Applications: Ovi Maps 3.0 (on the Nokia N97)

July 6, 2009 at 12:19 am | In 5th Edition, Applications, Nokia, Nseries, Reviews, S60, Symbian | 3 Comments
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Ovi Maps 3.0 is the latest edition of Nokia’s free Sat-Nav software. Below is a screenshot taken from Ovi Maps 3.0 on the Nokia N97.

The improvements with Ovi Maps 3.0 are well worth the time to upgrade because the interface is much improved, requiring much less menu wading and button pressing than the previous Nokia Maps 2.0. Note the following:

  • [Top Right] My Location button. Pressing this red dot (inside the square) centres the map to your current location. When you move away from your location, as I have, it will show you the arrow of your location and how far away you are from it. It disappears once the other red dot (indicating your GPS location) is visible on the map.
  • [Bottom] Search Button. Pressing the magnifying glass allows you to either search for an address or categories of places. As with 2.0, this is most/only useful when you have an internet connection.
  • [Top] Location bar . Pressing gives you a range of options to do with named location: Walk/Drive, show details, add to route, send location and explore. This is a very simple change but makes so much difference in terms of making actual navigation and using Ovi Maps so much easier.
  • Only an options button is available. No toolbar to waste space, or exit button to press accidentally.
  • Kinetic scrolling of some sort. If you flick the map, it moves slightly, gradually slowing down to a stop instead of just stoping the moment you lose contact with the screen.
  • Zoom bar on the left. For me, that is a better location as a right handed user, it makes for less accidental zooming in/out. As with before, you can either hold + to zoom in, or – to zoom out. Alternatively, a downward swipe zooms you out, and an upward swipe zooms you in.
  • Compass. As with Nokia Maps 2.0 on the N97, after around a minute, this gets a lock and rotates your map to match the actual alignment of the streets/roads/you.
MNB000028
Basic view, no location set.

From the options button, you get a similar standard menu as the previous Nokia Maps 2.0. Some worthwhile additions include:

  • History. -  Locations previously  navigated to (walk/drive to)
  • Favourites – Access your saved landmarks or routes, plus Sync your favourites with Ovi
  • Dashboard – gives quick GPS info of speed, pace, altitude and GPS coordinates, and changes when you’re in the middle of navigation, giving you trip distance, time, average speed, total distance, time and total average speed.
MNB000031

Dashboard

MNB000034

Options

MNB000038

"Walk to"

In action, Ovi Maps 3.0 turns your N97 or other compatible phone into a very capable Sat-Nav device. Directions for driving/walking appear pretty much instantly and you’re off on your way. The interface has been given a slight rehaul which makes it much more finger friendly on touch devices such as the N97.

Note, though none of the screenshots show GPS lock, that’s because they were taken within a couple of seconds of the app starting. The N97 is pretty quick at getting a GPS signal when outside. (Though there is a slight delay when in a vehicle)

MNB000036

"Drive to" options

MNB000037

"Drive to"

MNB000039

"Drive to" dashboard

Installing Ovi Maps 3.0

You’ll need two parts:

1. Nokia Maps Updater

- this will install Ovi Maps 3.0 onto your compatible phone.

dl maps

Follow the download instructions  >>here<<

Once downloaded, install and connect to your phone, preferably by cable. After restarting your computer, run the “Nokia Maps Updater” software. maps updater

Next, complete the installation on your phone. MNB000027

When you first start Ovi Maps 3.0, it will ask you to delete older maps. Once that’s done, from your phone you can start downloading maps via WiFi or Mobile Internet.

Alternatively, you can do this from Ovi Suite. >> Download here <<

2. Nokia Maps Loader (3.0)

This will install Nokia Maps Loader for your computer.

maps loader 3.0

To save time (and money) it’s advisable to use Nokia Maps Loader 3.0 which will let you load the maps you want onto your phone so you won’t have to download them on the fly later on. You can also download the voice navigation from here too.

