Nokia Speaks, N95 NAM Update in Early June
We had heard from our own sources that the firmware update would be available by the end of this month but since this statement was issued publicly, we’ll run with it. According to a Nokia support forum administrator, N95 NAM (N95-3) owners will soon be able to wipe those tears off of their tired faces. The long-awaited and highly anticipated firmware update is finally going to be issued by Nokia in early June. The following statement is from the Nokia Software Update team:
Nokia is aware of consumers’ demand for a new software release, and our development teams are working to produce the new software as soon as possible. We estimate that the new software should be available early June.
Please note that your mobile service provider, operator, or carrier may not have approved the latest Nokia device firmware available. Nokia produces many different variants of each product (for different countries and languages) and not all variants will have the latest Nokia device firmware. It is our priority to update all variants as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any delay.
To say that the update has taken an incredibly long time would be an amazing understatement. Of course many of us have moved on to the N95 8GB NAM so none of this matters anyway. While the official change log is unavailable, we can expect the new firmware to support demand paging, web runtime and all the other goodies that other N95 variants have been enjoying for a while. Sweet.
[Via Symbian-Guru]
Hey I’m still using N95-3!
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I honestly don’t get why they can’t figure out how to do just one release for all of the N95 devices out there. Come on Nokia…
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Yes, this update is good news — but the bad news is that so far Nokia hasn’t said whether it plans to do anything to improve its existing awful, clunky, risky firmware update process. My brand-new N95-3 (which was, of course, shipped with outdated firmware) got bricked by this process last month.
Since lots of N95-3 users will be updating their firmware as soon as this update comes out, I hope Nokia offers some word very soon on whether they can make their firmware updates less of a nervewracking ordeal.
But, on the bright side, Nokia’s new Conversations Blog (conversations.nokia.com) is currently running a series of posts addressing all kinds of US service issues. If you’re concerned about Nokia’s US service, I suggest commenting on those posts. They do seem to really want (and need) input from US consumers in order to improve our experience with them.
Today I posted an overview of that public discussion so far — including which issues Nokia has and has not addressed — on my blog Contentious.com:
http://urltea.com/37r2
I’ve also posted a video version of that roundup:
http://seesmic.com/v/JzrmBidZ7d
Thanks,
- Amy Gahran
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Nice - finally
Demand paging - I hope
Faster cam - I hope
Flash lite 3 - I hope
Best phone ever - so far and it is about to get better!
Thing is Nokia could solve this update agnosia, simply by just releasing tri-quad band HSDPA versions of their phones. Why bother with a dual band for EU and one for NA? What about those of us who travel back and forth and want 3G in both areas?
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So, which is it firmware or software? Nokia calls it both!
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Could you stop going around all the blogs posting your rubbish! It’s not Nokia’s fault that you’re one of those mac users who don’t know how to click on a few buttons to do something as simple as updating your phone’s firmware! Geez!
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I’ve updated 3 different phones and never had any problem. I don’t think the update process is hard either. I don’t know what that Amy had a problem with, but she seems to be in the minority here.
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Yes, it seems that some people have a fine experience with Nokia’s software updated. Many others (not just me) have had a very different and far more negative experience. If you didn’t have problems with it, that’s great for you — but for those of us who have had problems with it, it’s been really annoying.
Examples:
- http://urltea.com/386a
- http://urltea.com/386b
- http://urltea.com/386c
- Amy Gahran
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Amy,
I watched you video that was a blog rant about Nokia support (and you’ve already professed to being the journalist drama queen.) While I agree they seem to neglect their US market with the amount of firmware updates, I don’t understand the problem with what you have with the update process itself. Can you explain exactly what happens when you bricked your phone? Do you understand that once a flash process begins of any device, and big error occurs, such as a power outage and such, that device is a brick? I don’t think you are giving enough details for everyone to sympathize with you for exactly why your phone was bricked. Can you detail exactly what happened? You definitely seem to be showing your stripes as a journalist and not an technologist.
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Aaron, my experience was almost identical to the experience reported in the first link I provided above:
http://urltea.com/386a
With a few extra twists:
1) It took a few tries to get the software updater installed on the XP laptop
2) Once installed, it took a while to get the updater to see my N95. (A non-intuitive phone setting needed to be changed)
3) Once the installer was running, it took a very long time — about an hour, for a 100MB file. The process seemed to stop and start a lot. At several points I thought it was frozen.
4) When the update finally completed (got the confirmation message), I disconnected the phone as directed. (yes, it was connected to power the whole time). That’s when I learned I had a brick.
As to your snarkier comments, you’re welcome to your personal opinion of me. That said, I did follow Nokia’s instructions directly and still encountered these problems. And I’m far from the only person. Also, I’m definitely not a technological newbie. I have updated firmware on several other devices before. This was, by far, the most difficult and nervewracking firmware update process I ever experienced.
If you had a better experience, good for you.
- Amy Gahran
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They teach this kind of stuff on Blues Clues.
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