Nokia comes clean as Ovi bombs

Nokia's Contacts for Ovi - the Finnish manufacturer's answer to MobileMe - was down for most of yesterday and has lost all amendments made since January 23 when the last backup was taken. Unlike its Cupertino-based competition, Nokia has come completely clean about the problems, explaining in detail that a cooler broke down …

[Ian K]

Last backup WHEN?

Failed yesterday, latest available backup was the 23rd Jan?!?

An "every 3-4 weeks, or failing that whenever we're in the mood" backup schedule doesn't exactly reassure.

[Conrad Longmore]

Oviload

Ovi has some real potential to be useful with the software tools installed on the latest Nokias in the pipleline. These will make Ovi integration a lot easier, and could easily double the user base. To four people.

[Anonymous Coward]

What's Finnish for fail?

Avoid anything that comes out of Nokia Beta Labs, including ANYTHING to do with Ovi. They've drunk the Web 2.0 Kool Aid - and they can't write code to save their lives.

What a bunch of f*ckwit amateurs.

[Chris Miller]

WTF

No backups between 23rd January and 11th February?

I hope someone has been made to walk the plank!

[Anonymous Coward]

Afraid users will walk out of Ovi?

It's a shame English readers cannot know that 'Ovi' means 'door'. There's a great potential for puns here.

[Anonymous Coward]

Both

Man, that's a classic El Reg sub-heading. I hurt myself laughing on that one. hahaha.

[Bod]

@Chris Miller

It's a beta. No guarantees are made and you use it at your own risk. You shouldn't use it for critical data, just like any other beta.

[Anonymous Coward]

Try www.synkia.com, Ovi sounds like a nightmare

With Synkia you can back up contacts, calendar appointments, tasks, notes and SMS by a click of a button. You will always have a fresh copy of the information available on the server. If your phone is lost, stolen or breaks down you can easily restore the information on the new phone.

If you have several phones you can use the service to synchronize information between them – all phones will have the same contacts, appointments, etc.

In addition you can log in at www.synkia.com to view, add and modify your data. The next time you synchronize the changes will be transferred to your phone.

[Anonymous Coward]

Try Synkia, Ovi sounds like a nightmare

With Synkia you can back up contacts, calendar appointments, tasks, notes and SMS by a click of a button. You will always have a fresh copy of the information available on the server. If your phone is lost, stolen or breaks down you can easily restore the information on the new phone.

If you have several phones you can use the service to synchronize information between them – all phones will have the same contacts, appointments, etc.

In addition you can log in at www.synkia.com to view, add and modify your data. The next time you synchronize the changes will be transferred to your phone.

[pctechxp]

not making sense

Ovi has some real potential to be useful with the software tools installed on the latest Nokias in the pipleline

Do you mean there are features in the handset software whose server component has not yet been implemented or that the software loaded onto the handsets is a Beta?

A faithful SonyEricsson user currently packing a K800i

[Eddie Edwards]

Pay for sync? Yes please!

Yeah please please let me pay for sync. I would love you forever Nokia. I don't pay enough for basic features. Really you guys should just strip everything off the phone and then charge per use for the address book by keeping it all in the cloud.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Ian K

Back up the cloud? Are you insane?

But, more seriously, isn't the point that a distributed architecture impicitly backs-up data to the four corners of the timec^W earth? You don't see people scrambling to restore backups if parts of a p2p network goes down...

[James]

@What's Finnish for fail

Sportstracker is pretty good, as is Maps. They could do with some touch ups, but hey, they're beta app after all, and free.

[Andus McCoatover]

@Nokia

<<We’re sorry that the profile pictures you love, and we love too are gone.>>

We love too? Phorm, pay attention!

Good to see they took it on the chin and 'fessed up.

(Ovi is Finnish for door, as has been pointed out. But "Oven" is genetive/objective for door, so even more puns expected. Probably only in Finnish, tho').

[Anonymous Coward]

More proof...

That 'clouds' and trusting your data to other companies is a stupid idea.

[Tim Schomer]

So what's wrong with

using a data cable/InfraRed/Bluetooth and synchronising it with your PC? It's a system that's been around for years and works very well with little or no errors.

Is this just change for change sake, or people just trying to be trendy and doing it 'through the internet'.

As an aside, I suggested this to Orange about 7 years ago and never even got a reply, sure wish I'd kept a copy of that email.....

[gjw]

I am one of the two users

I had no problem whatsoever with Ovi I use it every day, and it just worked. Must be the other guy who had problems with it then.

I don't think they're planning to have you pay for synchronising your data anytime soon.

@fail.

Most of their software is actually very good and their new e-mail client is splendid.

[Phil Hare]

No ISO 27001?

It stuns me to think that organisations of that size offering services that involve handling so much data wouldn't bother going ISO27001. An ISO27001 audit would have spotted that flaw long before it was a problem.

[Andus McCoatover]

@What's Finnish for fail

epäonnistua

Well, you asked...(Thanks, translate.google.com...)

Typical Finnish - why use a sentence when a paragraph will do?

[Glen Forde]

But...

...it is only a sync so you only lose something if you lost your phone before they fixed it.

I use OVI, as well as backing up to PC, because it is free and pretty easy to get your phone content onto the site where you can edit it. SportsTracker, Maps, Wellness Diary and other free stuff including the client for Exchange are all pretty damn good for free. I miss using MailforExchange now that our IT dept has upgraded Exchange and the guy who set mine up defected to an iPhone.

Oh well, it must be the other guy who is having problems with OVI, making three users.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, so 'Ovi' means 'door'.

It is a shame that Finnish companies cannot know that 'Oy' is a threatening interjection in English. (e.g. 'Nokia! Oy! NO!')

[Bod]

N97

Of course, one issue is that although a beta, it needs to be sorted before the N97 launch as that's plugging Ovi integration.