Nokia has quietly introduced a DIY firmware upgrade service so phone owners can update their phones over the air, or via a PC connected to the internet, and no longer need to visit a service centre to update the device.

Sony Ericsson has supported self-service firmware upgrades for several years. Firmware updates can bring dramatic improvements in performance, and in the early life of a phone, fix some serious bugs.

In an FAQ, however, Nokia stresses that it won't be possible to replace operator branding with generic firmware. Carriers like to stuff phones with usability "improvements" - more often impairments - and other cruft.

Manufacturers have been leery of introducing self-service upgrades because of the potential for catastrophic failure. Nokia says that if your phone goes titsup, and it is still in warranty, it will pay for the repair.

Which is nice.

Click here to see if your phone is supported yet. Support for the latest high end phones will roll out over the next few days, we're told. ®

Related stories

• Nokia updates firmware DIY service (6 February 2007)
• HP grabs Bitfone (21 December 2006)
• Samsung pitches 8GB HDD phone at... golfers (23 August 2006)
• Attackers pass on operating systems (4 August 2006)
• Hacking your vacuum cleaner (16 June 2006)
• Researchers say rootkits are headed for BIOS (27 January 2006)