New Fritz!OS firmware launched for Fritz!Box

I noticed a few weeks ago that a new version of Fritz!OS5 had appeared on the German AVM site, and have been eagerly awaiting the International version. It appeared today (version 84.05.51), so I installed it on my Fritz!Box 7390 to give it a spin. I haven't had time to check out exactly what's new, but the look and feel is unchanged, with a few minor tweaks - such as links to Fritz!Box, Fritz!NAS and MyFritz at the top right of the interface.

One thing that has gone is the dreaded 'Green' LAN port power management feature that drove many users to distraction. There seem to be quite a lot of new features, and it's going to take me a while to sort through them. I have noticed that the FritzFON now has a built-in network media player, so you can stream music from any DLNA media server. Not world-shattering, but certainly novel.

There's also a new Smart Home section, apparently for the upcoming FritzDECT 200 home controller, which sounds quite interesting. You can also now assign user accounts for web access to the Fritz!NAS, and Google Contacts (and some other online services) can be imported to a new address book, which is very neat and works well. There's also a new FritzAPP, and (finally) a single sign-on for the MyFritz remote management service.

It looks like a very worthwhile release, and you can get it by going to the Firmware Update section of the System menu and clicking Find New Firmware. I hope to go into more detail later as I explore the new features.

The overview screen is largely unchanged

You can now import Google Contacts into an address book