14 DAY TRIAL // With Sony Ericsson announcing officially that it does not plan on offering any upgrades for the mobile platform on its Xperia X10 devices past the Android 2.1 OS version that it currently rolling out for the handsets, many users would certainly be interested in finding new ways to upgrade their phones to newer OSes.
One such solution comes from a XDA-Developers forum member, is called FlashTool, and is an all-in-one utility through which users would be able to flash original images, root their devices, clean their ROMs, and do more.
Here's what forum member Androxyde in a post on the XDA-Developers forum that the application can do: - Flash original Images (Android 1.6 & Android 2.1 Images) - Root your phone - Install xRecovery, Busybox - Clean your Rom (remove /system/apps apps of your choice) - Clear dalvik cache - Optimize (install of JIT v2) - Customize (installs apps found in the custom/apps folder of the flashtool) - Clean uninstalled (remove any references to system apps removed in the Clean (root needed) step) One thing that should be noted about the application is that it needs to wipe all user data on the device when switching between Android versions, otherwise the phone would keep restarting.
According to the app's maker, “if you have this restarting problem, flash again with Wipe Userdata. If you don't want to loose your apps you have to backup them with Titanium or some other backup tool!”
The new iteration of the app works with ftf (Flash Tool Firmware) files stored in the FlashTool\firmwares\ folder. These files can be built from Advanced > Bundle Creation.
Users would need to specify a Source folder for the sin files, along with Device, Version, and Branding, which are mandatory fields, it seems. Next, they would have to “take sin from the folder list to the firmware list and then click OK,” and the ftf file would be created in the firmware folder.
“Firmwares have to come bundled in one file named with a ftf extension (ftf for Flash Tool Firmware). A Create Bundle feature has been added to the tool to create your own firmware bundles. (So no need to Redownload a firmware you already have. Just bundle it). This way it will be easier to package / distribute / integrate firmwares as they come out,” the said forum post reads.