Archive for the ‘Software Updates’ Category
Friday, October 16th, 2009
Earlier this month, Microsoft released a new version of their mobile phone operating system – Windows Mobile 6.5. Unlike most updates though, not every0ne will be able to upgrade their phone to run this new software as it requires certain hardware features in order for it to work.
If you’ve got a Windows Phone and are looking to upgrade to the latest version, this post should tell you what you need to do to upgrade the software on your phone.
Can You Upgrade?
For most people, the answer unfortunately will be no as the number of handsets that can support Windows Mobile 6.5 is very limited. There are a couple of things that you’ll need to check to see if your handset is one of the lucky ones.
Firstly, you’ll need to know what version of Windows your phone is currently running. To find out you’ll need to access the settings window on your phone.
- Press ‘Start’
- Press ‘Settings’
- Click on the ‘System’ Tab
- Click on the ‘Information’ or ‘About’ icon
The window that appears will then give you information about your phone and the software that it’s running. Compare your software version to the ones listed in the chart below to see if the upgrade is available.
Windows Mobile 6.5 - Can you upgrade?
One thing that is worth mentioning here, is that if you’ve previously upgraded from 6.0 to 6.1 then you won’t be able to upgrade again to 6.5 as your phone will lack the hardware that’s needed for Windows Mobile 6.5.
So how do you upgrade?
To upgrade your phone you’ll need to download the software from either your network or handset manufacturers website. Unfortunately though, not all manufacturers and networks are that fast at releasing the software, so you may have to wait a while for the software you need to be released.
Currently, updates have been released for the following handsets:
Updates are due shortly for the following handsets:
I’ll add to this list as and when updates become available. If you have a network variation of one of the phones listed above you will need to wait for your network to release their version of the software before you update as the generic HTC Touch Pro2 version, for example, won’t work on the T-Mobile MDA V or Vodafone Touch Pro2 – even though they are the same handset.
Before you begin the update process we strongly recommend that you back up all data stored on your phone and remove the memory card. Once you’ve downloaded the software, plug your phone into your PC and launch active sync/mobile device manager. The phone should then begin the update process and can take up to an hour to complete.
If you’ve found an update for a UK handset that isn’t listed here, let me know using the comments form below and I’ll get the post updated.
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
With all handsets, the phone you buy in the shops is not always the final version. Manufacturers frequently release software updates to fix bugs, improve reliability and add functionality. Historically this would have involved being without your phone for 2-3 weeks or more while you sent your phone back to the manufacturers service centre. Quite often all data on the handset would be lost, and in some cases phones could get lost or damaged on their way to and from the service centre.
BlackBerry 8520 - Is yours up to date?
Most of the major handset manufacturers have now made this a thing of the past by allowing you to update the software on their phones yourself, when and where you want.
Why should I update my phone?
You may not be experiencing any problems or software issues with your phone, so you may not think you need to update it, but some of the updates released can improve features such as battery life, photo quality and improve support for other devices such as Bluetooth Headsets. BlackBerry have recently released several completely new features onto some of their handsets through the Software Device Update. To see what’s been added recently, take a look at the features chart on the BlackBerry Website.
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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
BlackBerry handsets are great for emailing and messaging, but as with anything electrical, they can sometimes go wrong. One of the more common error messages that seems to come up is “App Error 200″. It still puzzles me why the manufacturers can’t make these error messages a little bit more helpful and actually explain what’s gone wrong – at least then it would be a bit easier to work out how to fix it. Fortunately though, “App Error 200″ is usually fixed with a straight forward firmware update/reinstall.
Problems with your BlackBerry?
The error is caused by an installed application failing and damaging the BlackBerry Operating system in the process. The fix is to simply erase and reinstall the operating system to your phone. This sounds difficult but isn’t too hard in practice. It’s something you can do yourself on your home PC using BlackBerry Desktop Manager. If you don’t feel confident in doing this yourself then you can take it to a BlackBerry repair centre and they’ll carry the repair out for you, but you might have to wait a couple of weeks for them to do it and if you’re out of warranty you’ll probably have to pay for it.
In most cases, the 12 steps listed below should get your handset working again & the process is exactly the same if you want to upgrade your firmware to a newer version.
Before you start though I’d recommend that you check the following:
- The battery in your BlackBerry handset is fully charged.
- You have downloaded and installed the latest version of BlackBerry Desktop Manager – Download now from the BlackBerry Website.
- You have downloaded the latest version of the BlackBerry firmware – Download now from the BlackBerry Website*.
- If you’re working off a laptop, make sure your laptop is connected to a power supply.
- You have the correct data cable for your phone.
