According to a news piece on German Android site Androidpit.de today, the extremely long-awaited European HTC Hero Android 2.1 update will start its official roll-out from June 18.
The report, based on an apparent phonecall to HTC, claims June 18 is the date the Android update will start arriving through over-the-air upgrades via the networks in Germany – so feel free to start planning your HTC Hero firmware update all-night party.
Of course, we’ve already reported that HTC has labeled June as the date for the arrival of the Hero 2.1 update, so believing this specific new claim doesn’t require much of a leap of faith – especially as an extremely similar Hero OS update has already hit Taiwan.
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Tom Hermans
/ June 7, 2010And now Magic too .. hopefully
Gary C
/ June 7, 2010I can only dream, Tom. Are you a Magic owner too?
M D
/ June 7, 2010To be honest, HTC lost me ages ago when they dragged the whole thing on and on. Putting aside all the “HTC are doing Hero owners a favour by updating it at all” arguments, at least apple guarantee that once a year they give existing customers something new to play with. So as much as I like Android, with companies like HTC doing their best to alienate customers, I think i’d rather go over to the dark side, or wait to see if microsoft windows 7 phone is any good. Or maybe the replacement for the Nexus one, not made by HTC, will tempt me back……..
KieranD
/ June 7, 2010Finalllllly! Wondering when they’ll update it for T-Mobile, then?
Dries
/ June 7, 2010The update for the T-mobile version is not approved by Google, at the moment. This update is only for the unbranded versions.
Mars
/ June 8, 2010tthe belgian ceo markmoons told androidworld.nl that the update will come to belgium this week
Mo
/ June 8, 2010What whyyy isnt the Tmobile version approved ??
will i be able to install the normal HTC rom on my HERO ” Tmobile G2″
help please.
MarkG
/ June 8, 2010Personally I’m glad HTC resisted the temptation to release an early but botched release (known in the trade these days as a Xbotch for obvious reasons). They may have got ALOT of stick, but they took their time and did it right. They could have have done a better job at managing the PR side of things, but that is true of many Asian companies (HTC, Sony etc…)
Luca
/ June 8, 2010@MarkG : 6 months of delay are simply unjustifiable
MattyMoo
/ June 8, 2010I have run the Taiwan update on my g2 touch and am currently running the villain Rom. 2. 1 is infinitely better than 1. 5. The best guide to hero root is on heroroot. Com. Goldcard made easy.
@Luca
/ June 8, 2010Things take as long as they take. You would have been the first to complain if they had rushed it out… (or in the case of Xbox owners, the first to be brainwashed that it’s an acceptable practice to rush things)
bob@tiscali.co.uk
/ June 8, 2010@Luca – Agree entirely. 6 months is too long. HTC could have released a “vanilla” 2.1 rom ages ago and then later released one with the sense UI. Instead, they handled it very badly, allowed misinformation to be spread around the web and have left many Hero owners vowing never to buy another htc phone again. And I’m afraid that means a lot of people will be turned off Android, which is a shame.
Perhaps google will get the OS under control with the once a year update, and we can look forward to 24 months of support for phones?
L1
/ June 8, 2010Anyone out there had problems with 1.5? I am still satisfied. Ok 2.1 has a few nice features, but I didn’t buy my Hero for any of these. I do some development for my Hero and most things are running fine.
I had a Windows Mobile 5 phone, never got an update from Mio although it crashed every day….
If you like daily builds: root your device. If you are a gadget collector: buy a new phone every second month. Otherwise: most devices perform the same as they did when you bought it IMHO.
Peter
/ June 9, 2010Anyone out there had problems with 1.5?
Error: Field to small to post list…
The most important:
1) When Wifi connection gets lost, manually reconnect. Doesn’t do so automatically
2) Phone doesn’t recognise SIM. Restarting phone fixes this (all out Hero’s have the same prob)
3) Do you use calendar reminders?
Never got up in the middle of the night cause the *f* thing thinks it’s necessary to remind you of a meeting at noon tomorrow? And needs to remind you at 4am? Nice: you cannot kill the reminder. Needed a “silent” sound to use as reminder.
Will be happy when 2.1 arrives, and android gets mature.
L1
/ June 9, 2010@peter
Lol, most of this didnt happen with my device.
ok, wifi sometimes needs a menual reconnect but not more than once a week.
Looks like Exchange handles reminders more smooth than yours, is it behaviour of the HTC calendar?
About the SIM, I read a few post about that, but it appeared an hardware problem which was fixed by HTC.
I agree that things should work smooth and if you had bad experiences, I can understand why you long for 2.1. If 2.1 will be the solution…
Michiel
/ June 9, 2010Any news on when 2.1 will hit the Dutch market?
