makers around the world to share their perspectives on culture, laughter, rituals, and other inspirational topics. The creators of the top 5 films, voted upon by the community, were awarded with a trip to Los Angeles to attend the Pangea Day celebration live. Take a look at the finalist:

·        Winner! - "The Game - South African Child..." by- ecachucho

·        "Rounds all around us" by- kayoom

·        "Smile" by- goofylopez

·        "Amazing Rainbows!" by- ruperthowe

·        "Clouds running" by- pierba

Since day one Share on Ovi has been focused on bringing the people of the world together to share their experiences through rich media. Pangea Day is just one great example of how we can all contribute to a great cause by sharing with others. We look forward to participating in similar events in the future.

Thank you to all who participated and as always, thank you for using Share on Ovi for your personal sharing needs.

Where Are You???

We have had a lot of questions about geo-tagging capabilities in the forums. Good News! It is now working! Media that includes location data in the EXIF headers will now be displayed correctly on the map. Share on Ovi will recognize if GPS information has been embedded in the photo and will display a map of where the photo was taken. Users without GPS enabled cameras can still add location information once the media has been uploaded.

As always, let us know what you think. Share your feedback.

Thanks for using Share on Ovi for your personal media sharing needs.

New Domain... Same Great Service!

You may have noticed some subtle changes around here lately. Just look up… no more twango.com. The Share team has just released some new updates to the service. The main focus of this development cycle was the change in domain name from Twango.com to Share.ovi.com. This was a huge undertaking, impacting the user interface and behind the scene. Overall our development team made over 27,000 code changes as part of the rebranding effort.

The changes in the domain should have a minimal impact on Share on Ovi use. The most important thing to remember is that anything related to the twango.com domain will now be displayed as share.ovi.com. A couple items to keep in mind:

·    Uploads via email and MMS should now be addressed to: UserID.Channel.Secretword@share.ovi.com

·    Embed codes and widgets will now show share.ovi.com

Note: Use of twango.com will continue to work by redirecting, but it is a good idea to get in the habit of using share.ovi.com

We are all working hard to bring you the features you want and need. Please feel free to share your thoughts and feedback in the Share on Ovi Forums.

Thanks for using Share on Ovi for your personal sharing needs.

Pangea Day Contest Update

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Nokia Mobile Fimmaking contest! The time to submit your videos for the contest has now ended. We received over 600 submissions and the channel has been viewed over 150,000 times. Take a moment to check it out yourself: PangeaDay.film Channel

There are still many ways you can participate in and support Pangea Day. On May 10, 2008 Pangea Day sites in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked live to produce a program of powerful films, visionary speakers, and uplifting music.  You can join in by viewing in person, online, on TV, or on your mobile phone. Visit the official Pangea Day site for details on how you can take part in the celebration. Participate in Pangea Day

Pangea Day 2008 and Share on Ovi

Share on Ovi makes sharing media part of everyday life. It has been our goal since day one to bring the people of the world together to share their experiences through rich media. Our recent partnership with Pangea Day supports that goal by promoting tolerance, compassion, and unity among cultures all over the world through the power of film.

In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it's easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that - to help people see themselves in others.

Share on Ovi is hosting the 2008 Nokia Mobile Filmmaking Contest as part of Pangea Day. Existing and new Share on Ovi members are invited to participate in the contest by uploading short videos to the Pangeaday.film channel. All Share on Ovi members have the ability to vote for their favorite inspirational film. (See contest terms and conditions)

How you can participate:

View and rate the contest entries at http://share.ovi.com/channel/pangeaday.film

Submit your own film for the contest by April 30, 2008

1. Create a video up to 2 minutes in length
2. Add at least one tag from Pangea Day list
3. Add the location where your film took place
4. Upload your film to the Pangea Day Film channel.

Thank you for using Share on Ovi for your personal media sharing needs.

Great New Features!

The Share team at Ovi is working hard to bring you the features you want and remove limitations to how you can use and enjoy Share on Ovi.  Here are some of the most recent changes.

Unlimited Bandwith & Unlimited Storage!
Have a lot of media to upload and share with your friends and family?  Tired of hitting your limit on bandwidth with pictures still in the camera?  Share on Ovi now offers free unlimited uploads, storage, and viewing.  Yes – free.  Yes – unlimited.  No – strings.

Mobile Video
You can now view your favorite videos on your mobile device by visiting share.ovi.com/mobile.  New 3GP transcoding means that your video collection on Share on Ovi is now compatible with most web-enabled mobile devices.  Now you can shoot, upload, and view video all from the comfort of wherever you are.  No PC required!

Share your location with Google Maps
Add location information to your media with geo-tags.  Geo-tagging lets you show the world where in the world you are, and lets you find other media and members by location.  Putting your media in the context of where it was produced adds to your story and helps others appreciate you and your media even more.

You can add geo-tags when you upload your media, or you can add tags to media that’s already on Share on Ovi by using the Edit Media action. 

We're now Share on Ovi!

We’re baaack!
 
You may have been wondering what in the world we’ve been up to during the last six months since Twango was acquired by Nokia. Frankly, so have we!  Our heads are still spinning from all the changes.  Going from our little basement startup to being a part of a large global company like Nokia has been a real adventure. We’ve grown the team, made some big changes to the service and made a lot of new friends along the way.
 
First, we are now part of Nokia’s new service brand, “Ovi”.  As of Today, the Twango brand will be a fond memory.  We are now Share on Ovi.  As you can see from looking at the site, we’ve moved to a new look and feel that you will see among all the Ovi services as they roll out.  We’ve also streamlined the user interface with simpler navigation, better search options, new ways to explore and an improved help system.
 
Under the covers, we’ve made huge improvements to the service infrastructure, which will allow us to scale to millions of users.  You may not notice these improvements right away, but you’ll experience better performance that doesn’t degrade as more and more people start using the system.
 
And finally, we’ve also spent a lot of time building software that allows Nokia devices to connect to the service.  “Share Online” is a cool application for your Nokia mobile device that allows you to capture photos and videos and upload them to the service directly!  It also allows you to view feeds of media from your contacts and people that are sharing from you, so you can keep in touch with your friends better than ever.  We’ll provide a download link for this software on the Share homepage in the next few days.
 
What you’re seeing today is just a first step on the way to the bold Internet services vision that we at Nokia all share.  More services are on the way, and we will continue to improve the Share service with more great features and better integration with other Nokia services and devices.  We’d love to hear what you think.

We'd love to hear your opinion, so please post your feedback.  We’ll be watching!

--Jim Laurel
Director, Service Development - Nokia