The removal of the tracking facility on the N95 was, in retrospect, an absolute piece of thievery. In one fell swoop Nokia removed the raison d’etre of the phone.

I had initially been attracted to the N95 as it had sat nav/ GPS built in and in the early days of its useage, once I sussed out the Nokia Maps plug in .
I used to select endpoint of journey and start tracking and I was off. I did not really need the voice prompts, I could glance at the screen or give it to a passenger and just say : are we on the blue line.

Nokia have removed this useful function, leaving you with a GPS device which is incapable of Navigation ( unless you pay for it. ). I suspect that the providers (Orange in my case) were moaning about a lower than anticipated ARPU ( average revenue per user ) and hence the subterfuge.

Does anyone know a way I can have this changed, can it be rolled back??

Happy as I am with my Nokia N95, I cant help but get dragged into the nasty conumerist world of upgrades.

Just because the new one is in a shiny matt black, just because it hs a slightly larger screen than the normal silver Nokia N95, just because it has 8gig of memory, I do not feel the need to start pining for an upgrade or looking upon my relatively NEW mobile phone as kind of past it, or old hat, or passé.

You see, I am an adult and I am capable of viewing and judging things based upon their intrinsic quality.

Nokia maps have completely flummoxed me of late. I upgraded my Nokia N95 software as I had been promised a faster GPS connection as a result. I put up with the loss of my beloved Brian Lara Cricket game, but that is a waste of time anyway.

I rebooted and waited. On opening up Nokia maps I was saddened to see that the phone had no recollection of my previously lovingly installed maps from Smart2Go. I love zooming in on rethymno, Crete to see my old haunts. I tried reinstalling the maps using Smart2go Maploader ( a lugubrious application ) to no avail. I was becoming rather disillusioned by the software upgrade, losing my cricket and all that.

My next step was Orange who advised I called Nokia ( buck passers ). I did call Nokia, indeed I spent an hour on hold at various times of the day and night.

By chance and through a process of elimination I discovered that the old Smart2Go maps are no longer supported by the new Nokia Maps application, I downloaded the new Nokia Maps Loader and was soon zooming into my sat nav maps and even enjoying a markedly faster connection time to the satellites I believe are up there somewhere.

The unfortunate thing was that my original download of the Nokia Maps App had included a free 3 day trial of their navigational software ( with voice prompts) and it took me 4 days to solve the issues with me Nokia N95 above….they also seem to have removed the tracking facility on the new map software.. cheeky, like they are trying up revenues…

You see I still haven’t got it cracked, I use the GPS Sat Nav on my Nokia N95 all the time in the car. I set the route using the landmarks feature and calculate route. Then I show on map and start tracking. Generally, if I have decent satellite signals the GPS functions fine.

It is only a pity that you can’t use it in widescreen mode as the GPS receiver is located in the base of the N95’s handset. I have been thinking of trying to find a small LCD screen with video in ports so that I can use the TV Out of the Nokia to have larger screened in car navigation available.

Driving along I either glance down at the mobile on my dashboard ( I still have not got a decent in car cradle for my N95 but am looking ) or I hand the handset to my daughter who confirms yes, we are still on the blue line.

I am nearing the stage when these steps must be overcome; I need a cradle, a new screen, and above all, I need a screen with a better size, for glancing and I will need some Navigational Software so that I have voice prompts to tell me where I am wand when I need to turn and all of that stuff.

Looking online for Navigational Software ( I am loathe to click accept on the Nokia’s internal menu as this must be the most expensive option ) I find some interesting alternatives;

• CoPilot Live 6 : - from www.alk.com/copilot/pocketpc.asp at around £50 looks ok and is fully featured, but it appears not to use the same maps ( from smart2go ) as I am used to. I also worry about hidden data charges.
• Wayfinder :- from www.wayfinder.com has be recommended many times on the Symbian forums
• Route 66 from 66.com is also a frontrunner and the fully featured product Mobile 7 S60 looks by far the best I have found online

I will be trying to find online trials of demos of each of these different S60 Navigation Software for my Nokia N95 and will report once whey have been assessed.