Nokia Belle gets 'Upload to Skydrive' software update

Nokia’s ‘other’ devices, the ones running the Belle OS, are getting a small, optional software update. Symbian Tweet reports that Belle-powered smartphones are getting an ‘Upload to SkyDrive’ option that allows automatic photo upload to Microsoft’s cloud storage solution, SkyDrive. All users need to do to get this update is click the ‘SW update’ application on their smartphone. It’s a 170kb download and following a restart, your phone will have the update.

The update's description reads: "Upload and store your photos right when you take them with the all new Upload to SkyDrive app. SkyDrive is your personal online storage space, accessible from anywhere – all you need is your Windows Live ID. If you don’t have one yet, go to www.live.com. Upload to SkyDrive uses Wi-Fi to save on data costs, but you can use your data connection as well."

A screenshot of what's new

This follows Nokia's launch of the Belle Feature Pack 1 update for the 700, 701 and 603. The update brought with it some cool additions like an overclock on the processor front for more power. The degree of overclock, however, depended on the phone itself. Some sound enhancements like Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Headphone were also a part of the update. Nokia added about 20 new widgets and a better browser and some minor tweaks as well as changes to the multitasking and notification area. When we reviewed the 603, we had already received the update, so chances are that if you have one of these phones in India, you’ve already got the update.

In our review of the 603, we noticed that with the new update a noteworthy amount of Microsoft Apps were making their appearance on the Belle phones, giving an indication that the Microsoft – Nokia partnership wasn’t just restricted to the Lumia phones. For starters, Microsoft OneNote, Exchange, Lync and SharePoint had already been integrated into the phone. Besides these, there was Doc Connect, Broadcast, Public Transport, Joiku Spot, Poken, Quick Office and Shazam. The standard Nokia apps were naturally part of the ecosystem. These included Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive, Ovi Music, Check In and Nokia Recommends.

Updates available!

Symbian was definitely a powerful platform on its own. With the advent of the other operating systems, it did lose a lot of steam, but it's still chugging on with these updates. One of the main problems was the limited app store, but besides that, the interface, the media and everything else was pretty promising. Symbian wasn’t too optimized though, and it did face a similar fate as Samsung’s Bada operating system. As compared to frontrunners Google and Apple, it didn’t really impress that much, and Nokia themselves started looking at Windows Phone as their future premier operating system.