Nokia World 2007: Avvenu acquisition, internet radio, free music, and more

Nokia World 2007 is taking place right now in Amsterdam and I sincerely wish I would have been able to stay around for the event (I was in Amsterdam last week for Mobius 2007), but I had pressing business back in Seattle. There are lots of press releases coming out of the event and some of the most notable that I thought you may like to hear about include:

1. Nokia aquires Avvenu: I have used Avvenu for a couple of years on my mobile devices as a way to remotely access information. With the Nokia aquisition, Nokia continues to increase its capability to offer a full range of services for Nokia device owners. Avvenu allows you to both access and securely share content from your PC. In the beginning you could only access a PC that was turned on, but now you can access content securely stored on Avvenu servers so it is a great file access service for mobile users.
2. Nokia launches Internet Radio service: I enjoy listening to internet radio content and Nokia just made that a lot easier on the go with the immediate availability of their Nokia Internet Radio service. If you have a compatible 3rd Edition device, currently the N82, N91, N95, and N95 8GB (funny that the N81 isn't listed when the older N91 is), then you can download and install it now. I am installing it on the N95 right now and services like this just may push me to buy a N95-3 with U.S. 3G support. They are working on support for other devices as well. The Nokia Internet Radio service brings hundreds of internet radio stations to your mobile device, with hourly updates to the top ten most popular stations around the world.
3. Nokia unveils their upcoming "Comes with Music" offer: This new program will enable people who buy a Nokia device to get a free year long subscription to unlimited music content. Currently, the service is setup with Universal Music Group and Nokia is in discussions with other international labels. The groundbreaking news is that you can keep all of the music you downloaded without worrying about it disappearing after the year subscription is over with no continued subscription fees. WOW, how much music can you continuosly download for a year? I personally find this extremely compelling and as long as their is a good selection I will be participating in this program as soon as I can.
4. Nokia announced the winners of the Open C Challenge: Open C allows developers to create some amazing applications for the S60 platform. The grand prize winner won a cash prize of US$10,000 and I have actually seen his application, MobiTubia, in person and think it is deserving of the prize. MobiTubia is a Flash Lite video player and YouTube portal that allows you to browse and view YouTube content on the go. The UI is slick and I look forward to its full release. The runner up won US$5,000 for the LiveTraffic application. The second runner-up developed MobiClass that looks like a good learning application. The third runner-up developed ViewRight that enables television viewing from your S60 device with DVB-H capability.
5. Nokia confirms Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is coming to the N-Gage platform from THQ Wireless: I am a serious Star Wars fan, I fired up the N95 again to play with the Lightsabre application, and look forward to gaming on the N95 and other Nseries devices. The game will be released sometime in 2008 and unveils new details about the Star Wars galaxy.