Yesterday, I went to a Nokia support centre here in Gijon. I asked for a firmware upgrade. The person in charge told me that if I had noticed any important bug they would upgrade it for free. But if I was just looking for new functionalities, then I'd have to pay 18€. Nice try. It sounded annoying to me: I have not seen any firmware in any device in which the number of bug corrections is much much higher than the number of new functionalities (if there are any).
The real thing is that my N80 was behaving OK but the list of bug corrections is large and many of them happen in scenarios that I have not experienced yet (but that I will, in a near future). Besides, my v3 firmware does not support FOTA and v4 does.
I would only have to print the list of bug corrections and justify a free update. But today is holiday in Spain so I started to search for information about people talking about the 18€ thing in this country.
What I finally found was even better: a page in Nokia's UK site for the download of a tool called Nokia Software Updater. It was only available in English version, but my phone was multilingual and came with English by default (which I quickly shifted to Spanish).
I downloaded it, plugged my N80 to the laptop and upgraded the firmware. Of course, I lost PIM information but it was obvious that this would happen and it is nothing that a new synchronisation would not fix. Also, some software installed in the mempry of the phone disappeared (obvious too) and most of the software installed in the miniSD was there. In fact, all of the Symbian applications were there and working. Only Java apps stopped working: they were shown in "My Own" folder but nothing happenned by clicking their icons. Re-installation fixed it all.
The main problem is the loss of Spanish language: English, Français, Deutsch, Túrkçe, Italiano and Nederlands. Still wondering why Spanish is not in the list, but I think I will be able to deal with it :-)
Installing and re-installing applications has made me think about some decisions that phone manufacturers take on our behalf and that I would like to get changed. In my next post :-)
Showing posts with label fota. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fota. Show all posts
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Nokia N80
I bought a Nokia N80 two weeks ago. It was a great offer (I consider) to get one by only 379€. The rest of the offers I could find in the internet were about 120€ more expensive. By the way, I'd swear I had post that I was going to buy it the day before
I struggled with hundreds of people in MediaMarkt to get it, but the post does not appear. Maybe I saved it as a draft and drafts expire in Blogger :-?
I am quite happy with it, although I think it was a sales strategy to run out of stocks and put the new Nokia N80 Internet Edition into the market. The basic differences among this new one and my N80 are some software included (Mobile Search, Flickr client, Adobe Reader and maybe something else I cannot remember now) and firmware version (mine is a 3.0617.0.6 and N80 Internet Edition will bring a version 4.xx firmware).
The new firmware will bring FOTA (Firmware Over the Air) so users will be able to update their phones more easily. For my N80, I will have to take it to a support center so they flash it for me and then I got FOTA enabled. It is said that certain versions of these old N80 won't support (I hope that's not true or at least it is not my phone's problem). Anyway, I also read that it is FOTA push what won't work on all older N80s and I hope this is what really happens.
Well, I do not care very much about the software included in the Internet Edition: Mobile Search can be easily installed from http://mobilesearch.nokia.com, Shozu is a great alternative for the Flickr client since it supports S60 3rd Edition (Symbian OS flavor installed in this mobile phone) and PDF+ will soon be a good alternative for the official Adobe Reader (although it is beta now).
By now, I got Shozu in my phone, created a Flickr account and some pics uploaded. I will keep on reporting about my mobile world :-)
I struggled with hundreds of people in MediaMarkt to get it, but the post does not appear. Maybe I saved it as a draft and drafts expire in Blogger :-?
I am quite happy with it, although I think it was a sales strategy to run out of stocks and put the new Nokia N80 Internet Edition into the market. The basic differences among this new one and my N80 are some software included (Mobile Search, Flickr client, Adobe Reader and maybe something else I cannot remember now) and firmware version (mine is a 3.0617.0.6 and N80 Internet Edition will bring a version 4.xx firmware).
The new firmware will bring FOTA (Firmware Over the Air) so users will be able to update their phones more easily. For my N80, I will have to take it to a support center so they flash it for me and then I got FOTA enabled. It is said that certain versions of these old N80 won't support (I hope that's not true or at least it is not my phone's problem). Anyway, I also read that it is FOTA push what won't work on all older N80s and I hope this is what really happens.
Well, I do not care very much about the software included in the Internet Edition: Mobile Search can be easily installed from http://mobilesearch.nokia.com, Shozu is a great alternative for the Flickr client since it supports S60 3rd Edition (Symbian OS flavor installed in this mobile phone) and PDF+ will soon be a good alternative for the official Adobe Reader (although it is beta now).
By now, I got Shozu in my phone, created a Flickr account and some pics uploaded. I will keep on reporting about my mobile world :-)
Friday, September 08, 2006
Nokia N92 and DVB-H
As I had already commented, I was going to test a Nokia N92-1 Prototype. Nokia N92 is not out on the market at the moment of writing this entry but there are some devices out there for testing purposes.
