Owners of the Nokia N93 (including me) can be happy again as firmware updates for Nokia’s multimedia smartphone are available again through Nokia Software Updater (NSU), after 3 months of waiting. Nokia monitors the update statistics and noticed a high number of potential update failures being reported. This was also matched by a high number of posts in the Nokia forums about customers claiming to have problems and some ending up with devices which could not be switched on again.
So in November they disabled the updates for the N93 while investigations took place. So three months later with release of NSU version 1.3.0 you can now update your phone to the latest firmware version 20.0.058. This firmware v.20 was released back in October, but due the problems many user could not get this update. It does fix many bugs including the activation of the front camera after you close the main camera (it now return to idle screen), faster startup (this firmware sheds 2-3 secs from the startup time, brining it down to an impressive 12 seconds), multi-button support for games and optical zoom noise reduction algorithm updated to vary according to background noise level.
Many features have been added, including the WLAN wizard on the standby screen, Internet Folder added in position 9 on main menu, containing Web (OSS Browser), Search, Download! (Contains Catalogs) and WLAN Wizard. For a complete list see the changelog below.
I updated the firmware on my N93 yesterday and everything went smoothly, just make sure the phone has a full charge before the update and do not touch the phone during update as this can cause the cable to become loose and you ending up with a bricked phone. The NSU can be downloaded here
Changes and improvements made
from SW v11.0.034 to v20.0.058:
* CellMo baseline update
* Improvements to Auto power off, reset cases
* Gallery/Camera primary use improved
* Initialization/startup time, improved to 2 ~ 3 sec
Shot-2-shot time, 2.17 Sec
* Optical Zoom noise reduction algorithm updated to vary according tobackground noise level.
* Stability/Reliability improvements added.
* Product mode, UI jerkiness improvements
* UI jerkiness corrections included for Camera, Gallery and RealOne player
* A few Applications fixed for mode switch errors
* Bluetooth headset IOP/Audio improvement seen in BH-900, BH-800 fixed
* Bluetooth SAP profile errors corrected so that N616 works.
Improvements and changes to applications:
* Internet Folder added in position 9 on main menu, containing
* Web (OSS Browser) , moved Office folder in 11.0.034
* Search
* Download! (contains Catalogs)
* WLAN Wizard
* Zip manager is added to position 5 in Office folder.
* Clock is moved from top level menu to My Own folder, position 1.
* Home network application in Connectivity folder is updated to include setup wizard option to make it easier to configure UPnP.
* Access Point Configurator (APC) is replaced by Startup Settings Ver 1.
No visible change changes for end user:
* QuickOffice version is updated – allows end-users can buy a license for editors and activate them in their device if they so wish.
* Optical zoom reset by still/video capture mode switch: Zoom level is reset to 1.0x at capture mode change for smooth transition.
* Cover UI to not lit backlight as music clip change: Disabling backlight at music clip change to save battery power.
* Support for Display Headset HS-69 is added.
* Max no of Sent SMSs saved : change the maximum number of SMSs saved in ‘Sent’ folder to 100. (for PRC variant only)
* Camera mode switching: Modes spec updated so that when changing from imaging mode to any other mode with camera still active the UI returns toidle screen rather than activate the sub-camera.
* UMTS in Network mode selection: UMTS is selectable in the UI for Networkmode selection. Tools/Settings/Network mode/ Dual, GSM, UMTS. (not inPRC variant)
* PRC Default Boot Up Language: Default UI Language at 1st boot up isSimplified Chinese (not Automatic).
* In line with July 1, 2006 , GSMA (GSM Association) mandate A5/2 cipheringis no longer supported by default.
Written by Devin