N97 V2.0 is out, do you have it?

So the N97 got the big firmware update that was being discussed as the savior of the N97’s woes. But, you can’t get it to install on your phone. You tried everything and are absolutely frustrated and are thinking of visiting the Nokia Care Center to get that update.

That’s exactly what I had going with me until last night, when I thought of doing a little bit of cleaning and some brainstorming on my own. What I describe below should allow you to get that update on your N97 without having to visit the Care Center. The update is still not available on FOTA (Firmware Over The Air) in case you are thinking of firing the OTA feature.

1. Download the latest Nokia PC Suite from the Nokia website (here) and install it. This will bring your Nokia PC Suite to the latest version V7.1.30.9
2. After the above, download the installer file for Nokia Software Updater – NSU and install it (I know this is not the latest version but the NSU will get updated without a hitch with this method). Once you start the installation, make sure you are connected to the internet, The NSU will search for an update for itself and will automatically download the latest version (this is where the internet connection is needed) and it will not hang up or a give a ‘Internet Connection Lost’ error. Download it from here.
3. Restart your PC now.
4. Once your computer is rebooted, start Nokia PC Suite and take a backup of your contact and whatever necessary onto your PC.
5. This step is optional, but I would recommend you to go ahead with it. Do a hard reset of your phone. you need to type this code (in bold) in the dialer – *#7370# This will clean the phone of anything that could potentially cause an error and give you an incomplete experience.
6. With the phone now being ‘clean’ of any data, fire away NSU. The update should now work without a hitch and without giving any errors, provided you have a stable internet connection and electricity supply.

Now once your phone is updated, you will actually get a feel of how amazing the V20 firmware is. After playing with it in this form will you actually know how much better the N97 suddenly feels. I found the touchscreen to be much more sensitive and easier to use and the scrolling changes have made life with the N97 an absolute blessing.

The system feels much more responsive. I formatted my Micro SD card also just to be on the safe side before I restored the data I had backed up earlier.  After following these steps you will find the difference in your N97. Now you can reinstall the apps which you lost or are not working due to the formatting done earlier. This is a slightly more complicated way, but will ensure that your N97 works just as good as a brand new N97 with v20.0.019

N97 is in da house!

Yesterday I got a lovely gift from Nokia India and Bloggers’ Mind on my birthday. The lovely people from Bloggers’ Mind sent me an awesome black N97. A fellow blogger call it the Darth Vader among Storm-trooper versions! (d3x… this is you!)

So without wasting any time let me give you the unboxing of the N97. I will be posting in detail about the N97 in the days to come and also the E75. So stay tuned!!! It’s going to get real busy here.

First impressions on the N97 coming later in the day! Till yesterday I’ve been playing with it like a little boy who got his favorite toy on his birthday! This is also my first touch phone so I am going to be critical of it. Expect a huge mountain load of stuff on this phone.

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N97 Blogger Meet up

In my last post I had asked you to send me your questions regarding the N97 so I could put them across to Axel Meyer and get a response from him.

I wasn’t able to make it to the Bangalore leg of the event, but I did manage to go to the Delhi leg which took place on the 10th of June. Before I get into it, let me firstly place on record my thanks to the people at Bloggers’ Mind – Prerna Bhagra, Songita B. Verma and last but not least Andrew Clarance. If it were not for them, this would not have been possible. I would also like to thank the people at Nokia who worked in conjunction with them to make this possible (I don’t know if I can mention the names, let me know if I can!) and also Thrifty for their cab service and of course Trident, Gurgaon.

Secondly, A big congratulations to Nokia – India for starting off something like this. I sincerely wish you all the best in this endeavor, this is a step in the right direction. I wish I am able to be a part of such events in the future as well.

Now going back to the event. The event began with a presentation by Axel Meyer on how the N97 came to be. FYI, the conceptualization of this device began way back in 2006. So for all we know a N99 and a N98 are already in the works. Axel Meyer talked about what made the N97 what it is today.

In that duration Vaibhav (of The Symbian Blog fame) and me got a chance to check out the N97 – black. We got to play a lot with it, and in the process got a lot of snaps. For more info on what Axel talked about, I suggest you head on over to Symbian-Life Blog where you will find in a lot of detail what Axel spoke of. You will find a lot of info on the basis of the design and what makes the N97 different.

Now moving onto the phone, the N97 is snappy, it’s fast and by no means clumsy. It is not at all that big, It only appears so in the pictures. The slider action which people were worrying about, well let me tell you that it’s absolutely crisp, the sound is reassuring… In fact Axel even challenged us to find him a better slider than the N97. The interface is definitely better on the N97, looks like they learnt from the 5800 very quickly. The camera functions pretty well and the dual LED setup here is better than on previous Nseries phones. The camera application starts almost instantaneously on the N97. Overall I found nothing wrong in the build, working or any other part of the phone. The keypad which is different from a regular QWERTY requires getting used to. Nothing too difficult in mastering the design.

Moving onto the colour, Axel had in his hand the white N97, but if you ask me, the black is every bit the show stopper. Imagine watching a movie and seeing white colour on the outside? It will distract you. Black completely makes the N97 ‘regal’.

There was a Q&A round as well where people got to ask questions to Axel about the device, questions that covered the N-Gage and gaming aspect, hardware aspect, colours, competitors and mistakes learnt from past devices. Axel was very involved in answering our questions. Even though he looked tired, his voice and eyes conveyed a lot of passion and excitement for the new device.

So if you are planning a purchase of this device, I suggest you buy it. I am definitely looking at the black coloured N97 as my next acquisition. So don’t waste time pre-order your N97 today!

