Nokia has started rolling out the much-awaited and hyped, Nokia Belle update for its Symbian Anna handsets. The update brings significant UI improvements to Symbian handsets, along with some new features.

Users can now have up to 6 home screens, resizable widgets, new notification bar, an improved camera app, and a much-improved browser. The update also installs some Microsoft apps on your Symbian handsets, like MS OneNote and Lync, which would be appreciated by workaholics. Nokia also states that Belle would bring a noticeable improvement in the performance of older Symbian handsets. The update also includes many other minor and major changes, which would be appreciated by long-term Symbian users.

The Belle update is being rolled out for all older-generation Symbian^3 handsets including the Nokia N8, E7, C7, C6-01, and the Oro. The Nokia 500 will get its Belle update sometime in the next few weeks.

The Nokia Belle update is already available in majority of markets including India, Russia, UAE, Poland, Germany, Italy and Indonesia. Readers can check out whether the Belle update is available for their handset in their region or not via this page from Nokia.

The Belle update is not being rolled out via OTA (Over-The-Air). Instead, users need to use the latest version of Nokia’s PC Suite to install the update on their handset.

Last year, Nokia announced four new handsets under the new Asha series of phones, the Nokia Asha 303, Asha 300, Asha 200 and Asha 201. These handsets runs on the Symbian S40 Operating System. Out of the four devices, Nokia has only launched the Asha 200 QWERTY phone in India. Flipkart, a popular online retailer in India is already selling the new Nokia Asha 300 in India. This handset comes with a touchscreen display as well as a physical T9 keypad. The Nokia Asha 300 allows you to easily access messaging, email and instant messaging from the home screen. You can even swipe the homescreen to access apps, music or games from the Nokia Store.

Nokia Asha 300 features a 2.4 inch resistive touch display, sporting a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels, 1 GHz processor, Symbian S40 Operating System, 5 megapixel camera with video recording, 140 MB internal memory, microSD card slot, 32 GB expandable memory and so on.

Other features include a 3.5 mm headset jack, Stereo FM radio with RDS, MP3 music player, USB charging, Nokia Life Tools, Nokia Browser, Nokia Messaging with push email and IM, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, Wi-Fi b/g/n, 3G Connectivity, A-GPS, up to 6.9 hours of talk-time, up to 22 days of stand-by time and a 1110 mAh battery.

This handset measures 112.8 mm x 49.5 mm x 12.7 mm and weighs just 85 g. Flipkart is selling this device for Rs.6835. This handset is currently available only in Graphite color. Other colors such as Night Shade, Gold, White Silver, Pink and Red are expected to be available soon after the official launch. The Nokia Asha 300 also comes pre-loaded with the popular Angry Birds game. To get this handset, head over to this page at Flipkart.

Nokia has reported its earnings for the fourth quarter 2011. While its new strategy finally seems to be paying off a bit, it is still very much in the red when it comes to profits. It posted a massive operating loss of €954 million, around $1.3 billion. Its sales have improved a bit over Q3 2011, up 11% with net revenues of €10 billion ($13.2 billion). It is still worse off compared to where it was last year, but things seem to be looking up compared to last quarter. Its cash reserves have dropped by around €1.4 billion ($1.84 billion), compared to Q4 2010.

Nokia also announced some interesting numbers which reveal some important information about its Windows Phone strategy. It has sold over 1 million Lumia units to date, and received $250 million from Microsoft in Q4 2011, for using Windows Phone.

While the number is hardly impressive compared to Apple’s quarterly iPhone sales of 37 million units, it does indicate that Lumia is gaining at least some traction. The Lumia 900 also hogged most of the limelight at CES 2012, so the number should only improve going forward.

While it may be faltering in smartphones, Nokia remains the king of feature phones. It announced that it had sold more than 1.5 billion S40 handsets to date. Nokia announced that it expects to break even in Q1 2012, maybe even turn a small profit.

Check out the complete Nokia Q4 2011 results here: Nokia Q4 2011

Nokia has started rolling out the PR1.2 Harmattan update for the developer only – Nokia N950. The new update brings in quite a lot of welcome changes, including folder support, lock screen music controls, tons of bug fixes and much more.

For the less informed, the N950 is the developer variant of the N9 and comes with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard as well.