It has S60 3rd edition platform on Symbian 9.1 running on it. The operating system is really buggy. I thought it was due to the prototype thing but a workmate has just acquired a Nokia N80 and it is the same for him: bugs in WiFi connection, also in Bluetooth when trying to use some GPS which give no problems with many other phones and PDAs, browser saying it has run out of memory and not any other software is running.
On the other hand, N92 (and N80) both support FOTA (Firmware Over The Air). I checked this feature on the N92 but no new firmware around. When I commented this to my workmate, he said that there is no FOTA option available in the N80. Later, after some search, he told me that he should send his phone to the support service so they can flash it there. It looks like the new firmware will have FOTA enabled.
The keys feel great, the screen looks incredibly (the best one I have ever seen on a mobile phone) and the camera shoots good pics and records fairly good videos. For me, no phone is good at pics and videos no matter what the megapixels (a matter of lens quality and size). But it is the best in that too in the mobile phones I could ever experience.
What about DVB-H? Abertis Telecom is broadcasting some spanish channels from one single point of Gijon. That makes it hard to receive the signal with enough power in some parts of the city. Here sitting on the sofa, I get a signal with 40% of power.
TV looks great on the phone, except for some lags once in a while. I guessed it is due to the power of the signal and the decoding chip having problems with it. But being 15 metres close to the antenna broadcasting the signal shows that those lags happen from time to time (including short periods of signal loss).
It is a pity that they are transmitting EPG (Electronic Program Guide) just saying the name of the channel and that it is being broadcasted from 3 am to 3 am. A proper EPG would have let me experience some features of the N92 like turning on RealPlayer to watch a given program selected by the user or record it in the background as I normally use the mobile phone (while being idle, for example).
I have enjoyed the experience a lot and I guess the problems will be fixed if they decide to bring DVB-H out to the market. One point that worries me about the success of this technology is signal coverage. DVB-T is mostly useful for people travelling (for example, by train) and if I do not have it available all the way through, it is no fun at all.
About the phone and the software platform, I am a Symbian enthusiast and I have just read an offer of N80 phones by just 349€ (pretty cheap here in Spain... how much is it abroad? comments expected) so I am going for it tomorrow. Only 200 units available so I hope I do not have to use my Jiu-Jitsu or Aikido. Especially, because I have never practiced either of them ;-)
It has S60 3rd edition platform on Symbian 9.1 running on it. The operating system is really buggy. I thought it was due to the prototype thing but a workmate has just acquired a Nokia N80 and it is the same for him: bugs in WiFi connection, also in Bluetooth when trying to use some GPS which give no problems with many other phones and PDAs, browser saying it has run out of memory and not any other software is running.
On the other hand, N92 (and N80) both support FOTA (Firmware Over The Air). I checked this feature on the N92 but no new firmware around. When I commented this to my workmate, he said that there is no FOTA option available in the N80. Later, after some search, he told me that he should send his phone to the support service so they can flash it there. It looks like the new firmware will have FOTA enabled.
The keys feel great, the screen looks incredibly (the best one I have ever seen on a mobile phone) and the camera shoots good pics and records fairly good videos. For me, no phone is good at pics and videos no matter what the megapixels (a matter of lens quality and size). But it is the best in that too in the mobile phones I could ever experience.
What about DVB-H? Abertis Telecom is broadcasting some spanish channels from one single point of Gijon. That makes it hard to receive the signal with enough power in some parts of the city. Here sitting on the sofa, I get a signal with 40% of power.
TV looks great on the phone, except for some lags once in a while. I guessed it is due to the power of the signal and the decoding chip having problems with it. But being 15 metres close to the antenna broadcasting the signal shows that those lags happen from time to time (including short periods of signal loss).
It is a pity that they are transmitting EPG (Electronic Program Guide) just saying the name of the channel and that it is being broadcasted from 3 am to 3 am. A proper EPG would have let me experience some features of the N92 like turning on RealPlayer to watch a given program selected by the user or record it in the background as I normally use the mobile phone (while being idle, for example).
I have enjoyed the experience a lot and I guess the problems will be fixed if they decide to bring DVB-H out to the market. One point that worries me about the success of this technology is signal coverage. DVB-T is mostly useful for people travelling (for example, by train) and if I do not have it available all the way through, it is no fun at all.
About the phone and the software platform, I am a Symbian enthusiast and I have just read an offer of N80 phones by just 349€ (pretty cheap here in Spain... how much is it abroad? comments expected) so I am going for it tomorrow. Only 200 units available so I hope I do not have to use my Jiu-Jitsu or Aikido. Especially, because I have never practiced either of them ;-)
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