Nokia has spent the last few years chucking its different portals into the Ovi brand, and now it's got round to combining the various desktop package too, with Ovi Desktop Suite version 2.0.

Nokia's attempts to integrate its phones into the desktop computing experience have resulted in a bewildering plethora of applications that rarely work well together. Ovi Desktop combines PC Suite, Software Updater, Map Loader, Lifeblog, Photos, Music Synchronisation and Device Status into one interface that will, hopefully, last a little longer than the various packages it replaces.

The package is only in beta at the moment, though reportedly running well, if only on Windows for the moment. Users of other platforms will have to entertain themselves with this helpful video:

Nokia's desktop collection has long been in need of revision, though its lack of loyalty to each incarnation doesn't fill one with confidence (your reporter has photographs archived in Lifeblog that resolutely refuse to import into Nokia Photos). But with the amount of money Nokia has committed to Ovi, we're hoping that a single package might last longer than its component parts did. ®

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• Comment Nokia's Ovi can't fail - must fail (29 May 2009)
• Nokia's Ovi store mostly unavailable and empty (28 May 2009)
• Ovi swings to open position (26 May 2009)
• Nokia cuts Ovi fluff (13 May 2009)
• Nokia opens app everything store (16 February 2009)