Exciting changes include backlight fix, transition bug fixes, improved photo thumbnail performance, and widget stability fixes. Oh, and this: “-Device reset when browsing with high speed packet access (for Malaysia)”. I hope “for Malaysia” translates into “For USA”.

Changes that I actually noticed:

- The original unlock backlight bug has been squashed, only to be replaced with a new bug: sometimes flipping the lock/unlock switch repeats the previous action. In other words, if I unlock the phone, then attempt to lock it again, occasionally it will just refresh the screen instead of locking it.

Serie-N.it has a partial changelog for 11.0.021.

To get the new firmware, use Nokia Software Updater. The alternative is Device updates on your N97, but it seems that the firmware update isn’t yet available over-the-air. Ah well.

Related posts:

1. A New Round of Nokia Firmware Updates: N82, N96
2. Nokia E66 and E71 Get Updated
3. Nokia E66 NAMs Get An Update (v200.21.118)

Yep, it's a new Nokia Messaging. No, there's no HTML.

Nokia’s infamous (at least on S60 Fifth Ed.) email client, Nokia Messaging, has a new release available for download. There’s no official mention of it anywhere, nor is there a changelog, but I can confirm it’s faster, more responsive, and most importantly: actually usable!

Unfortunately, it seems that this version lacks HTML email functionality too.

To get it, log into your Nokia Messaging account. After logging in, there should be a box on the right side that says “Install now”. Click that. Enter your mobile number, choose your phone (for N97 users, the N97 is all the way on the bottom), and click Next. You should receive a text message with the download link.

Complete list of changes that I’ve noticed in Nokia Messaging 10.0.1.14:

• Faster scrolling (flicking + scrollbar) through emails
• Takes less touchpresses to switch mailboxes – before it would take as many as 10 taps before I could get Messaging to switch from my Gmail to my Yahoo! account. Now it takes about 3-4. For some reason, the app still thinks I’m trying to do a “press and hold” instead of just touching my other account and fails.
• You can now change your writing language in an email.

What still needs improvement:

• The Sync icon is now mostly covered up by a black space for some reason.
• The scroll up effect after deleting an email is still ridiculously laggy
• Deleting a bunch of emails by continually pressing the delete key (with “Warn before delete” set to No) still shows a “Deleting” dialog box that does nothing. It’s not quite a freeze, because you can still hit the cancel button.
• Still no easy way to quickly mark emails
• No HTML emails either
• Scrollbar still tends to lag a little bit when scrolling down like 20 emails

All in all, Nokia Messaging 10.0.1.14 is noticeably better than its predecessor, but there’s a lot of room for improvement.

No related posts.

The first Nokia Phone Blog official keyboard shootout!

The Nokia N97. The 5800 XpressMusic. The E75. Three phones, three distinct little keyboards. Does the N97 deserve the flak it’s taken for the mushy QWERTY? The 5800XM on-screen keyboard sucks, right? And how does the E75 stack up in all of this?

To find out, I conducted a little “keyboard shootout” experiment, pitting me, typist of 20 years (give or take 10 years) in one corner, against a stopwatch and the phrase “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.” in the other. To measure real-world time, the entire phrase had to be completely correct before I would end each trial.

Let’s see how it all turned out.

The Set Up

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic: Offline profile, touch screen vibration Level 1, touch screen tones Off
Nokia N97: Offline profile, no other changes
Nokia E75: Offline profile, no other changes
Nokia E66: Offline profile, T9 prediction on, keypad tones Level 1

I used the XNote Timer XP utility as my stopwatch. Each time trial went like this:

- Pick up phone
- Clear text on screen
- Hold phone in ready position above keyboard
- Hit Spacebar with right pinky to activate stopwatch
- Type in phrase “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.” as fast as possible, correcting any and all mistakes.
- Hit Spacebar with left hand to stop the time.
- Switch to next phone and repeat five times for each

I also ran ten trials using a Nokia E66 (with T9 on) and a Mitsumi brand PC keyboard for fun.

The Results

All times are in seconds.

