New Firmware Update for N900 will get pouring of Maemo 5 PR1.2 awesome sauce: New Keyboard, real back button, faster web browsing and so much more!

This is the biggest firmware update to date in terms of new features, and it brings a lot of the ones I’ve been hoping for since the very beginning (there’s still more I’d like to see, e.g. standard portrait in many more views, like music player. There is a chance they might not have yet been discovered) There are more changes from the thread by talk.maemo.org’s MohammadAG.

This firmware seems to bring many changes to the browser, as you’ll read below. Gradual polishing is extremely welcome, especially when it’s not just in features but in general usability,

“Browser seems much much snappier, scrolling is quick and rendering is uber quick!”

N900’s browser is already super snappy. I welcome this even snapier, faster rendering.

Actual Release date of firmware: Unconfirmed. Possibly very soon…under a month, within a few weeks I’m hoping/guessing.

1. Back button is now a back button!

I’ve ranted about this many times. When I press back, I just want to go to the previous page. I don’t want to see my browsing history. The gesture slide already covers that, why the redundancy? Now its fixed. And the layout is different too!

The status bar looks all different in this screenshot. It’s just the clock :S . I like seeing battery life and connection info. (status bar still visible in other screenshots)

2. Video Calling, with ability to display SMS option only for mobile numbers (though in UK we can send SMS to landline. It gets converted into speech)

3. App order can now be rearranged in Menu. There seems to be a back button although I don’t know if that persists in menu view (helps out the people who can’t figure out how to go back by pressing empty space – even though the latter is so much more intuitive)

4. File manager gets SHARE options

5. Keyboard has been rearranged.

More space to see what you’re typing, though I don’t understand why it’s wasting those precious pixels just to show the thing behind.

Where’s delete? Less space for the keys themselves. We’ll have to see what this feels like on the device for any real opinions.

6. Autorotate browser is now a standard function which you can enable/disable in settings (instead of being an easter egg Ctrl+Shift+o)

7. Volume buttons can now be reserved for VOLUME at all times when in browser.

When in browser, the volume buttons can be used to zoom the screen. But that means when playing audio, you can’t change volume on the fly.

Now you can. I’m already used to circular zooming for gradual zooming of pages.

8. Media player audio bars has turned into a play button so you can pause/play in all aspects of the  player.

I hope in the next firmware this button becomes quickly available in all views. e.g. in browser – a little hovering bar of media controls to pause/play/skip

tracks, initiated by a gesture.

Via MohammadAG

Tags: Firmware Update, Maemo, Maemo 5, Nokia, Nokia N900, Nseries

Category: Maemo, Nokia, Nseries