Follow the download instructions >> here <<

Video: iPhone 3GS vs Nokia N97

July 5, 2009 at 7:49 pm | In 5th Edition, Nokia, Nseries, S60, Symbian, Video | 1 Comment
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Previously, Michael Sherlock compared the browsers of the iPhone 3GS and Nokia N97. Now Michael compares other aspects of both handsets..

[Note, that although the N97 is more expensive in the US due to it being unsubsidised/unavailable on contract, outside the US, and at least in the UK, there are some really good deals that work out much cheaper than the iPhone]

Topics covered include:

  • Opening of apps - iPhone via app launcher screen and N97 either via homescreen on S60 menu.
  • Multitasking - Michael points out that the iPhone doesn’t really have true multitasking whereas you do on the N97.
  • Text input - Full physical QWERTY on the N97 versus on screen QWERTY on the iPhone
  • Application Store – App Store versus Ovi – absolutely no competition.
  • Camera - 5MP Camera on N97 with several settings and LED flash vs simple 3MP on iPhone

It seems on the points covered, both iPhone 3GS and N97 are pretty close. However, in “real life” situations, some factors have more weighting than others, such as the wealth of applications and the “easier” UI enabling quicker accessing of apps on the iPhone.

Certain issues can be forgotten by seasoned S60 users, such as ease in getting to applications. At the moment, if you have many applications on your S60 phone, it will take a lot of unintuitive scrolling. However, most seasoned S60 users will have organized their phone into folders, making all apps accessible within 1-2 taps of pressing menu.

The keyboard front – the QWERTY does take some getting used to. It’s not the best out there, but things like the placement of the spacebar is most certainly a non issue, and after a few lengthy emails/messages you’ll get the hang of it.

The Ovi Store – I feel like constantly banging my head against a door at this one. This is something crucial for Nokia to get right. The lack of applications is slightly understandable – though it is worth noting that there are way more applications available for the N97 than there are actually catalogued in the Ovi Store, and it’s slightly frustrating that they aren’t all available through Ovi.

The bigger issue is how cumbersome Ovi Store feels. Hindered by Ovi Store’s need to cater for multiple platforms, it’s just not as intuitive as it can be for S60 5th Edition handsets.

Video: Nokia N97 Review

July 4, 2009 at 9:21 am | In 5th Edition, Nokia, Nseries, Reviews, S60, Symbian, Video | 1 Comment
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This is TeknoReview’s review of the Nokia N97.

Part 1 covers the hardware aspects of the phone including:

  • build quality/aesthetics
  • slide mechanism
  • keyboard
  • screen
  • speakers

They also cover the S60 UI slightly.

Part 2 covers most of the N97 software.

  • User interface/Homescreen
  • Ovi Store
  • Web Browser
  • Camera
  • GPS Navigation
  • Video Playback (ooh, I felt the pain when he talked about the lack of codec support. DivX player, for S60 5th

Finally, the conclusion

TeknoReview via @MickyFin

___

You might also want to check out their reviews of the HTC Touch Pro2; another tilt screen + keyboard device similar to the N97.

Here’s Part 1:

In TeknoReview’s next video, the N97 is pitted against the Pro2

No Nokia N97s through Carphone Warehouse?

July 3, 2009 at 11:05 am | In 5th Edition, Nokia, Nseries, S60, Symbian | 1 Comment
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I’ve just got off the phone to Carphone Warehouse Loyalty department. In trying to upgrade to a Nokia N97 , I was told that the stock has been locked.

200906256286

Apparently, many N97s are being bought, but just as many had been sent back. I was told it was a software issue and that’s why no Nokia N97s are being sold to the public (at least through this channel). So – they’ve got the N97 but they aren’t allowed to sell it. (Unless that was just an excuse to fob me off as I’m technically not due for an upgrade for 8 more days due to upgrading my simplicity sim in anticipation of a trial handset)

Fortunately I’ve got the N97 on trial from WOMWorld, so I’m not too desperate now to get it on any network at any tariff. I can wait with O2-CPW who says they can match (possibly better) T-Mobiles pay monthly offers. I think through CPW  stores, it’s currently available only through Orange. (24 month contract).

