How to: Nokia N95 and Apple Mac Users

If you own a Nokia smartphone (ie. the N95, N82, N96, etc.) and an Apple computer of some sort, you may find the lack of a complete sync'ing software for the OS X rather irritating. For Windows users, Nokia's PC Suite software pretty much takes care of all the sync'ing business (contacts, calendar, music, etc...). As matter a fact, when I bootcamped my MacBook Pro, part of the reason is because of non-Apple smartphones lacking OS X supported software.

While you can't go completely without a Windows setup for Nokia Phones (ie. GPS/Map application still requires a Windows machine for map installation), you can do about 90% of what you need on a Mac; and relatively painless, here is how:

Apple iSync, which is part of Leopard or can be downloaded here is an amazing native syncing software. For some Nokia phones, you'll need to download a quick Plugin. Once the plugin is installed. All you have to do is to pair up your Nokia smartphone via Bluetooth and click sync. This method allows me quickly and WIRELESS sync my N95-3 with my Mac Address Book, iCal, etc... Imagine this, wireless sync'ing your mobile device effortlessly!

For sync'ing multimedia material with iTunes, Nokia makes a cool little application called "Nokia Multimedia Transfer" which allows you to sync up with iTunes (audio, video, podcast, playlist) as well as iPhoto. The process does require a USB cable but it practically enables full synchronization with your Nokia smartphone.

I hope Nokia will release a Maps tool for Mac so we can also complete the map pre-installation on the OS X environment.

Smartphones, grass is greener on the other one?

Few days ago, I switched back from the HTC G1 to the iPhone. As I was doing so, my wife made a comment about my action, that "with so many phones I've gone through, I can't seem to be satisfied with any of them". I chuckled and proceeded with the SIM card transfer and update the iPhone w/ iTunes.

Just today, I am planning a potential road trip for this coming weekend. I was thinking to myself, lets switch to the Nokia N95 and update its GPS map from Nokia so we can reliably pin-point our exact location w/o relying on 3G data. That is when it dawned on me that the reason why I am perpetually changing smartphones is because there is yet to be one "it" phone. While the iPhone is a very strong device, it lacks the flexibility and independent functionality as a Symiban or WM device. Meaning iPhone can be rendered useless outside of what is tolerated (3G data area, iTunes, etc...). Whereas WM and Symbian OS tends to allow you, as a user to customize and run various programs on the fly.

On the other hand, iPhone's total market domainance with applications and mobile websites optimized for Safari makes it the most entertaining and web friendly device. I suppose a user really has to decide what his or her lifestyle is about and choose a smartphone wisely. I am fortunate enough to have a few phones to switch around and will likely to do so until the "perfect" smartphone arrives.

Get more battery life out of your Nokia N95-3

Ever since I turned off my 3G data network setting on the Nokia N95-3 which seems to have provided a temporary fix for the bug in firmware 20.2.011 from shutting itself off randomly, I noticed a significant boost in battery run time per charge cycle. I am going on three days with the battery meter showing as full. Is the 3G chip really that draining on the battery?

Nokia N95-3 Random Shut Off, Possible Solution

Over the last five days, my N95 has randomly shut itself down twice; I was just too lazy to report it here (as I always have). However, I am writing this blog entry with a potential solution to this problem (although not a solution I like, but it manages to keep my phone from shutting down until Nokia addresses this issue with an updated firmware).

I found tip from this Howard Forum thread, where lots of forum members are getting more stability by setting the phone network to GSM (EDGE) only as opposed the default dual mode GSM+UMTS (EDGE+3G) setting. I am now going on my second day without any problems; I hope this is indeed a good short term solution because nothing is more irritating than when you pick up a phone that has shut itself down.

Daily Exercise: Nokia N95-3 Shuts Down Again

Yup, like I promised, I will continue to document for each time my Nokia N95-3 shuts itself down mysteriously since the firmware 20.2.11 upgrade (not much of an upgrade if you ask me, if it shuts itself down at random). This time, the phone shut itself down in the middle of the night, again.

For fun, this time, I will do a soft-reset *#7370# on handset to see if getting rid of all my installed apps may be the cause of this bug. Regardless, I second Michael Mace's article "Nokia goes for 1% Market Share in US", with the bad mobile experience I've had with Symbian S60 3rd Edition and Nokia's lack of quality control in dealing with software issues, I am walking away from them for good!

