The N97 with V11 firmware, died in the mountains and came alive in the city

A lesson learned...

1st week of July came and left. Everyone who owned an N97 - myself in particular was counting down to the date of the release of the new firmware - V11 which boasts lots of new functionality including kinetic scrolling (iPhone style) which already exists in some 3rd party apps such as Gravity the twitter client.

Rumoured to be out on the 1st of July - it never came. I was constantly checking for updates on the phone itself hoping for an OTA (over-the-air) upgrade but it never was available. All hope was lost until I checked in on a Nokia Care Centre in 1 Utama... apparently they had it on the 2nd of July itself! So the next time you desperately want a software upgrade, check with Nokia Care first... AND be sure you've got an authorized set otherwise there'll be a charge :P

The V11 firmware

I've heard so much from the forums... the countless number of features and fixes... but to be honest, I'm a little disappointed.

• Backlight not syncing when locking and unlocking phone? - FIXED
• Better switching from WiFi, 3G, EDGE, GPRS in apps? - NOT PERFECT but BETTER
• Kinetic scrolling? - NOT IMPLEMENTED
  
• Faster acquisition of GPS coordinates - FIXED
• Nokia Maps facelift - NOT NOTICEABLE
• Auto detection of empty SMS prior to sending - NOT IMPLEMENTED
• Multitouch support? - NOT IMPLEMENTED
• Use of gestures to control apps - NOT IMPLEMENTED

So was it worth the wait and upgrade?

Yes and No. Yes, the firmware does seem lots more stable. No, apart from the backlight sync with phone's software lock (which honestly is a GREAT deal) there isn't anything else to shout about.

And then it happened...

So after the firmware upgrade, the weekend came and my parents planned up an impromptu getaway in Fraser's Hills to celebrate my birthday a week in advance.

I was happily snapping pictures with the N97 - the quality is truly amazing. Thanks to the firmware, things seem more solid and snappier...

One of my dogs called Puffy had a bad hair day...

One got so bored that she decided to show her bum to the entire world...

I couldn't care less and kept on snapping...

After uploading the pics to Twitter using Gravity... the phone hung, crashed and decided NEVER to go pass the "NOKIA" welcome screen - no matter what I did...

I returned to KL, sent it to a Nokia Centre (where it originally got it's upgrade) - got it reflashed and within an hour - it's BACK! ALIVE and KICKING!

So I went snapping happily again... until I saw this VERY disturbing scene of a BMW being mutilated... bonnet scratched, emblem forcefully peeled off - even the holder was damaged in some way... whoever did this must really hate the owner...

Be nice when on the road :)