Remember the good old days of Symbian when you could just access the online repository of firmwares available for your Symbian device from Navifirm? Well, XDA developer laguCool just made something which could make your next update truly hassle-free if you are a Sony user — a PC software for downloading any official firmware which is out for your Xperia device!
Inspired by the former Navifirm PC software for Symbian owners, Xperifirm is a PC application that lets users download any firmware irrespective of regional availability for their devices. Also, the Sony Update Service (SUS) support ended some time back so this application may well prove to be a good alternative if the update simply doesn’t work via the Sony PC Companion (which, in some cases proves to be a headache).
Another thing is that although the Sony PC companion application does the job of updating the phone firmware efficiently enough, sometimes it can be a real pain to disguise your baseband or model to download a firmware which is available early in another region. Do ensure that meet you the following requirements for your PC and software before you proceed though:
- Windows XP SP2 or later OS on your PC
- Microsoft NET framework 2.0 or newer
- Java Runtime environment
The application, once installed, will download all assets of the firmware over to your PC for later installation. But you do need to compile the ftf, which, can be done with the Flashtool software. To compile the ftf firmware file, you just need to open Flashtool and click on tools menu on the top and then click > Bundles > Fileset decrypt. Flashtool will then give you a compiled ftf for flashing the firmware as and when needed.
The app may prove to be of great help and convenience for end-users since almost all Sony and Sony Ericsson branded devices are covered for downloads. For further info and downloading the installation file for the application, click on the link below to head over to the XDA thread.
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