*Internet Explorer is needed to download latest version of BlackBerry Firmware. BlackBerry Desktop Manager isn’t an essential part of the process, but it will make managing your device a lot easier.
Once you’ve downloaded and installed the latest versions, it’s time to start updating your phone. You’ll need to be patient though, as this isn’t the fastest process in the world and it will take some time to erase everything and then reinstall the software. When I ran through it for this post it took around 45 minutes on a BlackBerry Curve 8310 upgrading to 4.5.0.163 on a PC running Windows XP SP3.
To be on the safe side, I’d close any other applications on your computer and go make yourself a coffee while you wait for the update to finish.
It’s extremely important that once you start this process you don’t disconnect your BlackBerry from your computer or switch your computer off until the update has completed and you’re told it is safe to do so by the update application.
- Connect your BlackBerry handset to your computer.
- Launch BlackBerry Desktop Manager.
- Double-click Application Loader. The Application Loader Wizard appears. You might need to unplug and re-attach the USB cable to your BlackBerry in order for it to be recognised.
- Click Next.
- Choose the software that you want to install and click Next.
Update BlackBerry Firmware - Select Software Version to Install
- If you’re asked for a password, type in your BlackBerry password and click Next.
- The Device Application Selection screen appears. Select the applications to be loaded onto your BlackBerry smartphone.
Update BlackBerry Firmware - Select Applications to Install
- If the Device Backup screen appears, choose whether or not to automatically back up the BlackBerry smartphone. Click Next.
- Click Next. The ‘Completing the Application Wizard’ screen will appear and display all the software that will be loaded to your BlackBerry smartphone.
- Click the Advanced button and make sure that Erase all application data and Erase all currently installed applications are both selected. Note: If the Application Loader is not able to access all of the BlackBerry smartphone data, then both Erase all application data and Erase all currently installed applications will be grayed out.
Update BlackBerry Firmware - Check 'Erase all' boxes
- Click Next, You’ll be asked if you want to be notified of future updates, enter your email address and then click Next again.
- Click Finish. The BlackBerry firmware will now be updated on your BlackBerry. You’ll need to be patient though as this will take around 45 minutes to complete – maybe longer.
Update BlackBerry Firmware - Software will take around 45 minutes to udpate
- That’s it – All done. Once you see the update successful screen it is safe to disconnect your phone from your computer.
Update BlackBerry Firmware - Update Complete
If you get any error messages at any point, you may need to start the process again. If you try 3 times and it still won’t work, you’ll need to take your handset to your nearest repair centre or contact BlackBerry for help.
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
Last night Apple released the long awaited iPhone OS 3.0 for iPhone and iPod Touch. The update adds a number of new features to the latest versions of both devices, including adding support for Stereo Bluetooth Headphones and Speakers.
The update is free foriPhone 3G users, and there is a small charge of £5.99 for iPod Touch users.
To update your device, you need launch iTunes and connect your iPhone or iPod Touch. Once it is recognised by iTunes, you need to select it from the list of devices and click on the summary tab. Here you will see the option to ‘Check for Update’.
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Saturday, April 4th, 2009
iPhone software 3.0 Beta 1 is now available to developers, and as we couldn’t wait to get our hands on it, we asked our guest reviewer Darryl Mitchell to have a play with the new software and let us know what’s new and if it’s any good. This is his review:
I’m going to start with the Home screen and work my way through. The new things about the home screen that are noticeable so far is there are a few new icons. Its not all that noticeable, but the phone icon, the ipod icon and the messages icon have changed, and now have a more contemporary brushed effect. You’ve also got the new spotlight feature which is really helpful if you want to search for songs, emails or contacts, it searches everything. You just swipe to the right and it brings up the spotlight search screen. Its a really good feature and is surprisingly fast, I thought it was going to lag for quite some time, but it’s quick and snappy. That is it for the new home screen.
Moving on to the phone features, there’s not much added to the this bit, however, when you get a missed call or it shows you your recent calls, it now shows you what they called you from, for example if you called them on their mobile, or work phone you can now see this in the Recent calls screen. So that’s a really easy way of showing where they called you from.
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Monday, March 30th, 2009
Nokia have just released a software update for the 5800 XpressMusic.
As well as fixing a few bugs, the software will add new features to your 5800 and is available to download now from the Nokia software update website.
Improvements in the new software version include faster data downloads from the Internet, an improved e-mail interface, and improvements to the built in search.
The update will also add the following new features:
- Faster user interface
- Faster download times
- Front facing camera can now take still images
- Burst mode allows you to take multiple pictures one after another without needing to repress the camera button
- Built-in dictionary functionality with voice playback of words utilizing text-to-speech technology, with support for 38 languages
- Application Update lets you check for available updates for applications and update them directly on the phone.
