Nokia Ovi Maps for the N95

Nokia Ovi Maps

A great new development from Nokia are the free maps that give you sat nav functionality directly on your n95 whther walking or driving and the come with some pretty impressive features.

It’s free and here’s what you get:

* full navigation and maps for over 70 countries
* Drive and Walk navigation in over 90 countries
* real-time voice guidance for Drive and Walk
* maps for over 180 countries with free updates
* real-time weather services
* travel guides for over 1,000 destinations
* real-time events listings
* and much more

get the free app here

We’re back

Having recently brought my N95 back from retirement we’re back up and running and I am looking forward to some great updates from my nok95 bloggers, so get those keyboards smoking and we’ll get back up to date with all the new exciting things on for the n95.

new PC Suite 6.86 (9/4/08)

With Nokia PC Suite 6.86, you can:

• View your mobile device’s calendar in the main window
• Delete and reply to text messages in the main window
• Experience the fresh appearance of applications
• Released 9 April, 2008

n95 Naviagtion

Their are a number of options out there besides using the n95′s own built in navigation. Two that spring to mind are Garmin and TomTom.

I am currently using Garmin XT which performs like a dream. especially after the Assisted GPS and the extended battery life firmware updates. The product is easy to install and works well in driving mode. The one thing I don’t like are the safety camera warnings that present a red warning header and no audio, not very useful for a driver who is focussing on watching the road! I am informed that voice files can be substituted for the silence but haven’t got this to work on my unit to press but otherwise a very capable bit of kit and more power to the n95′s elbow. The one bug bear of the Garmin’s utility-ware is Mapsource (this is a bit of software for the pc, where you can create sub-maps, create waypoints and routing for maps and most important of all install maps to your unit) which I have had endless fun trying to install, I eventually got it to install only to find it grind to a halt later that day giving me the now more than familiar and just a little annoying recurring “reinstall MapSource” message.

TomTom is a different story on the other hand altogether. TomTom Mobile will NOT work with the n95′s internal GPS. I spent much of yesterday messing about with TomTom on my n95, it is easy to install to and you can set it to work with an external GPS no probs, but it does not recognise the n95′s internal GPS. With no patch imminent to rectify this, I feel that TomTom are missing out on a big market here with the n95. The n95 isn’t even mentioned as compatible with the n95 according to their own site!

So until TomTom pull their finger out (and probably even when they pull their out) I will stick with the smooth running Garmin XT. Hardly seems like TomTom are on the ball, after all I have had my n95 a year now and they haven’t even listed it as compatible with their product!!!

What’s the point of having an external GPS device when you have a perfectly good built in device on the n95?!

Are you using any different  navigation software on your n95? Let us know what and if it’s any good.

The World of Barcodes

The n95 comes with a barcode reader but I haven’t really used it up until now. It’s a great little tool once you get to use it with a lot of untapped uses. You can even create your own barcode very quickly and easily on the nokia site

Just open your barcode reader application in the office folder on your n95 and open your camera and point it at our very special nok95 message below.

v21.0.016 Firmware Features (for the n95 classic)

What’s in the release:-

New features
1 Flash Lite 3 support added
2 Widget (Web runtime) support added
3 Default year changed to 2008

Improvements
1 General stability improvements.
2 Pre-defined access point kept after switching to different type SIM card.
3 Localization improvements.
4 Standby time improvements.
5 Improvements to BT headset interoperability.
6 Improvement to Calendar data restoring.
7 Switch from landscape to portrait mode & screen rotations improvements.

T-Mobile SUCKS!!!

It’s getting beyond a joke now with UK phone providers so far behind with firmware updates for the n95 classic and inparticular my provider t-mobile. When I go on to check for firmware updates it still says v12.0.013 is the latest version despite 2 or 3 v20 firmware releases and now a v21 firmware release.

I wouldn’t mind if these were insignificant small bugfix releases but they are not; increasing battery life by 30% and increasing RAM size by significant levels (16-25mb increases are being reported) significantly improve the usability of something that we have paid for and we are unable to get the best from because providers are making sure that all their money making schemes can be incorporated into the releases.

There is however a workaround will I will pass on in the next couple of days but it can be dangerous and voids your warrranty, more later.

The horror stories that I have read from people about the sheer apathy of providers is frightening.

Is you provider doing the same, please let us know and if enough people get together may be we can do something about it?

Here is a list of product codes for some suppliers:-

Nokia N95-1 (classic) Operator Specific codes

0536065 – KPN Netherlands
0546659 – T-Mobile UK
0547686 – T-Mobile (P4U) UK
0547867 – DTAC Thailand
0547869 – Vodafone UK
0548020 – Movistar Spain
0548021 – O2 UK
0548170 – Orange UK
0548364 – O2 (CPW) UK (Graphite)
0549533 – T-Mobile (P4U) UK
0550199 – O2 Ireland

It appears the non operator euro codes are the first to get firmware updates: -

0534841 – Euro 1 – Sand
0536062 – Euro1 – Plum

Latest n95 Classic Firmware Released

Here’s an extract from nokia’s update page I got today, try it for yourself, (the code enetered is a euro code – 0536062):

Enter your product code:
0536062				Go

Latest available software for Nokia N95, product code 0536062
Version: 21.0.016

Compare numbers
If this version is greater than your current software version, update now to get the latest features, applications and improvements. Go to Nokia Software Updater download

Mobile Systems QuickWrite v2.60

Quickwrite, through word suggestions, helps improve text input speeds greatly making writing tezt quicker. It’s a great little app, have got something a little similar to this on my PDA and found it invaluable. Although this has a few less features than my PDA app it’s still a great time saving bit of software.

VoiceSignal VoiceMode v2.0.28 S60v3

Whether you text all the time, or have never sent a text message in your life, you’ll love VoiceMode 2.0, the easy to use text input method that lets you enter text by saying what you want rather than having to use the keypad. With VoiceMode 2.0, you just press and hold a key and say what you want. When you release the key, you’ll see your spoken words become text before your eyes!You can use VoiceMode 2.0 to add text to messages, notes, calendar entries, and even documents -almost anywhere that you can type.