Release Notes For Nokia N950 Developer Device software

Release Notes For Nokia N950 Developer Device software 3.2012.02-6

Release date: 2012-01-25


This release provides a preview of the MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan 1.2 release on Nokia N950 Developer Device. It is targeted towards developers, giving them sufficient time to try out their applications on the upcoming software update for N9. Please note that this is not the final Harmattan 1.2 release, bug fixes/changes are still ongoing.

As before,

  • General help (info button) is disabled in the UI
  • Developer mode is OFF by default. User needs to enable this option in order to download and install the development tools. See Settings->Security->Developer mode
  • Allow installations from non-Store sources is OFF by default. User needs to enable this option in order to allow installation of applications from other sources. See Settings->Installations.

Known limitations on N950

  • Once your N950 is flashed with this release, you cannot go back to an earlier software release. Please note that Nokia Store still requires applications to work on Harmattan 1.0 and 1.1 releases, in addition to Harmattan 1.2.
  • QML debugging using QtSDK 1.1.4 is broken with this PR1.2 beta release. This issue will be fixed with an SDK update. EDIT: This has been fixed in Qt SDK 1.2 released on 2012-02-01.
  • Once the China variant (003) is flashed on your device, you cannot go back to the Global variant (001)
  • Continuous shooting mode is not supported in the Camera application
  • Skype not supported
  • Dropbox account is not supported on China variant (003)

Changes since Harmattan 1.1 release

  • New languages
    • Persian
    • Hebrew
    • Kazakh
    • Thai
    • Vietnamese
  • Software update notifications for content in Nokia Store
  • Face recognition for gallery and face tags for Facebook
  • Support for folders in the application view
  • Mail for Exchange global address book lookup
  • Mail thread support in the Email client
  • Extended copy-paste support
  • Media sharing with DLNA compatible devices
  • Improved browser history view
  • Compass support in Maps
  • QtWebKit update to version 2.2
  • New font taken into use
  • Front camera support
  • Video editing support in the Gallery application

Bug fixes

There are ~122 public bugs fixed in this release. The complete list is available at harmattan-bugs.nokia.com.

Other important improvements

  • MeeGotouch Framework
    • Visual hint for differentiating swipe close gesture from normal swipes
    • Timestamps shown in notifications
    • Notifications sorted by timestamps
    • Improvements in Event Feed area
    • Music controls in Lock screen
    • New feedbacks added to MeeGoTouch theme:
      • priority2_callbutton_press
      • priority2_callbutton_release
      • priority2_close
      • priority2_close_multiple
      • priority2_move
      • priority2_popup
  • Kernel updated to be in sync with the upstream kernel version 2.6.32.48
  • Connectivity
    • Android NDEF Push Protocol disabled
    • NFC polling enabled in lock screen
    • Separate switch for controlling mobile background connections while roaming
  • Camera
    • Self Timer support
    • Composition grid + on/off control
  • Calendar
    • Better handling of To-Do lists, recurring events and timezones
    • Private flag support for events
    • Support for read-only events
    • Ability to forward/reply/reply-all for received events
  • Clock
    • Clock alarm becomes silent by flipping the device face down instead of snoozing
    • Updated time picker
  • Gallery
    • People view added to the grid toolbar
    • Improved multiple selection indication in grid view
  • Music Player
    • Audiobook and podcast support
    • Ability to create playlists
    • Ability to delete music files from music player library views via object menu
    • Possibility to see songs that are on the current play queue
  • Contacts
    • Capture an image from camera from contact card to set the contact avatar
    • Service contact details attributed in contact card and editor
    • Nickname option in contact list
    • Online search from MfE server
  • In addition, there are numerous bug fixes related to the implementation of new features, improving the overall user experience and reliability of the device.

N950 hardware specification

The Nokia N950 phone uses same the hardware components as the Nokia N9 phone with the following exceptions:

  • N950 is physically larger and is made out of aluminum, whereas the Nokia N9 has a polycarbonate unibody.
  • N950 has a physical slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The Nokia N9 is a touchscreen-only device.
  • N950 has partial support for landscape mode due to the fact that Nokia N9 is mostly used in portait mode.
  • N950 has a 4" TFT LCD display whereas the Nokia N9 has a 3.9" AMOLED display. Display resolution and aspect ratio are the same on both devices (854x480).
  • Due to the use of different display technologies, developers should avoid one pixel width fonts and graphical objects with lines one pixel wide.
  • Also avoid the extensive use of bright colors, especially white, when developing for OLED displays as this increases the power consumption (typical for all OLED displays).
  • N950 has a different physical camera module than the Nokia N9. Both camera modules have very similar image quality (Carl Zeiss branding in the Nokia N9) and both modules support 8Mpix image mode.
  • In the N950, the front facing camera is in top right corner and on the Nokia N9 it is in the bottom right corner. The actual camera module is same.
  • N950 does not have support for NFC (Near Field Communication)
  • The Nokia N9 has a slightly more sensitive magnetometer and ALS (Ambient Light Sensor)
  • N950 has a 1320mAh battery, the Nokia N9 has a 1450mAh battery

Feedback and Discussion

The Nokia MeeGo team values feedback on this release. For defects and regressions, use our public Bugzilla at harmattan-bugs.nokia.com. For generic discussion, use the Nokia Developer Maemo/MeeGo discussion board.

DISCLAIMER

These release notes are provided to give users and developers information on certain differences between the Nokia N950 and the Nokia N9 devices, including device software. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy and completeness of these notes, we cannot guarantee that these are complete thus, these release notes are provided "as is" and without any warranty of any kind. Further, as the Nokia N950, including its device software, is not a commercial device, the quality and/feature set of the Nokia N950 is of beta quality and comes without any warranty or support whatsoever. Finally, when these release notes make statements as to the features of the Nokia N9 (e.g. describing differences between the Nokia N950 and the Nokia N9), it is not a representation that the commercial version of the Nokia N9 will actually include such features.


Legal notice

Copyright (c) 2012 Nokia Corporation. All rights reserved.

Nokia and Nokia Connecting People are registered trademarks of Nokia Corporation.

MeeGo is a registered trademark of The Linux Foundation.