Jane Talks Tech!

Jane Ullah on "Installing Ovi Maps via Nokia's Ovi Suite software"

2010-03-13T23:32:19-05:00

Miguel, To my knowledge, Ovi Maps won't do turn-by-turn drive navigation or much of anything else (except to show your location and browse the maps) unless you pay for the licenses on the E71x. On the website, Nokia talks about "free navigation" here, but I suspect that offer is valid only for supported phones which the E71x is not. The license can be purchased from the phone when you go online on the E71x. Go to "Options" when you start the Ovi Maps application. Then click "Shop" I believe the "Drive North America" option was around $60 when I bought it last year. Hope this helps! Yeah, I was bummed out as well that I had to pay extra just to get turn-by-turn directions, but I got over it. :) Cheers!

Miguel Tejada-Flores on "Installing Ovi Maps via Nokia's Ovi Suite software"

2010-03-13T15:37:44-05:00

Hi, Jane, first of all THANKS SO MUCH for your posts on this thorny issue - they are among the clearest and most helpful I've found and that includes the excellent ones on the nokiaexperts website. Now the problem. I just bought an unlocked e71x which I'm trying to get to work on my T-Mobile plan - with mixed results. I won't go into detail about some of my other problems - but I seem to have big ones with the new OVI MAPS. I was able to download the maps as noted above - using the special installation file you mentioned (since officially e71x's are not on the list of officially supported devices). And the Maps seem to work - it finds my location, it finds addresses of places I need to go to - but when I ask it to find routes (Driving) - it continually seems to find ways to interrupt the routing - and take me to screens where it asks me to BUY licenses - or enter License Codes. Any ideas how to stop this? ANYTHING would be appreciated! Thanks for your time, Miguel

Jane Ullah on "My experience with the online bidding industry (Swoopo.com and Haggle.com)"

2010-02-21T13:23:29-05:00

Hi there! A point to clarify: I won the laptop from Swoopo.com and I have since received the laptop from Swoopo.com. I haven't won a thing from Haggle.com yet. Thanks for your very helpful comments and I'll check out Penny Auction Watch. You're welcome to link to my posts if you like. :)

PennyAuctionWatch.com on "My experience with the online bidding industry (Swoopo.com and Haggle.com)"

2010-02-21T12:50:41-05:00

Hi again, Just found this from Haggle's facebook page: " Haggle Thanks, Mike! We're reposting some edits of the other stuff for future readers: The problem with the team meme is threefold: (1) it doesn't make sense based on the simple rule that if you bid, the auction keeps going, and the last bidder wins. Whether you bid against one person or 5, the rule is the same. If you bid, you won't lose. If you bid against multiple people, collectively they pay the same as you pay for bids. If you don't bid because you think one of them will, and that tricks you, well, the same can happen regardless of who's on the other side. When in doubt, if you don't want to lose the auction, bid. (2) There's a view that somehow, teaming up gets people around win limits. But limits are enforced by household, and two households can win more than one household - because they're two households, not because they teamed up. (3) Although there are lots of conspiracy theories about how a team might work, the best "evidence" - someone bids for a long time and then gives up - looks exactly like a regular auction. In the end, the auction is won when someone gives up. So anything we set up that looks for "users bidding and then giving up" is going to make it look like any auction in which there's a battle involves a team. But obviously, we can't invalidate any auction in which there's more than one bidder. Obviously, if the people are in the same household, we can, and do, ban the accounts, but on unrelated computers at different addresses in different states, anything that looks like a team to one person looks like a regular auction to someone else. We can't chase ghosts. Even if the people know each other, but are in different households, we can't chase it - why would we stop you from competing with your friends for items? If it's down to just you and your friend, common courtesy would be for one of you to stop bidding. If there's someone else involved and that person remembers the first point - just bid, and the auction will keep going - then everything works out. Instead of chasing ghosts, we rely on the simplicity of the first issue - if you want to keep the auction going, bid. Winning is entirely in your control...." I'd also love to post your bidding advice in my blog post today about Haggle. I will link back to this great post, let me know if you object to this. Thank you!