By Mark Yeong

It’s always nice to have a little personalized space, a place that we are familiar with, allowing each of us to get organized and perhaps even do a little rest and relax. As much as it applies for the physical space, there is also the need to personalize the virtual space on our mobile device and Nokia has done this with their Nokia N97.

For quite a while, very few have mobile devices have allowed the home screen to be personalized. Most of the time only the built in phone applications can be added as a short cut on the main screen (e.g. Calendar, Contacts etc.), leaving out third-party apps from sharing that space.

However the Nokia N97 changes this by providing 5 “interactive” boxes on the home screen to allow your favorite content to reside within these sections. These customizable sections provide convenience to content and applications you use frequently and if you have an active Internet connection some of these contents will even update themselves to keep you truly updated on the go!

Customizing your Nokia N97

Customizing the Nokia N97 is simple. In your home screen, select “Options” and click on “Edit Content”

The boxes should look highlighted; this means that content can be added or removed. Selecting an empty box will allow you to add from the list of available widgets on the phone, alternatively you can download a new widget, which is more suited for your use.

By selecting an existing box, you can remove the content from the screen and replace it with other content.

However please note that some of these content require an active Internet connection to function and may use the active 3G / GPRS connection to retrieve content. Do check to ensure you have subscribed to the appropriate 3G broadband plans to avoid a shock when your bill arrives.

Another feature is the ability to hide the content; by selecting “Hide content” the available content will be hidden from the home screen leaving only the background, time, date and current profile selected. This mode is great to show your beautiful images via a slide show on the home screen.

Life customized

Having a personalized home screen places information feeds that I read daily readily available on a single page. This saves me the hassle of having to navigate into the applications folder to launch the various news readers and social networking tools (e.g. Facebook).

Other than news feeds and social networking, shortcuts to my favorite apps can also be placed on this screen giving me instant access to frequently used items (e.g. Nokia Maps, Web Browser, Media Player)

Not forgetting the all so useful calendar to keep track of my busy schedule can also be customized to display my daily schedule on the screen.

I also like the fact that I can put my friends on quick dial so that I can quickly contact them; with the N97 this has gone a step further. It used to be a number associated with a friend, but now you see who you are calling and a image of your friend is shown instead of having to remember a number.

The best part about all this is the fact that there are so many applications to choose from and the options for customization are increasing every day. Having so many options would mean that I can customize my home screen to suit my life, be it at work or play and make my home screen a unique experience for myself.