Nokia E75 Keyboard

Times: 11.95, 13.29, 12.25, 11.31, 10.93
Average: 11.946 sec – .5 sec* (see note at bottom)
WPM (Words Per Minute): 47.17

The best of the bunch, by far. The E75 has large, tactile keys that make it relatively easy to type stuff on a mobile phone. The kicker, however, is some quirky button placements – like the backspace key that’s next to the L key, or the Return key that’s directly under that. Still, 47.17 wpm on a mobile phone is quite respectable.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Keyboard

Times: 20.23, 17.84, 13.25, 17.73, 20.26
Average: 17.862 sec – .5 sec*
WPM: 31.10

As expected, the 5800 XpressMusic dominated the absolute bottom tier of keyboards (read: loser). Those damn on-screen keys are so tiny that it’s very easy to hit something other than the key you wanted, and the lack of multi-touch means that sometimes you’ll type a word too quickly and miss a couple letters in the process. In terms of raw speed, the keyboard wasn’t that horrible – but the number of mistakes I made (and had to correct) was. The only time I typed the phrase perfectly was the third run.

Nokia N97 Keyboard

Times: 13.71, 16.29, 14.48, 12.68, 15.35
Average: 14.502 sec – .5 sec*
WPM: 38.56

I really thought the N97 would show some pretty low scores. Nope! It turns out the N97, if you get past the mushiness and generally weird bottom row, is not as bad as some folks (like me) may have you believe. Or maybe I was just having a good day. The N97 was only 18% slower than the E75, but it’s also smaller, squishier (hard to tell whether you hit a key or not), and personally more annoying to use. You be the judge.

Controls:

Nokia E66 Keyboard

Times: 19.14, 16.37, 15.12, 13.82, 12.01
Average: 15.292 sec – .5 sec*
WPM: 36.51

Shouldn’t QWERTY keyboards be faster than a keypad equipped with T9? At 15.292 seconds, the E66 control group beat out the 5800 and came close to tying the N97. I might have to rethink this keyboard thing…

Just kidding. This is mostly luck, because the only word I actually needed to scroll through T9 for was “lazy”. Apparently, “jazz” is a more popular word.

Mitsumi PC Keyboard

Times: 4.82, 6.09, 4.70, 4.40, 4.32
Average: 4.86 sec
WPM: 111.11

*Note that since I had to manually start and stop the clock myself, I subtracted .5 seconds from the average to calculate WPM. For the PC keyboard test, I ignored this because there was no real motion needed to stop the timer (I need to hit alt-tab, the right key, and space).

Conclusions

The obvious conclusion is that the E75 is the best keyboard of the bunch. That isn’t too difficult to see, since it has the largest keyboard, and the best feel, of the group. But the numbers are interesting: it was 18% faster than the N97, 34% faster than the 5800 XpressMusic, and 23% faster than the E66 with T9 prediction.

And just for fun, I did an E66 T9 vs. No T9 mini-shootout, with the results showing that T9 is about 36% faster than typing without it.

Related posts:

1. Nokia N97: First Impressions
2. The Definitive Nokia N97 Bug List
3. The Reviews are in: Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

The Nokia N97 bug list.

Update: Nokia N97 11.2.021 firmware was released on July 1, 2009.

It’s been a week since the N97 arrived at my door, and yet during that time I’ve seen some strange things. And not strange in a good way either. So I’m making my official Nokia N97 bug post here and updating it as I see fit.

The biggest issue right now seems to be with AT&T’s 3G network causing repeated reboots on certain N97s. I don’t know how many N97s are affected by this bug nor why it happens, but I’ve experienced it myself, along with couple of other people on the Nokia Europe discussion boards. Read more about it inside.

The following is my list of N97 problems, bugs, and other irregularities. Note that after the latest firmware update (11.2.021), some things have shifted to the “Fixed” heading.

Home Screen

- Sometimes the unlock switch will refresh the screen but not lock/unlock the phone.

- The portrait/landscape wallpaper display is screwy. When you use a standard 300×640 vertical image as your background, it will not display correctly in landscape mode. Basically, instead of rotating the image 90 degrees, the phone will take the middle 300 pixels and make an 640×300 image out of it – meaning you get a nice blown-up image in landscape view. Lovely! Fix: when creating a wallpaper image, use a 640×640 image. See my N97 wallpaper post for more details.

