The Hidden Gem Behind The N810 WiMax?
We previously reported to you the announcement of the N810 WiMax Edition. This news brought nothing groundbreaking for the majority of the mobile community except a little more proof that WiMax might one day become ubiquitous. But wait, what is that last paragraph in the Press Release? Hm, let’s see:
Also being introduced with the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition is the newest Internet Tablet operating system. This new upgraded OS2008 introduces useful new features to the platform, including an enhanced e-mail client, support for Chinese character rendering in the browser and RSS feeds and Seamless Software Update functionality to eliminate manual software updates, making periodic updates of the operating system quick and easy. While standard on the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition, current owners of Nokia N810 and N800 Internet Tablets with earlier operating systems will be able to upgrade their device to the revised operating system for free during the second quarter of 2008.
What do we have here? An OS2008 upgrade available for the WiMax tablet, as well as the original N810 and N800 too. But there’s more to it, see that “Seemless Software Update”? Is this an over-the-air (or OTA) software update? Is Nokia finally getting into OTA? Are they finally letting us update our devices without the need of a connectivity cable, a computer, and a huge application installed on it?
Well, I don’t know about you, but OTA is the first thing that came to my mind when I read “Seemless Software Update”. And if this turns out to be true, we sure hope that the technology makes its move to other Nseries devices, including S60 3rd Edition. Along with data preservation, OTA is our major take on the current state of firmware updates from the Finnish giant. Well, there’s also the incredibly delayed releases for some new devices (read: N95-3) and the forgotten and non-updated multitude of other devices (read: many Eseries).
What do you think is behind this “Seemless Software Update”? Is it OTA like I read it, or something else? Do you think users will have the possibility to refuse the updates or does the “eliminate manual software updates” clause mean that they will be done without the user even knowing about it? Your thoughts are welcome!
Great Analysis. It fits in the view of the ITT as a Teatbed for the next generation portable IT. Seamless updating must come,in my view with a professionalized Software development and control. Meamo is fine but only professionalisation will make it usable in a commercial company like Nokia.
Wimax is still a big gamble, might even never make it, but for Nokia that is not very relevant. Wimax or whatever:it’s the portable Internet that count.
I am curious about the Wimax availability in the US. Sprint should have something available this summer, but where? Coverage? Anybody a clue?
Abel.
NB, typed on my N800. (not too many errors , I hope.)
Reading the description I thought it was about making the current manual refresh and then update packages *one-by-one* practice automated. Actually I don’t really understand why it doesn’t already work this way. It’s insane to update 10 packages one by one when the underlying tool (apt-get) could do it in one step (apt-get upgrade).
The other thing I’m not sure I understand is that why is there a need to ‘flash’ the ‘OS’ at all. (Where by OS we meen all the preinstalled applications.) The apt based update should handle that as well without any additional requirement. It doesn’t matter for apt if it’s the libc package or mplayer that needs to be updated.
The only reason I can imagine is that they’re (or were) afraid of users unintentionally bricking the device and that an apt-get based upgrade needs more free storage (all the packages have to be downloaded at once).
@atleta - Given that the Tablets are slowly but surely pushing their way to be a consumer product, updates need to be as dead simple as possible, hence this new feature (which we’ve known would be a part of Diablo for a while).
Also, there’s a difference in the OS and applications. The underlying OS is like Windows XP, and the applications might be Internet Explorer or Windows Media Player. They’re not directly a part of the OS. Thus, you’d need to update.
The way I’ve read that this will happen is that the N810 WiMax Edition will come with this version pre-installed, but current N800/N810 owners will need to do this one, final manual OS update (using the Nokia Internet Tablet Software Updater). After this, updates will be delivered over-the-air, and will take place “behind the scenes”, so to speak, so that the end user won’t experience anything other than bugfixes/new features.
This will eliminate the need to backup your Tablet, plug it in to the Software Updater application, do its thing, and then restore. This is essentially automating that entire experience.
Consumers don’t know how to use apt-get, and shouldn’t need to. They want it to just work, and that’s what this update intends to do.
Here is a video from youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELG3C2a3rZM&NR=1
In it a nokia rep says that the tablet will now pull ONLY the bits of updated info that it needs i.e. no complete re-flashes just incremental upgrades done on the fly ;-)
Yes, it is indeed OTA update. I would still recommend backing up the device before each OS update (as the update dialog will also recommend you to do). OS update is always risky (although the risk is minimal, it is still a risk) and bad things can always happen (like sudden power loss in the middle of a very important segment of the update). Anyway, SSU also allows you to ‘update all’, which updates your 3rd party apps in an all at a time manner. One more cool thing is that now you’ll also get notifications for 3rd party application updates and as a developer, you can be assured that your users will make the updates. It’s a very very important thing that this all is taken care by the framework. All the developer has to do is put the update into a repository and all the users should get update notifications within 24 (and a two click install update from the notification)