Nokia N97 firmware 2.0: Kinetic scrolling

By Joseph Hanlon on 09 September 2009

Buried under the hype of Nokia's handset announcements at Nokia World 2009 last week, the Finnish phone maker also announced it would be releasing a significant firmware update to its flagship handset, the N97.


(Credit: Symbian World)

The update, due to be released in October, includes a bevy of performance improvements, and the most notable being the introduction of kinetic scrolling. At present users access long lists, like contacts in the address book, by dragging the scroll bar on the right-hand side of the page. After installing the 2.0 firmware, this task will become similar to scrolling lists on Apple's iPhone, with lists responding to vertical finger gestures anywhere on the screen, and the speed of the movement dependant on the speed of the gesture. Kinetic scrolling will be used in all menus longer than a single page, like applications and media playlists.

The music player also receives a visual makeover. In the latest version, the menu now appears more dynamic with a music playlist featuring album art alongside the track and title of each song.

Also interesting in the update is the introduction of Nokia's Lifecasting Facebook widget enhancement. Not only does this newer version give you the ability to post your current status directly from the home screen, but it also allows you to post location-aware data with your status. So if you're enjoying the food at a new favourite restaurant you can post your thoughts alongside a map reference so your friends can find the same place.

Nokia will push the update out to users of the N97 as an over-the-air firmware update and can be found in the Nokia Software Update app when it's made publicly available in October.

Topics: firmware, mobile phone, n97, nokia, s60, update, kinetic, scroll, post, lists

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Comments (7)

  • Stratten commented on 20/11/2009 04:52 Report abuse

    NOKIA N97 now freeze after the UPdate version2. I will go back my n95. No wonder Nokia is losing Customers by drovers.

  • -=ShReK=- commented on 03/11/2009 02:39 Report abuse

    For product code: 0585162, the update has now been released in the U.K. as at 2nd november 2009, around 1pm. C'mon !!! Downloaded & installed... looking good so far ! ;o)

  • -=ShReK=- commented on 15/10/2009 21:06 Report abuse

    I brought the N97 after a couple of years having the brillient N95 which i loved, and the N97 was a natural upgrade path to take. Like the N95 in it's day, the N97 is buggy as hell... but hopefully this update will make the whole thing stable. I'd settle for stable and useable at the moment... speed can come later! Often my phone would say "Unexpected error occured. please reboot your phone". I think Nokia should also have the NSU the same as the N95 whereas it installs the whole firmware software as if it's just come out the shop rather then an incremental update. Re-installing "lost", accidently deleted or simply corrupted apps/OS. This would be a very nice change if Nokia did that! Looking forward to "kinetic scrolling", and looking forward to hopefully having a phone that could potentially be an iPhone killer, rather than the manufacturers just hyping up something it's not. Nokia's are far superior & full of better features, camera, MMS, video, mp3, builtin wi-fi, gps... yet the people buy the iPhone because it's "useable" !!!

  • gdo commented on 18/09/2009 02:41 Report abuse

    I hope NOKIA will release the update for all N97 models world wide all at the same time.

  • yurgan commented on 16/09/2009 21:11 Report abuse

    so im guessing they're not gonna fix the lag problem :( this is the only thing wrong with the phone, and is a major pain in the ****!

  • D commented on 09/09/2009 17:35 Report abuse

    All they have to do now is up date the 5800 Xpressmusic firmware so that it too has kinetic scrolling

  • constantine commented on 09/09/2009 15:57 Report abuse

    on my nokia n97 i have the v11. the v12 didnt released on rm-505.

    i hope the 2.0 version be available for everyone n97 user on the NSU

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