30 June 2009

Nokia N97 To Gets First Firmware Update
Unconfirmed Nokia Change Log Is In Da' House!

The first firmware update for the Nokia’s flagship Smartphone has been a hot topic of discussion in the blogosphere this morning and now, Nokia Conversations Twitter account has officially confirmed the news that Nokia N97 will be getting the first public firmware update tomorrow (July 1st).

'Official: N97 SW 1.1 (11.x.021) to be released to first variants on July 1st 2009'

As you would imagine, the firmware update is always recommended as it usually improves the performance and reliability of the phone, reduce number of bugs and brings functionality optimizations across many pre-installed applications.

The update is expected to be available over-the-air (FOTA) or through The Nokia Software updater as well so there is no excuse for not experimenting with :]

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, good folks from over at Italian Serie-N blog have managed to get full Change log that reveals lot of improvements and bug fixes but fails to address some of the most annoying issues that "early adopters" complaining about so I am not sure how reliable it is or maybe all these problem will remain unsolved with this update?

Heck, I even understand that Nokia is in the uncomfortable position because of the aggressive time to market goals coupled with increasing demands for better user interface and growing competition but releasing buggy flagship devices and updates that just brings minor bug fixes while the main problems remain unsolved is not a god strategy in my personal opinion.

Anyway, here is the full list of changes and improvements that we’ll get tomorrow.

USB detection error fix

• PC does not detect N97 or USB charging connection not detected.

Widgets

• Home screen online/offline widget crash fix
• Fix for “Alphabetical and Number input are mixed in facebook until end key is pressed.
• Widget UI improvement – New facebook widget fixes a problem of Home Screen background visible on soft-key area.
• Browser fixes to improve widgets stability.

MfE related fixes

• Partial fix for Messaging/calendar entry lost.
• Mail for exchange calendar entry synchronization error fix.

UI transition error fixes (Portrait <-> landscape transition, there is a home screen corruption.)

• UI transition (Slowness and bad effects)
• Slow Touch UI response
• Picture of the device lock appears half of the screen when transitioning the UI sometimes
• Landscape: in some cases the soft buttons on touch (right hand) show the Home Screen in background (install maps.google.com)

Photos thumbnail performance and stability improvements

• Device performance deteriorates when lots of content in the device - especially photos
• Partial fix no display backlight illumination when unlocking lock-key – CAP Genius reported already
• New version of Accueweather to improve the “Connection error” situation
• Device reset when browsing with high speed packet access (for Malaysia )
• “Browser soft key UI doesn’t work after putting Chinese character with qwerty keyboard”
• Java fixes (TCK, Pre-install app disappearing, *#7370#*)
• Operator fixes (CMCC, Hutchson and Telefonica, Vodafone)
• Ovi store client now embedded in the core image