Randomrants

Would all those people in the room who have never checked if the firmware on their phone is current please leave the room, check it and then return when it is done. Would the smarter more confident people also go and find all their friends and update their firmware as well. And would the representative from Nokia out the back (yes you know who you are) please find away to update firmware automatically without the user having to do anything.

My reasoning for this is simple. Think of the developers. How can we develop cool apps for your phone and give them to you if your phone is not up todate! O.k so Flash Lite 3 is cool and make my life a lot easier in the development space, but Nokia and Adobe have also screwed every developer and user at the same time.

The reason being that Flash Lite 3 is coming out on all sorts of phones now and coming out as firmware versions, not just phones. The e90 got updated to a flashlite 3 version this week, and there was a firmware update for the n95-4 8gb NAM (that is the American version of the n85-8gb). The ng5-1 (and all variations there of) have also had firmware updates to flash lite over the last few months as well. Plus a whole pile of other phones either have or will get it shortly.

So the old days of getting a user to select a phone from a list and giving them the correct software are long gone, perhaps never to join us again. You can forget Device Central for a while as well, as that takes so long to update that is it old before you get it.

And I wont even go into the rumours of Flash Lite 3.1 fixing a bug with local/remote file handling…..

So stop reading find every Nokia device that you know has firmware and update it…

and then and only then can you watch this neat video I found on
http://community.forum.nokia.com/ showing the evolution of the mobile….

Tags: nokia by Me
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On the way home last night my wife was driving so I got to play with the gps a little more and found one of those little quirks. Now I am sure that the maps are full of quirks, but if I find one not 500 metres from my house one does have to question just how many their actually are.

The following google links show two routes… the first is what google maps told me was the route, and the second is what Nokia Maps told me was the route.

Google Maps Route

Nokia Maps Route

Now, I know the area (I live here so I should :-)) but the Nokia Maps is convinced that I can not drive across North Road at the intersection with Murrembeena Road. That would be fine if it was a small intersection but it is not. It is really quite large. When the new maps beta came out the first thing I checked was another turning bay just up the road. See that has been added, but in the processes they killed a very large intersection. And they make you do a right hand turn across what in peak hour is one of the main feeder roads into and out of the city, instead of at the lights!

Now I don’t for a minute think that Nokia is alone is doing stuff like this, I am sure all the maps and mapping companies are just as bad as each other.

Perhaps one day (all the privacy issues aside) Nokia Maps will upload any route that you take that deviates from the route that the software suggests, then look for patterns in this and create new routes out of the real world travel (perhaps even real time?). Then I might be able to turn right at the intersection and not drive around the block as anyone coming to visit me who didn’t know the way would go.

P.s

The Maps are done making the new Static Maps API… this I am in love with.

Tags: gps, nokia by Me
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Well hats of to nokia (and those that know me will know I never take of my hat :-)) the new Maps 2.0 is much improved.

Firstly any of the issues that I have had with the beta seem to have all gone away.  So someone must have been listening.  Secondly a lot of the map issues have been updated.  Even with Maps 1.0 there were a few strange things such as railway lines that just stopped and started again and they are all working as they should.

However… why oh why for Melbourne do they not show tram tracks.  Come on people, anyone who drives in Melbourne will really want to avoid roads with tram tracks.  But you can’t.  I have lived here for 5 years now and still get caught out on some roads.  Navigation needs to avoid things like this.

Also river crossings for the Yarra.  There are a few pedestrian only crossings.  Why doesn’t the ‘Walk mode’ have them.  You have to walk a long way to cross the river unless you knew the area.  So tourists are going to have issues.

But overall it is stable, it works and I am happy 🙂

Tags: gps, nokia by Me
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Nokia are really about to push the mapping world and gps judging by this site.

http://www.themapsters.com/preview/

They are doing the whole cute animation instruction manual for building and using maps….  This is going to tie in the with OVI think I put on the blog the other day I am sure.

Whilst it is a bit cutsie for me as a power user I don’t think I am the intended audience for this anyway. But the Flash Animations are worth looking at anyway.

Thanks to allaboutsymbian

Tags: flash, gps, nokia by Me
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from the nokia press release… – (once again my comments over the weekend :-))

first comment….  (the bugs I had in the last beta have gone away… the product is usable once more!

and here is the download link as well

http://europe.nokia.com/A4984199

Tags: gps, nokia by Me
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have just spent the last 20 minutes playing with a new bit of software.  And this on is fun :-).

http://www.nimbuzz.com/

it is another all in one voip chat comm system gadget.  But this one works.  I can make google voice calls nice and easy (although the feedback when you are sitting in front of the computer is bad :-)) send photos that you have taken as files straight through as well.

I can see this bit of software becoming a fav pretty quickly.

They say it works with Google, jabber, ICQ, AOL, e.t.c but I only use Google so I can not comment on that.  However comparied to Parlingo which I currently use this software is leap years ahead.

Go give it a try.

And some more info here at All About Symbian

Tags: n95, nokia by Me
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The same image in 3 places… the Ovi and Flickr are done straight from the phone… the Picasa wasn’t 🙂

The excerise is more to show what the acutal pages looks like for the photo when the user drills in.

(update.. this is straight to this blog via wavelog on my phone… so the image is hosted here, so that adds a 4th location.)

Self Hosted

OVI

Flickr

Picasa

Tags: google, n95, nokia, Photos by Me
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Ovi have now added geotagging…

“We have had a lot of questions about geo-tagging capabilities in the forums. Good News! It is now working! Media that includes location data in the EXIF headers will now be displayed correctly on the map. Share on Ovi will recognize if GPS information has been embedded in the photo and will display a map of where the photo was taken. Users without GPS enabled cameras can still add location information once the media has been uploaded.”

So now I still have to work out do I upload to flickr, picassa or Ovi for auto geotagged maps. This is getting silly now. Like most things everyone wants to be apart of the action. At the moment for me, Flickr for photos from a legacy thing more than anything, but I prefer the google maps in Picassa and Ovi is a long way behind. However the push for new mapping e.t.c that they have announced just today may well see me jump ship. The catch is for me is that does OVI become a nokia only space? Will other people with other devices come on over or not. If they don’t I wont either. Chicken and egg I guess.

Tags: gps, nokia, Photos by Me
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Thanks to Crave

“Planning trips on your Nokia smartphone is about to get a lot easier. Today at Where 2.0, the Finnish cell phone manufacturer announced Maps on Ovi, a Web component designed to complement its mobile mapping software, Nokia Maps 2.0. As part of the Ovi brand of Internet services, which includes the Nokia Music Store and N-Gage gaming platform, Maps on Ovi will allow users to plan their trips on their desktop or laptop and then synchronize (automatically or manually) it with their smartphones. Conversely, if you’re already out on the road, you can record routes and points of interest on your handset and then upload them to the Ovi service when you return home to share with family and friends. The interface on the Web side is similar to what you’d see on your phone for ease of use and a more seamless experience.”

For me it means planning and everything on the dual 24″ monitors at work… uploading to the phone and then driving… plus it has to be quicker and easier to use the computer to refine routes and information that using a phone as well.

Tags: gps, nokia by Me
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Tags: nokia by Me
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