The term “firmware update” is usually mentioned with regards to smartphones. Perhaps this is because the only people that care about updating firmware are the technology-savvy type – people who would naturally pick a smartphone over a feature phone anyday.
In basic terms, the phone’s firmware is the operating system (software) that the phone runs on.
Anyway, today at the office, one of us happened to need to connect a Nokia 3600 Slide to his PC, and when he did a pop-up balloon notified him that there was an update available for his device. Wonders! Techie as he is, he had not given any significant thought to updating his 3600 Slide.
Out of curiousity, he proceeded to update the phone.
When the update was initiated, Nokia Software Updater rebvealed that the firmware version on his phone was 4.11, and the current available update was 7.23. Such a gap?!
Anyway, 13 minutes and 36mb download later, the update was completed.
So, what difference did the update make? Ehm… we are not quite sure yet. We haven’t noticed anything yet. But there must be something lurking somewhere. We’ll play around and see if we find anything.
Have you ever updated a non-smartphone? Tell us about it.
This post was written by
Mister Mobility – who has written 927 posts on Mobility blog.
Founder, Mobility blog, serial lifestyle entrepreneur, speaker, & writer. Charming, passionate, tenacious & non-conformist. Will dance! Follow him on Twitter @Mister_Mobility.
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December 29th, 2009 at 7:36 am Browsing with
I am shocked to learn that it is even POSSIBLE to upgrade the firmware of a dumbphone. I will want to hazard a guess that most non-recent phones will NOT have this facility.
Pressing *#0000# (on Nokias alone?) is supposed to initiate firmware upgrade (if you have an internet connection). Will try this out on the next dumbphone I get hold of.
In the final analysis, the line between smartphones and dumbphones is blurring rapidly. In the very near future, I suspect dumbphones (as we have them) will cease to exist..
The distinguishing feature of a smartphone (over a dumbphone) is support for installation & running native third-party applications. Most modern dumbphones can run Java applications already. So critically, modern dumbphones are already ‘smart’ to a great extent. They run java applications, drastically extending their functionality beyond basics like ‘calls’ and ‘sms’…
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December 29th, 2009 at 10:50 am Browsing with
EyeBeekay said ” I will want to hazard a guess that most non-recent phones will NOT have this facility”
Sony Ericsson has been offering this facility to dumb phones for years now. I did my first ever firmware upgrade on a dumb K700 FIVE years ago. In that case, the upgrade was to fix bugs that came with the earlier released versions of the phone.
It pains me to see SE lagging behind these days, they were pace-setters in mobile tech and support years back.
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December 29th, 2009 at 5:10 pm Browsing with
I upgraded the firmware of my W880i.
I thought it will provide me with some additional functions. But nothing.
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December 29th, 2009 at 11:07 pm Browsing with
Never gave it a thought or try before but now that u ve brought up the issue, I will look for a dumb phone, update it & see what will come up. Am gonna do it just for curiousity sake & not because of any improvement in the phone’s perfomance, features or functionalities.
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December 31st, 2009 at 10:04 pm Browsing with
I tried doing so of recent but my firmware was up to date. It’s kinda scary though cos you never know what’s going to happen after the so called update. Your cellphone could just completely lose it and send you off to Nokia customer care in a few hours.LOL
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