What is this cable used for?
http://www.wholesalehalagsm.co.uk/pr...41&cat=&page=1
It looks like an alternate way than a broken USB port to reflash bricked phones but I could be wrong.
It appears to fit in the battery slot and contacts the little gold contacts inside the phone, this could be a major lifesaver for us.
If I am right what is required to get it to work? There is a RJ45 connector so I imagine some in between box is required.
If this is the final magical reflash solution it deserves a wiki page by someone who knows the topic.

It plugs into an intermediate "flashing box", which is some sort of hash cracking accelerator (and for some, a DRM dongle for unlock codes, actual cracking is done in the cloud)

IIRC, there was a teardown of these some time ago, and all they did was breakout the battery compartment pins to Power and USB. No real components inside other than those.

You can buy one, and solder USB to one end, and a ~4.0V power supply to the battery pins

So unfortunately a N900 which won't enter USB flashing mode with a working USB port wont work with this.
Though this enters the question is there an alternative USB access which doesnt require the power pin from a broken USB port?
We know the two gold dots apart from the others are the alternate USB pads.
Perhaps this 1 1/2 quid gadget could be useful.

it is used for service writing and repairing pm (sole cause of software related no network issue) writing repairing requesting calculating rpl (sole cause of imei issues ) reflashing a dead phone (it is better then usb as many times usb has problems or device gets bricked in such way it is unable to boot via usb and the cable has power contacts that is controlled by the middleware box) resetting calculating user lock . Upgrading repairing writing simlock in problems like securitey test failed (i.e contact service or no network problem)etc . jaf dosent work?? atf is good and mxkey is flawless in my experience

Nokiabot, I have three unflashable N900s so this might be a great gadget to have if it can get them beyond the wont enter flashing mode due to very corrupted EMMC problem(the USB port is still good)? Have you ever used this gadget to recover a permabricked N900?

Crap, they are all gone now!