Now that Google Maps Navigation has been rolled out in the Netherlands, I’d love to update my phone! Can’t us navigation now because I’m stuck at 1.5…
daleos
/ June 9, 2010I couldn’t wait so went to the Modaco site and installed a modded version of the Taiwanese 2.1 ROM. It’s been 5 days now and so far, no problems.
To tell the truth, whilst some of the new features are fun, there’s nothing there that’s essential unless you are desperate for the latest versions of some higher end apps (Google Navigation for example). I walk/cycle to work so haven’t actually found any apps that I couldn’t already run on 1.5 yet.
Would I move back? No, the bug fixes do make a difference but I am kicking myself for getting so worked up about the upgrade for so long.
barsep
/ June 10, 2010I’ve got a Ukrainian Hero, bought from a HK dealer on eBay, running non-contract on an Optus network in Australia. Any idea where/how I should get 2.1? Over-the-air doesn’t sound like its going to work for me, without plane ticket.
Matt
/ June 11, 2010@peter
Unlucky… if all that happened/happens to you I suggest you eBay it!
I only want the upgrade because I live with someone who just got the desire and I have minor envy… 1.5 runs fine, no WiFi issues, no sim issues, I turned my reminder alert to silent/no vibrate (I suggest you do the same!)
you need to get lucky! before a passing bus gets you… ;-)
Moush
/ June 12, 2010I’m with those who say cool it! I bought my Hero with 1.5 late last year. It did what it was supposed to and still does, with the occasional glitch – just like most devices. This obsession with upgrades (which I see are not such a big deal in this case) is a little bizarre, as is the anger their “delay” invokes. Do you have a need to “upgrade” your PC or your camera or you car within months of buying it? If a new model comes out do you immediately change it over? Why this obsession with phone firmware upgrades if it was good enough when you bought it?
chris
/ June 13, 2010Ever since I bought my Hero in Switzerland last December, two bugs really got on my nerves. It crashes (doesn’t wake up – need to remove battery) more than once a week, and every morning when I leave the house and WiFi, it is incapable of switching to 3G (it took me 2 weeks of lost time until I read somewhere that the only solution is to toggle airplane mode). The only reason I didn’t return it (apart from being without a phone for a few weeks!) was that I was repeatedly told since December that an update was just around the corner. That makes 6 months of hoping and continual disappointments over delays. I feel like a donkey following the carrot on a string held just in front of his nose…
Mick
/ June 14, 2010@Moush
It’s really simple … there is no “upgrade anger” … we just want to use our phone ! For exemple … your seaching an app on the web, and you found one that match exactly what you want … so you decide to download it from the market … but *ouch* this wanderful app. need 1.6 and greater … and your really frustrated !
75% of my time when I found a cool app. it ends like this !
That’s the big problem.
Mika
/ June 16, 2010Iteresting enough, I am no longer HTC user altough I do own one. Got sick up with the HTC support or more exactly lack of it. Releasing the 2.1 update in US and Taiwan but not in Europe was the last straw. From here on I’m sticking with Nokia and Microsoft, both Maemo (MeeGo) and Windows Phone 7 looks very promising!
Mikkel Caira
/ June 17, 2010OMG. You can already get “part one” pf the update now!.
Go to Menu -> Settings -> Date & Time (Turn off automatic & then set date to 2011) Then the update box should popup! ;D
I did this trick in denmark and i got update “part one” ;)
monkey
/ June 19, 2010Apparently they let monkeys opperate these phoines.
About the hero calendar. When you add an event, just select none for the reminder… this actually means no reminder, duh, what a suprise. And you can alos set what the default reminder time is, none, 5 min, 10 min, 1hour, 24 hour, etc.
Wireless WILL automatically reconnect if you select the right tab from the settings.
Leepierre
/ June 20, 2010Sooo… as it seems 18th passed, no 2.1… will never trust htc anymore. bunch of douchbags.
btw, the “first part” should be this “FOTA” update on the htc site? i´ve read a lot of posts from people, who tryed to update and the phone just hanged up…
i´m considering to root my phone, but then i lose guaranty.. which i want to avoid till i dont find out, if i should blame the phone, making my sd-card all the time damaged… ahhhh. life is difficult with htcs….
boyan
/ June 28, 2010got it….secon part….J recived the first part on junt 19th , and secon today…exelent…update did not erased any data on the phone , and J still got my phonebook , messeges that J have sent and recived….
boyan
/ June 28, 2010J forgot …J’m from Serbia and J’m using Telekom Serbia network