- Applications can also be kept up-to-date by setting the checking to automatic.
For help in upgrading the software on your phone, please see our step-by-step guide on Nokia software updates.
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009
With all handsets released, the product you buy in the shops is not always the final version. Manufacturers frequently release software updates to fix bugs, improve reliability and add functionality. Historically this would have involved being without your phone for 2-3 weeks or more while you sent your phone back to the manufacturers service centre. Quite often all data on the handset would be lost, and in some cases phones could get lost or damaged on their way to and from the service centre.
Most of the major handset manufacturers have now made this a thing of the past by allowing customers to update the software on their phones themselves, when and where you want.
Why should I update my phone?
You may not be experiencing any problems or software issues with your phone, so you may not think you need to update it, but some of the updates released can improve features such as battery life, photo quality and improve support for other devices such as Bluetooth Headsets. Nokia have recently released several completely new features onto some of their handsets through the Software Updater.
There are two ways to update the software on your phone – Using the Nokia Software Updater or Over-the-Air (referred to as OTA).
Both methods are relatively simple, but with a lot of handsets being network branded, not many will support the OTA service. Upgrading through your PC also means that you can back your phone up before starting the upgrade, just in case anything goes wrong.
So what’s the difference?
Nokia Software Updater is a PC based application that you can download and install from the Nokia Website. Once installed, the program will ask you which phone you want to update, and then download the necessary updates. In order to use Nokia Software Updater you will need a PC, a broadband connection and the correct data cable for your phone. Using the Nokia Software Updater does not always protect your user data and depending on your handset, it may delete your text messages, photos, videos and contacts. Before you start the update you need to make sure that your battery is fully charged, and ideally should have backed up your data using the Nokia PC Suite just in case something doesn’t go to plan. You cannot run the update service over a Bluetooth connection and not all handsets support software updates. Nokia Software Updater can take up to 20-30 minutes to complete.
Visit the Nokia Software Update page to check for compatibility and any available updates.
OTA is a remote update service. Your phone will connect to the Internet and check with Nokia for any updates to the software already running. If it finds an update, it will download and install it straight to your phone without having to connect to a PC. Software updates are quite large in size, so this method is only recommended if you have an unlimited data plan. A typical update is over 100 MB, which is a lot of data,so at up to £2.50 per MB (depending on your service provider) it can prove to be very expensive. If your handset has Wi-Fi built in, you will find it faster and cheaper to download the update over WiFi. As with the PC method using the OTA option doesn’t always protect your data and may delete your text messages, photos, videos and contacts. Before you start the update you need to make sure that your battery is fully charged, and ideally should have backed up your data to your PC using the Nokia PC Suite just in case something doesn’t go to plan. OTA updates are much slower to process and will take a considerable amount of time to complete.
I would recommend using the PC to update your software rather than OTA.
How do I know if there is an update available?
There are two ways to check for updates – either through the Nokia website or through the Software update application. The quickest and easiest way is to run the Software updater, connect your phone to your PC and the software will identify your phone and let you know of any available updates.
To check for udpates through the Nokia website, you will need to find out your current version of software by typing #*0000# into your phones keypad.
Make a note of your current software version number, it will be displayed on screen and will look similiar to: V12.3.456.
You will also need to know your product code. This will be printed on the label underneath your phone’s battery, is 8 digits long and will look something similar to: CODE:0520001
Once you’ve made a note of these two numbers, head over to the Nokia Update Checker and enter your product code. You will be shown the latest version of software that is available for your phone, and if the version number is higher than you have on your phone you will be able to update.
Handsets running the latest S60 Software can check for updates directly on their phone. To do this, key in *#0000#, and when the software version is displayed, press the “options” key, and check for updates.
How do I update on my PC?
If you already have Nokia PC Suite installed, you should have the Software Updater installed too, if not, you can download it free of charge from the Nokia website.
Once the Nokia Software updater is installed, launch the program, connect your phone and then follow the on screen prompts.
Things to remember before you start:
- Make sure your battery is fully charged
- Make sure you have backed up your phone using Nokia PC Suite
- Any passwords on your memory card have been removed
An average software update will involve downloading the new software from Nokia’s servers. This download is normally around 100MB, so depending on your connection speed it may take a while to download. Once the download starts you won’t be able to disconnect your phone without causing problems. Always allow plenty of time when doing a software update.
It is very important that you do not disconnect or turn off your phone or computer during the update process as this can cause extreme damage to your handset.
