Update: We just received a tweet from @NokiaIndia that Nokia N8 or Symbian^3 wont receive an update before January 2011, while this is a sure a big disappointment for the users waiting for the update to remove some of the annoyances and some better performance, we could only hope that they will make it a big update in January 2011.
But at the end… its sure a disappointment for the users who given a big sales figure to Nokia and also more worse as they still not confirm that its coming even in first two weeks. Usually “sometimes in month” been the last week of month, when it comes to Nokia.
The day coming close.. the day, when our favourite Nokia N8-00 is expected to get the first firmware update. Nothing confirmed from Nokia officials, but high hopes due to some almost confirmed rumors that new firmware will be announced with/ before next coming Nokia release of Nokia E7-00.
I am starting a countdown here for the big date and will be adding the wish-lists and rumors around it.
This will be the first firmware update after the current version that is 011.012 and there are many things that could be expected from it other than the bug fixes. Let me list of top 10 …
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Very significant improvements in browser, which will bring tabs and new way of loading pages
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Draggable four Home Screens bringing smoothness to entire navigation experience
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While Split keypad might be a few more weeks far, portrait QWERTY is sure near. Possible Multi-touch
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Nokia Situations replacing profiles and becoming a standard from here for Symbian^3
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Contacts integrated IM/ conversation like N900 or a entire new thing (less likely)
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Ovi Maps 3.06 expected to come out of Betalabs
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Camera UI reworked, touch to focus and Auto-Focus video option. Pinch to zoom focus
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Larger zoom in Camera/ Gallary (more than mere 2x) and also HDR mode like Nokia N900
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New Nokia Social with dark theme with special attention to twitter
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Much smoother Nokia Messaging along with option of non-HTML mails
Update (Thanks to waloody88):
Adding a few features more in this wish list that are sure worth expecting or wishing from Nokia N8 firmware update PR 1.1
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Nokia Music player as on Nokia N8 look too good with that very smooth cover flow, but still people seems to be missing a lot of basics here like
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There should be sorting option for getting your songs by date or recently added.
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There should be a search option that might be useful in finding your song, when you dont know the album/ movie name.
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There are a few presets available, but people seems to be missing the customizable Equalizer a lot
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What about SRS Sound premium on Nokia N8
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Though there are apps available for the same, but we want Internet Radio and Podcatcher back on Nokia N8
Please write your suggestions to add on this list. May be someone from Nokia might be listening your comments as we seen in past that they do.
Thanks to @mlymehta for the same suggestion.
Nitish Kumar's Blog 
I think you are expecting too much.
and why do I have to fill my details again and again,though I have signed up for the blog.
Yes my friend, not only me but many are expecting much from the upcoming firmware update. After all, its their flagship and they have to address as sooner as possible.
As about the details, then sorry for the same as my blog is a WordPress.com and goes through the standard way. If you are login via some wordpress.com ID yourself, then it wont ask. I could disable this, but making it automatic is kind of difficult.
Anyway, thanks for joining mate. Hope you liking the stay.
dude i have an n8 ive heard of the recent update (PR 1.1) but i wanted to know that if i update my phone what will be deleted.because i have installed lots of paid apps,games.and also wanted to know that will the licenses we have will also get deleated, because nokia n8 comes with a unlimited music license
Hello. I’d just like to know if Nokia N8 can update firmware over the air just like S60v5 phones and if it has user data preservation, nothing will be deleted after firmware update. Thanks.
Yup! OTA is available for Nokia N8. All Data is supposed to be intact as was in case of S60 devices earlier
please
suggest 2 nokia
its important 2 have (Srs sound premium) processing in the music player.
thnx
Oh mate! Such tech is not available for mobiles yet. They already came up with Dolby in Nokia N8 that is lots better than SRS itself
no! Samsung Galaxy s has SRS sound, supports the music player and its awsome,
Dolby digital only support HDMI video. not the music player.
Got your point mate
so can u suggest SRS to be included.
also:
i have suggestions
2- music player sorting music eg, by date
3- search in music player
4- editable equalizer
5- video shooting at 30fps
6- internet radio
7- we want adobe, n office 2 support full screen view
The only things that I want out of this update are 30fps video, editable EQ in music player, and RAW shooting for still pictures. But mostly the EQ in music player.
hi,
I wud like to know that does nokia n8 requires a screen guard & one more thing i did a
“delete data and restore” from factory settings so i lost my preloaded contents & widgets, but somehow i managed to get them back; my only doubt is that by doing so have i lost the QT installed in it?
Richs,
I will say it does need though technically, Gorilla Glass are tougher and scratch resistant, but still they are not god and can’t help you from scratches completely.
Nokia N8 ships with one scratch guard screen on it already that gets scratches for sure, which would not been the case with naked screen that is Gorilla glass. Its over choice of you, I would say.. its definitely tougher than all Nokia you seen till date.
As about Qt thing, then sadly it is the case. I fear you have to wait for the upcoming firmware to fix it completely.
okay, so its not wise to do a reflash at nokia care,
bcoz as you say i’ll get it back by the updates
Thanks.
