What 12 Firmware Improvements Immediately Noticed in PR 1.2?

Australia now has PR 1.2 for the Nokia N9. I've just upgraded my Nokia N9 to the 1.2 release which took almost an hour to get all the updates installed. Here are some of the things I have noticed about the 1.2 update:

• The update did not wipe out my apps, phone calls or sms which is always good. 
• The speed of the phone seems to be the same as before
• Swype is MUCH faster than before
• Facebook icon on the top status bar shows up when there are Facebook notifications
• Twitter problems which were referred to in this blog earlier have been fixed. Before installing the 1.2 update, my twitter application was broken again and I hadn't gotten around to fixing it (again). Thank God for the 1.2 update then! 
• The new Nokia font doesn't get noticed.. UNTIL you look at your notifications screen in which case you think, wow, that looks so much better! 
• Sound effects added to the swipe down to close gesture
• Drive app now has an overview icon in the bottom right corner which gives you the ability to zoom out of your current view to see a context view of the map
• Maps app includes Favourites which allow you to "star" some of your favourite locations
• Front facing camera hasn't been tried out yet - can't enable it for camera
• Cut, Copy and Paste are available (see below)

So what have you noticed about PR 1.2?

What does the PR 1.2 for N9 changelog include?

According to Wikipedia, here is a list of improvements we should see in the 1.2 update for the Nokia N9 but the question is, which of these did you really appreciate? Would love to hear your thoughts. There are supposed to be about  3500 improvements including:

• fixed 122 bugs reported by users from all over the World in public bugtrucker
• DLNA support (for music sharing)
• folders on the "Home Screen"
• universal copy/paste
• faster codecs for video coded in H.264 standard,^[50]
• USB On-The-Go (AKA USB OTG) which will allow various accessories to be attached such as keyboards, mice, and external memory and many other improvements^{[citation needed]}
• quick change of flash LED in foto mode, also quick change of LED in video camera mode, w/o leaving application (camera)
• better playing H.264 video
• search option for Microsoft Exchange mailing
• VPN support
• bigger interliny for system fonts
• graphic element for confirmation informing that a software is to be closed
• improved Facebook client
• DropBox account support
• improvements in built-in browser
• improvements in camera supporting application
• improvements in Gallery application
• improvements in Nokia Music application

Here's the N9 1.2 firmware changes posted on Maemo.org


General
1 Folders. To rename a folder press and hold inside the created folder to see a space to type the name.
2 Default font changed. Including height and weight.
3 Contact Book has the 'Search' bar visible by default.
4 Each Contact Book entry now has wording "Synct to - MFE - <email address>". This isnt 'clickable' and seems odd as it takes up quite a bit of space without clear functionality.
5 IM Availability screen has been changed. It is now dark themed.
6 Searching for contacts has been optimised and now allows you to search in Skype from the same screen.
7 Swype keyboard now has bigger keys. Cant emphasise how great of an update this is. Also they seem to have fixed the "P" bug in swype. Previously starting a word with P in swype resulted in the keyboard being swiped. This no longer happens.
8 Turning off the device causes the LED to stay on. Once it goes off the device can be turned on again.
9 All UI menus have changed from white grey to black grey. 
10 Support for D-Pad arrows.

Homescreen/Standby Screen
1 LED now 'breathes' when the device is being charged.
2 Facebook/Twitter notifications on the home screen.
3 Swiping down to close an app now results in a dark shadow being cast on the open window. I suppose this is to indicate the swipe will close the app? Nice touch.
4 Closing an app no longer results in the app appearing in the multi tasking window for a split second before closing.
5 Disable Backgound connection for mobile data connection (ie. if you want to allow only WLAN to be used for bg connection).

Web
1 Copy and paste in the Browser.
2 Most visited links on the Browser now has the top 2 visited sites in Bold and same size. (see image)
3 Opening and closing a link from a browser sends you back to the original page as oppose to the multi tasking window.


Media
1 Video Calling (more details needed)
2 Camera improvement (Shortcut to enable/disable flash, New filters for video recording? and an option to turn on flash whilst recording)
3 Gallery Improvement (Face tagging)
4 Some new Wallpapers inserted in Gallery?
5 Media Sharing. Support for DLNA enabled devices (not tested)
6 More image editing options in the Gallery.
7 Selecting multiple files in the image gallery causes a purple haze to appear over the images. Previously only a purple outline was used.
8 Music. Now you can delete a music file straight from the media player.
9 Music Player supports Playlist making
10 Support for Dropbox

Email
1 Email. The words "up-to-date" now appear when a mailbox has been synced in the last 1 minute.
2 Threaded email.
3 Email. A failure to sync an inbox now shows a red arrow on the notification bar. 

Maps
1 Improved scrolling in most apps. Including the Ovi/Nokia Market. Though lag still appears unexpectedly.
2 Drive. The Drive App now has imported all the Favourites from the Maps application. Also the panning/zooming is much smoother. I also note that street names now re-flow with you to ensure you can always see the street names.

Bugs/lacking features that still annoy me
1 Twitter. Still unable to retweet in the official app. 
2 Facebook App still missing "Groups". 
3 After editing a photo it still takes a while for the "Share" button to appear for that particular image.

What improvements have changed the way you use your N9? what's left to do? 

N9 now has PR1.2

Word is spreading around the world as some countries report that their Nokia N9 has finally received the PR 1.2 firmware update. Finland, Brazil and Sweden Nokia N9 users have reported the firmware has appeared on their phones. No news yet from other Australian fans.

Not sure how to check if your N9 phone has the update?

Go to Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> tap on the bottom right icon -> tap on the top righ icon to refresh. 

Have you got the N9 firmware update? let us know what you think of it.