Tag: Update

Installing Symbian Anna on N8, E7, C7 and C6

You might have already read about the recent announcement by Nokia that Symbian Anna is now being pushed to all the Symbian ^3 capable devices, like Nokia N8, E7, C7 and C6-01. To read more visit the official announcement on Nokia Conversations blog here.

In this post, I will give you some pointers, if you are unable to install Symbian Anna on your device.

The first thing you need to do is find out if the update is pushed for your region or not. Start SW Update app on your device, and wait for it to refresh the list of available updates. Once the list is refreshed, it will show you if the device update is available.

On my brother’s Nokia C7, the update was offered as OTA (Over The Air) 28mb update. Once updated, the SW Update now shows two more updates named as Symbian Anna 1/2 and Symbian Anna 2/2. Both updates are about 30mb each. I did not continue with the updates yet because the battery was not fully charged. So, will update it later.

Update for Nokia C7: Okay, I continued the updates on my brother’s C7, and both of the updates installed fine. Remember, that after update 1/2 is installed, it will ask you to restart device, DO NOT restart, as update 2/2 is already being in installing process. Just wait till the updates are installed (about 20 mins).

Then I checked for the update on my Nokia E7 development device, SW Update app showed me the update on device, but it asked me to install the update via Ovi Suite or Nokia Software Updater.

When checked via Ovi Suite, it always showed update for Here and Now app, but not the device update. So, after many tries in 2 hours, I downloaded Nokia Software Updater.

SymbianAnna-install

The Nokia Software Updater reminded me that I’m using the device without a SIM, so I have to put a SIM to make the updater work. So, remember developers, you need to put any SIM in device before trying update, otherwise the update will fail. Maybe Ovi Suite was also failing because of no SIM.

For my E7, the update size is 325mb, and it’s still downloading. I will update this post with my success, and might write another post to review the new things in Symbian Anna update.

Update 1

Okay, after the download and installation of Device Update for my Nokia E7 via Nokia Software Updater, I got quite a bit of Symbian Anna feeling. The icons and browser have new look.

Just after few hours, I checked for updates via SW Update app, and to my surprise, there were two more updates, like I seen on my brother’s Nokia C7. I checked and started the updates. The interesting thing to note is, the first 325mb update was only available via PC, and these two updates are OTA.

WP_000035

They took about 30 minutes to install. During the installation, I was asked two time for EULA for MS Communicator and JoikuSpot. I think these later updates are new version of built-in apps like Mail for Exchange and couple of new apps.

For me, both of these updates went fine on the first go. It restarted my E7, and everything seems to be working alright.

Important note, that after update 1/2 is installed, DO NOT restart your device manually. Just wait for the 2nd update to be installed as well.

Thanks to Nokia for this much needed update.

// challn3g3r //

Download latest Flash Player 10.2 Plugin / Standalone Versions

I recently noticed after announcement of Adobe Flash Player 10.2 availability, users are searching for downloading Flash Player. As I’ve been installing Flash Player updates manually for some time now, and I am not sure if Adobe have stopped using getPlus (crap-o-ware) plugin for installing Flash Player.

flashplayer-10-2

The reason why users are searching for alternate download locations for latest Flash Player is because Adobe have made bad reputation by bundling McAfee, Google Toolbar, etc. and worst of all, a 4-5mb sized getPlus plugin which then downloads, 3-4mb Flash Player.

There’s also big number of searches landing on my blog for Flash Player Standalone or Projector. If some of you might remember, I released a VB6 wrapper for Flash Player 8 ActiveX few years back, users are still downloading it as it works with latest versions as well.

Today I’d like to share a “secret” link which contains direct links to download latest versions of Flash Player plugin installers, but also Standalone / Projector version as well.

Please note, these are Debug versions of the player, meant specifically for developers.

The “Secret” Link: http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html

On the above link, you will always find installers of latest version of Adobe Flash Player for Windows, Mac and Linux. You can also download older archived versions as well.

