Comments on: N97 firmware update coming July 1st

By: Lol

Lol — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:21:59 +0000

you should get nokia to come measure the height of (wherever you put your nokia phone) so it will face EXACTLY to your FACE when you type, as well as customizing a keyboard SPEcifically to your specification… while you’re at it, why dont you just have the world evolve around u. wouldnt that be nice.

its not a design / ui fault, this is called… PREFERENCE. and congratulations for leaving the lames feedback which one one even bother to respond to you…cept me coz i have never come across such ignorant mentality hence me finding ur feedback rather amusing.

By: Smurphster

Smurphster — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:00:18 +0000

@Andy
Not sure what phone you are using, but having owned it for one day i can say for certain… a full stop is definately a single key press! A comma is shift-. Unless this phone is diferent in the states or something (i am uk side).

@Russ
Put the contacts key on your shortcut widget, when you tap it hit the search box, a quick keyboard appears – hit one letter from your contacts name, any letter, it does an entire word search same as n95 – select the contact and hit the green button. It really does not take that long!

By: Lord Dextro

Lord Dextro — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:12:20 +0000

You did know that you can set up 1-touch dialing right? Hit the keypad then select options.

By: Jack

Jack — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:06:11 +0000

IMHO, what Nokia should have done is to do away with the navi pad and add more keys or even a 2nd space bar on the left. It would have made the keyboard even more functional.

However, on the other hand, I wonder if the navi pad is a requirement for n-gage?

By: jbowden

jbowden — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:23:58 +0000

I have two words to those that do not own the N97 – Shut up!

There is NO issues with placement of the spacebar.

By: Russ

Russ — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:35:00 +0000

Had this for a week now and for the most part really like it. I can’t believe that no one has mentioned the lack of smart dialing. Making a call is like a 6 step process, options, contacts, scroll through every contact to find the one you want, select it, select the right number and then you even have to select voice/video call…

SUCH A PAIN!

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:47:44 +0000

Surely there are far bigger issues than the spacebar such as the widgets which keep crashing and some usability issues such as a lack of shortcuts and the awful number input on the keyboard. Add to that the fact that it takes 2 keypresses to get a full stop or a comma and i think it is evident that almost all problems can be siolved with a firmware tweak. As for the spacebar – i have no problem with it at all.

By: onejap

onejap — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:18:55 +0000

agree with many of the posters. i don’t have any issues with the spacebar. in fact, i like it. position is better than on the centered spacebar on the e90.

data tethering also came in handy when my data port at work died for two days. our floor doesn’t have wireless. don’t think i would have been able to do that with an iPhone.

By: Barney "Sylvester" Frank

Barney "Sylvester" Frank — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:29:18 +0000

Yeah, I’ve often wondered that too. What the hell is the difference between the data plan and “smartphone” data plan? I asked some guy at a store one time if the PDA plan was faster and gave me precedence over a regular data plan user in terms of connecting to the towers if they’re jammed up and he said yes, but sounded like he was talking out of his ass since he didn’t say anything else. I’d like to know if that’s really true, cause if I can run 200+ KB/sec faster on a consistent basis then I might switch over to the PDA plan.

By: MK75

MK75 — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:28:23 +0000

@ alvin, thank’s, for the confirmation, coz when i asked them, they said that all smartphone must be with $30 plan, $15 is only for phone with web capabilities but not consider PDA/smartphone. so they lied,figured.

By: Alvin

Alvin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:47:54 +0000

Yea dude, am on AT&T and i have the n97 for two weeks. Works on the $15 monthly data plan. Am actually killing this thing using the data plan. lol . Am loving this phone. A very well balanced for multitasking , the camera is right up there with the best and the best of both worlds, touch and physicall qwerty. You cant go wrong!

By: MK75

MK75 — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:41:27 +0000

I love the look of this phone and planning to buy it, I’m with At&T, can anybody tell me if this phone works with $15/month data plan? what is the different with $ 30 plan? thank’s

By: JakeyBoy

JakeyBoy — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:00:52 +0000

how long before a hardware update?