Update 6/24/08: I started a thread and found another thread on Howard Forums to see if anyone else is getting the same thing, answer is yes. Even the N95-4 people are having the same problem.

Nokia N95 Shuts Itself Down, Once again

Like I've said, I will continue to blog about how my N95 just shuts itself down randomly ever since the 20.2.11 firmware upgrade. To keep track of how many times it has done this, visit my original article "Nokia N95-3 Mysteriously Shuts Down".

As part of the remedy this time around, I will perform a Nokia factory restore/reset *#7780# (this method is mild because it keeps all of my contacts and apps in place) in hopes the problem will go away. Hopefully, there will be no "next time", but I will likely try the soft-reset *#7370# to bring it back to factory default.

Google Android running on Nokia N95 on Video

This makes owning my N95-3 exciting all over again. Can't wait! See clip below:

the mobile experience: AT&T Network Load Test

This week, I have been out in Chicago attending the Internet Retailer conference at the McCormick's Center (West). Part of the challenge with any tradeshow or conference is getting internet access. With thousands of attendees jumping on the same free WiFi network, its almost impossible to get a solid connection. I figured that I have a secret weapon this time, my trusty N95-3 and AT&T's 3G unlimited data package. Little did I realize, when you have thousands of people within the same exhibit space, the 850/1900MHz bandwidth will be pushed to its max. This year's conference, there were a total of 5,000 attendees and that doesn't even include the organizers as well as the exhibitors.

I assume AT&T customers were probably at least accounting for 2,000. During the peak moments (in between sessions) not only was I not able to connect to the UMTS (3.5G) internet, I wasn't even able to place a voice call or check my voicemail. The only way to get a hold of me was to use SMS text. When I was able to sign on, I was only able to connect via EDGE at best.

This mobile experience introduced a whole new dimension of today's mobile world. I am uncertain if the CDMA folks panned out a little better but one of the vendors I spoke with did mention his CDMA laptop card was choppy throughout the entire show. I guess under severe load, mobile broadband can still use a little boost.

Nokia N95-3 Firmware v 20.2.011 Problems

Here is a thread on Howard Forums which members listed out there problems with the recent ugrade, aside from my N95-3's mysterious shut-down, they also noticed:

* When sliding the LCD down to reveal multimedia keys, the screen rotates but no longer launches media player
* emTube no longer works, suspect a FL2 vs new FL3 Lite support reason
* Nokia Browser seems less stable, crashes more frequently (happened to me once)
* Firmware doesn't have "PC Suite Support" installed, I noticed it a couple of times myself, it can be easily fixed by pushing this via PC Suite under one of its menus

Overall, there are 10+ pages worth of people talking on the thread, I haven't seen any consistent problems; so those could just be random bugs in Symbian S60.

MicroSDHC 2GB, 4GB and 8GB Becoming Cheap!

For anyone with a decent, releatively new smartphone, the best way to increase your media storage is by adding more MicroSD memory. Most new phones should even support greater than 2GB aka MicroSDHC memory. Sometimes, buying a smartphone w/ MicroSDHC support proves to be a better economical solution with the flexibility to upgrades than phones with embedded memory (ie. N95-4, iPhone, etc...). For example, I paid $500 for my N95-3 and started with a 1GB microSD I owned. I paid $35 for a 4GB microSDHC a while ago. If I have waited, the 8GB microSDHC would cost the same today. In the future I could even expand to 16GB. In the mean time, a N95-4 would have set me back at least $650, while it has 8GB internal memory, this is it for the phone, no future upgrades and when it comes time for firmware restoration, it has proven to be less convenient.

The price for MicroSD or MicroSDHC memory cards are dropping fast, take a look at the pricing points below for example. Its a great time for you to load up your phone with pictures, videos and MP3s.

Kingston MicroSD 1GB - as low as $7
SanDisk MicroSDHC 2GB - as low as $11
SanDisk MicroSDHC 4GB - as low as $15
Kingston MicroSDHC 4GB - as low as $21
SanDisk MicroSDHC 8GB - as low as $38

Nokia N95 Symbian S60 Application Force Quit

Recently, I was browsing a mobile friendly website but all of a sudden Nokia Browser just refused to work further. I would still have no problem using the phone (for example, holding down the menu button will still pull up the switch applications bar) but when I am in the Nokia Browser, nothing will react, hence, I can't even exit the program.

