Very quick news here - the latest firmware for the N95 V21 is now available to Vodafone-branded handsets. So for those unwilling to risk debranding your handset - what are you waiting for!
Most of you will likely be going from V12, so V21 bring amazing improvements to your phone - demand paging (enables multi-tasking, improves menu navigation speed and startup time), full youtube compatibility in the native browser, web runtime support (for widgets), massive improvements to GPS functionality, amongst a raft of other improvements.
Thanks go to psychrn for breaking this one!
Well, I've no doubt the screen dump above will come as welcome news to many - just don't get too carried away, alright? Yes, it is a doubling of New Zealand maps data, but obviously if you double almost nothing, its still almost nothing at the end of the day.
If you've just checked and seen only 6.6MB of NZ map data available you need to install the latest version of the Maploader 1.3.5, available here (or maybe just reinstall whichever one you have to refresh the maps data information, not sure, I installed the latest one and on loading it began refreshing the data). You may also need Nokia Maps 2.0 (available here), but I've not confirmed this yet, as I had 2.0 on my phone already.
I've had a quick look at them, and I must say that the Auckland street detail is now much, much better. A quick look around showed almost all streets named, although how their placement is I've yet to confirm. No navigation on offer from what I can tell, and the point of interest (POI) data is still very limited.
So, bottom line, this is a good start Nokia, but thats all it is. I'm still hoping the major update rumoured to be arriving around the 23rd turns out to be bona-fide.
Garmin Mobile XT still remains the premier GPS software for GPS-enabled N- and E-Series phones. I should mention that Garmin's position is even further strengthened by recent updates to the free NZ Open GPS maps, which finally fix street and POI searching. Its glorious - go out and get it today (Ebay still seems like the best place to pick it up, if you're trying to find the best price).
Thanks to Geekzone forum member martyyates for breaking this news.
If your country has been poorly served by Nokia Maps to-date its worth having a look - place a comment here if there are updates available for your country!
Bah, in the face of imminent competition in the GSM market Vodafone (currently the only GSM carrier in NZ) has today announced they will begin to lock handsets from May 1st. There will be a $50 fee to unlock the phones.
This is what Paul Brislen (Vodafone's external communications manager in NZ) had to say on it:
Hi all,
Vodafone’s mobiles are sold exclusively for use on Vodafone New Zealand’s network.
From 1 May we are locking new handsets to our network. All new handsets sold will include information about handset locking and how to unlock handsets.
Locked handsets can be unlocked for a fee of $50.
This is being done to protect the customers’ experience of the Vodafone brand. Vodafone brands its mobiles with both the Vodafone and Vodafone Live! look and feel. If a customers takes a Vodafone mobile to another network, the customer won’t be able to access the Vodafone experience and services.
Cheers
Paul
He posted this at the Geekzone forum (it's pretty cool that he posts there, I must admit that, although there are direct benefits to him also). The comment I made there is that its not the lying that hurts, but the credit he's giving our intelligence - I mean "this is being done to protect the customers experience". Spin-doctoring at its finest - this is being done to make it difficult for people to jump ship pure and simple.
Mark my words Vodafone - if your competitors about to enter the market offer better data plans you may well see an exodus.
The upside is that I can now start selling my services unlocking Nokia's - thanks for putting some money in my pocket Vodafone!
To New Zealand readers: you can get a slice of that pie too - I linked to instructions for how to debrand Nokia's in my post on GPS in N-Series devices in NZ!
Hi all,
Just a very quick post regarding an update to Nav4All (one of several download-maps-as-you-go styled GPS softwares).
I received an email this morning from Nav4All to let me know that they have now added New Zealand maps support to their service.
You may be thinking "So what? I already have google maps, and MGMaps installed on my phone for that". Well here is the thing: Nav4All has voice guidance - a rarity for this style of free-GPS software.
I've yet to try it, having just received the email from them - but rest assured I will give an update once its installed and running replete with screenshots!
Ricky Cadden over at symbian-guru had this to say about Nav4All - bear in mind that the software has been through a couple of iterations since then and you may its performance improved over Ricky's experience.
In typical Nokia fashion the release of a new handset colour is made known by photos on their website with no accompanying press release. This time its the black N82 that was rumoured around a month ago.
Personally I think this is a very attractive handset, much nicer looking than the photoshop efforts that went around before. I'll be getting one for sure - how about you?
Well, if this report at boygeniusreport is accurate it looks like I may be crossing off at least one of the most-hoped-for items from my wishlist in 2008! The report also states the device will have "DVD-Quality" video recording, and other features that "will take N-Series to the next level". Colour me excited!
The next question of course is what form-factor to use to accomplish the addition of a QWERTY keyboard? The article talks about using a form-factor reminiscent of the E61, but I really hope they don't go there. To my mind the E61 is one of the least pleasing form-factors from an aesthetic standpoint. So if not that, then what? A Nokia patent filing was recently reported at a number of places, and it just so happens to be a Triple-Slider form-factor. Take a look at the image below from Nokia's patent filing - tasty. I really hope they steer away from the E61 look the article talks about and go for something like the triple slider, which handily would also facilitate the use of a beautiful big, high-resolution touchscreen...
If this were the form factor for the QWERTY Nokia I'll be in UI heaven! Touch screen but with regular keypad, multimedia keys and QWERTY? Of course the obvious concern is how will the build quality be on this phone? Nokia has yet to make a good quality single slider in the N-Series, let alone a triple. If Nokia fulfills another of my wishlist items in this handset, namely better build quality, then this will surely be my Jesus-phone. For a few months anyway...
How about you?
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