Hoping to have some solid bug fixes and a few new additions in place on your shiny new Nokia N97 before you start partying this weekend (or even today if you live North of the border)? Well we told you it was coming and this morning it dropped — say hello to 11.0.021. Even the most staunch Nokia fanboys seemed to take issue with the release firmware on Nokia’s latest flagship handset and as such, this update is most definitely a welcome one. The firmware should be available in most regions and if you can’t get it OTA, fire up Nokia Software Updater and give it a go. As for what you can expect from this release, hit the jump for the change log. If you’ve installed it already, let us know what you think in the comments.

Side note: The N96 was updated today as well to 30.033. Yay.

Thanks, Joseph!

• USB detection error fix
• PC does not detect N97 or USB charging connection not detected.
• Widget
• Home screen online/offline widget crash fix
• Fix for “Alphabetical and Number input are mixed in facebook until end key is pressed.
• Widget UI improvement – New facebook widget fixes a problem of Home Screen background visible on soft-key area.
• Browser fixes to improve widgets stability.
• MfE related fixes
• Partial fix for Messaging/calendar entry lost.
• Mail for exchange calendar entry synchronization error fix.
• UI transition error fixes (Portrait <-> landscape transition, there is a home screen corruption.)
• UI transition (Slowness and bad effects)
• Slow Touch UI response
• Picture of the device lock appears half of the screen when transitioning the UI sometimes
• Landscape: in some cases the soft buttons on touch (right hand) show the Home Screen in background (install maps.google.com)
• Photos thumbnail performance and stability improvements
• Device performance deteriorates when lots of content in the device – especially photos
• Partial fix no display backlight illumination when unlocking lock-key – CAP Genius reported already
• New version of Accueweather to improve the “Connection error” situation
• Device reset when browsing with high speed packet access (for Malaysia)
• “Browser soft key UI doesn’t work after putting Chinese character with qwerty keyboard”
• Java fixes (TCK, Pre-install app disappearing, *#7370#*)
• Operator fixes (CMCC, Hutchson and Telefonica, Vodafone)
• Ovi store client now embedded in the core image

Just in time to make America’s birthday even more special, it looks like N97 owners will be enjoying a shiny new gift from our friends at Nokia this July 4th weekend. Just as the firmware version was recently updated on Nokia’s RDS service, so too will the firmware be updated on the N97. According to Nokia Conversations’ Twitter account, “N97 SW 1.1 (11.x.021)” will find itself in the hands of the people this Wednesday, July 1st. Rejoice! Sure, a firmware update isn’t going to resolve all of the issues we had with the handset — such as an off-center space button on the keypad (how?!) — but it will hopefully go great lengths to eliminate many of the bugs users are currently experiencing. As for exactly which regions/product codes will have access to the new firmware right out of the gate, unfortunately there’s no way of telling until the 1st rolls around.

Thanks, Nok-eee-ugh!