- On a side note, CPW have just received stock of the iPhone 3GS which had already ran out.

Video: The Phones Show – Episode 84 (Review of Nokia N86 and

July 2, 2009 at 10:32 pm | In 3rd edition, 5th Edition, Nokia, Nseries, Reviews, S60, Symbian, Video | 2 Comments
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In episode 84 of The Phones Show, Steve:

  • takes a quick look back at the E75
  • reviews the Nokia N86, 8MP camera phone
  • interviews Lee Williams, Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation

The interview of Lee Williams is slightly disheartening as there are various indications that Symbian will predominantly focus on hard key input, and not the growing trend in touch.

When asked about where he stood on Touch vs Hardware button control [at 08:04], Williams answers,

“Well I think when you look at the total size of the smartphone market and the types of products that are relevant for consumers in that market place, I speculate that no more than 30% of that overall market will actually end up being occupied by touch screen products and display only products. So I think you have at least 70% market place out there that will always be well represented by products of a different form factor where people really like their QWERTY, really like their hard inputs and really like the fous that shows up in the UI so that you can one handed and use it in many different aspects of your life”

I’m sure one handed use is not a virtue of hardware keys alone.

Right now, touch screen handsets are the ones bringing innovation to the mobile phone world in terms of changing how the masses perceive how we interact with phones. If Symbian is going to try and entice developers into producing apps, those apps MUST be optimized for touch.  Maybe it shouldn’t be touch vs hardware input, but a combination of the two – but both being equally optimised forms of input, e.g. Palm Pre, G1 and perhaps even the N97.

The interview also covers the new branding of Symbian Foundation, with images that “look like something my four year old can draw”. Hopefully, it is meant to say that the future of Symbian is something so user friendly, that even a four year old can pick it up and use it.

Another interesting part at 10:40, Williams shows us his Samsung i8910 and Nokia N97, but doesn’t show us  the prototype he’s carrying. Maybe the Sony Ericsson Satio? Or could it be a new Nokia? That’s not really the interesting bit – it’s that Williams favours the Samsung product over the Nokia handset – that’s right. Not Nokia….the manufacturer that SHOULD be the king of Symbian handsets.

via 3lib

Video: Nokia N97 Startup time on V11.0.021

July 1, 2009 at 11:03 am | In 5th Edition, Nokia, Nseries, S60, Symbian, Video | 3 Comments
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The new firmware (V11.0.021) is 6 seconds slower than V10, clocking 34s whereas before, we got 28s.

However, there are several bug fixes in this firmware which hopefully means we won’t be needing to restart too frequently. The improvements are definitely worth the firmware upgrade (not always the case)

The full change log (and annoyances encountered on V10) can be seen >>here<<

- The keyboard is much more responsive, I don’t experience the delay in text appearing on screen anymore.

-Punctuation is improved. Before, the N97 had troubles with apostrophes when in predictive text mode. Now it correctly displays I’m, you’re, I’ve etc.

- I still have no voice dialling, but I think I just have faulty hardware (hopefully that isn’t affecting other findings)

-Rotation between landscape and portrait, without transition effect is pretty much instant.

-Speed has improved for theme effects. However, transitions still have the same fade out/fade in animation instead of a nicer

Ideally (well for me anyway), in terms of transitions, we’ll get the balance of speed and a visually pleasing animation as we have seen in the Nokia Photo Browser (see below)

There are still issues that need fixing (e.g. no long press for numbers) – and who knows, there maybe additional bugs/annoyances introduced into this new firmware.

Nokia N97 Firmware Update V11.0.021 available.

