Monthly Archives: April 2010

Nokia Shafts Millions of N95 and N95-8GB Users?

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Today, Nokia has responded making Ovi Maps 3 – available for the E71 and E66 too.

People will be able to use Ovi Suite to side load the latest country maps onto their devices so they can enjoy offline map browsing alongside free navigation. The process of making the latest version of Ovi Maps available for existing devices is quite involved, but the team managed to include complete navigation functionality. Due to technical constraints in back porting the app to existing devices, unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to offer further premium content such as Guide Michelin and Lonely Planet guides. These two devices will also be the last of our S60 3.1 and older devices to sport this version of Ovi Maps. But every upcoming Nokia Smartphone will come with free walk and drive navigation out of the box.

via thereallymobileproject.com

So it appears those millions of N95-* owners can go screw themselves as far as Nokia is concerned. Ovi Maps will continue to ask them for money for voice navigation whilst owners of newer crappier devices like the N97 get it for free.

I know Nokia wants us all to upgrade and if they had a phone that was worth upgrading to, we probably would. But €399 for an N900 upgrade on Vodafone IE is a joke. And in any case, you can’t get the new Ovi Maps for the N900.

Well done Nokia, unless that story is wrong, this confirms my upcoming purchase of a HTC Desire.

Android need some hardware standards

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Anyone who knows me is sick of my bitching and moaning about the closed nature of the iPhone. But that closed nature has one huge advantage; a global ecosystem of accessories has built up around it. From cases to speaker docks to headphones, suppliers work with fixed form factors and interfaces.

That ecosystem must now be worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year. It strikes me that Android could achieve the same thing but in an open way and with a focus on interfaces rather than form factors.

The first and most critical thing needed is an audio interface. This could be a software overlay on USB, it just needs to be defined. Currently Android phones can only connect to docks by 3.5mm jack and with no ability to change tracks etc.

Google (and Moto with Droid?) have created phone-specific modules but surely that defeats the point of Android?

Whilst A2DP could be the solution, it's still Bluetooth with all the pairing bullshit that it entails. Maybe NFC could sort that out?

I spent the weekend testing an iPod and iPhone dock. We used 2 generations of iPod and 2 generations of iPhone and they <em>just worked</em>. The poor HTC G1 dangling off the back on an audio cable looked like something from a previous century.

So how about it Google? Android should enable business opportunities, not get in their way.