fail – Enavigo

Share Online: Why Nokia has it wrong. Again.

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.

Disconnecting Sirius Satellite Radio

I am done with my Sirius radio.
I love Howard Stern but after almost 15 years of listening, I feel I outgrew the show; I will miss the news, the interviews, but I am just satiated. With the $12.95/month service fee no longer including Internet listening privileges (limited only to original Sirius content – no sports, and only at 32kbps quality) – I am finally done. I was OK with reception that is 100% impossible indoors, but paying extra (even $3/month) for a service that is impossible to use indoors, is ludicrous to me. Even the commercial-free promise is half-true, especially on Howard’s Howard 100 channel.
I hope Sirius stays afloat because the promise is great and fewer commercials are great, but the inability to select channels a la carte for real (very limited channel groupings, like with the cable company) is just not convincing.
So now, I am heading into the 30th minute on hold with Sirius on the call to disconnect the service. It is impossible to do from the website, of course. And the voice-driven menu is far from working. I think I am fed up waiting and switch the dynamic and recommend others to join me. I am going to give them a one time use credit card number (like Bank of America’s ShopSafe) and have them looking for me. Disconnect me – I tried to ask you to do it nicely but apparently it is impossible…
Customer service at its worst.