Loading new maps into Nokia Maps on an N95 without a cable or bluetooth

Foolishly I arrived in San Francisco for MSE without loading the California maps into my phone.

This presented me with a pretty conundrum. Nokia's recent upgrade to Ovi Maps meant that the new maps uploader wanted a phone connected with Nokia PC Suite via the USB-A to Mini-B cable or bluetooth in PCSuite mode.

However without a cable or bluetooth (I have my old IBM X31 laptop, hand upgraded with Intel 2200BG Wifi) what can you do?

Turn to an almost forgotten technology: IrDa. The N95 8GB has a 115200 IrDa port on it and the Thinkpad X31 has a 4Mbps one.

1. Download the old "Nokia Map Loader" - this talks to the phone as a mass storage device.
2. Connect the phone via IrDa to the PCSuite.
3. Run the Nokia Map Loader

Upload the maps - took a very long time!

[An alternative to doing this is use the following blog post to download the maps directly. This can even be done on your mobile!]