- Hitting certain keyboard keys repeatedly causes the screen to freeze for a lengthy amount of time. Basically, whenever you hit a non-numeric key, the screen clears for a quick second, showing only the background and a broken side menu. Pressing the button repeatedly causes some kind of loop, which lags the phone to all hell. Try it with the Uppercase + top row of keys for a bit ‘o fun.

Browser

- No way to enter a url in fullscreen mode without exiting back to windowed view.

Software

- Deleting consecutive emails too quickly in Nokia Messaging using the delete key (with delete confirmation turned off) sometimes crashes the program. Update: The new version of Nokia Messaging (10.0.1.14) now shows a dialog box that says “Deleting” without actually deleting anything. It also freezes there unless you hit the Cancel button.

- Entering a note with the keyboard in Active Notes is extremely laggy.

Fixed in N97 Firmware Update 11.2.021

Final Notes

If you’ve found a bug, please add it in a comment below. Make sure you specify your phone model (RM-5xx) and software version (ie. 10.2.012). You can find your model/version by typing in *#0000# in the Dialer (or go to Settings -> Phone -> Phone mgmt -> Device updates). Thanks!

Related posts:

1. Nokia N97: First Impressions
2. The N97 + 5800XM + E75 Keyboard Shootout
3. Bug: “Curse of Silence” Hits Nokia S60 Phones

Grab a new wallpaper for your N97 or 5800 XpressMusic.

A couple of weeks ago, I found a really, really, awesome desktop wallpaper. And so I decided it needed to be on my phone. After a little resizing, color changes, and experimentation on how the N97 deals with custom wallpapers (verdict: it doesn’t) – I came up with this.

Grab it inside. Also, more about the bugginess that is the N97’s custom wallpaper display feature.

The N97 has a 300×640 screen. Originally I resized the wallpaper below to the standard 300×640, expecting everything to just work flawlessly. Ha! While the image displayed correctly in Portrait mode (ie vertically), the N97’s landscape view completely obliterated the wallpaper, turning it into some blown-up piece of crap. Here’s why.

In landscape mode, instead of doing the normal thing and rotating your 300×640 image 90 degrees, the N97 actually takes a 640×300 slice of your picture, starting from the center. This is a little hard to explain, so check out the following picture:

The N97 will ignore the four corners of the above square wallpaper, and will just use either the vertical or horizontal center. That means, when creating a custom wallpaper, you should probably just use a square image to make life easier. Just remember that the N97 will only take into account the plus-shaped section of it for portrait/landscape display purposes.

Finally, don’t use a 300×640 picture. Otherwise, for landscape mode the N97 will just take the horizontal center, which would be a 300×300 square expanded to fit a 300×640 picture. Trust me, it’s ugly.

Wallpapers

The original version was a red one, I changed it up to a cooler shade of blue. You can also use either in your 5800 XpressMusic, but you may want to resize it to 300×640. Since the 5800XM doesn’t rotate the home screen, the above doesn’t apply to it.

How to Install

1. First download the images above. Left-click on the thumbnail, then right-click on the image and select “Save Picture As…”
2. Transfer the wallpapers to your phone
3. At your N97’s Home screen, touch any widgeted area and hold for about 2 seconds. You should see a small menu pop up, with the last option being “Change Wallpaper”.
4. Navigate to where you transferred your wallpaper and select it.

I don’t actually know who to credit for the original image. I found it via one of the 4chan wallpaper search engines, if that helps.

Related posts:

1. Software: Free Audio Themes From Nokia
2. Not Fail: Multi-touch Hits Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
3. Grab Nine Freeware 5800 XpressMusic Apps at Nokia India

ZXReader: The best (and only) ebook reader for the N97 and 5800XM.

The Mobipocket eBook reader used to be my reader of choice. That is, until their Symbian programmer disappeared like a fart in the wind (or so I’ve heard), leaving behind nothing but a half-finished S60 Fifth Edition port. One that can’t even exit fullscreen mode without a complete reinstall. To put it mildly, I think it sucks.

You can move the info/progress bar around the screen - I have it set to the right side.