I had to force quit on the Nokia browser. To do so, press and hold the menu button until the application switch bar appears, select the application you want to force quit, then press "c" or delete button. It will ask if you want to exit that program. Choose "yes" and you are done.

My Nokia N95 Shuts Down Unexpectedly Again

Yup, it happened again. This Nokia N95 phone is starting to really suck royally. As mentioned before, it started to power down unexpectedly on its own ever since the firmware 20.2.011 update. I have missed 3 calls and got 1 VM as a result this afternoon. This time the phone shut down some time between 1PM and 6PM on its own. I don't believe any application is running.

I will, keep documenting and write on my blog about how crappy my mobile experience have been with this POS Nokia N95-3 with its countless problems until this goes away... (hopefully with a new firmware).

Update: I will attempt to do something about this since I can't seem to find any fix online. Since updated my firmware, I kept my content on my MicroSDHC card from the previous firmware. I will now reload all my music file and Nokia Maps to get a clean start by reformtting the microSDHC card, wondering if they may have something to do with it. Doubtful, but its another item to cross off of the process of elimination.

Nokia N95-3 Mysteriously Shuts Down

I don't know what it is with my Nokia N95-3, but it always yields a sense of uneasiness when it comes to trusting it. Especially with my phone tend to power itself down for no reason. It happened a couple of times when I first bought the phone. But ever since I upgraded the latest firmware, 20.2.011, it has turned itself off unexpectedly twice in one week including this morning. Is anyone else seeing this? My patience with Nokia phones is running pretty thin these days.

Reference: My N95 occasionally shuts down unexpectedly...
Reference: Nokia N95-1 Automatically Shuts Off...
Reference: Howard Forum - N95-3 turns itself off randomly. Anyone else? Suggestions?
Reference: Howard Forum (my thread) - N95-3 Shuts Off Randomly, post 20.2.11 upgrade

Update: 6/4/08 - My N95 unexpectedly shuts down again this afternoon... made me miss 3 calls.
Update: 6/9/08 - N95 Shuts down in middle of night... my worst fear comes true
Update: 6/19/08 - Nokia N95 Shuts Itself Down, Once again
Update: 6/23/08 - The N95-3 Shuts itself down in the middle of night, once again!
Update: 7/8/08 - N95 Shuts down twice over past week, possible solution with network setting?

Nokia N95-3 Browser Flash Support Test via 20.2.011 Firmware

One of the most exciting features with the recent firmware update for the Nokia N95-3 (RM-160) phones has to be it Flash Lite 3 support. This can potentially unlock so much more mobile experience for its users. Flash support has been one of those highly desirable features challenging almost all smartphones. Currently, to find a smartphone that is fully capable of supporting Flash in a mobile browser is almost non-existent; not even with the high acclaimed iPhone (mobile Safari). One can only hope Skyfire can bring this to reality soon.

As you can see, this feature is quite important for the Nokia symbian S60 3rd edition handsets. Yours truly decided to test out a few websites featuring Flash-rich animations and see how the Nokia browser would handle the flash rendering. The end result is not great; only 1 out of 4 websites I tested worked with some of navigational bugs (won't scroll all the way to the top of page). Take a look at the comparisons for yourself between a desktop browser vs. Nokia browser handling Flash animations.

Nokia N95-3 RM160 Firmware Update 20.2.011

Nokia has jumped the gun in releasing the latest firmware 20.2.011 update for the North American 3G N95-3. It seems like these days, I always find myself re-installing the firmware for this phone. The update is still not supporting Windows Vista or OS X. Basically, it is an XP friendly scenario. This update requires you to 113.5MB prior to installation so make sure you give yourself some time for this major upgrade.

Make a short list of your favorite applications (ie. Nokia Maps 2.0, Geo-Tagger, Screenshot, ec.) and back up your contacts. You'll need to reinstall and sycnhronize everyone once the firmware is flashed. Once again, this is where the benefit of having MicroSDHC expansion comes in handy, so my maps, music and photos are still in place.

Boot time seems to have improved as most people have claimed. I haven't gotten a chance to thoroughly test the new firmware just yet. Stay tuned for more updates!

