I got it to record again. Thanks for all your suggestions/help. After updating I put the original SD card back in, which has the original DCIM folder from the v1.5 firmware, and now it records and the camera is behaving normally. The app reports that the camera is now on firmware v2.5.
It looks like there was no DCIM folder created after the firmware update. My best guess is that it had trouble writing the SD card that I was using to update the firmware??
More good news is that I now can see the GPS/map data on my phone!! Bad news is I still don't see the GPS/map data on the VIOFO PC app. When playing it back on the PC, the video file shows GPS and speed information, but it doesn't show up on the side panel with google map. Speedometer and compass directions are not active either. Any suggestions for this problem?