Nokia N95 8GB - Free Apps, GPS?

[oldskooladdict]

I've just changed my mobile provider to GiffGaff, the main reason for this was unlimited data

Now I have this I'm keen to get the most from my phone! - I know it's no iPhone or HTC but still there are apps made for it, and some useful stuff.

I have Opera Mini, on suggestions from almost anywhere, but aside from that I've not nabbed anything else.

I have hte maps application included with the phone, alas because it's version 2 it seems I have to pay Nokia to use the walk or drive directions boo! - Does anyone know any other GPS/Sat Nav alternatives which are free? - It's not a massive big deal, I doubt I'll use it much, but it sounds useful.

So yeah, suggest away!

Cheers

[chrestomanci]

Firstly, make sure you have the latest firmare for it. If you have a look on the Nokia developer site forum nokia you should be able to find the version of the latest firmware release from Nokia.

If your phone has operator firmware, then I would advise you to switch to generic Nokia firmware. The process is known as debranding and an internet search should tell you how to do it. I recently debranded my Vodaphone Nokia E71, and the improvement in reliabality and features was like night and day. The process has nothing to do with removing the SIM lock if any, or changing the IMEI number. It will void your waranty with your network, but I would assume that has long expired.

Once you go through all that, you should find that you now have apps on your phone for Facebook, YouTube etc. After that you can go to the Ovi store and look arround for free and chargable apps.

Outside the Ovi store, my favorite symbian apps are Ogg player, the game Frozen bubble, and Putty. All are open source.

NB: I used to work for Nokia.

[Muns]

whoh slow down. debranding, flashing updated firmware and installing a mapping software are 3 completely seperate things. Are you fully aware of how debranding works (ie. changing the product code) and flashing the latest firmware for that?

If you're not comfortable with that then by all means don't do it. You can still install mapping software on your phone. I'm using Google Maps on my N95 8GB. It's fairly decent. It doesn't have satnav route recalculations and the N95 GPS is slow in its initial tracking but it does the job. You can download it from Google and install it on your phone.

[chrestomanci]

whoh slow down. debranding, flashing updated firmware and installing a mapping software are 3 completely seperate things.

Well debranding and updating the firmware are quite closely related. If oldskooladdict runs the Nokia software update tool, and hooks up his phone, while the phone still thinks it is the Vodafone version of the N95, then the update tool will say that there there are no new versions of sofware for a Vodafone N95. But if he debrands the phone so that it thinks it is generic nokia, then the update tool will come up with a much more recent and stable version of software.

The early versions of the N95 had fairly buggy software, and lots of features disabled because they where so bad. Nokia sorted things out and later versions of the software where much more stable. The problem is that the operater versions where derived from those early buggy releases, and after they where created the operators lost interest and went to newer phones, so they never backported the bugfixes from the later Nokia generic releases, so if oldskooladdict he will never get those fixes.

There is also a chance that debranding & updating to the latest firmware may get oldskooladdict free maps. When I debranded and upgraded my E71, the latest firmware came with Ovi Maps 3.03, which is the latest release and includes free navigation. I don't know if the latest N95 release includes the latest maps, but it is worth a try.

Are you fully aware of how debranding works (ie. changing the product code) and flashing the latest firmware for that?

Personaly, I am fully aware thank you!

[Muns]

chrestomanci - sorry, my post was a response to hero_hont, where he mentioned he downloaded some files and installed it. Probably should have quoted him. I know of course you know about what you were talking about .