It’s been nearly two months since we last looked at Nokia firmwares, so let’s see what’s happened in that time:

• Nokia N95 – No new firmwares (latest for generic phones is still v31, which came out in January), and we’re pleased to say that T-Mobile and O2 are now offering this version.  Orange are offering v30, which is still commendable, whereas 3UK and Vodafone are in the doghouse for v20 and v21 respectively.

• Nokia N95 8GB -No new firmware (latest for generic phones is still v31, which came out in February) and although no UK networks seem to have that version available, O2 now joins Orange and 3UK who have been offering v30 since November 2008. Vodafone are in the doghouse as well with “only” v21.

• Nokia E71 – v210 has been out about a month for generic phones, and well, most operators are still on v100.  Shame, v210 goes a long way to fixing the purple tint camera problem, so you would have thought the networks would want to help out and offer this version to their customers.

• Nokia 5800 XpressMusic – v21 came out this week for generic phones, but is currently only available as an Over-The-Air Firmware upgrade.  This adds the ability for a breathing light (as featured on many other recent Nokia smartphones), so well worth considering, and with UDP (User Data Protection) you shouldn’t lose your data when you apply the firmware (unlike the phones above).  Some networks have finally started to offer v20, which is a promising start.  Update: This is now available via NSU (Nokia Software Updater) as well now.

Can you help us out? We don’t have a full range of all operator-specific codes for the last two phones, and would love to be able to quote the position on every UK network…  If you have a Nokia E71 or Nokia 5800 XpressMusic which was supplied by one of the UK networks, please leave a comment with the network and the product code (found on the label under the battery, and usually of the form 0569999.  This will allow us to offer more information on these two phones.

We’ve covered this issue before, but The Register has spoken with T-Mobile about it today, so we thought we would provide a summary of the recent changes T-Mobile have introduced to voicemail redirection.  Firstly, T-Mobile still charge if you redirect your phone to another number, although they now no longer directly charge you for the call being directed to voicemail.  That’s the change; now the voicemail redirection comes out of your Flext allowance, instead of costing you 12p per minute.  However, as The Register point out, redirecting your number to another UK phone number, for accessing services such as SpinVox, will cost you 17p per minute, and does not come out of your allowance.

T-Mobile are alone in the UK with this stance; all the other mobile networks will take that redirected call out of your voice call allowance (as long as it’s to a normal UK landline number), which companies like SpinVox use.

The article also takes about how HulloMail, which offers an Android based solution, was hoping for a better deal with T-Mobile, as the exclusive supplier of the Android based G1; we say to HulloMail; concentrate on the HTC Magic, which goes on sale on Friday with Vodafone, who are less petty about voicemail redirection (and who support twitter for their users too).

If you fancy an HTC Magic, Vodafone are currently offering a £5 discount (per month) off the line rental for people who pre-order the HTC Magic before Friday on a £35 per month contract.

Here’s an interesting piece of news; Plaxo and Facebook are working together to simplify your friend connections.  If you have friended someone on Facebook, you will be able to access their information on Plaxo without having to bother them with a new friend request.  The current situation can be quite embarrassing; you find a friend on one service, and as you go round all the other services you use, you friend them on those services too; your friend now ends up with ten friend requests from different sites.  At least with Plaxo and Facebook, you’ll no longer need to send out a Plaxo friend request.  For those worried about privacy, Plaxo have stated “we will honour Facebook friendships on Plaxo (for anyone who wants us to)”; so it looks like it’s customisable as to whether or not you let this happen.

Also, you can feed the content you’re sharing on Facebook (such as photos, videos, links, and events) over to Plaxo for sharing to your friends there. In addition, you can sync your status updates between the two services (in either or both directions). And, when you share a link or post a review in Plaxo, you can also share it over to your friends on Facebook.

This is the Samsung i7500.  It’s due out around June time, and will be a similar form factor to the HTC Magic (available on Vodafone UK); ie no hardware keyboard.  In other respects, though, the spec is pretty impressive:

• 3.2″ AMOLED 320×480 display
• HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
• 8GB internal memory, microSD card slot
• 1500mAh battery
• 115 x 56 x 11.9mm
• 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus

This will be an interesting device to compete alongside the HTC devices, especially for those who do not want or need a hardware keyboard…

Update: For existing Android G1 users, we hear that the “Cupcake” (Android v1.5) OS should be available some time in May via the Over-The-Air firmware option (Nokia really should learn from this), and T-Mobile have announced they will be selling a second Android based device during 2009.  Now, they’ve said it’s not the HTC Magic, so we wonder whether it’ll be this Samsung…

Over at nokiAAddict, Gerry have been told that Carphone Warehouse will have exclusivity on the White Nokia N97 from June 2009.  Normally, exclusive arrangements last between 1 and 3 months, so if you particularly want the Nokia N97 in White, you’ll have to head to CPW in the short term.

