[elliottpotter]

I'm about to re-install the v12 firmware on my N97 for the 3rd time; each time it seems to work OK for a while (a few weeks or so) and then weird things start happening, like front-screen widgets stop working, SMS handling gets V E R Y  S L O W, lots of random crashes, and so on.  I see that a new major revision to the firmware is coming - I'm actually really excited about that; which is a little depressing.

Sometimes I'd like to show off my shiny Nokia to other people, but I don't because it's kind of embarrassing.  So these are things I'm hoping get fixed (or at least improved) in the new firmware:

• Handling of SMS messages sometimes gets painfully slow.  On my N95, if I had over 1000 messages in the inbox it would get a little sluggish, but not like this; with less than 100 messages in the inbox when I get a message, I hit the button and it's 5-10 seconds before I can read it; then when I hit reply it's another 10+ seconds before the screen changes, then when I hit send the little candycane bar is scrolling for 5-10 seconds before the message starts sending.  Clearing out the message boxes or even changing the memory used to the C: drive doesn't seem to help this; only re-installing the firmware.  Then it's moderately zippy (as zippy as this phone gets) for a few weeks, then it's suddenly back to slow (not gradually - just one day it's there again).

• I don't know if this is a problem with the weather front screen app or the OS, but that thing never works right, and sometimes it doesn't work at all.  Uninstalling/reinstalling the app sometimes helps, sometimes doesn't.  Sometimes it just forgets what it is altogether and I wake up and have to tell it my ZIP code again.
• The web browser frequently (at least 50% of the time I try to use it) will temporarily lose its use of the touch screen; I can scroll by opening the keypad and using the arrow buttons, but not using the touch screen.  It will start again in a few (10-20) seconds.  This is on pages that are fully rendered and no longer loading.  While a page is loading and rendering, I already know to not distract the phone since it's not powerful enough to render a web page and do anything else at the same time.
• The phone is kind of unstable overall.  Every once in a while, mid phone call the thing will crash - it won't drop the call, but I won't be able to do things like mute or hang up; I have to take the battery out.  Sometimes the phone won't wake up when I slide the unlock button; sometimes it will "sort of" wake up; it will vibrate in response to the button but it's still in a blind-deaf-mute state where I can't do anything - again, taking the battery out.  I find myself having to take the battery out to make the phone work again as much as once a week.  I don't think this is reasonable - I don't have many applications installed; I'm using one of the themes that came with the phone; I don't feel like I abuse it at all, I just want to use it.
• The built-in calendar is kind of flaky.  This is something that was a real hit on the N95 but kind of a miss on the N97.  All of the functionality is still there, it's just buggy.  If I'm manually entering the name of a task item and the screen orientation changes, the program exits and I have to start over.  On these manually entered task items, if I set an alarm sometimes it doesn't give me the alarm (it says "some alarms missed due to change in time zone" or some such nonsense, even though I haven't changed time zones or even left the house, turned the phone on or off, etc).  Sometimes the alarm will happen but stop itself before I can see what it is (this happens even if the phone is sitting on the counter, so I know it's not me hitting a button).  Sometimes I can snooze once and the alarm won't come back.  Sometimes I stop the alarm and it comes back again anyway, within 5-10 seconds.  This doesn't seem to happen with alarms synchronized from Outlook; only alarms entered manually on the phone.
• I have the SMS inbox, camera, etc set to store items on the Mass Storage drive instead of the C: drive, to save space.  But if I plug the phone into a USB port on the computer and accidentally touch "Mass Storage" instead of "PC Suite" all of that gets re-mapped to the C: drive and I have to go fix them all.  This was a heart-stopping moment the first time it happened, and I thought all of my photos and messages had disappeared.  Now it's just annoying.
• This is more of a feature/annoyance, but ... why does sending an SMS require so many keystrokes?  For example: when the phone is in it's normal "standby" state on the front screen and locked, and I get a message: I click to view the message (fine), then click reply and type the message (OK), then hit send.  I have to wait a variable amount of time (1-15 seconds) before the candycane status bar goes away (I hate all of these status bars: why can't the phone do this sort of thing in the background?), then ... I'm not back at the home screen, but in the SMS inbox - so I have to exit, wait a few seconds, exit again, wait a few more seconds, then lock the screen.  Why doesn't it exit to the screen where I started?  I'm sure this would be really complicated to fix but it's a huge annoyance.
• Another feature/annoyance: in the N95, if I wanted to send myself a super-quick e-mail, I could just say "new MMS message" and type the message, send to my e-mail address, and it was done.  On the N97, there doesn't appear to be a way to compose a new MMS directly.  Where's the "new MMS" button?  As it is I have to use the built-in old-style e-mail program (not the fancy new email.nokia.com thing, which for some reason never sends my messages, only receives them) and the whole process is just slower.