By: Riddy

Riddy — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:40:49 +0000

im a n97 owner as well. it’s a little disappointing phone but about the keyboard. i like it a lot this whole space bar placement is being blown out of proportion. i got use to right when i started typing. its not that hard. so unless you own one stop crying about it or believing what others have to say about it.

By: Ankit

Ankit — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:49:37 +0000

No matter how much we N97 users brag, cry and what not and try to get it straight to BGR that the keyboard and the phone is not as bad as they made it sound like. But, the fact remains they won’t make a post on BoyGeniusReport.com to officially apologize to Nokia or Us owners. They are critiques thats what they do, hopefully Nokia will make a lot better device next time and than we and Nokia can officially thank BoyGeniusReport.
IT is just hard to believe that the whole crew at BGR despites the Nokia freakin N97. I can see some conflicts like Engadget Mobile.

By: Rafael

Rafael — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:39:40 +0000

Just about anyone who hasn’t used the N97 is wondering about the space bar location on the keypad, so let me give my two cents as an actual owner. First of all, BGR definitely doesn’t like Nokia; it is very evident in their articles tone. Seems like they aren’t power users at all, so they like to be spoon fed by Mama Apple, LOL. Anyway back to my point: the keypad is awesome. The new location may be different, but boy does it seem a lot easier to use than you think. But alas, I Understand that the full keyboard layout in the N97 will not work for everyone, but is definitely not because of the space bar location. My suggestion, try it for yourself. Besides, not everyone wants an N97, so don’t waste your time knocking something you don’t like by being objective and biased.

By: saaqhib

saaqhib — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:57:22 +0000

its very rockin …luks l;ike communicator but actually its not…now its time to get on the floor with dis…lets rock now…!!!

By: Barney "Sylvester" Frank

Barney "Sylvester" Frank — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:02:31 +0000

Typical of any N97 post so far on this website. Start with one topic (the software update) and throw in a comment about the phone (the spacebar) and all hell breaks loose yet again. Jesus, look at the phone, and go watch the youtube videos where the designer talks about the phone, and you’ll start to understand why it was put there. The phone simply isn’t wide enough to accommodate a fourth row where you could place the spacebar in a normal setup. And even if they kept the current 3 row and put the spacebar in the middle, there would still be complaints from people about certain letters not being where they would be on a normal keyboard due to the spacebar being in the middle. Maybe you should all go complain about HTC’s new QWERTY for Sprint that has its spacebar off center too.

I really hope that Nokia has an update ready for the NAM people as well. Surely if they can launch a phone at around the same time globally, then they can have a firmware update ready for every market. I wanna know what this fixes since I’ll finally have mine this week.

By: Robb

Robb — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:13:18 +0000

I think Nokia is not hitting the nail (Marketing wise)as apple does.
They should spend some money buying (keeping happy) these self acclaimed internet critics like apple does.
It is becoming a big factor in consumer’s decision making, see what hypes these blogs created by naming iphone the Jesus phone.

By: ddjozone

ddjozone — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:33:23 +0000

Its obvious the personal issues BG has against the N97, never seen such a biased review, followed by a bunch of misleading info… Get over it already! I have the n97 is typing on it is great!

By: Rich1970

Rich1970 — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:02:43 +0000

Gotta say, the keyboard is pretty good!

The space bar is very easy to hit, esp when 2 thumbed typing, your right thumb can easily move over to hit space with minimal effort.

I’m guessing the reviewer could only use the phone for a day or so and since it isn’t an iPhone, only spent half and hour with it.

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:06:38 +0000

Yup, when old nerds collide.
I do lolcatz iz that what the kids say? – at the complaints voiced here.
My pseudo hobby these days is composite construction.
Surf, skate, skim and kite.
Naturally, I’m broke (hobby + real estate = yeah, I’m back to looking for another big boy job) and nursing a hacked WinMo as well. Love XDA.
But – and this will surely set someone off – love the whole Celio Redfly thing. Especially with the specs on the phones coming out now.
I’m trying to talk them into allowing me enough info to figure out if a tweak for a C8N can be set up so the video in may be used while the keyboard connects HID Bluetoof.
Not sure at all what it would take to do that on that device but figuring it out would keep me off of here for a while.