July 1, 2009 at 9:19 am | In 5th Edition, Nokia, Nseries, S60, Symbian, Video | 8 Comments
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The V11.0.021 Firmware is now available for your Nokia N97.nnI’m in the middle of downloading as I write this. The changelog as discussed is >>here<<

b2

Hmm…I have not backed up anything. Though that wasn’t a problem the first time I updated the N97’s firmware.

Uh oh. A glitch.

n4

Ooops….ok… I didn’t read the instructions and just pressed retry.

n3

uh…N97 is fine

n5

Picture 224

Rumours: Ultimate Nokia Cameraphone, 12MP and Optical zoom coming early 2010

July 1, 2009 at 12:40 am | In Nokia, Rumours, Suggestions, Symbian | 1 Comment
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nzAccording to PhoneReport.info, 2010 will be the year Nokia will “surprise the market with its offerings”. It bloody better be! :)

First on the device list maybe wielding a 12mp with optical zoom. Whilst 12MP is not anything new, with the Satio from Sony Ericsson coming in October and from Samsung, the M8920 and Pixon 12, the Nokia and Carl Zeiss relationship should ensure that consumers aren’t being fooled by numbers, and are actually getting effective use of each and every pixel, e.g. the slow entrant N86, has been shown to be a great performer in all but the lowest lighting conditions.

Some basic things this supposed 12MP shooter needs:

  • Xenon Flash! I need not start on why.
  • dedicated camera/video SWITCH. A physical switch is better than a button, as you can set the camera to how you want it to start, rather than having to starting on the wrong format and being forced to switch to the other.
  • Media button. Quick gallery access from anywhere in  your smartphone. No wading through menus.
  • Improved camera interface. If this 12MP phone is going to have touch screen, it needs to revamp the Imaging UI to take advantage of “buttons” capable of being anywhere, so image settings can be changed with minimal screen tapping.

On the wish list, but not essential:

  • Large screen, 3.5″ minimum, optimally, touch.
  • 16:9 photos (with the whole screen as view finder, and camera settings laid on top)
  • Optical zooming during video
  • HD video
  • Tap-autofocus (if touch screen)
  • Automatic macro
  • Dual LED for video. Though I’ve found it much more useful as a torch – and they make for really good torches.
  • Smoother video zooming.
  • Faster sequence “burst” modes.
  • Slim body. Nothing too anorexic, but nothing fat like the N93.
  • Autofocus during video
  • Macro mode during Video
  • DLNA

HD video

As Meraj Chhaya notes, it’s possibly that we may hear official announcements later this year, or early 2010.

Is it going to be a separate imaging flagship again (i.e. N86), leaving a space for an alternative successor to the current Nokia flagship, the N97, or will we finally see Nokia returning to their convergence ideals and bring us the ultimate in mobile phone hardware with a handset really deserving of the flagship title?

Will it still be Symbian? Will it even still be part of Nseries?

phonereport via MobileBurn

Things are looking good for the N97 with the new firmware update to V11.0.021

June 30, 2009 at 11:24 pm | In 5th Edition, Nokia, Nseries, Rant, S60, Suggestions, Symbian, Video | 3 Comments
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In a few hours, it will be 1st July 09, the release of the new N97 firmware: V11.0.021.

200906256295

Teo, from Symbian-Freak, has found the changelog via serie-n.it, which at first glance for me looks great, as I’ve unfortunately encountered the bugs that required such fixes:

USB detection error fix

  • PC does not detect N97 or USB charging connection not detected.

-Additionally for me, the N97 has twice frozen after being connected via USB, then after removal from USB, still displays the charging animation. It can only be restarted by removal of battery.


-Widget

  • -Home screen online/offline widget crash fix
  • -Fix for “Alphabetical and Number input are mixed in facebook until end key is pressed.

Fantastic. This has absolutely p’d me off when trying to post on friends’ walls/statuses and the keyboard is stuck to either numbers or symbols.

