Techy odds and ends

On Friday (22/01/10) I took delivery of a Nokia E72 handset on loan from Nokia so that I could test-drive it and write this review. The whole thing could in fact be summed up in three words: "I want one". That is not, however, particularly helpful for other people so I'll go ahead and give you the longer version as well... To get an idea of the perspective from which I'm writing this mini-review, bear in mind that I'm a long-ish term Nseries user having worked my way through an N73, N95 and N96, and my current phone is a 5800 XpressMusic (which really is an Nseries phone in all but name). I don't have much use for several of the business-related features of the E72 (such as VPN and printing, for example) and won't cover them here. There are also some of the features I used to use on the N95 that disappeared from the N96 and 5800XM but have reappeared on the E72. These features mean enough to me for me to be willing to compromise on the multimedia side of t

On the morning of January 21st 2010, Nokia announced that turn-by-turn navigation would be free for all to use on their Nokia handsets. Until now, the OVI Maps software (formerly known as Nokia Maps) was free to use for finding your current position and managing locations, but obtaining step-by-step directions from one location to another with vocal prompts was subject to the purchase of a navigation licence. The roll-out of free navigation is not yet global. The ability to use it is subject to installing OVI Maps V3.03, which is not yet ported to all models. As of writing, the models supported are: 5230, 5800 XpressMusic, 5800 Navigation Edition 6710 Navigator, 6730 classic, X6 E52, E55, E72, N97 mini Current speculation is that this new version of OVI Maps will be embedded in the V21 firmware update of the N97 that is due to be released later this month. It is also thought that OVI Maps V3.03 is the reason why the V21 update, originally announced for December 2009, was delayed. Visit

What better way to kick off the New Year's blogs than with the announcement of a great firmware update from Nokia? This article could be subtitled "Give Credit Where Credit Is Due" because V40.0.005 does seem to be the result of a productive effort from Nokia's software development team. They have evidently been listening to customers' concerns because the timer-related bugs that were introduced in V30 and V31 are gone and new features that many people were demanding have been introduced. In short, it took them long enough but they got this one right in my opinion. Nokia considers changelogs to be confidential information, so you'll never find one except when it's leaked on unofficial sites, but bear in mind that they more than likely contain inaccuracies deliberately introduced by Nokia in order to identify the mole leaking them. The information here is therefore based solely on personal observation. There may be features I've overlooked because I nev