Being surrounded by oceans of happy, gloating, iPhone users is not an easy thing, especially in America. Having invested a very large amount of money in my Nokia N95-8GB means that I need to come up with angles to justify that decision. The best one I could think of is this: there is no other phone that could provide the ability to generate content and record life in image and video better than the N95.
The key enabler for this ability is a piece of software from Nokia called ‘Share Online‘. In essence it allows you to upload photos and videos to Flickr, or Nokia’s Ovi server or to any other service out there that offers a simple XML file with definitions. It is a great application that turns the phone into a veritable news agency. It has a few kinks, specifically the inability to upload more than 6 files at a time or schedule an upload when one is taking place.
I have seen several updates from Nokia discussing a new version of this wonderful application but oddly enough my phone, still among the strongest out there, was not on the list of supported devices. More digging around brought me to this message on the application’s discussion board, originating from a person on Nokia’s development team:
Hi MKR10001 and speedgrapher,
Unfortunately, the designers of Share Online took a dependency upon a feature of S60 v3 fp2 back in
version 3.1 of Share Online, and this has meant that no subsequent version can run on v3 fp1 devices.So, I am sorry to tell you, that Share Online 4.3 will not be available for fp1 devices.
I appologize on behalf of Nokia. In the future, we are going to make a greater effort to make more thoughtful architectural decisions so that we don’t automatically exclude existing customers this way.
Thanks,
Larry
PM, Ovi Share Clients
Nokia US
For the uninitiated, the N95 runs Nokia’s Symbian Series 60 operating system version 3, with feature pack 1, or ‘fp1’. If you did not get it so far, like the multitude of N95 users, we are virtually screwed. While on a single application, in this marketplace where Nokia is under virtual siege at the smartphone level, do they really want to alienate its dedicated clients? Apparently, they do not care enough. Let’s move the next piece of plastic instead of enhance the experience on this really expensive phone you bought.
Really not great.
2 replies on “Share Online: Why Nokia has it wrong. Again.”
This is precisely the reason why I’m so much behind Free Software – if the “Share Online” application was Free, someone would be able to make it work on your device. Microsoft pulls this trick with Windows all the time – want to run the latest MS game, or Office, etc – you must run the latest version of Windows.
Instead, as you said, you and all the other Nokia (and other cellular manufacturer) users are screwed constantly. And for some reason… everyone puts up with it.
I'm vrey familiar with Nokia. I have done alot of their global advertising of their phones and services. When you talk to Nokia people – they really beleive they're in the business of creating experiences and lifestyles for customers and get quite agitated when told they sell handsets. I have owned a few Nokia handset and am one of those people that likes to make everything that's supposed to work on it – work. I've yet to see a single Nokia device that actually does what it's advertised and designed to do in a satisfactory way – or at all in the case of my latest leap of faith – he X3-02. Their support also fails every time. For exmple – Their customer support system completely ignore my questions in my quest to synch my calendar online – and bounce back links to FAQ's or a link to information about iSync – which my model of phone doesn't support. I bought this phone because it's small – my 5 year old Sony Ericsson has more functionality than this phone. I don't wan to do EVERYTHING with it – I just want to be able to have a connection. Connecting People is their global strap-line. But they fail in any way to conect with people themselves. This is something you find when you talk to anyone in their organisation. Because Nokia is such a powerhouse in Finland, they have a culture of thinking they are always right. Metaphorically sticking their fingers in their ears and yelling la-la-la. Yet they are completely paranoid about the iphone and see themselves capable of stealing a decent market share. But they never a get a single device, software or support that works. Nokia doesn't work. Plain and simple. rant over.