Nokia have updated the Nokia N96 firmware for generic devices (to v20.50).  This hasn’t proved as popular as the Nokia N95 or Nokia N95 8GB (partly due to the more crowded marketplace for smartphones today, and partly because it suffered some problems from the initial firmwares, just like the original Nokia N95 did); so has this firmware ironed out all the problems?  Well, the changelog includes a lot of updates:

New Features

• Email:
  • Nokia Email client and Mail for Exchange (MfE) preloaded (User will install and configure email clients with the help of Settings Wizard)
  • Settings Wizard 5.0: offers improvements for Nokia Email and MfE setup
  • Active Standby Email Plug-in: showing new email messages on Active Standby screen
• Look & Feel:
  • Support for Audio Themes: configurable sounds for various events e.g. opening/closing slide, battery low etc
  • Setting to allow a slideshow to be used as wallpaper
  • Slide handling: Setting to allow user to configure effect opening/closing the slide has on a call and keylock
• Others:
  • WiFi Protected Setup is now supported, allowing simplified setup of WLAN security with a supported WLAN access point
  • Support of IAD (Independent Application Delivery): Allows certain applications to be updated independently over the air.

Improvements

• Correction for occasional CMLA (Content Management License Administrator) certificate corruption. (These certificates are needed for e.g. Mobile TV and N-Gage license purchases)
• Energy management:
  • Shorter lights/screen timeout when lockswitch activated. Backlight dims as soon as keylock is enabled
  • Media Keys surrounding the rocker key lit only if a media application is open
  • Right Softkey changed from “Hide” to “Exit” for Music Player for EM savings
• Photos/Camera/Imaging:
  • A number of improvements made to the Camera image quality
  • The device SW version information is now stored in the image MetaData
  • Default recording quality for video is changed from ‘TV normal’ to TV high’
  • Noise reduction of recorded videos
• Media/DRM:
  • New version of Music player: Performance and “Comes With Music”-related improvements
  • FlashLite update for improved YouTube compatibility – improvements in rendering of Flash Video
  • General Media player &streaming related usability & performance improvements
  • OMA DRM v2 content can use device clock if no secure clock (i.e. NITZ) is available
• Browser:
  • Empty bookmark folders removed from Browser bookmarks (i.e. the “Download…” folders)
  • Link to Ovi.mobi is included in Browser bookmarks
• Others:
  • Vibra enabled when charging
  • When gaming in landscape mode, stereo audio will be played through correct speakers
  • Updated Themes
  • Slide triggered keyguard activation: When closing the slide, pressing any key within 2 seconds will result in keylock not being activated
  • Several error corrections based on Care and operator feedback
  • Several application baseline updates

As the phone supports UDP (User Data Protection), the firmware is a lot easier to install than on many Nokia devices, and the update should be available for both OTA (Over The Air) updates as well as via NSU (Nokia Software Updater) in time.  Branded firmwares should see this update, if the network operator release it.

Changelog courtesy of Symbian World.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 at 9:26 am and is filed under Gadgets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.