So the only thing left is an eBook reader called ZXReader, and it’s actually an impressive piece of work. You can customize almost every facet of the eBook display, from changing the fonts and colors to things like screen margins and the location of the info bar. Navigation is neat, too: the app divides the screen into touchable regions that can activate different functions – by default, the top portion of the screen is used to move back a page, and the bottom portion to move forward. But you could also change it to left, center, right, and have each section perform a different task. It’s so far and away from the crap that is Mobireader S60 v5 Beta Unsigned that it’s amazing. Did I mention it’s free?

ZXReader provides a wealth of customizations. Lots of good stuff here.

There is a catch, however.

And that catch is – ZXReader is only compatible with two types of file formats: regular text files and .fb2 files. Text files are fine, but unfortunately don’t have support for things like bold headings and the like. Also, they tend to run the gamut in terms of quality since nothing’s standardized.

Enter FB2. FB2 is apparently a newfangled ebook format based on XML and created by some Russian programmers. It’s not a very popular file format, and finding software for it was a pain in the butt. An application called FictionBook Designer can open up a bunch of different ebook formats (html, doc, rtf, pdf, lit, pdb, rb, xml, and best of all prc). Yep, that’s mobipocket’s file format. One of the help files does say that the prc file format is a little wonky (not the exact words) and you’re probably better off converting the prc to html with MobiPerl. I personally tested a couple prc->html->fb2 conversions and it worked fine.

Download ZXReader 1.2.3 For Symbian S60 Fifth Edition Devices (N97, 5800 XpressMusic)

Right click and select “Save Target As…” for the download to work correctly: ZXReader

Using FictionBook Designer to Create FB2 Files

This is pretty straightforward.

1. Download and install Fiction Book Designer.
2. Go to File -> Open Book and select your ebook file. It can be in any number of formats, but if you’re trying to convert a .prc file see the directions below. It’ll take awhile for the file to process.
3. Go to File -> make Fiction Book file (F8) or just hit the F8 key.
4. This will pop up the make Fiction Book file dialog box. I would fill out the Author’s First/Last name and Book Title, but everything is pretty much optional.
5. Click the “make book” button in the bottom left corner.
6. You’ll hear some annoying sound effects, most notably a chime when it’s finished. Another box filled with XML tags and other junk should appear.
7. Go to File -> save as (F5) or just hit the F5 key. Save your .fb2 file.
8. Your fb2 ebook is now ready to be copied to your phone!

Converting PRC Files to HTML

Since Fiction Book Designer does a lousy job with prc files, use MobiPerl to do the conversion to HTML, then have FBD do the rest.

1. First, grab MobiPerl. I’m going to assume you’re using Windows – download the latest binary, mobiperl-win-0.0.42.zip.
2. Unpack everything into one directory. You’ll see a bunch of executable files, the only one that you’ll need is mobi2html.exe.
3. Create a shortcut to mobi2html.exe. A quick way to do this is to click on the file, hold the Alt key, and, while still holding down the mouse button, drag the mouse away. That will create a shortcut to mobi2html.exe.
4. Drag your prc file on top of the shortcut you just created and let go. You should see a command prompt box open up, output some garbage text, and close. It’s done!
5. Check the “unpacked” folder in the directory you placed MobiPerl and you should see your html file. Now plug this file into Fiction Book Designer, and follow the rest of the directions above.

I highly suggest creating an ebooks directory on your memory card or mass storage or wherever. To add your ebooks to ZXReader, simply go to Library -> Options -> Add file.

Related posts:

1. The Definitive Nokia N97 Bug List

The N97 in all of its glory. First impressions inside.

I’ve spent a grand total of three hours with Nokia’s N97 “flagship” smartphone, and I have to say – it’s looking to be a mighty impressive device, and a worthy upgrade to the 5800 XpressMusic. But it definitely ain’t without its flaws.

For those who are new to my version of First Impressions, they’re just a bunch of random thoughts running through my head as I’m using the phone. Apologies in advance if they’re a little too jumbled.

- The Nokia N97 looks, and feels, stunning. Build quality is top notch all-around, with one exception: the back cover.

