Ok – enough of the mystery. It was to do with my phone. Here’s the story: About five months ago, I got myself a touchscreen smartphone and I love my Nokia. So I am yet to discover all that it can do – but what with the busy couple of months…I was happy enough to know how to receive and make calls, check email when I absolutely had to, and my favorite part… click photos and videos. I guess basically that’s all I need the phone for, anyway.
But then, the phone very kindly alerted me about a software update. And generously, I accepted. Dumb move. Stupid. Because, even as I admired the speed at which it happened, I got the shock of my life when I saw the message alert for the last call charge. Rs.159.40. For the software update. Rs.159.40??? Shucks. A call to the US doesn’s cost me that much. Not that I call the US often. Still.
So – proving that hindsight is 20/20 – I Google searched “how to update Nokia phone software” Not the cleverest search phrase, I know – but perhaps I’ll be forgiven for being all worked up. Anyway, as it happened, the Nokia site did come up (good SEO there, eh) – and sigh! – I felt super-dumb-ass to read about the OVI suite. You see, it’s not like I didn’t know about this. In fact, soon after I bought the phone, I remembered downloading this on my laptop. I also sync-ed the bluetooth thingy. Yet, I didn’t bother to find out what the software could do. How on earth was I go guess that the software update would bankrupt me? Well, almost? Moreover, I know other people who have this phone, and none of them ever mentioned this kind of experience. 🙂 That’s possibly because they were smart enough to know/find out how to work it without frittering away their talk time on cash hungry software updates.
Hmm…anyway -better late than never, as they say. And having learned my lesson the hard way, I had a fairly enjoyable experience figuring out the OVI suite. It’s quite cool. With it, you can:
- Sync contacts, calendar, messages, photos, videos and music with your Nokia device
- You can also download free country maps backup the contents of your phone devices to the PC
- Use phone as modem for your PC
- Update the device software
- Back up and restore your phone
and so on and so forth. For more about this, its a good idea to visit the Nokia site relative to the country you live in.
This story has a happy ending though. I learned to store some music on my phone. And, big fan of James Bond that I am – ever since I got my first mobile phone, I’ve alternated between the James Bond soundtrack and the Pink Panther soundtrack. I thought I’d go in for a temporary change and turned it into “Man In The Mirror” by MJ. Four days into it, and I still enjoy hearing my phone ring. Maybe this is how they get ideas for weird ringtone ads where the guy doesn’t want to answer his phone because he loves the tune from his ringtone. Errrgh.
Enough. So, brethren and sistren, moral of the story: – when you have a phone that needs software updates, do the research. There’s most likely a no-cost way to do it. Well, I love my phone, Rs.159.40 notwithstanding.
Cheers!
Vidya
