How Nokia Eseries devices became compatible with Mac

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How Nokia Eseries devices became compatible with Mac

Wed, 2007-11-07 13:28

I just had a chat with the program manager of Nokia Multimedia Transfer for Mac, and he told me the story about how Eseries devices became compatible with Mac (which he said I could share with you).

Last June, after a period of hard work, the team proudly released the first version 1.0 of their app, designed to delight Nseries users. As their surprise, loads of Eseries users started loudly complaining about the lack of support for them (see for example the comments thread to my post). Nobody expected the overlap of Mac and Eseries users to be that high. Anyway, the team humbly took your feedback, and worked extra hours to make it compatible with Eseries.

Simple as that. You talked, the team listened. Happy end.

Ps. at this point, we decided not to include Nokia Multimedia Transfer 1.2 in Beta Labs app portfolio, as it's very mature as a "beta" already. However, please send your feedback to the system that they have built into the application, it can really make a difference!

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Comments

Submitted by on 07-11-2007 15:13.

Unfortunately, it's been widely reported that Nokia Media Transfer does not work properly in OS X 10.5 "Leopard." Back to the drawing board!

And while we're on the subject of Nokia and the Mac, Nokia needs to put more effort into its iSync plug-ins. Contact and Calendar/To-Do synchronizing is reliably functional, but limited. My biggest gripes are

1) how all-day events in OS X's iCal appear in the S60 calendar as a 12:00AM-11:59PM "Meeting," rather than as a "Memo"

2) how S60's Contacts doesn't properly handle the different URL types for a contact in OS X's Address Book

Submitted by on 07-11-2007 15:16.

Whoops, my mistake, it looks like the Leopard incompatibility has been fixed. Good job!

Now fix those iSync plug-ins :)

Submitted by on 07-11-2007 19:20.

"You talked, the team listened. Happy end."

While it is great that finally, Nokia supports its own enterprise series phones on Mac, I find it somewhat silly to praise this work in the way it is done.

First, it takes Nokia a while to support Mac in the first place. Then, the support is limited to N Series only (so much for the famous 'S60 platform'). The developers then eventually removes this limitation, which is hard to understand for end users. And that's a happy end? And that's how Nokia listened? If folks had done their job properly and not left the Mac support limited to N Series, no "happy end" and "listening to users" would have been required. Some things should just be normal procedure, like proper and broad support. There's no magic there.

Submitted by on 08-11-2007 16:17.

As the program manager Tommi spoke to, I would like to add this comment.
E Series was always planned, but we accelerated support based on the feedback. Whether it is better to launch in stages or wait until everything is finished is something that could be endlessly debated. I personally think we did the right thing.

The other thing to say. I met Tommi. How cool is that!

Submitted by on 08-11-2007 16:31.

thanks for clarifying. So the support for eseries was not a result of listening to users then (apart from underestimating the demand).

Submitted by on 09-11-2007 16:19.

No support for the Nokia E51 though...I tried.

Submitted by on 12-11-2007 00:32.

E65, though listed as compatable on website, is shown as not compatable when app is run.

Submitted by on 16-11-2007 21:22.

Perhaps not part of the multimedia transfer app, but when there will be firmaware upgrade possibility via Mac? Are you working on it?

p.s. I find it funny Nokia gets it as a surprise that E series devices users may use Mac... The Mac penetration in high-tech guys is lot biggeer than in overall and the overall market share is rising ( http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/10/17/apples_u_s_mac_market_share_rises_to_8_1_percent_in_q3.html ). Many of the E Series devices are more geek/techie category devices (E90, E61, E70 etc.). Just thinking of all millions of Nokia devices sold in overall and then taking out of those e.g. about 8%. Why Nokia thinks those 8% of customers shouldn't be allowed to upgrade their device SW? Writing cross platform SW is easy: just monitor how open source projects are doing that they don't have "resources" either. It's just matter of making the SW properly e.g. UI can be made with Qt or some other cross platform toolkit, thats e.g. how oogle Earth is doing that.

Submitted by on 27-11-2007 22:01.

As an E70 user, I really appreciate your effort for putting the E-series support into the software!! It makes my phone more suitable for my needs! Thank you!!

Submitted by on 01-12-2007 14:46.

good job with this software...when can we expect NOKIA 5310 XPRESS MUSIC to work with this????as for now..it doesnt...

Submitted by on 27-02-2008 18:53.

Fabrizio, I agree - it is a bit silly (no need to use caps lock)

Submitted by on 28-02-2008 12:50.

Ok no caps lock. but I want to make a proposal of a new article in this blog, instead of"How Nokia Eseries devices became compatible with Mac" a new one "Why nokia xpress series are incompatible with Mac?".
It could be more interesting I think.

PS: to use iSync with my phone (5310) o my mac I had to download a patch made by somone somewhere in internet and put it in a folder of iSync.

PPS: in Italy this phone costs about 250

Submitted by on 27-02-2008 17:10.

U CAN'T RELEASE A MULTIMEDIA TRANSFER SOFTWARE AND MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO USE WITH THE XPRESS MUSIC PHONE LINE.
I HAVE A NOKIA 5310, DESIGNED TO LISTEN TO MUSIC AND I CAN'T USE THE NOKIA TRANSFER MANAGER... IT IS A LITTLE BIT STUPID OR NOT??

Submitted by on 24-03-2008 19:44.

I've used this on and off for a few months but to be honest it's never worked satisfactorily. Is it an application? Should is be running as one. I've deleted it and downloaded new version quite a few times and each time I stick it in the Application folder, double click and it starts but does nothing. The only way I can tell if it's on is by activating Activity Monitor in Utilities. From there I can see it's running but just end up quitting it. It worked once with iPhoto but nothing since. All I really want is the ability to load podcasts.

Any help gratefully received!

Tim

Submitted by on 28-04-2008 11:49.

Not a geek so need plain English speak. Which top of the range can I buy that is MAC COMPATIBLE, HAS AN ORGANIZER. 500 OE MORE TELEPHONE BOOK, GOOD CAMERA,and bluetooth etc. LOVE SLIDE MOBILE

Submitted by on 16-04-2008 23:31.

I'd wish there was finally a full suite of software for the Mac.

- Ability to do full backup and restore is kind of critical for people who use their phones' additional capability for anything beyond addresses and calendars.

- Ability to do firmware updates.

- Nokia Map Loader seems unsupported for the Mac.

- There are some pretty obvious bugs in the isync plugins (mostly around changing and/or deleting events)

I enjoy my Mac, and I enjoy the N95 8GB (for which I paid a premium). I don't enjoy that these two systems don't work as well together as they could.

Submitted by on 22-05-2008 16:01.

Just found E51 iSync plugin on Nokia's UK site!! Works perfectly with contacts and iCal for me.

Also, Nokia Multimedia Transfer v1.3 (4812) is a wonderful tool.

MacBook Pro 2.33 Intel Core 2 Duo running 10.5.2.

Submitted by on 24-09-2008 16:19.

It would be very nice if you could provide a backup application for OSX (Macintosh) similar to Nokia PC content

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How Nokia Eseries devices became compatible with Mac

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