Nokia N70 Niggles
Posted on June 11, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Gadgets, Technology.
I’ve had the N70 since April and I’m still in two minds about it. My biggest beef is less with Nokia and more with Vodafone.
When I got the phone, I checked the firmware and it was at v2.x whilst a check on the web said that the latest was v5.x. I went into Choice Communications in Cork city and asked for an upgrade. It came back with exactly the same version. I badgered the Choice guy but his argument was that the “system” decides the correct upgrade and that’s what it picked. This is despite the fact that the worksheet had v5.x listed as the newest one. In fact what I figured out later was that v2.x appears to be the latest Vodafone specific firmware.
This is ridiculous. The current firmware is riddled with bugs and the whole phone is very sluggish. Try pausing an MP3, switching over to the phonebook and receive an SMS - instead of beeping, the bloody thing restarts the MP3 on speakerphone. Great fun in an office!
Does anyone in Ireland have an N70 with v5.x firmware and if so, how did you get it? Is there anyone who will flash one with generic firmware for a few bob? Is there any indication that Voda will ever release a branded v5.x firmware?
Apart from that, I like the size and shape of the phone, the speakerphone is excellent, bluetooth headsets work well (but don’t auto-connect for some reason) and I kinda like the Lifeblog idea as a visual history of my phone usage. I don’t publish that stuff to a real blog (it only supports Typepad anyway) but it is nice to have on the PC. Third party apps that I like include Shozu for auto-upload to Flickr (rarely used due to the idiotic Voda data charges), Airset (calendar sync), Opera (web browser), OggPlay (music player), Frozen bubble (game), M-SuDoKu (go on, guess), Python (what geek could resist?), FExplorer (file utility). Third party apps I don’t like include PicoBlogger (doesn’t bloody work at all).
Other gripes with the phone itself are the music player (utter rubbish), number of key presses to send an SMS and the low quality of the camera (for which I had high hopes).
Speaking of music players, can someone please create one targetted at podcast listening? What I need is something that allows me to fast forward quickly and allows me to bookmark within a track. I am sick to death of stopping a podcast 40 minutes in, returning to it later and then spending 5 minutes with my finger on fast forward trying to get back to that point. Maybe even the ability to manually enter a position in a track would be an improvement. I thought Oggplay would solve a lot of my issues but it gets completely confused with my tracklists at the moment so I rarely use it.
Luckily, so far I haven’t had the hot-leg effect that Bernie gets with his.
And finally, to repeat an oft-stated annoyance - would O2 and Voda please get a clue and provide flat-rate data plans like they do in many other countries? Can their number crunchers not do simple sums? 10000 users X crazy price per KB is a much smaller revenue number than 500000 users X €10 fixed extra charge per month.
[tags]Nokia, N70, Oggplay, Vodafone, flat-rate[/tags]
11 Replies to "Nokia N70 Niggles"
conor on June 11, 2006
Hmm, are you on O2 or Voda? What firmware rev are you at?
Camera picture quality seems very grainy except in perfect light and the flash seems to have no effect. All the recent ones on the blog and at Flickr are from the N70. Maybe I just have a very shaky hand? Yours look pretty good.
Conor
Bernie Goldbach on June 12, 2006
I need to upgrade the N70. I’m at v 20536.0.2 and it’s safe to move to v 5.
O2 offer the “all the data you can eat” option but it means telling them you’re a Blackberry.
Inside shots taken with the N70 using zoom are best with a steady hand. If light is low or flourescent, you should correct that by selecting the appropriate option in the set-up before snapping away.
My best N70 images are taken outdoors or under bright incadescent light. The N70 is the best cameraphone I’ve used.
David O'Byrne on June 28, 2006
I too am in cork and have an N70. I too asked choice (that sthe nokia service centre in town right?) to firmware upgrade. They also gave me back the phone with teh old vodafone formware
I then asked them to put on teh generic firmware, tehy menrioned about it being a codafone phone, I told them it was sim unlocked (i had previously sim unlocked it with vodafone).
They then put o n teh v5 generic firmware and it works great !
conor on June 28, 2006
Ah now I’m totally pissed off. So it is Vodafone’s fault! And of course there is no way of us ever knowing when the Voda branded firmware will be available (the v2.x is from Autumn last year).
I guess the only alternative is to pay a few bob to one of those guys who’ll unlock it and zap it for me on the sly. Anyone know of a name in Cork who does that?
David O'Byrne on June 28, 2006
The N70 is not easily unlocked by 3rd Parties. If you have spent the minimum on credit (about 120 euro on pay as you go) vodafone will unlock the phone.
Once its unlocked probably the nokia service centre will have no problem giving you the generic firmware (as they did for me).
Maybe give them a ring to confirm this first …
conor on June 28, 2006
Ach I’m on pay-monthly so I doubt Voda would unlock it. I guess I’ll just have to ring Choice once a month until they get the v5.x.
Actually it may not need to be unlocked to be upgraded, all I really need is someone who doesn’t care and just pops the generic firmware on. There are tons of guys who do it in the UK for the N70 for a few quid.
Choice Comms have to play by the rules as they do the upgrades for free and presumably get paid by Voda or Nokia.
frank on September 9, 2006
my nokia n70 works fine on voda firmware2.0539.1.2
ok so its abit sluggish sometimes but other wise very happy.
i would recommend sending phone to mprc.ie in dublin though for any firmware upgrades
conor on September 9, 2006
You should definitely do the self-upgrade with the new Nokia tool. I now have v 5.0609.2.0.1 and it is not only far faster, it has lots of nice simple new features (like showing what MP3 you have paused on the main telephone screen).
I’ll check out mprc if I decide to go the generic firmware route and get rid of all that Live nonsense which I never use.
frank on September 9, 2006
the version 5.0609.2.0.01 , can i upgrade it myself , if yes how? also does it debrand it?
thanks for info
Bernie Goldbach on June 11, 2006
I don’t have the SMS delays that you’re seeing and when my phone cooks my pants pocket, it’s because Zonetag and my Bluetooth keyboard are competing for the same resources. I need to chat with Zonetag about getting an “exit” option with their software on the phone because I’ve endured N70 hot pants on several occasions.
Where are your N70 images? Tom Raftery’s seem very crisp. I like the quality of mine. You can find them by searching for N70 in my Flickr photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/irisheyes/