Early this week, I found a new firmware for my Nokia E61i (out since October 2007). The version I had was v1.x, and this one was v2.0633.65.01 (press *#000# on your E61 to see the current firmaware version).
Updating goes through a separate application, but it should also be possible through download over the mobile network (I haven't tried this). All you need to know is explained on the
Nokia website, but there are some thing you don't want to forget;
- Use the Nokia Datasuite to create a FULL backup of the phone, because during the upgrade the phone goes back to factory defaults.
- Have lot's of patience (and some deodorant handy)
- Make sure the PC isn't doing anything else that might interfere with the update.
The first attempt failed for me. Even with all the warnings (DO NOT INTERRUPT THE UPDATING PROCESS OR DISCONNECT THE PHONE!!!) I rebooted the PC and disconnected the phone. Result, the phone didn't respond (this is where my deodorant came in). After this I restarted the upgrade process, and the phone got recognized (thankfully). After 10 minutes, the phone rebooted with the new firmware version.
First action was to restore all data and settings on the phone. Since I had some issues with my network connectivity I decided to remove the Access Points and reconfigure them.... Well, don't. First of all, I wasn't able to receive the configuration parameters from the mobile operator (SMS 'ja' to 1300), so I had to reconfigure them manually.
Their website has a step-by-step manual on configuring the E61i, but this didn't help either.
MMS functionality remained absent, and none of the applications was able to connect to the Internet by itself. I had to initiate the connection manually before browsing the web.
E-mail was even worse. Every time I had 'Packet Authentication' errors. So after a day I decided to restore the Access Points from my backup, and guess what... Everything worked again.
And now for the thing that have changed (at least the ones that I've noticed);
- the e-mail application seems more stable
- camera and video are still crappy (the time between the snapshot sound and the actual capture is still multiple seconds)
- Idle connections are terminated. This is a bad thing (for me at least), because I had my UMTS connection open all the time, and this way I received mail throughout the day. Now I have to connect each time I want to check my e-mail.
I haven't tried VoIP yet, but will try to do so soon (that's what happens when you don't pay for your own bills :-) )
Conclusion is that the phone didn't get better. There are some improvements, and there are some new annoyances. But my e-mail is stable at this moment.
A couple of weeks ago, I was pointed towards Google Maps on my Nokia e61i (I got a download link when I visited google.com on my mobile). After downloading and installing it (which was very easy), I started the application (which was hiding under Menu -> Installations -> Google Maps).
Most basic features are available on the phone app (directions, searching for restaurants etc., Zoom in and out), and there's the possibility of positioning yourself on the map by using cellular positioning. Thankfully, this is done for you by the application. Downside is that it's not that accurate. In my case, I could be anywhere in a 1.7 mile radius circle.
It's also possible to use a GPS mouse (which I recently bought) for your location. The neat thing is that you can see yourself walk across the map (or drive if you're by car). This is an excellent application.
These is one downside... Google Maps is using a constant Internet connection to update the maps, so make sure you have some sort of flat fee data service (or use wifi when available). Otherwise you might be in for a surprise when you receive your phone bill.
A while ago I started a
search for a GPS Data Logger which I can use for adding GPS coordinates to my photo's. The current status is that most of those devices are Windows only. The
few that might be OSX compatible aren't sold in the Netherlands (yet).
So I had to find an alternative. There is a sourceforge project called '
MTK GPS Data Logger Device Control' which facilitates certain GPS (chipset) devices to function on multiple platforms. So my best guess would be to buy one of those 'supported' GPS Data Loggers. Due to availability, I bought the
Qstarz BT-1000. It's a GPS mouse with navigation and logging capabilities.
First I had to make sure that the device was actually working properly, so I installed the driver and software in a Windows XP Virtual Machine. This was quite easy, and the unit seemed to work properly.
Next thing was to install the opensource program to allow communication between the GPS unit and OSX Leopard.
To get it to work on OSX you need to follow a installation manual. Something I'm not used to :). Needless to say that it took a bit longer than expected.
First of all, you'll need the
software from the sourceforge website. Second,
you need SuperWaba files (free registration is required) [these files seemed to be present in the download package from sourceforge], and the
USB driver. After that you need to follow the instructions in the README.txt provided in the sourceforge package. Note that the script information on the
forum has been superseded by the README.txt in the downloadfile (use the provided
bt747_macosX.command from the sourceforge download package instead).
Eventually, you'll end up with a directory structure whick looks something like this:
Run the
bt747_macosX.command file to start the application.
One thing I must mention is that somewhere along the lines is the mention of using TextEdit to alter (script)files. Do NOT forget to remove the formatting on the files before saving. You might end up with scriptsfiles containing some markup stuff.... And this means that you might be getting some weird error messages.
Anyway, the interface is still very simple, but you have access to lots of features. The actual manual for the application is available on
Google Docs.
I've been looking for a GPS logger for a couple of months. A GPS logger can be used for attaching GPS information to your digital photos. This way, you can display your photos on publicly accessible maps in Flickr or Google Earth.
More and more of those GPS loggers are surfacing on the market [
Sony GPS-CS1 /
GPS-CS1KA,
Globalsat DG-100,
Qstarz BT Q-1000,
GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr,
WBT-201]. But they all have one problem; None of them seem to work (natively) with an Intel Mac running Leopard (
source). Some of them require open-source drivers to function. The downside of that is that an update from Apple or an updated firmware in the GPS logger might cripple the functionality.
Why is it that GPS manufacturers won't create a GPS (logger) device that simply works on both platforms. It couldn't be that hard. Just create a GPS device that is also recognized as a external drive, containing the raw GPS data in the most common format (e.g.
NMEA). This way even the Linux users are not left out.