- The keyboard: definitely flawed. Problem one: the bottom row of keys is a mess. We’ve got an uppercase key where the Z key should be, and the result is a row of keys that are shifted over by one. Throw in the location of the space bar (to the right of the M key – brilliant!), and using it becomes more of a chore, rather than a joy. Finally, problem three: Some of the keys are way too mushy, while some are decently tactile. And strangely, having a period/comma key next to the L key did NOT bother me.

- Keyboard, part 2: despite what I’ve said about it, the keyboard is still faster, way faster than typing on the 5800’s on-screen display. And slightly less error-prone.

- Related note on keys: I don’t know when companies will ever learn that putting keys on the bottom corners of the phone is just a bad idea. It was a bad idea with the Xperia X1, and it’s a bad idea with the N97. The menu key is situated in the lower left corner of the phone, making it damn near impossible for me to press no matter which hand it’s in. Usability guys…

- The screen: It’s big. I think this is the first display I’ve seen on a Nokia phone that is actually viable for watching movies/TV shows/YouTube. And gaming, reading ebooks..

- The slide: it pops open with such force that it feels like I’m going to injure myself or other people around me. That makes it all the more satisfying though.

- Lock key: the lock key is now on the opposite side. It also seems that whenever I unlock my phone after a couple of seconds, the backlight does not turn on. I have to re-lock and unlock to get it working again. I had the same problem occasionally with the 5800, too.

- Improvements over the 5800: I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the N97 fixes issues that I came across with the 5800 XpressMusic. A couple of useful applications that Nokia neglected to add, like Active Notes and a Paint program (except there’s no more stylus – the irony) are now here. The Home screen can be customized to add widgets and extra shortcuts (but you can only add 2 rows of shortcuts, meaning 8 total), whereas the Home screen on my 5800 is nothing but four shortcuts and a background. Touch sensitivity is noticeably better also.

- And finally, the browser: I love it. It’s fast. It now displays a progress bar when you’re in fullscreen mode. It could, however, make better use of the keyboard – the only button that I’ve found works (other than the 5-way keypad) is the 0 key, which enters fullscreen mode. And unless I’m doing something wrong, when you’re in fullscreen mode, you can’t go to a web address unless you exit the mode. Huh?

But it does display this site correctly. I love it.

Related posts:

1. The Definitive Nokia N97 Bug List
2. The N97 + 5800XM + E75 Keyboard Shootout
3. Beware of the Fake Nokia N97

This post isn’t about the event. It’s just some random musings by me to pass the time.

(this was written before, but only posted now because my 5800 couldn’t copy and paste into a dialog box)

I’ve now learned why i never post using my 5800 XpressMusic. It is extremely annoying. Also, for those who were wondering, Wordpress does NOT play well with the S60 browser. Since the aforementioned phone browser wouldn’t let me edit my sentences while attempting to write this post, i had to write using this notes app. I also found out the hard way that typing on the onscreen keyboard while having headphones on is basically impossible.

But onto other, more interesting topics: the N97. If you haven’t been paying attention, the phone is currently on sale at nokiausa.com for only 535.19 + tax. You also get an extended warranty and free overnight shipping. This isn’t a special sale or anything though – Nokia’s site is just buggy as hell. Either way, it looks like tomorrow i’ll be a new N97 owner. Or an angry non-owner if my order gets cancelled.

Update: my order shipped.

Related posts:

1. Stay Tuned, We’ll Be Right Back
2. What the Hell Happened? (Wordpress Migration)

Get the N97 + Extended Warranty + Overnight Shipping for $535.19 and Tax

While this deal is nowhere near as hot as the previous mega-hot N97 deal, it’s also currently the best price for this phone. The * refers to the price you’ll get BEFORE taxes (regardless of whether Nokia has a presence in your state…how scammy), so tack on your state taxes. For me, the total ended up being $583.34 thanks to 7% NJ tax. Hm…

The Deal

1. Go to the NokiaUSA web site.
2. Either use the giant N97 banner, or click on the small green Buy Now button underneath.
3. Choose a color and click Add to Cart.
4. Check off the “Extended Warranty for $19.99″ box.
5. Click “Continue With Accessories”.
6. Accept the terms and conditions (check the box) and click “Add extended warranty”
7. At the shopping cart, enter the promotional code NOKIATHEATRE and click Submit.
8. Click the Checkout button.
9. Enter your information, and make sure you select Overnight Shipping – $14.99. This will activate the free shipping code.

