atmaspheric | endeavors

Last night I began the firmware update process for my N95 and windows crashed about halfway through. This was a rather critical moment and I found myself looking potentially at a Nokia paperweight.

I tried several times to reestablish a connection but nothing seemed to work. My Windows machine is virtual running in Parallels so I was not certain I really even had a chance to get things restored. I did manage to get a connection going after several tries (and battery removals) but it was taking far too long to be reasonable. At the advice of my Jaiku friends, I kept it rolling and decided to get some sleep and check back in the am… nothing.

A fresh start to the day can apparently make some difference. After another couple of tries the connection just worked and somehow the N95 was reflashed and back in service! I honestly have no idea what happened or why it worked, but it does!

I’m happy to report that the new Firmware brings the AGPS support I alluded in a previous post about Nokia Maps. This is on by default in your Navigation preferences (system not app) though it may not be too obvious it’s running at first. When I connected for the first time today I was expecting first time response in less than 2 minutes. Instead, I found myself waiting for over 20 minutes… after about 15 I went outside to try and get a clear signal. I then powered down and restarted the N95. When I relaunched Nokia Maps, I was found instantly (literally) though the map needed about 20 seconds to complete the animation and zoom to where I was standing. This is VERY cool! Since the device has ZERO carrier support, Nokia is collecting data on the Cell-ID and building their own database. The more you use the real GPS, the more associations you’ll find with the cell towers in your travels and the better the experience for everyone. It’s a shame this is privatized data to begin with, but cool nonetheless. At least in my situation, I know I can just go with the GPS from my house, without having to worry about when I’ll get a signal to begin tracking a trip.

I’ve also loaded Shozu and the latest Jaiku beta which both seem to work just fine. Shozu now offers official N95 support which for me means it actually works. I’ve used Shozu for a long time across devices and in my book it’s the best way to get content from your device up to your web service of choice.

The N95 still suffers from memory issues unfortunately – probably it’s biggest weakness. I’m not sure why this is the case given it’s status as the über N-Series, but it’s how it is for now. With Jaiku, Shozu (both in the background) and the browser running, you can expect to run out of memory very quickly.

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Nokia, mobile, N-Series, N95, Firmware, GPS, Navigation, Shozu, Jaiku