Nokia has commenced the rollout of Nokia Belle to existing Symbian handset owners, bringing a range of enhancements and new features for users to enjoy.

The update is available for the Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia E6, Nokia X7, Nokia C6-01, Nokia C7 and Nokia Oro. The update will be made available for the Nokia 500 in the next few weeks.

Once users have updated their handsets to Nokia Belle, they will see 6 homescreens instead of three, larger live Widgets on the screen, with fast access to popular services and applications.

Additionally Microsoft apps Lync and OneNote will be made available to download for Nokia Belle users.

“The new and improved Nokia Belle interface also includes new features like imaging applications with HD Video recording at 30 Frames Per Second and a visually improved browser enabling high-quality browsing and viewing of web videos,” explained Nokia. “The menus have been simplified and a notifications bar has been added to make accessing key features or settings, very fast.”

To update your handset to Nokia Belle, you will need to connect it to a PC as the update is too large to be done Over The Air. You will need the latest version of Nokia PC Suite installed, which can be downloaded from the Nokia website.

The Nokia Belle update is being rolled out in the UK, Italy, India, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Poland, Turkey, Germany, Vietnam and Indonesia. To check the availability of Nokia Belle for your handset, see the Software Status page on the Nokia website.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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With lots of white snow on the ground here in the UK at the moment, it seems an opportune moment for Nokia to give official confirmation to the Nokia Lumia 800 in White.

Available around the end of February/beginning of March, the White Lumia 800 is the same inside as previous versions of the device, same 1.4 GHz processor, 3.7 inch AMOLED ClearBlack display and same Windows Phone software.

Nokia state that the process of selection meant working through hundreds of pigments to find the 'perfect white'. The colour is embedded into the polycarbonate body, which means it should remain a vibrant white for the life of the device.

The Nokia Lumia 800 has been a good first step for Nokia in their collaboration with Microsoft, and there is a strong market for white smartphones.

“The story of the Nokia Lumia is one of reduction and purity,” says Nokia colour and material designer, Tiina Aarrasshe. “White is the ultimate colour of reduction. It is also perfect for emphasising the black polished screen. If you stand a White Lumia 800 on a table the body almost disappears, and the black screen seems to lift up and float.”

The Nokia Lumia 800 in White is expected to launch in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Finland and Switzerland, with other countries to follow shortly.

See our Nokia Lumia 800 deals page for the latest prices and offers.

Symbian may not be the OS of choice for new Nokia devices these days, but there are still many devices in use worldwide. Now Skype have released an update to their app, bringing their services to Symbian handsets running Nokia Belle.

Formerly known as Symbian Belle, Nokia Belle is found on recently released devices such as the Nokia 603 and Nokia 701, and will also be rolled out to existing devices including the Nokia N8, Nokia C7 and Nokia C6-01 during February.

The Skype app will support Skype-to-Skype voice calls via 3G and WiFi, as well as instant messaging, SMS, picture sending and file sharing. The app has also received a UI makeover, and general bug problems have been resolved improving the overall performance.

Using Skype-to-Skype over WiFi is free, but you run the risk of charges from your network when using the service over 3G, so be sure you have a suitable data plan. This applies to file and picture sharing, too.

If you have a device running Nokia Belle, then head on over to the Nokia Store to download the app.

Nokia has released details of their earnings from Q4 2011, showing heavy losses of 1.07 billion Euro, contrasting to a profit of 745 million Euro in Q4 2010.

The overall number of Nokia smartphones also declined, with 19.6 million units sold during the last quarter of 2011, a decline in sales of 31 percent compared to the year before.

The positive aspect of the smartphone sales, though, has to be the number of Lumia devices sold, with Nokia stating that over 1 million devices have been sold to date.

Nokia also state their intention to introduce the Lumia range into new territories in the first half of 2012, including Latin America and China.

The number of Lumia devices sold is a good start for Nokia's relationship with the Windows Phone OS, but when compared to popular Android handsets and the Apple iPhone, there is still a long way to go.

The next important step for Nokia will be the follow up devices, and in particular the range that will be announced at the forthcoming Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona.

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ESPN will be running a promotion for UK based subscribers over the first weekend in February, giving free access to an extensive line up of sporting action, sponsored by Nokia Lumia.

The Lumia range of devices is Nokia's first step into the world of Windows Phone handsets, and currently includes the Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710. Throughout the whole weekend the channel will be running promotional advertising for the Nokia Lumia devices, and the ESPN website will also be getting a Nokia Lumia makeover.

The free weekend of sport starts on Friday 3rd February, at 6 am, and runs through to 6 am on Monday 6th February. The offer includes ESPN and ESPN HD, and will be available to all Sky, TopUp TV and BT Vision subscribers, as well as those who watch digital TV via Freeview.

There will be a host of live sporting action, including a strong line up of live football. Manchester City face Fulham from the Barclays Premier League, as well as top games from Serie A, including Roma v Inter Milan, and AC Milan v Napoli.

In addition to the extensive football coverage, there will also be live coverage of the NBA game between the New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics, as well as ATP tennis from Montpellier.

The tie up between ESPN and Nokia follows the introduction of the ESPN Hub, designed to help sports fans who use a Windows Phone keep up to date with all the latest sporting news and results from around the globe.