All of these problems existed before the v12 firmware update.  I honestly don't know what (if anything) that update fixed but I didn't notice any improvements in the phone after I applied it.  I'm hoping for more this time around!

Anyway.  I feel better now.  Thanks for listening to me complain!

[grschinon]

I'm just wondering what the point is of posting a wishlist for software that's finalized and undergoing testing, for one thing, and for another, posting it on a forum populated by other users of Nokia's products.

[elliottpotter]

Well, this is a support forum, a place for users of Nokia's products to discuss problems they're having with their Nokia products: I'd say the message did that. Also, presumably one goal of the firmware update is to fix problems: these are all problems that were not fixed by the last firmware update - is Nokia even aware of them? I don't know. Third, we know that a firmware update is being worked on, but we have no official word on where it is in the release process: maybe there is still time to insert more bug fixes, or at least provide their testers with more items to look at.  Now: what was the point of *your* post? It certainly didn't add anything useful to the conversation.

[georgeup]

Hi Elliot

All these forums are in fact very Similar to Doctors, Nobody goes to the Doctor to tell him how well and happy they are feeling, these forums exist for similar reasons - Your moans, groans and complaints

I am sure I can help you with one of your niggles:

Another feature/annoyance: in the N95, if I wanted to send myself a super-quick e-mail, I could just say "new MMS message" and type the message, send to my e-mail address, and it was done.  On the N97, there doesn't appear to be a way to compose a new MMS directly. 

With the N97 you can do the same.

1. Go to new Messaging > New Message > Options > Sending Options > Message Type and set to AUTOMATIC - it should already be set at that.

2. Go to new Messaging > New Message > Options  > Message Header Fields - Here you can turn set Cc, Bcc and subject lines - Choose any configuration you like. I would think that would be fastest way to email yourself

3. When you want to send an MMS, you got to NEW MESSAGE either by the touch screen or by voice command, just type in an email address in the "To" field and the phone will change the message type automatically.

NOTE: If you choose to switch on Cc, Bcc or Subject then be sure to leave them blank if you want to send a normal SMS text message - If you type any thing into any of those 3 fields the phone will change to message type to MMS.

I have a couple of other ideas for you.

1. If you want to send an email just say " New Email" and there you go. I would think that would be cheaper than sending a MMS

2. If you were to set up a Contact i.e. Elliott and saved your email address in that email field then that would be the easiest option - Just say "Email Elliot" and away you go.

You will have to train the phone for voice recognition so it gets it right first time for you - Have a play in Settings > Phone > Voice Commands

I will add that you are having alot of problems with your phone so it maybe Hardware. I have the same v12 and not half the problems you are talking about.

A couple of ideas for you..................

Google "Nigel Coldwell" that may be a solution for you - I did and never looked back.

Get your phone replaced.

v20 should be out soon so keep an eye out

George

On the right is a Kudos Button !!!

[elliottpotter]

Thanks georgeup, for a pleasant response.  I agree; the support forums are where people go to complain about problems.  I try to at least be pleasant about it, because I don't think it's constructive to say things like "I'm going to pitch this *$#@#$& and get an iPhone" or "*** phone is miles better" or stuff like that ... honestly I like my N97 overall and I'm glad I got it; I just have some problems with it.  When I say "my wishlist" it's because I do, in fact, believe that Nokia wants its customers to be happy, and I also believe that they pay attention to what people say.