  • -Widget UI improvement – New facebook widget fixes a problem of Home Screen background visible on soft-key area.

I’m loving the facebook widget for the N97. It does have certain stability issues, and annoyingly locks up if you suddenly lose signal in the middle of posting. As you cannot exit facebook to restart it, you have to restart the phone again.

The visible background thing also happens sometimes in the bloomberg widget.

  • -Browser fixes to improve widgets stability.

I encountered an awful bug today which led the phone to crash every time I tried the browser or a widget. Restart after restart. I had to remove the battery to resolve the situation. Hopefully this is fixed.

-MfE related fixes

  • -Partial fix for Messaging/calendar entry lost.
  • -Mail for exchange calendar entry synchronization error fix.

-UI transition error fixes (Portrait <-> landscape transition, there is a home screen corruption.)

  • -UI transition (Slowness and bad effects)

Ah, brilliant. The N97 UI looks much nicer if you set theme effects on. You’ve got a visual transition from homescreen to blank background, menus pop up nicer, and there is a transition (though pants) from landscape to portrait. However, it’s do painfully slow that I had to turn it off. I can’t wait 3 seconds for the phone to orientate itself.

  • -Slow Touch UI response

Another annoyance which has caused a lot of finger mashing of the screen as you aren’t really sure if your presses are being registered.

  • -Picture of the device lock appears half of the screen when transitioning the UI sometimes
  • -Landscape: in some cases the soft buttons on touch (right hand) show the Home Screen in background (install maps.google.com)


-Photos thumbnail performance and stability improvements

  • -Device performance deteriorates when lots of content in the device – especially photos

I don’t have much content yet, only a paltry proportion of the entire 29.8GB available, but I have noticed the phone to be steadily slowing down with each collection of new photos taken, music/video added.

Furthermore, photos taken in sequence mode take an age to appear in gallery beyond initial thumbnails. (But sequence mode is actually very good, with sufficient frames per second to be a real “burst” mode. Though I do miss “timed” sequences, e.g. 1 a minute. Good for stills time lapses)

  • -Partial fix no display backlight illumination when unlocking lock-key – CAP Genius reported already.

I’ve had to restart sometimes because I thought the phone had frozen only to realise it’s just the backlight, but then it’s too late and I have to wait to restart.

  • -New version of Accueweather to improve the “Connection error” situation
  • -Device reset when browsing with high speed packet access (for Malaysia)
  • -“Browser soft key UI doesn’t work after putting Chinese character with qwerty keyboard”
  • -Java fixes (TCK, Pre-install app disappearing, *#7370#*)
  • -Operator fixes (CMCC, Hutchson and Telefonica, Vodafone)
  • -Ovi store client now embedded in the core image

____

Some other annoyances that spring to mind right now (there’s more, but can’t remember) which aren’t on the changelog:

  1. Voice command disabled. Maybe it’s just my handset. It worked a few times, and it was surprisingly accurate, even in a busy Cardiff shopping street. However, it proceeded to later crash, lock the device needed for a battery removal restart.
  2. Music player in homescreen doesn’t always display the track that’s actually being played.
  3. When slide closes from landscape view, (e.g. I’ve just typed in something, I want to minimise the form factor) the phone reverts into portrait even though I’m not holding the phone in portrait – then proceeds to switching back into landscape.

There are also some UI issues, which may have to wait for another firmware update, such as :

  • continuity of kinetic scrolling.

This should not be just in certain apps, web browser/certain widgets. It should be a fluid character of every single area of the phone, stepping towards more finger friendly gestures.

  • slowness in typing.

Using the keyboard, the letters seem to be slightly delayed before appearing on screen. It doesn’t happen when using the alphanumeric keyboard, but because the screen cannot register multiple presses, when typing at “fast” speeds with two thumbs, your input is not registered.

  • Better input of numbers/punctuation from keyboard.

A lot of people have wished that the keyboard would register a long press as a number selection. e.g. instead of

“RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR” we get “4″.

