Symbian Belle showcased on a Nokia N8 in a lengthy video

Oh, Symbian Belle, where art thou? Some could say the same thing for Symbian Anna still, but let's not pick up a fight. Our Nokia N8s in the office are tirelessly waiting for the Anna update, but we already downloaded the excellent new Nokia Maps and the Ovi Store update, so the only things to look forward to are a portrait keyboard and the new browser UI.

Symbian Belle, however, is a whole different ballgame. It looks and behaves like a modern smartphone OS, takes a lot of clues from the Nokia N9's MeeGo interface, but doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, and rather introduces a pull-down notification bar, as well as minimalistic back and context menu buttons, Android-style. We evidently have a nice new camera interface as well, which, on camera-centric devices like the Nokia N8, should enhance the photographic experience even more.

The next version of Symbian for Nokia's flagship smartphones is apparently in late stages of development since a working demo has leaked in the form of a lengthy video, which showcases it on the Nokia N8. While we know that by the end of this month all Symbian^3 handsets will be running Anna, Symbian Belle won't come until probably late fall, when the new Symbian handsets like Nokia 700 (Zeta) hit, so enjoy the vid in the meantime.

And, no, you can't send the guy money with PayPal and have the firmware to play with, many have already asked.

Thanks to everyone who sent this!