E61i Firmware Update & (ugh) Windows

It’s a known fact that Nokia keeps tabs on what bloggers are writing about their products… If anyone from Nokia is reading this, please write more desktop software for the Mac!

I say this after having to bring my old Lenovo laptop out of storage just to install new firmware on my E61i. Here’s what I had to endure…

The welcome screen for Nokia’s Software Updater… I must be a design snob because this window looks absolutely hideous to me. Not a single element, from the font to the close box even, has anything in common with the standard Windows interface. How can the same company that published a book on usability get away with such fugly-looking desktop software?

Checking for the update was easy enough, but I got a little anxious with that disclaimer and decided to install the Nokia PC Suite so I could make one more redundant backup of my data. This proved to be a bit problematic, as installing the PC Suite after the Nokia Software Update mucked up the USB drivers for the phone. Restarting the computer didn’t help, and I was about to erase both programs and reinstall when I found the PC Suite’s built-in repair utility, which did the trick.

Through all of this Windows did a fantastic job of constantly reminding me that it was running the show, and that I should be grateful that anything worked at all…

Once the update began I was surprised at the lack of visual feedback on my phone, especially after upgrading the firmware on my old TyTN. In fact, that only evidence that anything out of the ordinary was happening was the lit message indicator light. That, and disconcerting alerts from my laptop as the handset repeatedly unmounted from it.

I guess I should have timed how long the update took. It seemed to me like it was somewhere in between ten minutes and half an hour.

I untethered my E61i quick as I could, and was greeted with this friendly offer to launch a tutorial, which I immediately skipped. To get the phone part fully functional I merely had to set my voicemail number. Nokia has somehow managed to trump their own configurator service — all my Fido data settings made their way back onto my handset auto-magically. Freaky.

And now I’m back in the world that Nokia knows best, looking at a small but high resolution Symbian S60 screen and some very Mac-like anti-aliased fonts. I don’t ever want to use their desktop software again, but I’ll probably end up turning to the PC-only Map Loader to restore my Nokia Maps.

Unless my fine Finnish friends care to write a version for OS X…? Please?