When all’s said and done, you’ll get the Nokia N97 with a 1-year extended warranty and overnight shipping for $535.19 + (whatever your sales tax is on the total). Since it’s actually in stock, you should receive it in a day or two, depending on when you place your order. Remember – Amazon and Dell will not start shipping the N97 until late June (June 25 for Amazon), so if you want it now, this is the fastest and cheapest way to get it.

Related posts:

1. Deals: The cheap new Nokia cell phone post.
2. Deal: Nokia 1680 + $25 Refill Card For $22.49
3. When Is the N97 Coming Out?

Here’s some points you might want to consider when trying to decide whether to take the plunge and drop that $700 bucks – or simply wait for something better.

+ The QWERTY keyboard: Well, I’ve been wanting an “actual” QWERTY for as long as I can remember. Touch-screen display keyboards just don’t cut it for typing stuff out. For me, this is a major point in the N97’s favor. Although I have to admit – I’m a little spooked by All About Symbian’s comment that the keyboard is “fine for short text messages, but writing anything longer would drive me crazy.”

+ Build Quality: While I haven’t had the chance to actually verify these claims, others’ first impressions point to the N97 being superbly well-made. The touch-screen, metallic hinge, and the casing are high-quality stuff.

+ Nokia’s next high-end touch-screen phone: While early rumors suggest that it may have a capacitive screen, instead of a resistive one – it’s not coming for awhile. Nokia just doesn’t move that fast – after all, it took over 7 months just for the N97 to start shipping. In other words, don’t bother waiting.

+ Faster Processor: The N97 sports a 434 mhz ARM 11 processor, which should result in a nice performance improvement over the 5800 XpressMusic.

+/- The OS: Symbian S60 Fifth Edition is not the most user-friendly operating system I’ve used on a phone – many of the touch functions seem tacked on. Buying the N97 will not solve this. On the other hand, the interface is familiar to any previous users of the S60 platform. Personally, I still prefer Symbian over Windows Mobile 6.1 – but that could change once the next version of the OS goes live.

- The Price, and the Competition: $700 for a Nokia phone is a tough one, even for someone who runs a site called The Nokia Phone Blog. And there’s a ton of new phones coming out, led by the ubiquitous Apple iPhone. But let’s see how the prices compare (prices are mostly rough estimates):

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic: ~$220-$250 with current deals
HTC Touch Pro2: expected to retail for ~$880
HTC Touch Diamond2: expected to retail for ~$725
Apple iPhone 3G S: $499-$699, depending on storage.
Sony Ericsson Satio: estimated $800+, very little pricing information available
Samsung Omnia HD: ~$850
Sony Ericsson Xperia X1: ~$500.

- The Ovi Store: still in its early days of infancy, the app store is pretty limited right now. There just isn’t a lot of content, and I still can’t figure out how to tell whether an application is Symbian or Java. Ad there’s some really lousy stuff on there.

- The 5800 XpressMusic: I have a 5800 XpressMusic, and the move to the N97 seems to add only incremental changes like more internal memory (which I definitely do not need – I prefer microSD cards instead), a better camera (not an issue for me, since I now use a Canon ultracompact for taking most pictures), bigger screen (.3 inches diagonal, nice but not a deal breaker), and slightly longer battery life (9.5 hours vs 8.75 hours – not necessarily negligible, since battery life is one of the most important facets of owning a feature-packed phone). The main exception is the keyboard, which beats the pants off of any on-screen one. The real question here: are the changes worth the ~$450 price difference between the two phones? Right now I’d have to say no.

- Not Enough RAM: Believe it or not, the N97 only has 128 MB of RAM. Speaks for itself, I think.

- No Stylus: The N97 does not have an onboard stylus (attached to the phone). The North American version does come with one packed in the box, while the UK version does not. A minor point, but for those who prefer to use the handwriting recognition instead of the keyboard, this may be important.

Related posts:

1. When Is the N97 Coming Out?
2. Damn. Damn. Damn.
3. Nokia N97 Preorder Up At Amazon: $603.99