Can you tell me more about these “almost confirmed rumours”, because Nokia have claimed that the first N8 firmware update will be in Q1 of 2011.
Alexis,
The firmware update that Nokia mentioned is the major one that is bringing many visual and noticeable improvement/ changes, while the one that has to released before is the one, which will bring stability, battery life improvement and bug fixes etc.
A lot of hopes from the minor one as this will set the directions. Moreover, the major one about which Nokia talked, still under pressure to be delivered as soon as possible
But how do you know that Nokia intend to release a preliminary firmware, and not just go straight to the big one. Also, i am very excited to hear of any kind of battery improvement, because my battery is crap!! If i charge over night and then use for maybe 1 and a half hours on 3g internet, by the time its about 6pm battery has already lost a bar. Then from there, the rest of the battery bars follow pretty quick. Do you experience the same poor battery performance?
I guess I could sure suggest some resolutions for battery worries as I was bit by the very same bug in start.
1. Do a cold battery recharge.
Means let it drain fully and then put it in charge for straight 12 hours (not any less) and let it continued even if it shows as fully charged and asks you to remove the charger.
2. Ambient sensor is too cosy
Nokia N8 auto controls the brightness on your screen that drains the battery. I found out that in my office and at my home, there was too bright environment and light was direct on Nokia N8 screen when I was using it. Which was meant to ask ambient sensor to make N8 screen more brighter means more battery drain. I found out that putting light sensor OFF was a better decision. Affected the battery life much for me.
3. If not required, then delete extra home screens
For most of the people, three home screens were not needed and were draining out precious battery even if we are not making much use of it. Using two home screens rather than three works well.
4. Gravity came out to me biggest culprit
After one month of usages, I found out that if I am setting Nokia Messaging on soonest option, then it was not draining my battery as much as Gravity running to poll twitter, facebook, foursquare and Google reader specially does. Putting Gravity to poll lesser and removing Google reader account or putting that at longer interval worked for me.
5. Fluctuating signals
This been always the main culprit about the battery. My home side connection wasn’t that strong and been reason of getting bars down overnight.
6. Do not use 3G when not required
Common tip.
Now as about Nokia N8 update then the same news started getting confirmed from various sources now and the date might be different, but there is sure a performance update on the way. The big update then talked about in conference is still under testing phase and the changes they gonna push will cover many of the devices even beyond Symbian^3 circle, so that will sure take time and they really dont want to make their N8 users waiting that much long.
Hi Nitish,
Hw do i put off the light sensor.. by OFF do you mean setting the bar to the minimum level or is there any other setting available
Try this if you really want that high illuminated screen
http://mynokiablog.com/2010/12/19/how-to-set-nokia-n8-to-full-brightness-and-override-the-light-sensor/
PR1.1 for Nokia N8 will bring nice speed improvements, better battery life, stability, some native apps improvements (Email, Photos, etc…)
most of your list wish is for pr2.0.
Well might be the case that I am pushing a little more, but most of things mentioned could be a real possibility except the portrait qwerty and also Camera UI part as we haven’t received any update from @phonedaz
Hi,
Nokia IM chat app & widget was lost after factory resetting,
I’ve also reinstalled the device software through ovi suite but still the chat app & widget is missin from the application menu.
have any one of you faced such issue, plz help me out in gettin it back,
Nokia IM was not here in any retail release thats normal.
So are you saying that the portrait swype will not be in the next update?
Unfortunately yes. Portrait QWERTY not coming, at least in PR1.1
hi finaly when the firmware pr 1.1 will be released?tommorow 19 december??
So when do you think portrait qwerty will be available for Nokia N8. I mean portrait qwerty in swype is already available for other earlier nokia phones. So why is the version of swype for N8 missing the portrait!!!! Really fucking pisses me off, you know!!!
If they are merging PR2.0 with PR1.1, then it must be somewhere in end of feb or March otherwise that is most probable, January second week.
As about portrait version of swype on others, then we don’t have one on capacitive in Nokia. Many things might be luring, but when you are developing a product then making the experience right is a tough task and when Nokia made decision of making 16:9 display, which was great for gaming and movie watching, they had to compromise the portrait qwerty as the width will be smaller now.
Portrait qwerty will be here, but they have to think of many designs to make it just right
why cant someone just design a third party app for portrait qwerty, not swype, just qwerty! Surely its not that hard. I have found some on the internet but they are shit!! and also they are for other languages! if i could make one i would.
new gravity
Could you try to figure out the specific date? Mybe you have an insider or we can share the information? I’ve got big contacts inside. And please, I am not spam, check out my website if you don’t believe me.
I am trying my best mate. You also please post me on contactfornitish@gmail.com if you find something
I just want the update to ix my N8 phone so it does not freeze and go and off and on when it feels like it. Is that too much to ask of a $A600 phone????
Well that depends on what applications, you are using. Using S60 V5, S^1 or Beta apps are bound to create issues time to time. I rarely went through situations like Restart at least with Nokia N8 even when I am heavy user.
Battery life been an issue but later on I figured out that what I was doing wrong with it and now its lasting for whole day easily.