Below is the full change-log of the update –:

• Software update notifications for content in Nokia Store

• Face recognition for gallery and face tags for Facebook

• Support for folders in the application view

• Mail thread support in the Email client

• Extended copy-paste support

• Media sharing with DLNA compatible devices

• Compass support in Maps

• New font taken into use

• Front camera support

• Video editing support in the Gallery application

• Separate switch for controlling mobile background connections while roaming

• Camera: self timer, grid on/off control

• Clock alarm becomes silent by flipping the device face down instead of snoozing

• People view added to the grid toolbar in the gallery

• Audiobook and podcast support in the music player

• Ability to create playlists in the music player

• Ability to delete music files from music player library views via object menu

As you can see from the huge change-log above, the PR1.2 update packs in quite a lot of new features including some basic ones like front-camera support, new font, extended copy and paste etcetera. The PR1.2 update will also be rolled out to the Nokia N9 after the Finnish giant gives the build some final touches.

(Source)

Break out the bubbly, Nokia has officially broken a billion sales of their Series 40 handsets. 1.5 billion to be exact.

In their effort to bring Series 40 to the emerging masses, Nokia promised to reach the “next billion”. Today Nokia announced they have broken 1.5 billion S40 handsets sold. The Nokia Asha 303 was the lucky handset to be handed off to the lucky purchaser, 21 year old Mayara Rodrigues. With a celeb-like fanfare, Mayara met with Vice President of Nokia Brazil Almir Narcizo, and Retail Network President, Luiza Helena Trajano for their inaugural moment (pictured above).

It was Mary McDowell who promised Nokia would help “connect the next billion”. She was referring to emerging markets, new smartphone owners and people who are using their first internet connection from a mobile phone. As the Executive Vice President for Nokia, McDowell is incredibly proud to reach this milestone.

“Having 1.5 billion Series 40 devices sold is a hard-to-reach mark, let alone one attainable in a single line of products. At a time when we are maintaining our commitment to connecting the next billion customers around the world – it is gratifying to consider how Series 40 devices have made mobile technology accessible and help continue to change people’s lives for the better.”

It’s fitting that the 303 was the device Mayara chose, as the name Asha is sanskrit for ‘hope’. Announced at Nokia World 2011, the Nokia Asha 303 is a Touch and Type Series 40 handset. It features a full hardware QWERTY keyboard and a touchscreen, for dual functionality. The milestone mobile was purchased from a Magazine Luiza store in São Paulo. Mayara purchased it as she ”loves staying in touch with friends and family through social networks.”

Hey Nokia, what’s cooler than a million billion? The next billion.

Even though Nokia has gone full tilt to Windows Phone 7, and in the process, taken the design of the recently announced Lumia 800/900 from the N9, they are adamant in providing updates to the dead-on-arrival handset.

Just shy of 2 months from the PR1.1 update, Nokia Developer has announced that PR1.2 will become available for registered developers and participants in the N950 Developer Program. It will be in a beta stage for testing and provided to ensure application compatibility before full public launch on the N9.

Among the 3,500 expected changes, the ability to create folders on the homescreen, copy and paste in the browser, and face recognition within the camera, are the top additions. Although no official changelog has been released, likely due to the fact that the OneClickFlashers for the N950 have not been released, screenshots from an N9 already running PR1.2 have been shared online.

While Nokia does have a fairly strong track record of providing updates and fixing serious bugs on released devices, some have indicated that PR1.2 will be the last update for the N9, as the company moves forward headstrong with Windows Phone 7. Hopefully the update also brings with it, the much requested (and promised) ‘open-mode’, giving developers more low level system access — which will also allow the community to continue updating their devices when Nokia stamps it as EOL.

If you’re a lucky (or unlucky) user of an N9, you’ll likely be waiting anywhere from a few week or a few months until PR1.2 is officially released for your N9. Hang in there, this might be the last hurrah for you and your coveted MeeGo device.

Last month, T-Mobile announced the much-awaited Nokia Lumia 710 smartphone. It is the Nokia’s first Windows Phone 7.5 powered device, launched in the US. This handset was originally announced at the Nokia World 2011 in London. Last week, the Nokia Lumia 710 went on sale in the US for just $50 with a 2 year service agreement. However, we have a good news for the T-Mobile customers planning to buy this amazing entry-level smartphone.

Within a week of its official launch, Walmart is selling the Nokia Lumia 710 smartphone for free on contract. You heard it right. Now you can get this device without burning a hole in your pocket. If you are planning to buy one, then check out the complete specs after the break.

T-Mobile Nokia Lumia 710 features a 3.7 inch WVGA display, sporting a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, 1.4 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, Windows Phone 7.5 Mango OS, 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash, HD (720p) video recording and playback, Skydrive cloud storage and so on.

It also comes with a 3.5mm headset jack, 512MB RAM, 8 GB internal memory, Zune Music, Internet Explorer 9 Mobile, A-GPS, Wi-Fi 801.11 b/g/n, 3G Connectivity, MicroUSB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, up to 34 hours of music playback time, up to 7 hours of talk-time, up to 400 hours of stand-by time and a 1300 mAh battery.

