back to article Nokia updates N900 firmware

Nokia has released new system software for its Maemo-based N900 smartphone and it's a mandatory update if you want your N900 to remain compatible with the Ovi Store. The new release, PR 1.2 - aka version 10.2010.19-1 - includes a number of tweaks and improvements, including Skype and Google Talk video chat, Facebook instant …

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  1. Greg J Preece

    MeeGo!

    So much for it not coming for the N900. ;-) Looks like you might not want to install it yet though, looking at the release notes. Still optimised for netbooks really, which might be what Nokia were on about.

  2. Reg Tard
    FAIL

    MeeGo = NoGo

    Nokia already announced there will be no official MeeGo release for the N900. Of course it's for your benefit!

    http://conversations.nokia.com/2010/05/25/nokia-n900-software-update-release-1-2/

    "Although Nokia N900 devices are being used for platform development and testing purposes by those involved in the MeeGo project, Nokia doesn’t have plans for a full scale commercial MeeGo upgrade on the Nokia N900. The reason? It’s really about ensuring that you have the best possible experience designed for the features on your Nokia N900 device."

    Meanwhile Apple are about to roll out a software update for a two year old phone...

    1. Greg J Preece

      Riiight

      That just means I won't be getting my install images from Nokia. Boo hoo. I don't get my Android images from Orange, so what's new?

      1. Reg Tard

        LOL

        @Greg - Expect quality software from Orange do you? They've been writing crap firmware mods for years for S60. Face it, the N900 is abandoned. Great hardware let down by a company badly struggling to work out what direction it should be going in. How many OS's and GUI toolkits do Nokia have now? First they partner with Intel, a company desperate to get x86 into a true mobile device, but who can't quite manage it despite years of trying and then they team up with Yahoo! who are struggling to remain relevant in the face of Bing and Google. It's like a club where all the losers can drown their sorrows.

        Nokia is looking like it's about to do a Palm. Their best hope is that Google buys them. Google would gain a dedicated, experienced mobile network hardware engineering company and NAVTEQ mapping. Nokia would gain a modern OS with some developer interest.

    2. apleszko

      Consumers must know that before byuing again from Nokia

      For those thinking about getting a N900, think twice at least.

      As a loyal Nokia customer for years I bought the N900 right after was launched and spent more than 600 bucks on it.

      Nokia already knew at the time that they were working on Meego with Intel, but they rushed to launch N900 with Maemo 5 and now confirmed it won't be upgradable to Meego. The promises of keep support for Maemo 5 is just an excuse while the next Meego device is not launched.

      If you buy N900 now will received an about-to-be abandoned OS... If you are willing to wait for the Meego device I would advice to buy from another company besides Nokia, since their behavior with N900 customers is likely to happen again in the future. (For you to know, the first Nokia Meego device is an adaptation and not a fully Meego compliant, since it will use a different packaging schema for application installation, so it is even more likely that the customers will get abandoned again).

  3. PhonicUK
    Linux

    Other changes include:

    * A really annoying new on-screen keyboard layout where the backspace is in the bottom right instead of the top right.

    * OSK is now a pop-up dialog instead of full screen, meaning smaller and harder to hit keys. Still entirely obscures anything behind it.

    * Random changed behaviour with no indication of what to do. E.g. the 'application manager' no longer has a search facility, instead you just start typing what you want. Great, but why didn't it tell me that?

    * Most built-in apps can be put in portrait mode by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+U and rotating the phone, but some become unusable when you do so. The OSK is landscape-only so when using portait mode, it will switch to landscape whenever you want to input text.

    * The "Back" and "Bookmarks" buttons in the browser are swapped around, so I keep going back when I want to use my bookmarks.

    Be it said that despite these niggles, the update has been an improvement. Many of the built in apps are more responsive, and the OS uses less space on the root file system (A major fault of the N900, is only having 256MB in the root filesystem, separate from the massive 32GB mass storage) so I now have 85MB free instead of just 20MB.

    Skype video chat is a welcome addition, but only really usable on WiFi, especially if (like myself) you're on T-Mobile who packet-shape VoIP over 3G to the point of being unusable.

  4. James 51

    Mostly pleased

    I have installed the update. There are a few minor niggles (have to figure out how to turn off the portait mode for some apps as half the screen disappears and mplayers stutters a little) but on the whole am very pleased. It's faster and looking forward to office doc editors appearing.

  5. Rob 101

    Long awaited

    Indeed i dislike the new OSK but since I rarely that's fine by me.

    Since I first heard about it I have have been awaiting the browser option NOT to default the keyboard to the address bar. All those sites where i see the cursor in the username box, start typing and.....

    Media playe now has a play button to continue where you left off after last exit and the Shuffle All songs now seems to actually shuffle the songs rather than just play the same play list from the last time you launched it and in the same order regardless of whether shuffle was enabled. Large bonus there.

    Shame they broke the built calendar widget and the conversations desktop widget but there is a fix for the latter and apparently all you have to do to get your birthdays to appear again in the desktop one is edit them all.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    one more

    who dislikes the 'new' onscreen keyboard. I highly doubt the knob who came up with that one actually bothered trying to type on it him/herself, as it is now even more useless than the hardware keyboard. it was not broke and did not need fixing.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Don't buy the N900.

    Come on El Reg learn your facts.

    There has always been an email widget, in fact I had two because the N900 listed two of every app on the desktop editor. Of course you had to download from the community, Nokia didn't support it.

    Video calling does indeed use the face camera, 7 months after release there is now software to support the hardware. HOWEVER some limitations to skype, you can only call PC's or something like that. It can't call SKYPE on other Linux phones?

    You can also get the web browser into portrait by rotating it and letting the software orientate itself. (Assuming you do the tick box) Still no flash 10.1 or hint of ever getting it.

    There is an email desktop widget, But unless you download an app there is no SMS desktop widget. Nokia haven't bothered with that.

    Still no MMS support at all, however you can attach photos to emails and send that way, which is indeed a nice touch. After all we all use emails for photos, we all of us have email on our phones, don't we? If you take a photo, you need to go into email and attach, you can't send from the camera.

    Ovi store is cr*p, has always been cr*p. Nothing on their to want, so breaking it hasn't changed the world. I had to upgrade the only six games on the OVI store after updating to 1.2, and nothing new has been added following the update.

    Still no word editor for .doc, .rtf files. That isn't in BETA.

    Only plus I saw from the 1.2 was slightly smoother and faster scrolling, though judging by the forums at, talk.maemo.org. It isn't clear and pleasant sailing to upgrade.

    HOWEVER and this is the purpose of my post. Meego is officially now, NOT going to be on the N900. Nokia have stated this here http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=53541

    So the N900 is going to die a short and painful life as the one and only Maemo 5 device, unless a bunch of community enthusiasts do a none official repo for it.

  8. Paul 77
    Linux

    Radio

    Okay, the one thing that has been noticeably improved with this is the FM radio. However if it is still not perfect, and sometimes forgets where it is meant to be tuned to - despite showing the correct frequency, I sometimes need to do a re-tune after completing a phone call, because I just get white noise.

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