Nokia belle update for e71

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Written by Matthew Miller , Contributor. Matthew Miller Contributor Matthew Miller has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces since Note: Although a newer version of Quickoffice 5. The full Nokia E71 change log has been posted in the forum thanks to Wildsau.

Firmware updates become available for different device variants e. I've successfully checked for and installed the update with a EURO1 variant.

As with most updates a number of the software improvement were available as stand alone updates e. There aren't a huge number of third party widgets maybe less than fifty in total , but I for one am very happy with the current selection.

On the Nokia with Belle FP2, I've branched out slightly - after many rounds of trial and error in day to day use, I've ended up with two homescreens, shown below - between them they do give a good flavour of the sort of flexibility available in Symbian as of late Note the bottom toolbar - I'm using the Belly Jean theme , by the way, which I highly recommend. Belle FP2 adds a permanent search icon, tap this to be able to type anything and have it quick matched in all contacts, calendar items, web bookmarks and history, plus the single tap option to search for what you've typed so far in Google or Bing.

Sound revolutionary? Not really, Palm OS had this back in and Apple most definitely did not invent the idea, whatever its lawyers say. Quickmatching a contact and a web bookmark - two of the many uses for the integrated Search facility. The main application menu has been 'flat' since Belle arrived see above , but this ease of access for new users i. Putting icons into these folders is as easy as long pressing one and choosing 'Move to folder'. The system works very well, I end up with about three screens of icons to scroll up and down, at most.

One of the most significant changes for Belle FP2 was the addition of a 'staggered' layout qwerty keyboard with multitouch. The old 'grid' keyboards are still there in the OS and brought up by some legacy applications, as indeed is the old 'numeric keypad' method of entry. As indeed is a brand new, rewritten numeric keypad.

Gah - I said things were a little confusing under the hood in places! The new layout is similar to those on most other smartphones, so will be welcomed by users and critics alike, while the multitouch handling means that you can, in theory, go a lot faster when typing, not having to lift each fingertip cleanly before placing the next one.

The aforementioned step backwards is because there's now no option at least in the current firmware build to auto-insert word corrections. So you can't hammer away, iPhone-style, and trust the software to kick in - instead you have to keep a close eye on what you're typing and, when a word goes wrong, you have to tap the appropriate correction from the suggestions listed above the virtual keys.

In practice, this slows down input to more or less what it was without multitouch - maybe slower. Such an omission can be argued to be a deliberate design decision "People hate having their words corrected to something they didn't mean" , but in my view the vast majority of users will want and expect auto-correction, just as on iOS, Android and Windows Phone. Of note is that the most commonly used punctuation symbols are now not only on the underlying symbol keyboard, they're also mounted as a quick-tap panel of eight that pops up when you long press comma , or period.

The system works well and is fully-optimised for touch. The system's unashamedly text-based though and any observer would have to give iOS's rich clipboard system the edge in this regard.

Still, it's ample for what most of us need and very slickly done. I can be accused here of being a little old-fashioned, but I rarely 'browse' web pages on my smartphone. However, web browsing is important to some and Symbian's Web is often accused of not being competitive enough.

The 1. In a quick and dirty benchmark, I tested loading times for my own site, stevelitchfield. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from.

To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Nokia Belle, the successor to Symbian Anna and the first version of the OS to ditch the Symbian name, is now ready for download to older devices at Nokia's site. Belle includes six homescreens instead of three, an updated UI, new Nokia maps, and a new status bar, among other things. Although we're sure Symbian phone owners will appreciate the update, Nokia still hasn't said whether it will be planning further versions of the OS.

There are still a lot of Symbian phones out there, but Nokia's focus on Windows Phone doesn't bode too well for the people who own them. For now, though, you can check to see if the Belle update is available in your country with this map. Subscribe to get the best Verge-approved tech deals of the week.