I think Adobe needs to make a similar download location for Production versions of Flash Player, for users who like manually downloading and installing their software.

I hope many users who land on my blog searching for Adobe Flash Player will finally get what they were looking for :)

// chall3ng3r //

Nokia N8 or C7 Software Updates Failing? Try This : Updated

Nokia is earning bad reputation almost every day. It’s unfortunate, but it’s true. Recently Nokia published some minor OTA software updates for Symbian ^3 devices, Nokia N8 and C7.

The updates are named as follows:

  • Phone apps update (important)
  • Apps update 1.0
  • Nokia DAB Radio
  • Videos

For some users updates are failing without any apparent reason, this includes me, and I’ve been following the discussions on official forums.

Users have tried changing the dates, soft-rebooting and hard-rebooting (8 secs power button) their devices, even some already tried factory-rest without any luck, this also includes me. All four updates failed every time, even it felt like the software updater not even trying to make a connection to internet to retry the download.

Now lets get back to the solution, which worked for me. As I mentioned, I also own a Nokia N8, and it was happening to me as well. Since it’s my secondary device, I am using it without SIM for emails, news and keeping an eye on Facebook and Twitter activity.

I found an old prepaid Tchibo SIM bought from Germany, I just popped in this SIM and did a soft-reboot. After the reboot when device was responsive again, I tried the updater. This time all four updates installed successfully, one by one. Yay!

nokia-n8-updates

So, the root cause seems to be with the SIM a folder located in Mass Storage “E:Private20019119”. You can try with the following:

Working Solution Update:

Big thanks to user “Unick” on Nokia Support Forums, who posted a working solution to the problem, and there are couple of successful installs reported from the solution.

Today I deleted folder E:Private20019119. Aftar that I run update and it finished successful. Maybe current version on Nokia server is correct.

The simple steps would be:

  • Connect your Nokia N8/C7 in Mass Storage mode to PC via USB cable
  • Locate and delete folder named “20019119” under Private folder of Mass Storage
  • That’s all.
  • Unplug the device from PC, and retry again. It should work.
  • If you have installed a SIM in your N8/C7, and update is failing. Remove the SIM, do a soft-reboot. Then try the updater without SIM. If it’s successful, reinstall the SIM and do a soft-reboot.
  • If you are using it SIM-less, like me, just put any SIM into device, do a soft-reboot. Try the updater.
  • If updater is failing with your current SIM and without SIM, you can borrow a SIM from your friend or family member, but remember, it should be from different operator than yours. Try the updater after soft-reboot.

I hope my findings will help others with the same issue. And also let me know if it worked for you as well, and which method you used.

I hope Nokia engineers are already working on a permanent solution, and they will be more careful with the updates in future.

// chall3ng3r //

Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Update – Thanks Adobe for removing ugly installer

Today I got another update notification for Adobe Flash Player 10.1. The first thing I noticed that the notification looked prettier than the last update. I really hated that ugly Adobe Download Manager or ADM in short. Take a look how it was in previous update:

adm-1  adm-2

In installation process, ADM was downloaded first which was almost the same download size of the Flash Player itself, so I don’t get why Adobe used it in the first place. If it supports resume-able downloads, then Adobe should only use it for downloading trial versions of Adobe CS products.

Adobe Flash Player 10.1.82.76 Update

This new version features better hardware acceleration, multi-touch and gestures, private browsing support and as always enhanced performance and memory management. Read more here.

I am happy that Adobe now have switched back to better and tiny (only ~2.8MB total) installer. The update notification included summary about what new features it offers and links for more details.

The only thing which I’ve been asking Adobe to put in these update dialogs is complete version numbers of the currently installed Flash Player, and new version. So the user could know what exact version he is upgrading to.

flash_update1

 

flash_update2

flash_update3

 

flash_update4

The overall Flash Player update experience was great this time. Excellent job Adobe!

// chall3ng3r //