Sometimes a faulty cellular or network signal causes this. It’s not limited to N8. It happens on my old 6500c and it also happens on my earlier SonyEricsson phones. So I guess this must be some universal failsafe for cellular phones from locking up.
You need not worry about this. This is normal when network connectivity starts acting crazy. It happens on all phone models of any brand and it even does the same thing on PCs as well.
I am a novice on all this and just purchased the N8 because it looked good. I have not added anything i just use/have what it came with. There has been notes on the www that Nokia have acknowledged that some phones have this problem. I am out of country of purchase and there is nothing that the Nokia repair centers will do for me. I have to go back to country of purchase to get this fixed or the phone replaced. This is the biggest mobile company in the world and they do not have a ww service. I ask them to explain that.
I am not sure but I guess Nokia could help you on this. Send a tweet to @NokiaIndia they will sure help you out in the same regards or the country you are in.
Hi,
I commend this site to you for informtion on my issue.
http://discussions.nokia.com.au/t5/Nseries-and-S60-Smartphones/N8-freezing-auto-restarting-happens-for-C7-C6-E7-Symbian-3-or/td-p/795008/page/3
I checked the same long back and judging through most of the forum reporting the same, I find that many a time same people posting their issues again and again. While in Indian regions I rarely found anyone facing such issues.
But still, I wont deny that there might not be any such issue. Sure, there might be and Nokia tried their best to resolve the same on priority. As I suggested, get connected to the Nokia of your country, they will sure resolve it on priority.
And I assure you, Nokia wont skip the issue by provide some Ad-Hoc measure like some Bumpers. If any issues in your device, then you will get a brand new, non-problematic device.
Here are some minor bugs I’ve found while using my N8:
Pressing “Exit” on the Main Menu screen doesn’t unload it from memory but pressing “Options > Exit” does. So far this is the only thing that behaves this way.
Quickoffice file browser garbles the screen when you scroll up or down. It miraculously worked fine now but I don’t know what caused this for the first 2 weeks I owned the phone. Perhaps a theme or some other thing cause this but I tried using all the themes I had and this didn’t seem to cause the bug mentioned. So I guess it’s still under observation.
Large mp3s can’t be copied via Ovi Suite. Large being 100mb. Manually copying them to the phone works.
And why do we keep getting this dialog when copying video files to N8 that the file can only be “transported” when in fact it plays just fine!
Thanks for updating Chad.
Gapless playback would be nice too. 🙂
Not sure what might be causing this for you, but for me the playback came out to be best of all devices I would have used so far. I am able to even forward HDRips/ BDRip smoothly, that wasn’t possible even on computers.
Must be some issue with the file you might be playing.
I’m not sure if you know what gapless playback means. It’s an old issue with some media players when you play progressive music split into different files and you would hear a brief pause as the player loads the next file. Ideally, you should be able to hear one continuous song throughout the album (usually in classical music).
Gapless playback eliminates this issue. So far N8 doesn’t support it and other people have reported this issue to be true.
Ok Now got it, but many requested that 5 seconds pause feature earlier, so its been here for a while. But sure I will agree that as of now, there are almost no settings options in Music player to deal with such things.
Music Player on Symbian^3 been one of the visual attraction about the OS and performs really nice in most of the conditions even better than the bests, but sure people who lived with Nokia since long will ask for customization options. Hope it will come very soon
heheh… As a fellow programmer, yes i hear you. Some people would ask for one thing and another would request for the opposite.
A 3rd party symbian app named folderplay supports gapless so since most of my progressive songs are house music I can live with it for now. The rest are just regular files. Apple “sort of” handles gapless in two ways: through itunes (by a setting in the audio file) and/or through the ipod/iphone itself.
As for the sound, I’ve owned a couple of sonyericssons in my time and for some reason nokia would always sound better in their demos. This is somewhat ironic since SE is supposed to be a “sound expert” because of their walkman series. lol Speaking of which, i think SE has been dead in the water for more than a year now. I’m glad nokia started having capacitive touch screens. The N97’s resistive screen was a deal breaker for me.
Touch interface presumes “one-touch” actions. But Nokia continues to be “menu” driven. In a full touch phone like N8, the least that can be expected is removing the redundancies of keyboard inputs. E.g. to send a sms, keyboard should pop up automatcally once the “new message” is pressed. Nokia has too many pop-ups that are (a) not required; (b) take time. E.g. bluetooth – your device is now hidden – etc. Another example is the browser – it takes 3 to 5 clicks just getting to type the web address.
I think Nokia would do good to review each action and eliminate unnecssary clicks to get the phone to do what the user wants.
Well you need to wait for 35 days more 😉
35 days? Why so long?
January must have a few more days this year.
Any information on the n8 updates? I’m tired of waiting NOKIA!
I hope nokia hasn’t moved it to Feb…….I wouldn’t doubt that.
I was talking about the update bringing UI changes that would be PR2.0 or PR2.2. N8 owners can expect the firmware update that might be PR1.2 or PR1.1 (whatever they name it) by 13-17 January.
Coming up with a detailed post soon