Having spent quite a few hours using Google to answer all my questions, I
thought I would share my findings - it may help some of you who want to do
the same!

It is very easy to do - it just needs a little patience. First, you need to
buy a USB cable. These are widely available and I bought mine on eBay for £5
(plus £2 P&P). You cannot transfer the firmware using Bluetooth.

You also need to download the application to transfer the firmware and the
firmware itself. There is an excellent explanation of this here:
http://www.mob453.com/phones/motorola_v600/
Flashing is where you replace the firmware (the software that runs the
hardware).Flexing is where you replace the Flex file (the software you see
and use, and this is normally the bit customised by Orange and butchered by
Vodafone).

For the firmware files, many have used these: http://v600.cjb.net/. This
definitely works on Orange V500, but there is a later verion now - read on.

A history of the flash files can be found here:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cac...hl=en&start=14

The latest firmware for ANY phone can be tracked here:
http://attwirelessinfo.com/modules.p...showpage&pid=9

To see what firmware and flex is on your phone now, go into the settings
menu -> Phone Status -> Other Infrmation

So , which is the latest Firmware? In Europe and Asia it is
TRIPLETS_G_0B.09.45R and this can be downloaded here:
http://s87445123.onlinehome.us/triplets/.

The 09.45 part is the version number (so you will see older versions around
like 9.4 and 9.38 etc. You may also find 9.9. This is a US version recently
released - I did not find it for download and it does not sound much
different). The bit on the end - AR and ER etc - is the continent and type
(AR = Asia, Release). There is a Spanish site which Google will translate
that explains this.

There are two flex files I found. GI9V600000AA0E9 and SE6452AXXP10F9. Both
work and both are unbranded. The GI9V600000AA0E9 has some engineering type
menus (which did not mean much to me) and the SE6452AXXP10F9 is more of a
release version (like on a phone you would buy) but without any Orange,
Vodafone, etc customisation.

The best thing to do is install the 9.45 from the onlinehome site above.
This will install the 9.45 version and the SE6452AXXP10F9 in one go. This is
what I have and it works great. If you still want the 'techy' flex download
that from the cjb.net site and just overwrite the flex.

Also, none of these versions support delivery reports (or if they do, I
don't know how!). The version I have does have a Bluetooth icon though.

Is it worth it? For me yes (I have moved from Orange to Vodafone and some
things were still tied to Orange). The main differences are faster and menus
and Video. Also no menu options are disabled (like Voicemail number). By the
way, if your phone is locked to a network, none of this will change that -
you still need to get unlock codes.

Oh yeah - video. Transferring video is not straightforward but when you have
sorted it, it is impressive. You need Apple's QuickTime to convert the AVI
files (or Nokia Multimedia Converter). This will get you to either MPEG-4 or
3gp format required for the phone. You can then transfer it using Motorola
PhoneTools software. If you want to copy MPEG-2 files (or some others) you
will need to convert to AVI first or the sound will not work! You can do
this with a free piece of software called Stoik Video Converter. See
http://www.stoik.com/products/morphman/mm30_svc.htm

So, I now have Man City beating Man Utd 4-1 earlier this year on my V500.
Makes all this effort worth it somehow!!!

Anyway, hope all this helps and good luck!
Bill





See More: Flashing & Flexing a Motorola V500 (or V525) to V600 firmware - all explained