Editor’s Note: Today marks a very special day for us here at the Ovi Daily App. For starters, the post today is #200 for the blog! And, our review today comes to us from a guest – Ivan Sosa (more about him at the end of the review), and it the first time that one of our app reviews is published simultaneously in both English and Spanish! It is our sincere pleasure to welcome Ivan to the Ovi Daily App. We think this will be the start of a wonderful collaboration.

Update (March 29, 2010): Things change fast – Sonico in fact has 45 million members worldwide! Apologies for the error. And, the app is compatible with both Nokia Symbian (5.0) devices as well as S60 3rd Edition FP2 devices, and the Nokia E71 and Nokia E73.

Hello Ovi Daily App Readers!

The Forum Nokia crew was kind enough to invite me to write a review of the recently launched Sonico app that is now available in Ovi Store. I accepted right away! As a Nokia user, the chance to write a post for this blog is a privilege I wouldn’t decline. Thank you guys!

For all of you who don’t know, Sonico is one of the biggest social networks in the world with more than 40 million users, and with a very strong presence in Latin America. The mobile app for Sonico was released in Ovi Store less than a month ago, and I have been trying it out for the past couple of days. I’d like to share my impressions with you.

I can sum up my experience in two words: extremely good! It’s a rock solid app that allows you to access all of the core functionality you find on the Sonico website.

A nice detail is that the app remembers your info after the first time you login. Nothing new, but it’s a feature you don’t find in every app.

Once you login, you find yourself on the main screen from where the user can access almost every feature Sonico provides, such as news (first thing you see), activities and notifications.

Right from the home screen you can update your status, post “news” (this is what Sonico calls status updates), take a picture with your Nokia and upload it to your profile.

The app has a “quick access” bar across the bottom with five convenient shortcuts:

• Home: takes you back to the home screen regardless of where you are inside the app.
• My profile: allows the user to access his/her profile, activities and photo albums as well. Full screen picture viewing when browsing albums is a great experience within the app.
• Friends: All your friends can be reached from this section. If you want to send a message, take a look at their profile, see their pictures, and more.
• Events: If you’re a party animal with a lot of events on your calendar, or just a geeky guy with only conferences and meetings coming up (like me), you can see all of them from here!
• Messages: All of your messages are one click away with this always-on shortcut. You can also create, read and delete messages from within the app.

Now, anyone who knows me well will know that I am almost obsessive with two topics when it comes to mobile apps:

Usability –  This is one of the best Web Runtime (WRT) widgets I’ve seen so far. The “finger” scrolling on my Nokia N97 works like a charm. Every time I changed sections within the app, the response times were great (although that might be because my 3G network was having a good day).

Navigation throughout the app is clear and efficient. You can find quick access buttons on the top of the screen to write a comment and take pictures. They have the right size, and are pretty well located.

Look & Feel – Although it’s similar to many other apps for social networks out there today, the information is well displayed, icons are really well designed, the typography lets you easily read any text present in the app, and the choices of colors and decoration doesn’t get in the way of your ability to use and enjoy the app.

Summary

This WRT widget for Sonico integrates seamlessly with your Nokia touch-enabled device. Accessing native phone functionality such as the camera or keyboard is a joy; and making use of your favorite Sonico features is a no brainer – whether it is sending messages, updating your status, watching what your friends are doing, or looking at their pictures.  In other words, everything you would do from the website, you can do from this app, too.

So if you are a member of Sonico and have a Nokia, I would definitely recommend downloading this app. And if you have yet to try Sonico for yourself, I would encourage you to sign up and download the app!

The Sonico app is free to download from Ovi Store, and it is compatible with Nokia Symbian (5.0) devices.

About the contributor: Ivan Sosa is CTO of HI Media Digital, a Colombian startup focused on Rich Internet applications and mobile development. He has a hardcore software developer background, working with Flash and ActionScript since 2002, shifting to mobile development in the past few years, focusing on Symbian and Objective C.

Ivan has worked in digital agencies for more than four years, giving him a new perspective on marketing and complementing his purely technical profile. His passion for the Flash platform and the mobile industry has given him the chance to be project manager, lead developer, and digital projects strategist.

He is one of only two Forum Nokia Champions in Latin America, and his company received support from the Open Screen Project Fund so they could develop the first application targeting the Colombian market for Ovi Store called EXITO.

He is a regular speaker at tech events in Colombia and usually attends international events, such as Adobe MAX and the Nokia Developer Summit.

Ivan complements his professional activities leading community-related initiatives. He is co-manager of the Adobe User Group Colombia, co-founder and organizer of Mobile Monday Bogotá, and is a regular writer for the most active Nokia-related blog that is published in Spanish: www.nokialatino.com.