HTC Hero to get Android 2.1 update in March
Delayed again?
Looking forward to the release of Android 2 for the HTC Hero smartphone? Bad news: it may not appear until March, a month or so after the anticipated February delivery date.
So says a representative of Irish network Meteor who claims to have heard it from the horse's mouth.
HTC's Hero: successor out before original updated to Android 2.1?
In a posting on Meteor's forums, 'Glynn from Meteor' says: "We’ve been in contact with HTC and they have said that version 2.0 will be available in and around March of this year."
In a subsequent post, he added: "Just got another update on this and HTC have said they are releasing 2.1 on the Hero, and we are hoping to have this available by the end of March."
He also noted: "This will be available via the HTC website."
The Hero currently runs Android 1.5, even though version 1.6 - aka 'Donut' - has been in the wild since September 2009. Owners were undoubtedly pleased to hear rumours that HTC was skipping 1.6 in order to take them straight to 2.0, which was released in October 2009. It now looks as if even that version is being bypassed, and the next upgrade will be based on 2.1, which was released at the beginning of this month.
HTC is expected to announce the Hero's successor next month at the Mobile World Congress show. ®
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COMMENTS
The Nexus One experience....
...is that HTC clearly has the 2.1 code and has produced a nicely put together and polished phone, I've done some testing on it for work purposes and it really is rather nice. Makes my Hero seem a little behind the times, but only in terms of speed and the bigger display. Not all of the speed increase is down to the faster processor I think, the Android 2.1 code is understood to be significantly better than 1.5 was.
However, I don't think HTC are stupid, they know that having mentioned the updates in the US in 2H 2010 that this includes the delays of building customer specific variants. They have clearly had 2.1 a fair amount of time, and if they have the resource to update Sense UI (a major plank of their product portfolio after all across platforms) then I'm sure that they will have been ironing out the wrinkles. There are plenty of leaked 2.1 on Hero videos on Youtube, so they must be pretty close. I imagine that they would be quite happy to release around the time of MWC in mid-February, and there have been plenty of "early in the new year" hints too.
The one thing I really want it to have Bluetooth phonebook access profile so it works better with my car kit, but I have to say that the Sense UI means my Hero looks much nicer than the Nexus One.
And anyway, how much software actually makes it out when people say it will? I'll not notice the delay if I spend the timing sinking a pint or three :)
Magic ????
I don't understand why there is so little communication around these upgrades. I don't even need to know the date but why doesn't google/htc say which phone will or will not be upgraded ?
I am delighted with 1.6 on my Magic but as a google phone, I expect I will get more than just the 1.6 update.
I want to get a nexus but I am waiting to see how google and phone manufacturers will treat their customers.
Might have to go iPhone after all if that's the best they can come up with.
Lost focus...
IMHO, HTC have been too busy pumping out products (getting the Nexus One out there for example) than caring about existing Hero users/early adopters. There are some awful bugs with 1.5, ranging from the time it takes to delete multiple text messages to it's odd Wifi traits, but all in all it's a very good OS. Just needs a polish.
its not a bug as such...
its another feature that is a victim of the slow response times seen on the handset. apparently 2.1 addresses these....
re: lost focus
Deleting multiple text messages: go to Messages > Menu > Delete > mark the messages you want gone > Delete
Why is that a bug? :P
