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Last year, Nokia bought Avvenu, which offered an eponymous product that allowed users to access and share files from a cell phone, PDA or smartphone. The mobile phone giant has just re-launched Avvenue, now called Files, as part of its Ovi group of online services.

"Ovi" means "door" in Finnish. The service is a door to a variety of online applications, including Files (of course), N-Gage gaming, a music service, online maps, and other social networking services.

As with Avvenue, Files - a subscription service - lets you view, download and send digital content stored on your personal computer, right from a mobile phone. There's no planning ahead or uploading to Web sites required; with Files you're simply accessing your entire computer directly from your mobile.

So it lets you browse, search and view photos, Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word and many other types of files stored on your desktop. You can step through individual pages of documents, and control the zoom setting to easily read text. Photos are automatically resized for your phone's small display.

Files also allows you to download music from your computer to your phone. So you don't have to wait until you physically connect your mobile phone to your computer. After downloading music, use the music player on your phone to listen as you normally would.

Using your phone, you can send files directly from your computer to a recipient as well. That way you don't have to move them to your phone first. And your computer doesn't even have to be on or connected to the Internet for Files to work, according to Nokia.

Simply choose which folders and files you want available, and Files automatically keeps an up-to-date copy stored in what Nokia calls "a secure, 'Anytime Files' online storage locker " for access anytime.

You can try Files for free during a 60-day trial period. You'll need a Windows XP or Vista computer, a mobile phone with Internet access: It doesn't need to be a Symbian S60 smartphone like with other Ovi services, as Nokia says most recent mobiles should work fine.

If your mobile service provider offers it, Nokia recommends an "unlimited" flat-rate data plan.