As to your suggestion about the MMS message: what I've done for now is placed the "new message" shortcut on my front screen; not "new e-mail" or "new SMS" because then I get the little popup menu when I press it to use an e-mail or SMS.

1. My message type is currently set to AUTOMATIC, and I get the little attachment icon so that's good.

2. I tried the Cc header field, but it has the same issue where when I click it, I go to the address book but I can only choose phone numbers from contacts, even if the contacts have e-mail addresses entered, so no dice there.

3. Typing an e-mail address in the "To" or "CC" field does automatically change the SMS to an MMS, but I do have to type the address: I can't just choose it from the contacts list, which is what I would prefer.

At the moment I do just send e-mail (using the front screen shortcut I mentioned before), which works fine, though the e-mail interface is a tad slower than the SMS/MMS composing interface (especially when I hit send).  Not objectionably so, but it is noticeable.  I guess my main issue there was that it seemed like it was a solved problem on the N95, and they did away with the feature.  On the other hand, as an engineer I know that companies frequently get rid of features that most people don't use, so maybe that was it.  Eh.  I've always been skeptical of voice commands, but I have to admit I've never tried actually using them so maybe I'll give that a shot too.

I have a hard time believing that all of the problems are hardware related; the sluggishness with SMS goes away after re-installing the firmware, so it seems like there's some software issue there.  The calendar program crashing when the orientation changes is pretty consistent, but the calendar program is the only one with that problem so I feel like it's software.  The web browser losing touch input briefly only happens with the web browser, not other touch-based things (like quickoffice, or the new Nokia messager in non-HTML mode), so it seems like a software thing.  Dunno.

I think the "Nigel Coldwell" thing may not be applicable to me; I have the "unlocked" North American version of the phone and it doesn't have a provider-specific firmware load, just what I get from the Nokia Software Updater.  So as far as I know it's not crippled by any NA cell phone provider (one reason I like it so much!).

So for now I'm waiting for v20.  Thanks for the ideas!  Now I want to try the voice commands ...

[davecozens]

My wishlist?

1. Nokia would hurry up and bleedin release it.

2. Nokia would hurry up and bleedin release it.

and

3.  Nokia would hurry up and bleedin release it.

[St3ph3n]

How come i can't reinstall V12

[georgeup]

Press the Arrow Up, Space, Backspace & Power on/off Keys

Be sure to back up data !

[georgeup]

3. Typing an e-mail address in the "To" or "CC" field does automatically change the SMS to an MMS, but I do have to type the address: I can't just choose it from the contacts list, which is what I would prefer.

Yes You Can !

From the front screen - Go to Contacts - click on the contact you want to email - click on email

From the front screen - Go to Contacts - click on the contact you want to MMS - click on Message - Type something in the Subject line, a space will do

[heegle]

Hey george!!

That trick for creating MMS is what I was waiting for!! (with tons of improvements,t oo) 

Now Ive selected subject field to be on screen so I can create MMS quickly.

Thanks

Dont know why these things dont appear on manual etc.

[elliottpotter]

Hey georgeup,

Putting the subject line on an SMS does automatically turn it to an MMS, which is a neat trick but still not exactly what I was looking for.

Basically: when I hit "send a new e-mail" I can press the "To" button, go through the contacts list, choose someone and their e-mail address, then type in a quick e-mail and send - but then the phone is occupied for 10-15 seconds by attempting to connect to the mailbox, send the message, etc.  This was true on the N95 as well.

However on the N95 what I could do was say "send a new MMS" and press the "To" button, go through the contacts list, and then choose a contact's e-mail address and then type in my quick e-mail and send, and the sending process went much faster because it was going as an MMS and the phone company sorted it out.

Really I was just spoiled by this feature.  The phone I had before my N95 (a Motorola RAZR) did this as well and that's where I got hooked on that little bit of convenience.  As far as the list of wants went, this was a pretty minor one!

Thanks again - that's a couple of really good tips you've given; I've learned about more features on this phone in the last couple of days than I did in the previous few months