Here is a gallery of N97 images for you to drool over…

View Full Album

And a bonus treat is a picture clicked from the N97 itself.

MWC 2009: What went down there (part-4)

Not to be left behind Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson have launched their own devices running S60. Wait did I mention Sony Ericsson? Well yes, I did, that’s because Sony Ericsson has outed the biggest baddie of all, the ‘Idou’.

Let’s get to that first.

The ‘Idou’ is reported to be running Symbian Foundation’s S60 V5 iteration on a 3.5″ screen with a 16:9 ratio (ala N97). Sony Ericsson has said that this is not the commercial name and a proper name for it will be revealed by this summer.

Now this baddie from Sony Ericsson is reported to have a 12 Megapixel camera! yes you read it right. I wonder how Nokia and the others are going to compete with this bad ass of a device.

For more info on the ‘Idou’ you can visit, http://www.sonyericsson.com/idou/

Samsung launched an updated version of the Omnia, the Omnia HD. The Omnia HD will be running the S60 OS instead of Windows Mobile. The Omnia HD will have a touch interface (S60 5th Edition) with a 3.7″ AM-OLED display. It boasts an 8 Megapixel Camera that can capture 720p HD video recording.

Samsung had this to say about the Omnia HD,

The HD video recording feature enables you to capture precious moments in HD (720p) quality, enjoy HD content on HD TV via DLNA technology and share real-time live video as users shoot it via qik.com. The 16: 9 screen of QHD display with 16M colour and dual stereo speaker reveal a whole new world of mobile multimedia experiences on the move, enabling users to enjoy SD (Standard Definition)/HD (High Definition) videos in cinema-scale quality with caption. Brilliant Convergence Allied to the industry-leading 8MP camera which allows you take digital camera-quality photographs on your phone, the Samsung Omnia HD ensures you capture the best possible photographs of your friends and family.

The Specs for the Omnia HD are given below:

(The Specs is courtesy ZomgitsCj.)

• - 8 Megapixel CMOS + CIF, Auto-Focus / Power LED Flash / Face Detection/Smile Shot / Blink Shot / Panorama Shot Video : DivX / XviD / H.263 / H.264 / WMV / MPEG4, RV 24fps@HD(1280 x 720p)
• - Video recording DLNA & HD TV out (DLNA dongle needed) Video Editing: Trim video / Audio dubbing / Live dubbing / Add subtitle / Image capture
• - Audio : FM Radio with RDS MP3/ AAC / AAC+ / eAAC+ / WMA / RA Dual Stereo Speaker & DNSe 2.0
• - Other sensors: Proximity, Light Sensor, Compass, Accelerometer
• - Size : 123 x 58 x 12.9
• - Battery : 1500 mAh
• - HSUPA 5.76Mbps and HSDPA 7.2Mbps
• - 3.7″ AMOLED, 360 by 640 pixels Auto-Rotating Display
• - GPS with integrated compass “makes this suitable for both pedestrians and drivers, and the navigation touch control and voice guidance via dual stereo speaker provide drivers with easy and safe navigation.”
• - Available in 8GB and 16GB internal capacity options), plus microSD expansion
• - Intuitive “3D interface”
• - “Samsung Mobile Widget delivers up-to-date information of your choice with just one touch, creating a personalized interface with which to access the infinite wealth of web content.”

Eldar (of Mobile-Review fame) has already [p]reviewed the device. You can read the review here.

LG on the other hand quietly launched the KT770. the LG KT770 is a regular slider, with a 2.8″ WVGA (400×240 pixels) resolution display. This device runs S60 3rd Edition with FP2 and is reported to sport a 5 megapixel camera and also a inbuilt GPS receiver. The KT770 is little thick compared to the newer S60 devices outed by the other firms, it measures in at 111mm x 51.5mm x 15.8mm (4.4in x 2in x .6in).

The internal memory is expected to be either 1GB or 2GB, with a microSD card slot to expand it to 16GB. The KT770 comes with Bluetooth, WiFi. There is Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) support and dual-band 3G (900/2100MHz or 850/2100MHz) is also there board, for high-speed data connections.

MWC 2009: What went down there (part-3)

The Ovi Store was next. It was already known a few days prior to the start of MWC 2009, that Nokia was going to launch its own application store. Yesterday it was finally launched under the Ovi umbrella.

The Ovi Store will be location aware and will be launched this May in about 8 countries and will support close to 50 million devices, which includes existing S40 and S60 customers. The revenue split will be 70% to developers. In addtion, the developer’s site publish.ovi.com was announced. The store will be able to “learn” your tastes over time and anticipate what you want, and make recommendations based on your geographical location. The store will offer a range of content including applications, games, videos, widgets, podcasts, location-based applications and personalised content.

The biggest bit of news was reserved for the Nseries line up. Nokia leaked the photos of its next  Nseries device, the Nokia N86. A 8 Megapixel (with Dual LED flash) baddie which is set to grace Nokia’s nseries lineup soon.

This dual slider will be running S60 V5 and will not be a touchscreen. The screen size is reported to be 3″ (VGA resolution) 2.6″ QVGA with 16.7 million colour reproduction. The design looks like an evolution of the N85’s design. It will also have a kickstand ala N96. I don’t have further updates on the spces as of now, I guess we all will have to wait for an official announcement from Nokia.

Nokia threw these images in with the Press Kit from the Mobile World Congress 2009 concerning Nokia’s partnership with Carl Zeiss. You can download the press pdf with the image right here.

Symbian-Guru reports that these devices were showcased in Singapore before they were shown at MWC 2009. An Ovi account holder by the nickname of “gamerz.ShowcaseNokia20” has put up many photos of all the devices.