Nokia N95 vs iPhone GPS Shoot-out

Ever wonder how accurate your iPhone's faux GPS function (from firmware 1.4 update) in Google Maps "My Location" would hold up against a real GPS receiver? Better yet, how does it stack up against another smartphone with integrated GPS like the Nokia N95? I wanted to find out for myself so I took both devices out for a shoot out.

iPhone - in its typical fashion, performed quickly via AT&T EDGE network to provide my location. Regardless of where I stood nearby my NYC apartment (in the courtyard, by both sides of 23rd street), it would locate me at the corner of 24th and 10th Avenue.

Nokia N95 - I had the internet connection defaulted to turn off, relying purely on the integrated GPS. In an open space, I can normally get a good fix on the satellites within 2 minutes. This afternoon, however, I cannot even get connected; its possible that the buildings are too tall on my street which blocked partial satellite signals. I sampled it in the same three locations as mentioned above (courtyard, both sides of 23rd Street) and I can't rely on the integrated GPS alone to pick up my location. So I activated Nokia Maps to go online via AT&T 3G network which engaged the Assisted-GPS function (ie. using data network to help getting a location fix assisting integrated GPS receiver). Within 30 seconds, I got a fix. It showed me as if I were on the other side of 23rd Street. See the 3rd image for exact location test results.

There you have it. iPhone's simulated GPS works faster with lesser accuracy. Nokia N95's integrated GPS is slow (which is a known fact, and I've seen better GPS phones) but offers a bit more accuracy and obviously helps you track your location no matter where you move around once you have a fix.

Nokia GPS Location Tagger

I got a chance to test out Nokia's Location Tagger application from its Beta Labs. This app can be used in conjunction with compatible phone's GPS and camera to record the geographic location (longitude/Latitude) for each picture taken from Eseries and Nseries phones like the E90, N95 and N82. According to Nokia, this should work with all Symbian S60 3rd edition phones w/ integrated GPS or external bluetooth GPS. Geo-Tagging will be an important meta-data for photography in the future; and currently, smartphones with integrated GPS is a convenient way to start such implementation. I foresee future point-n-shoots and DSLRs to come equip with some form of Geo-Tagging feature.

Nokia's software is pretty cool and simple to use. To get started, simply launch Location Tagger app and let it find a fix for satellite signal (on m N95, I kept the slider open, since thats how it is for me to use my GPS normally, once I got a lock on Satelite signal, I can close the slider down to shoot photos). It took me about 30 seconds before getting a full satellite read. After that, use the "hide" command or just launch your camera. You'll notice a small green logo on your camera/LCD screen which indicates the Geo-Tagger in action.
After taking each shot, the application will tell you that it has been tagged. If you upload your 'geo-tagged' images to an application like PicasaWeb, Google Earth or Flickr, it will show you the location each picture has been taken from automatically. Please find a couple screenshots of PicasaWeb Google Maps integration using a picture I took this morning.

Mitsuwa Supermarket, a popular Japanese Market Chain, this one is in Edgewater, NJ.

Benefit of N95-3 over N95-4 8GB

Because of all recent the hard/soft reset and firmware re-flash I had to go through, I actually saw one huge benefit out of owning a N95-3 over the much desired N95-4 (8GB). With N95-3, a large portion of my media (MP3, Photo and Nokia Maps) are stored on a 4GB MicroSD. They are not impacted from all the resets. Once I got my phone back to work, they were safely retrieved from the storage card. Had I owned the 8GB built-in memory, this recovery process would take much longer. Scored an extra point for the N95-3. :)

AT&T Data Network Down in NYC? 05-17-2008

I've been having trouble accessing my MediaNet data network using Nokia N95-3 all morning. At first I thought it was because I was tampering with the WiFi/3G setting with Fring last night. But it doesn't look to be the case. Since then, I've done the following:

1. Reset the Nokia Factory Setting (Tool/Setting/General/Factory Setting with default code 1-2-3-4-5) - still has no internet connection
2. Soft Reset the phone by typing in *#7370# unlock code 1-2-3-4-5 - still has no internet connection
3. At this point, the phone is back to barebone factory OS setting, no applications impacting what-so-ever...
4. I called AT&T support, and they were very good about troubleshooting for me. Today, the lady rep registered my unlocked phone's IMEI to their system to match with my SIM. They checked out my account and everything looks fine as well as gone through a process called "provisioning" to ensure I have all the settings. Just before she past to off to "tech support" team, I was disconnected.
5. Thinking it might be due to the 3G network down, I switched my phone into EDGE network only, and problem persists.