However, we think this is good news for consumers; Nokia rarely give a new product more than one colour exclusive, so it’s quite likely that no single network has any other exclusive on the device, and therefore we should see the device on more than one network in June / July.  We already know Vodafone will be selling the phone, and we’ve heard rumours that O2 and Orange will also be carrying the device.

Apparently the Nokia N97 is going to be priced inline with the iPhone, which given the new iPhone(s) due around the same time will make for an interesting dilemma for many.

Telecom operators may not like it, but OfCom has just announced a new set of rules for 0870 numbers (which, many years ago, would be included in voice minute bundles, but haven’t been for some time).  Of course, we say, simply head off to http://saynoto08070.com and find out an equivalent number that can come out of your minutes, but OfCom new rules, which come into effect in August, may make it a little better for you…

Firstly, they are trying to encourage all telecom providers (of fixed and mobile phones) to include the minutes anyway, and not separate them out (they are also hoping to reduce the cost of calling these numbers).  But for those that do separate them out (and charge for them), the customers must clearly know how much they are going to be charged; if the call will be charged at above normal geographic rates, then there are now strict rules on the how prices must be publicised on promotional material and at point of sale areas.

OfCom state “Under the new requirements CPs [Communication Providers] will be obliged to include a prominent statement in advertising/promotional material whether or not 0870 calls are included in inclusive packages and bundles. One other new requirement is that CPs will only be permitted to refer to 0870 calls as ‘national rate’ in their advertising and promotional material and retail bills where their 0870 and national geographic prices are the same as for geographic calls”.

This should hopefully bode well, and we’re hoping that many of the mobile networks include 0870 in their voice bundles again.

Garmin regularly release new firmwares for their latest and greatest devices, but, even for their elder devices, they occasionally continue to release updates.  Over the last few months, we’ve seen updates for the Garmin Forerunner 305 (v2.90) and the Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx (v3.90).   Also, Garmin have updated their WebUpdater software for Windows (v2.4.2) and for Mac (v2.0.6), and back a little further, there have been updates for the Garmin Training Center for Mac and the Mac ANT Agent.  Finally, back in January, Garmin released a beta firmware for the Oregon range (v2.8.5) which offers some new functionality as well.

Update: Since then, Garmin have released a few more beta versions, with the latest Oregon beta now v2.96.

Although there are slight risks associated with firmware updates (for example, some of the latest Nuvi firmwares have introduced a bug with the way the devices handle mp3 and speed camera alerts making them useless as media players), normally Garmin move forward with their firmwares, and they are worthwhile applying; some will be needed for supporting the latest map updates, and Garmin will normally ask you to apply the latest firmware when dealing with any tech support issues, so fire up WebUpdater (it should check itself for updates before checking your device) and ensure you are upto date.

Incidentally, the picture is of the new Garmin Oregon 500, which Garmin confirmed to me the other week would be released, but could not confirm the exact release date (we previously mentioned it here).  They also stated that they recommend the Oregon series over the Colorado series of devices due to better battery life in the Oregon range.

It looks like 3UK have been busy recently, with a range of new handsets launched last week, and all should be available to purchase as from today…

1. BlackBerry Bold – Nothing special here, it’s been available for a while on other networks, but it looks like 3UK is getting serious about attracting business customers, with this phone being available on a £25 “Unlimited” deal (500 voice minutes and unlimited 3000 texts).
2. The LG U990i – This seems to be a new variant on the LG Viewty (U990), however, we note that the LG U990i also supports Skype-Skype calls, which 3UK announced would be at no cost to users from next month.  3UK have also said it supports “Upload videos to YouTube at the touch of a button” which makes this phone, combined with a data tariff a good non-smartphone phone to consider, as it nearly offers the same range of features as a smartphone.
3. Finally, they have also launched the Samsung i8510.  Now, this is a Symbian S60 handset, with a whole range of features, including an 8megapixel camera.  We covered the spec of this device here, and it’s good to see this phone available on 3UK.  This isn’t the Samsung i8910, which features a touchscreen too, but it’s still a S60 phone from someone other than Nokia.

Canon have released new firmwares for the Canon EOS 50D (v1.0.6), Canon EOS 450D (v1.1.0), and Canon EOS 1000D (v1.0.5), which adds support for the AF assist beam feature of the new Canon Speedlite 270EX flash.  Also, the Canon EOS 50D firmware update should fix the vertical banding problems that have afflicted the device.

News courtesy of Digital Photography Review.

One thing that has been seen as a very nice feature that comes with S60 3rd Edition FP2 is the addition of the time on all screens.  Without this, you need to return to the standby screen to find out the time.  Well, there’s now a solution for FP1 devices, and Mike at the Nokia E71 Fanatics blog has written up about the application, and how to install it.

You can read more about it here, including a link to download the software.

Picture courtesy of Mike as well.