ESPN Vice President, TV Channels Europe, Middle East & Africa, Jeroen Oerlemans, said: “Millions of UK fans have already discovered the great range of great sport ESPN offers – from the Barclays Premier League to Serie A, to cricket, darts, motorsports and UFC. This is a great opportunity for us to introduce that to millions more and let them sample the programming ESPN has on offer.”

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You just can't get way from the mobile phone these days; if it is not people shouting on them during train journeys, then it is the sound of angry little birds being hurled at pigs. However there are still some occasions where the phone should be neither seen nor heard, such as at a theatre, concert or cinema.

Forgetting to turn your phone to mute can lead to embarrassing situations, however at a recent violin recital, the violinist showed just how to handle the situation.

Slovakian Lukas Kmit was giving a performance at a Jewish orthodox synagogue, when the sound of the familiar Nokia tone interrupted him in mid-flow. However, showing grace and good humour, he then played an improvisation of the tone on his violin, winning a round of applause from his audience at his quick thinking. And no doubt, gratitude from the person whose phone caused the disturbance.

This contrasts to another recently well publicised event, when the sound of the iPhone 'Marimba' tune led to a halt in the performance of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, just as they were heading in to the climax of Mahler's 9th Symphony. The orchestra only resumed playing once the person in the audience truend their phone off.

The Nokia Tone itself is part of a classical piece of music, originally written by Spanish guitarist Francisco Tarrega, in 1902, called Gran Vals.

As seen by the reaction to the Philharmonic incident, not all performers are as gracious as Kmit, when disturbed by the sound of an unwelcome ringtone. So please, turn your phone off before heading into the cinema, theatre, concert hall, or synagogue!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Nokia has started rolling out the second promised software patch, which is designed to resolve the poor battery performance issues some owners of the Lumia 800 have been experiencing.

The update is being staggered out over the next two weeks,but will be available to all Lumia 800 users. As well as giving the much hoped for battery boost, the update also includes improvements to the phone's WiFi connectivity.

When the update is available to you to install, a message will appear on your handset – however the update is not available Over The Air, instead you will need to connect your handset to your PC via the data cable, and using Zune, go to the phone update under phone settings to install the software patch.

Once done, the software version on the Lumia 800 should be 1600.2483.8106.11500

The battery issue meant that the power efficiency of the unit was not performing to standard, so users were not getting the full benefit of the battery, as the battery capacity was not being reached when being charged. The software fix improves the power management of the device, so all users who had been affected by poor battery life should see an improvement.

For the latest offers on this handset, see our Nokia Lumia 800 deals page.

Nokia and EA have announced a deal that will see a host of exclusive EA games comes to the Windows Phone platform, with priority for Nokia devices, such as the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710.

Also included in the deal will be a range of titles from Chillingo, the developer behind titles such as Sneezies and Cut The Rope, amongst others.

The full list of games has not yet been made available, however the promotional video below highlights Fifa 12, Mirror's Edge and Dead Space, amongst others.

How the exclusivity for Nokia will pan out also remains to be seen, however it will be time limited, with the titles subsequently being made available to other Windows Phone handsets.

The first range of Windows Phone handsets from Nokia have been well received generally within the industry, but have not made any real impact with consumers. Deals like this should help raise the profile of the Windows Mobile OS, raising the competition with iOS and Android.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Good news for the almost forgotten Symbian OS, with details that the Nokia Store is seeing daily download figures in excess of 11 million.

The Nokia Store mainly provides content for Symbian devices, and although Symbian is out of favour these days, there are still a high number of Symbian handsets in use worldwide. Indeed, figures show that in 2011 the Symbian OS was the number one operating system in use.

The leading markets for downloads were India, by quite some way, followed by China, Russia, Brazil and Turkey. The most popular item for downloads in India were games, whilst in the other leading markets general applications proved to be popular with users. The most popular Symbian handset, unsurprisingly is the Nokia N8, followed by the Nokia 5800 and the Nokia C3.

The high number of downloads has enabled 177 developers to join the now-not-so-exclusive club of having their app downloaded more than 1 million times.

Leading applications were Facebook Chat, eBuddy Messenger Free, WhatsApp Messenger, High Speed 3D and Skype, showcasing a tendency towards communication applications.

With Nokia now focussing their attention on Windows Phone for their smartphones, they can only hope that the OS gains the popularity that Symbian still seems to have.

The Nokia Lumia 900 has been rumoured for a while now, and was expected by some at the time the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 were announced.

It didn't happen then, but now more details have become available, with images and spec of the device leaked ahead of the launch.

It seems the Lumia 900 will offer a large, 4.3 inch display, which uses Nokia ClearBlack technology, as well as an 8.0 Megapixel camera, and a front facing camera for video calls. However, it is expected the device will be running Windows Phone 7 Mango at launch, and not Tango, as previously hoped for.

The device could include support for LTE, and have 512MB RAM, and be powered by an 1830 mAh battery, which should help deliver a decent battery performance.

The Nokia Lumia 900 is expected to go on show at the CES event happening next week, when hopefully we will get further detail on release date.

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Image via PocketNow