V12 firmware
Hey, Nokia, where’s V12 for us Brits? If I had an N97 from any other region than UK I would have had it for weeks already! Seriously it’s available for pretty much everywhere except here. Pick an ex-Russian state where only the gangsters could afford such a phone, and they’ve had it for weeks. Actually, maybe that’s the point, maybe we’re too polite. Does anyone have an AK47 I can point at Helsinki in a threatening manner?
This isn’t a delay introduced by the networks (although Carphone warehouse users are still waiting for them to authorise V11). My N97 is a generic black model from Phones4U.
I could use NSS and hack the model number to that of a generic Euro model (which has English language), and then I would get the V12 update, but why should I have to? If you have a Euro model with English interface, why not a proper British model release? Did you accidentally miss us, or have you forgotten the UK market since Orange rejected the N97? (Still nothing official about that from Orange of course, just the usual silence, but I have seen second hand information about the drop being official now).
I would like the V12 update so the browser would stop eating all the C: memory with it’s cache, and then I wouldn’t have to keep using y-browser to delete “c:\system\cache” to keep the phone stable! I use Opera as my browser most of the time so it’s not a major issue for me right now, but I have two browsers on the phone, I’d like to be able to use them both. Opera Mini 4.2 is okay, but it’s not fine tuned for the N97 yet, and has some interesting quirks!
Maybe you’re just skipping V12 with us (for some reason) and we’ll get V20 as the next update… However if I see V20 come out, and the UK doesn’t have it within 24 hours I’m going to be changing that model number to a Euro model (or maybe Polish – I have Polish friends and it would be nice to be able to use the correct characters for their names and words when I write in my broken polish) before you can say “invalidated warranty”!
Facebook app
Continues to look pretty, and continues to let me down when I try to do anything vaguely “advanced”.
Last night I took a photo and tried to upload it to facebook using the app “Script error”. Tried again, same problem. I eventually gave up, went onto facebook with Opera Mini, found the mobile upload email address for my profile and emailed the picture up.
Once up I then tried the Facebook app again to see if I could tag the picture. Sure enough when you view a picture full screen there is a tag button… Woohoo thinks me, and I press it. The button changes colour slighty to show it’s been pushed, and nothing. I tried tapping the picture to see if I was supposed to indicate the area I wanted to tag. Nothing happened. Pushed the tag button again and the colour changes back to how it was originally. Press again and the button changes again. That gets boring after a while, and it doesn’t offer any other form of functionality apart from changing colour.
I had to wait until I got home to tag the picture. Both my browsers get a cut-down mobile version of facebook sent to them by the site, which removes the tagging function.
Yes I know V20 has a new facebook application, pity it’s not being offered to us in advance. See previous comment about when V20 arrives!
Updates
I got a message the other morning on my phone, it wasn’t a text message or any other kind of known message, it was an update message. I have no idea how the phone gets this, I hope it’s not munching my data connection every few minutes checking! Anyway, with much excitement I opened the message, hoping it was V12, it wasn’t.
There were 4 updates.
- Installer update required to install updates
- Nokia messaging 10.0
- Ovi contacts 1.20
- N-gage
Being the curious kind of geeky person that I am, I installed the lot! First thing I noticed was none of them asked where to install, the precious main memory, or the huge bucket of mass storage. I was worried.
When I checked memory usage I found my main memory had taken a huge hit, I wasn’t happy. I checked, and N-gage had gone onto mass storage, but Ovi contacts and Nokia email had both gone on the main memory. They both got uninstalled. I still didn’t get things back to where they were, I bet the “Installer update needed before installing” has munched some of the precious… Grrrr!
Wallpaper…
I finally got round to customising my screen, I played with N97 wallpaper pics I found on the big wide intarwibble, and eventually got bored with all of them. I’m also a photographer so decided to use one of my own photographs.
Feel free use it on your N97. If I see it on an iPhone I reserve the right to tip beer over the phone and owner. It has been optimised for the N97 screen, just right click on it and save the image.
Quick legal bit. I retain the copyright to this image. I am giving you blog readers a non-exclusive license to use it on your N97 only.
There, that’s better than me should putting “Tank’s blog” across it in horrible big letters.
Yes, I know I should give up on summer and start doing some Autumn ones… I’m working on it, honest!
–> Part 8
Today I have been mostly playing with Opera’s latest public beta of their mini web browser.
Opera Mini V5 beta *has* been designed with touch screen in mind, and boy is it good. This beta is more stable and finished than some of the software supplied on the N97 by Nokia… The buggy/restricted Facebook application for example.
So what are you still doing here?
Well it was bound to happen, from the moment the damn thing arrived through the door I knew this day would come.
