Not as sexy as the N97's update, no doubt, but the Nokia N96 has always underperformed and I'm hoping that v30.033 firmware, also released today, will help the beleaguered flagship-of-2008 come up to par. v30 is a 6MB over-the-air update and installed smoothly on my N96. The previous firmware version was v20, by the way. Some brief comments below.

Ovi Store isn't included, which is a surprise (though it is in Download!, of course). Neither is Ovi Chat, which again I'd expected, this having made it into v30 firmware on the N79. Initial impressions are that v30 firmware is faster and leaner, perhaps not surprisingly. So we're talking bug fixes and optimisations. Maybe 9 months too late, but hey... at least those who bought the N96 and have been regretting it can feel a little better about their phone now.

The usual caveats apply, in terms of backing up (though the User Data Preservation worked fine here) and in terms of network-branded devices having to wait a while before this firmware gets 'approved' by their network.

Now that Nokia seem to be cranking out firmware updates at a regular pace, I'd like to see them get a v31 out too, with more of the Ovi integration we've seen on the N96's sister devices.