Prior to being disconnected, there are some known technical issues around NY area, says the rep. I am hoping that is the reason why I am having so much trouble... however, my iPhone's EDGE data seems to be uneffected.

I am at lost for words and solutions.

Nokia Firmware and Software Update: Bad Mobile Experience

I went through a lot of work to document a really bad mobile experience I had with my Nokia N95-3's firmware update tonight. This is the very same reason why Apple is just kicking arse in iPhone's seemless integration via iTunes... (never such headache!). I wanted to document this experience hoping that the mobile industry can try to improve and simplify customer's mobile experience:

As I mentioned from my last entry, I was excited to have learned that there may have been an update to the N95 firmware as of April 2008 (Go here and look under Location Tagger reference) and I planned on making some updates tonight. Nokia in general doesn't do a good job letting you know if your firmware is up to date. This site doesn't help much as no matter what code I type in for my phone behind the battery department, it would prompt me that I've put in the wrong code.

As soon as I got home, I booted my MacBook Pro into Windows Vista Ultimate mode to take care of of this update and this is where the nightmare started. At first, I updated the PC Suite software just to be sure I am on top of everything. I originally wanted to remove the older PC Suite that was already installed, but within Vista program removal, the software isn't labeled as PC Suite and there were about 7 Nokia related applications previously installed so I decided to take different route. I went ahead to install the latest PC Suite version 6.86.9.3 since the installation screen prompted that it would remove all previous versions. Not true, after installation, I see two versions of PC Suite running on the my computer background. Somehow I managed to remove the older version and off I go to check for Nokia Software Update. Right away, I get an error message from PC Suite prompting me that Vista is not currently supported (see screen shot). As suggested by the prompt, I visited Nokia's website to download the software update directly from Nokia website. Frustration continues to build up as this time, I keep on getting an fetal ERROR 1731 message, saying the file I downloaded is corrputed. I tried this twice and finally gave up. (see screen shot below)

Wanting to go through this entire process the right way, I pulled my old HP laptop running XP from the closet and once again, downloaded and installed the Nokia PC Suite software to this machine. Again, I followed the on screen instructions to sync up the phone, I am finally connected and ready to go. By the way, this process have triggered atleast 10+ actions in which I had to approve from my firewall; it seems that Nokia's software is launching different services to access the internet and acting as a server. Keep in mind that at this point, none of Nokia's software have not actually confirmed with me if my firmware is outdated our not. You'd think as soon as I click on download handset software button, this would be the first step right? Not. This time around, it just automatically redirected me back to the same Nokia website as mentioned above where I am prompted to download the software update directly. I finally finished the download and was ready for a firmware update and guess what: the software now tells me that my N95-3 (RM-160) is up to date w/ 11.2.009 ver.

After all this work, I can't believe that there are no firmware update available. I don't understand why Nokia Maps Beta 2.0 page would suggest that I download the latest firmware version 22.0.015 (see screenshot on left). This whole process is just way too complicated for even a power user. I can't imagine the mass public to be able to understand the relationship between all the software that is required to maximize this phone's potential. Nokia has basically setup a bunch of modular applications such as: Map Loader, Music Manager, Installer, etc. to manage every aspect of the phone's functionality. From the top, it looked as if PC Suite can help manage all of this process, but in reality, its just a glorified menu screen which is not responsible for anything. By updating PC Suite, you are not updating the individual applications. This is just too much work for non-technical people, especially considering they have so many different hardware versions (N95-1, N95-2, N95-3, N95-4) as well as firmware product codes for different regions (ie. Asian, Europe, Middle East, etc...). The iPhone's firmware update experience is a million times easier... besides, I am always clear if iPhone has an firmware update.

Knowing my firmware is up to date, I continued on with my plan to install Nokia Maps 2.0 Beta and Location Tagging. The installation for those .sis file was smooth using PC Suite's installation program. I will provide more updates and reviews for both at a later time.