Once the software update has completed, you may need to run the back up application from PC Suite again to restore your settings, messages pictures and music onto your phone.
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
Nokia have just announced a second software update to their latest N-Series handset, the N78. Version 12.046 was released on the 14 July 2008, giving a number of performance improvements:
- Softkey selection
- Bluetooth Stability
- Video Playback
- Email Sending
- Alarm Clock Functions
Unlike the previous update, Version 12.046 will be available to download via the Nokia Software Updater, as well as Over the Air – removing the need to connect to a PC.
To download directly to the N78:
- Click Menu > Tools > Utilities > Device Manager.
- Select Options > Check for updates and follow the on-screen prompts.
The file download for this may be quite large, so we’d suggest connecting to a Wi-Fi network if you don’t have an unlimited data plan. This update may not be available for users of network branded handsets.
To check what software version you are currently using enter *#0000# on your handset.
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
Parrot Software Update Tool
In order to keep their products up to date, Parrot have developed a Software Update Tool, a quick and easy way to update your Parrot product with all the latest software updates.
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NB: The Parrot Software Update Tool is currently only available for Microsoft Windows . |
Before starting your upgrade, please read the following guides:
Change Your Language
Parrot hands-free car kits softwares are available in 19 languages.
Before starting the update, you can select your preferred language in the configuration menu of the Parrot Software Update Tool.
You can change the language on the following Parrot Kits:
- Minikit
- Photo Viewer ( available in 16 languages )
- 3200 LS-COLOR
- 3400 LS-GPS
- CK3100 LCD
- CK3000 Evolution
- Easydrive
Latest available versions
Check the software version currently installed in your kit (”Preferences” menu, “Information” sub-menu) and compare it with this list:
(Correct as of 11/02/2008)
To know the specifications, read the “release notes.”
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
With all handsets released, the product you buy in the shops is not always the final version. Manufacturers frequently release software updates to fix bugs, improve reliability and add functionality. Historically this would have involved being without your phone for 2-3 weeks or more while you sent your phone back to the manufacturers service centre. Quite often all data on the handset would be lost, and in some cases phones could get lost or damaged on their way to and from the service centre.
Sony Ericsson have made all this a thing of the past by launching a software update service that you can do yourself wherever and whenever you want.
There are two ways to update the software on your phone – Sony Ericsson Update Service (referred to as SEUS) and Over-the-Air (referred to as FOTA).
Both methods are simple and straight forward, but the FOTA service is only available on handsets made in the last few years, whereas SEUS is available to pretty much all Sony Ericsson handsets.
Why should I update my phone?
You may not be experiencing any problems or software issues with your phone, so you may not think you need to update it, but some of the updates released can improve features such as battery life, photo quality and improve support for other devices such as Bluetooth Headsets. On some occasions manufacturers may release a completely new feature onto a handset through the software update service.
So what’s the difference?
SEUS is a PC based application that you can download and install from the Sony Ericsson web site. Once installed, the program will ask you which phone you want to update, and then download the necessary updates. In order to use SEUS you will need a PC, a broadband connection and the correct data cable for your phone. Using the SEUS protects your user data and doesn’t delete any of your text messages, photos, videos or contacts. Before you start the update you need to make sure that your battery is fully charged, and ideally should have backed up your data using the Sony Ericsson PC Suite just incase something doesn’t go to plan. You cannot run the update service over a bluetooth connection. SEUS normally takes around 10 minutes to complete.
Click here to go to the SEUS download page
It is very important that you do not disconnect or turn off your phone or computer during the update process as this can cause extreme damage to your handset.
FOTA is a remote update service. Your phone will connect to the Internet and check with Sony Ericsson for any updates to the software already running. If it finds an update, it will download and install it straight to your phone without having to connect to a PC. Software updates are quite large in size, so this method is only recommended if you have an unlimited data plan. A typical update is between 4 and 5 MB, which although is not a lot of data, at up to £2.50 per MB (depending on your service provider) it can prove to be quite expensive.
Using the FOTA option protects your user data and doesn’t delete any of your text messages, photos, videos or contacts. Before you start the update you need to make sure that your battery is fully charged, and ideally should have backed up your data to your PC using the Sony Ericsson PC Suite just in case something doesn’t go to plan. FOTA normally takes 4 minutes to complete in 3G broadband coverage areas, it may take longer if you are not in a 3G signal area.
To check if your phone supports FOTA, go to the Settings Menu, If Update Service is listed you can use the FOTA service. Select Check for Update to start the process.
It is very important that you do not turn your phone off or remove the battery during the update process as this can cause extreme damage to your handset.
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