Additionally, punctuation. Full stops, commas, apostrophes, question marks and exclamation marks are (I’m guessing) are the most frequently used. Strangely, it was much easier to get punctuation from the old style nokia keypads than this full fleged keyboard. Yeah, you get used to it. But full stops, commas and apostrophes should have never been mashed together in one button.

  • Improved predictive text (mainly in QWERTY).

Both alphanumeric keyboard and physical qwerty have predictive text. It helps slightly as you get used to knowing what words will come up, so pressing spacebar on qwerty completes it (Set auto-fill on). However:

-it doesn’t have the intuition to know that when I’m pressing the awful .,’ button, in attempting to type “I’m, or I’ve or It’s, you get I.m/I.ve/It.s” Even when I’ve added it to the dictionary by spelling it, it still isn’t recognized.

-When you complete a previously entered word, it automatically fills it in, including any capital letters you may or may not want the second time around. You cannot undo it unless you type the last letter separately.

-Pressing up or down gives you suggestions on what you may have wanted to input, but it’s inconsistent. Sometimes it gives full words, sometimes it only gives a few letters. I may have to read the manual to ascertain the actual function of this, maybe it’s not meant to be for suggestions/corrections as it doesn’t fullfil either function properly.

______

Whilst it’s a deep inconvenience to encounter these bugs on production firmware, it’s good to see Nokia fixing these bugs extremely quickly. As I remember from testing the N95, the guys fixing the firmware bugs were incredible. An email about a bunch of bugs to them and they release an update to fix it. Aha, if only it were that quick and simple for production units.

From Serie-N.it via Symbian-Freak

Video: Browser War – iPhone 3GS vs Nokia N97

June 29, 2009 at 7:08 pm | In 5th Edition, Nokia, Nseries, S60, Symbian, Video | 2 Comments
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TheReviveDone takes a look at the Nokia N97’s browser and compares it with the iPhone 3GS’ over WiFi.

I’ve been using the N97 on the go, predominantly over O2’s 3G and I’m moderately pleased with the browser. Flash hasn’t been too stable at the moment, with youtube forcing the browser to crash (less of a S60 issue as N95/N82 are ok), but what’s most annoying is that there hasn’t been much improvement from S60 with keypad to S60 with touch screen.

I don’t like that:

  • If I’ve zoomed in on a particular website to a comfortable viewing level, opening a new link zooms me out again
  • The side bar is extremely cumbersome. Just letting you get rid of it manually would have been a step in the right direction, but no. It lingers and goes away on its own accord.
  • I can’t select text/images to copy/save them. It should be that if you long press on an area in the screen, a menu pops up that gives you additional options, such as select/copy text and images.
  • The phone runs out of RAM easily. Music player in the background, Maps in the background, “boom” Web Browser turns off or worse, phone restarts.
  • I can only have one browser window open at a time. (On Maemo, OS 2008, you could have several windows open at the same time).

Some positives:

  • Most sites do load faithfully to how it appears on your desktop. Flash content included.
  • OK, maybe flash deserves it’s own point – though flash content seems a tad choppy on the N97.
  • Kinetic scrolling is nice. It’s a shame on occasions that due to the screen being resistive, that slight bit of additional pressure needed to register a “flick” to scroll instead inadvertently opens a link. As you get used to the resistive screen, this does become less frequent.

Suggestions:

Most websites I check are ones I view frequently. Even with bookmarks on the N97, it’s a few taps too many to get to my favourite sites.

What if, with a downward swipe from the top of the screen, a toolbar shows up, 10 icons of your most visited websites (perhaps 4/5 when in portrait) as defined by you (or maybe even the browser itself).

It’s how I use firefox, a bookmark toolbar with just icons of the sites I use a lot. BBC icon for iPlayer, YouTube icon for…well you get the point.

(One suggestion for now, got a gig to go to…more N97 low light tests)

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