November 4, 2011
By Donovan Jackson

Smartphones mean apps. Apps mean anything from access to information to loads of fun and games (which can get you into trouble with significant others, parents, workmates and bosses!). From the many thousands of apps available for download on the Nokia Ovi Store, we’ve selected a few which caught our eye as useful, entertaining or just plain awesome.

Since connectivity is just so essential in today’s day and age, topping our quick ‘cool’ list is Joiku Spot. Download this little app and your phone immediately becomes a mobile hotspot through which any other devices can connect to the internet. It’s clever, too – you can see how much connectivity each device and user is consuming. If you’re feeling generous, you can get all your buddies hooked up to the internet using just your Nokia and its 3G connection. Or if you’re stingy like me, you’ll just use it to connect your notebook and tablet through your phone. Check out this video to see more.

Remember when you were a kid and having a walkie-talkie was quite possibly the pinnacle of cool? Relive those days with WalkieTooth. You guessed it, this app turns your phone into a walkie talkie using its Bluetooth wireless network. While it immediately reminded us of how much fun a walkie talkie was ‘back in the day’, it may have other useful applications beyond having fun – Bluetooth range is quite surprisingly long, so see what you can think of. Best of all is that not only does this app enable free walkie talkie chatting, it also doesn’t cost anything at all.

Gamer? If you are, you’ll understand and appreciate the value of a screenshot taken at just the right moment. Now you can do just the same with Screensnap. Screen grabs of your Nokia are useful for more than just sharing the moment with gaming mates, too – it can be handy to help others, for example, or to send useful information such as a map, to someone who needs it. It’s also a free app, so no need to reach for the credit card for this one.

Isn’t it cool to have your friends’ picture appear on screen when they dial your mobile? But setting all of that up is a bit of a hassle to say the least, so for the great majority of them, nothing much happens when they contact you. All that can change with the Contact Photo Sync app. It synchs your phonebook with everyone’s favourite social networking site Facebook with just a few clicks. Ah, automation, we do love you.

Spend a bit of time browsing the Ovi Store for more awesome apps – there are more there than you could possibly use and in all likelihood a whole lot that will blow you away and tell us what you’ve found and why you like it!