Nokia Belle Update Released For Symbian Phones

Do you have a Nokia phone with the Symbian^3 OS? Then perhaps it is nice to hear that Nokia Belle update have been released on February 8 to phones with Symbian^3. Nokia Belle is a new major update of Symbian OS since Symbian Anna release. Belle installs on wide variety of Nokia devices and among the phones supported are Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia E7, Nokia X7, Nokia C6-01, E6 and Nokia Oro. We got a lot of improvements when the first major update in a long time, Anna, was released for Symbian last year. Symbian has long been considered an obsolete OS that can not beat competitors like Android, iOS and Windows Phone 7. But with last Anna and Belle updates Nokia provided much more modern experience to its customers.

To apply Belle update to your phone only that you need is a computer, the Nokia Suite 3.3 installed, USB cable and some free time.  After your phone got update you will get access to three additional Home screens, new widgets on the home screen and the modern status bar which can be pulled down just like in Android and Apple iOS devices. Release notes also mention better NFC support, more informative lock screen and improved multitasking.

Nokia Loop in Ovi Store - mix music on the phone

Nokia is running a promo campaign "It's not technology it' s what you do with it", developed by Wieden + Kennedy, addressed to Nokia N8 and Nokia C7 phones. As part of this campaing Nokia has published in Ovi Store the "Loop" application. This software allows Nokia users to mix different musical tracks. With this app users are able to record, edit and loop up to four tracks. Also users may upload their mixes and share it with friends.

Nokia's global marketing director Kari Tuutti said: "We are super excited to bring the Nokia Loop App into Ovi Store. We cannot wait to see the innovative ways that music lovers will use this fun app and share their loops with friends and social networks."

Nokia uploaded to YouTube a clip about extreme poodle styling, "Poodle Loop", which been produced to demonstrate the app capabilities. You may watch it too here.

Opera Mini 5.1 for Nokia Symbian phones now in sis installer

Opera Software finally ported it's superb web browser to native Symbian sis format. The main question now is - where to download this app to your Nokia phone? You can do it the same way as with regular J2ME version of Opera Mini app, just follow this link m.opera.com and scroll down web page until you see link to Opera Mini for Symbian sisx installer. This version supports all modern Symbian S60 versions from 3rd edition to 5th and Symbian^3.
The Opera Mini 5.1 native app got some improvements to the J2ME version of Opera Mini:
- Significantly faster (2x-3x) loading time
- Support for more Nokia devices
- Faster page-load and scrolling
- Native device text input and FEP support, including narrative like Talks
- Symbian clipboard integration for copy & paste, email, web browser
In wrap-up I can say that the new, optimized native version has excellent performance and is better integrated with native applications and Symbian OS. I waited this release a long time, now I'm happy to use it in my phone.
Today Opera Software released Beta 2 version of Opera Mini for Symbian. It has improved stability and FEP input support.

Facebook Chat on Nokia phones - FriendChat app

Some new Nokia phones like Nokia N8, C7 and other running Symbian^3 OS got embedded Facebook support, but some old ones running Symbian^1 (Symbian S60v5) doesn't have it. For such type of Nokia devices the next app would be extremely helpful.
This is FriendChat app by Bolser Agency. It's an Instant Messaging app which use Facebook Chat to connect you to all of your Facebook friends. The app shows you statuses of your friends and allow you to chat with them. FriendChat is compatible with Symbian OS S^3 and Symbian OS S60v5 Nokia phones.
Main view of the app contains list all of your Facebook friends and their current online status. Friends list sorted by online status of your contacts. Click on a contact leads you to the chat screen - the layout of this screen is traditional for such type of apps. FriendChat is free to download in Ovi Store.

Change default web browser on Nokia N8, C7, C6-01 and other Symbian phones - How to

Latest Nokia smartphones running Symbian^3 (Nokia X7, N8, E7, C7, C6-01 and more in future) got nice WebKit-based web browser. But, until the big update, announced by Nokia CEO, the best user experience you may get with the new version 10.1 of Opera Mobile browser. However, if you click web link in some application on your phone (e.g. in an preinstalled email client) it's opening in the default Nokia "Web" browser.
But in new Symbian^3 OS there is a setting that allows you to change app associated with links. This setting page can be found not only on Nokia phones running Symbian^3 but on some Symbian^1 Nokia devices like 5800, 5530 and N97. This is "Default applications" tab in main Settings menu in your phone. To navigate to this pane follow this way Settings -> Application Settings -> Default applications. First Symbian^3 and Symbian^1 devices (e.g. X6, N97 mini) got this pane in new firmware updates. In Symbian^1 phones navigate to this pane this way: Settings->Phone->Application settings->Default application. Here you'll see four Default applications settings: browsing internet, playing music, playing video clips and viewing images. In first setting you can change default browser.
Please note that the first version of Opera Mobile app, which supports this feature, is 10.1. Unfortunately, WRT apps continue to launch Web, even if you click on an web link and open browser. For example, in Nokia's Social Networking app, which is WRT-based, click on a web link in a Facebook message or Twitter tweet will always open it in Nokia Web. Hope this will be fixed in new firmware releases.