The Nokia Lumia 710 will come preloaded with Nokia Drive, Netflix, App Highlights, T-Mobile TV, My Account, Microsoft Office Apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, SharePoint and Office 365), The Weather Channel, ESPN, Slacker Radio and TeleNav GPS.

Walmart is selling both Black and White versions of the Nokia Lumia 710 for free with a 2 year service agreement. On the other hand, you can get this handset at CostCo for just a penny after the 2 year contract and a $50 mail-in rebate. Are you planning to buy this handset? Or you will go for the upcoming Nokia Lumia 900 and Lumia 800? Let us know your views in the comments section below.

Nokia may no longer be the market leader in smartphones, but it still has more than 30,000 patents related to various technologies used in smartphones, wireless equipment and standards. It is one of the few companies to win against Apple in a patent duel, and still receives licensing royalty payments from Apple.

Nokia has sold more than 450 patents to Sisvel, an Italian patent licensing company, or in other words, a patent troll. The patents cover technologies related to 3G, LTE and GSM. Some of them are essential patents, and must be licensed to others on FRAND terms.

Nokia still retains a license to these patents, but the exact details of the deal haven’t been revealed. Nokia could either have sold them off for a lump sum amount, or it could have sold them in return for a cut of the licensing revenue and access to other patents in Sisvel’s portfolio. In any case, it is selling off part of its patent portfolio to raise funds, presumably to expand operations.

Nokia’s patent portfolio is one of the most important ones in the mobile and wireless industry, which has been plagued by patent lawsuits among the major players. Google recently acquired Motorola primarily for its patent portfolio. Microsoft is set to generate billions of dollars in licensing revenue from Android device manufacturers.

It’s not clear what Sisvel plans to do with the acquired patents, but it’s definitely not going to sit on them.

Nokia is very strong in location-based services and to demonstrate this strength, they have a few apps pre-loaded on their Windows Phones, like Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive, Nokia Transport, Nokia Pulse and Nokia City Lens. I got a chance to look at Nokia Drive and Nokia Transport at the Nokia booth during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

Nokia Drive is the free turn-by-turn navigation app that comes pre-loaded on Nokia Windows Phones. It lets you search an extensive database of points of interest (POI) and also get directions to a specific address. Nokia Drive comes in 50 languages and in 100 countries, and allows downloads of specific maps to the phone so that it works even when the phone is not connected to the network.

Nokia Transport is in beta, and it is an app which lets you get from one place to another via public transport (including walking). The interesting part about this app, as you will see in the video, is the ability to pin a certain route to your Start Screen. This pinned Live Tile then keeps you updated with the next 3 times of departure for your route. This app demonstrates the beauty of the Windows Phone OS: pinning the route to the Start Screen allows you to get to that route instantly without opening the app and then searching for the route, and the Live Tile which keeps updating the route timings throughout the day.

Nokia Transport comes with information on public transport in 450 cities in 46 countries.

Enjoy the videos below.

Nokia Drive and Nokia Transport

For my hands on with Nokia Lumia 900, see this post. For a walkthrough of the Nokia ESPN app, see this post.

Here is a video of the exclusive app that ESPN created for Nokia Windows Phones. The app is beautiful, no doubt. It follows all of the Metro design principles with the pivots, the in-app pinning, etc. What I found out though, as an existing Windows Phone user, is that the app left a lot to be desired. Perhaps it was my high expectation level about an exclusive Nokia app, or that ESPN would take their current ScoreCenter app and raise it a notch. Whatever the case may be, it was a little bit disappointing.

The biggest issue that I saw, and I feel it is an opportunity missed at least in this version of the app, is the lack of Live Tiles. If Nokia wants to wow the new Windows Phone users, it would be fantastic if the users could not only pin an individual sport to the Start Screen, but also get toasts or Live Tile updates for that sport. As an ESPN registered member you can choose to receive text alerts, for example, at various intervals within a game. Those alerts could easily have been implemented as toasts or Live Tiles within the app.

Video walkthrough of the ESPN app exclusive on Nokia Windows Phones:

Nokia Windows Phone ESPN App Walkthrough

In this video, the Nokia representative is talking about the app, but is also talking about the platform in general which allows you to do many things within the context of what you are doing rather than force you to open multiple apps. What you will notice is that after going two levels deep, the links end up opening the ESPN mobile web, which is not bad. However, compared to the native app, it does look quite different.

The Nokia ESPN app is a well-designed one which looks beautiful. It has pretty good functionality for “version 1”, but I hope Live Tiles and greater in-app content gets to the app soon, perhaps even before the official ship date of the Nokia Lumia 900.

For a hands on look at the Nokia Lumia 900, see my earlier post.