// Pocket Picks //

The big news this year in the mobile internet space was the beginnings of what might be a serious turf war as Nokia opened the ‘Ovi’ on providing its own direct links to its own mobile internet services, ahead of the operators.

At the moment, it’s still early days, but considering that Vodafone was quick to sign an exclusive deal for Ovi handsets on its network, the ‘world’s biggest community’ obviously saw something in it.

1. Nokia Ovi
Ovi (meaning ‘door’ in Finnish) was a huge announcement this year, taking the initiative in mobile internet services away from operators.

If that sounds a little overblown, bear in mind this was the first time in a long while that a manufacturer made its own services available direct from a handset on a par, or even ahead of an operator’s.

At first Ovi only(!) offers direct access to Music Store, N-Gage, Nokia Maps and the MOSH social networking service, although more will in time be available from your handset.

Obviously Nokia’s making a big play for mobile internet dominance and honestly, who would bet against it?

2. Vodafone takes on Nokia’s Ovi
As a measure of how big the Ovi news could be, Vodafone didn’t waste anytime jumping on the bandwagon.

Vodafone obviously saw the way things could be going and was the first (and only, so far) network to sign a deal for exclusive handsets with Ovi access included alongside its own Live! portal.

Considering how keen networks like Vodafone are to making their portals the first destination for mobile internet use, its support of Ovi shows there could be something in Nokia’s plans.

3. Opera Mini 4.0
Opera’s already become a pretty useful and widespread mobile internet browser and this year saw the launch of the latest version, Opera Mini 4.0.

The latest incarnation boasts the ability to show the web on your handset almost exactly as you would experience it on a PC. It uses an Opera Zoom feature allowing you to home in on the section of a page you’re looking at, much like the iPhone’s Safari browser.

Even better, there’s a rendering tech inside that automatically fits web pages to your phone’s screen size, thus saving you time and money when browsing.

Better yet, it even won an award this month – Best Productive Mobility app at Sony Ericsson’s Mobile Content Awards.

4. AOL Mobile
AOL was (and still is to be fair), a huge presence on the internet but so far it’s failed to make much headway on mobile. That could be because of all the different windows you have to open when browsing on it.

However, this year AOL started taking mobile more seriously and came up with a mobile portal offering ‘web experience closer to PC than any other mobile portal’.

Quite some claim, but it’s beauty is that AOL Mobile uses content pulled from AOL’s normal internet portal offering Web Surf, Email and Search functions. The secret is that like Opera’s Mini 4.0, it takes web content and configures it to work on a user’s phone, regardless of which handset they’re using.

5. Voda lets users upload content
Just last week Vodafone made another big – albeit barely noticed – stride in mobile internet services, by being the first of the UK’s big networks to let users upload content to top social networking sites from their handsets.

Under its new My Communities section on its Live! portal, Vodafone is letting users upload pictures, images and other files from their handset to their choice of Facebook, MySpace, Bebo or YouTube.

Until now users have only been allowed to view content on these sites, or had to use third-party apps, but Vodafone’s decision will not only make blogging easier, but it could dramatically boost its mobile internet traffic as its users start posting pics etc without having to sit in front of a computer.

Come back tomorrow to see more of our Top Picks for 2007:

Mobile TV and video

Social networking service