By: Robb

Robb — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:06:07 +0000

I don’t know how people are scrapping away this device without even touching one.
I have been using it from last 6 days, and so far loving it.
I am left-handed and the dpad works perfect for me. No issue at all with the space bar and the UI is very snappy (running min. 5 applications at a time).
The only issue is with the slide keylock button (unlocks after third try) which hopefully will be fixed in next firmware update.
I remember people scrapping N95 when it came out and now the same saying it is a classic smartphone.
Yeah N97 will become likeable when it will be $200 plus two year contract, right haters!

By: Dee

Dee — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:58:38 +0000

I took one glance at this pic and thought it was an iphone with keyboard

By: HillBill

HillBill — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:50:14 +0000

The space bar is where it should be in the first place.

By: Scrofula

Scrofula — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:53:26 +0000

Ahh yes, nothing like a “mine is older, wiser and bigger” sword fight in here.

Hey, electronics is just a hobby for me these days, mostly restricting my efforts to tube amp circuits. Fortran was on sun unix machines, so you got me there. My first basic classes were on big tty consoles conected by the same sort of modems to the school system’s real computer (no school could have it’s own computer, just a room with big terminals). Saving your work was punch tape.

Was mostly an RF kind of guy from radar to whatever. the spook stuff was extra fun, stuff like microphone/xmtr combos in a bic lighter (”damn, out of butane,” toss in the trash and you’ve got a 24 hour bug in someone’s office trashcan). I think my fave experience was in an offshoot of itt developing high speed fiber gear (ok, high speed at the time) and our resident boy genius digital whiz kid couldn’t figure out why his circuits were unstable and explaining to him that wirewrapping at 100mhz clock creates a lot of little antennae. An exacto to tune tanks? sure, and then using the xacto to trim a stick to fit to tweak a klystron or magnetron.

No apples hear, currently have an omnia, it still amazes me compared to the first pc that was all mine…I’m sure you relate to the ridiculous complaints from people on here when we’re talking about a few hundred dollar pocket device with hundeds of times the power, ram and storage of those devices.

So much for the old guy show!

By: KDM™

KDM™ — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:50:17 +0000

I have an N97 and I also have NO issues with the space bar placement, get over it. Use for more then 2 seconds and you’ll see its very easy to get used to.

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:16:13 +0000

Nowhere near portable? Being able to pick it up, put it in the passenger seat, take it across town doesn’t qualify?
What kind of expert are you?
Actually, not only did my mommy and daddy serve/work but so did I and my experience goes a bit beyond field fixes for cores scrof.
I worked in long haul RF, EMI/RFI, Tempest, telemetry interception, early fiber optic deployment and other interesting things.
We may be of a similar age, experience and apparent smart-ass demeanor.
And having actually sat a bench building circuits from scratch then going into the field to compete for contracts then deploy and support products kinda did make me an expert at a few things.

Oh, what machine did you take your Fortran class on?
I took my class remotely using a portable TI Telex with a rocking 300 baud modem that featured handset cups.
Also tuned microwave tank circuits with an X-acto.
Enough?
Do I get my cookie now?

Along the way I’ve realized how much more there is to know which is another way of saying that, yes, I own a broad swath of ignorance.
Did you ever pick that lesson up?
Just ask’n.
You being an expert and all.
Still a prick though.
BTW scrof, how things going for you at the Genius Bar these days? Got any new ink?

I cut my chops.
Was embarrassed last year though when I ripped an LG VZ phone apart looking for the sim chip after drinking. Now that was funny.
Somewhat back on topic.
The original points still stand though.
Nokia has a good track record of optimizing and seeing there products through whatever else may be said of the products themselves.

By: linus

linus — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:26:29 +0000

get over the space bar thing.
I’ve had winmo in the past ad I couldn’t be hapier with my n97. It’s a great smartphone just a few software updates away from perfectness.

By: Scrofula

Scrofula — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:40:14 +0000

@brian–

nowhere near “portable”

And spent plenty of years working for various beltway bandits through the 70s-90s for the defense, aviation and intelligence communities. So your daddy worked for a defense contractor…obviously it makes you an experienced expert.

Ever have to repair windings on core memory units?