We’re at Launch Day +1 for the HTC Hero update to Android 2.1 and there’s plenty of RAGE flying around from frustrated Hero users tied into networks that haven’t yet released the over-the-air upgrade for their branded handsets.
Tech site Pocket-Lint says Three told it that the 2.1 Hero update won’t be hitting users on the network until “mid July” while Orange promised a vague “very near future” for the OS update – and T-Mobile appears to be staying silent on the matter.
Here’s a picture of the back of the HTC Hero, which symbolises the above networks turning their backs on their users. We put a lot of thought into these things:
Keep refreshing and hoping, basically, if you’re on Three, T-Mo UK or Orange – it takes a while for the networks to stick on all that software we remove, after all.
Motorola’s latest flagship dual-core Android monster is a massive, original powerhouse, that’s a big improvement on previous MOTOBLUR mobiles – but still isn’t a total winner.
A slim and glamorous phone from Sony Ericsson, with the sharpest display around. It’s no powerhouse and the screen’s not the biggest out there, but we don’t mind. Because it’s cute.
LG’s first glasses-free 3D phone is a heavy, fat monster, with a clever 3D effect that works rather well. As a smartphone, though, it’s heavy and underwhelming.
A very shiny thing from Sony Ericsson, with a 3.7″ screen and Android 2.3.3 inside. But is it exciting enough to win fans in today’s spec-obsessed market? Can man live on one core alone?
INQ’s Android phone is an interesting “boutique” piece of hardware, packed with unique interface customisations that go far beyond the headline Facebook integration. We like it a lot.
Timbo
/ June 29, 2010People should try to stop buying branded Android handsets from the Phone companies. If everyone started buying (standard off the shelf) through delaers (eg carphonewarehouse) then firstly you would have an unlocked and unbranded phone, but also the networks pay big money to these stores for each new connection. As it would cost networks more they may start thinking twice about branding.
Branding is old school now, and particularly in Androids case adds a lot of cost to the phone network to brand each update. Its not like the “old days” where you bought phone branded, and that was it.
MarkG
/ June 29, 2010T-Mobiles problems are because they bodged/hacked the previous update.
k0zmic
/ June 29, 2010This is stupid. How long can it take? I still hope T-Mobile release tomorrow but I doubt it now.
k0zmic
/ June 29, 2010@ Mark G
Maybe, but I didn’t have the bricking problem. Albeit I was lucky, but I saw many other posts from G2 owners regarding the successful update. I bet it’s because of T-Mobile’s needless ‘enhancements’ such as a branded boot screen.
Andi
/ June 29, 2010Timbo – a very well made point. Found this out by accident when my girlfriend bought her Desire from Carphone Warehouse recently. Immediate access to all updates direct from HTC – and no bloatware! What’s not to love?! Sincerely wishing I hadn’t bought my Hero direct from Orange. I won’t make that mistake again.
Andi.
Dougster
/ June 29, 2010I will not be buying direct from Orange again.
3 emails and no response. Customer service……….
k0zmic
/ June 29, 2010@ Timbo
Totally agree. I wish now I didn’t get lured in for an upgrade from T-Mobile, especially if knew updates would take this long. Next phone I’ll try get Motorola. Their update history (on high end devices e.g. Milestone) seems to be better. Plus they’re usually available unlocked and SIM Free.
lckf
/ June 29, 2010Good advice about non-branded phones but in my experience, stay away from Carphone Warehouse. It took me going to the Small Claims Court before they rang to settle….
k0zmic
/ June 29, 2010I’d also try get stock Android e.g. on a Nexus One.
cokey
/ June 29, 2010i hope its not going to be another 2 weeks fo orange uk like 3 its just not on what the hell are they playing at.
Dave
/ June 29, 2010Man am I glad mines is unbranded. This is getting pretty ridiculous now, they’ve had ages to get this sorted out.
bill
/ June 29, 2010Am I the only hero user that is happy with my 1.5 phone !? Google sat nav and a few minor updates, wow, some people are making such a big deal about this !
Tariq
/ June 29, 2010@Bill The reason some people make such a big deal out of this is because many off the apps in the store aren’t compatible with 1.5. Plus its got lots of bugs and Google Navigation is a big deal for some people (although I use Ovi Maps as it’s free on my Nokia)
lckf
/ June 29, 2010I chose the Hero because I was told there would be an update in March to give me satnav style software. I have found that messaging drains battery in no time, that phone calls usually don’t connect first time round, that connection on the balcony in central London can vary between nil and top notch in five seconds – as far s I am concerned Hero with 1.5 is utter shite. I live in hope that the upgrade will improve things. So, glad you’re happy with your phone but others have reasons not to be.
Also, glad you;re happy with t=mobile’s policy of treating their customer like shit when it comes to communication, but we’re not all sheep like that.
Tom
/ June 29, 2010I just want T-Mobile to send out the update! I have an unlocked G2 Touch which I am using on 02 and have got the part 1 OTA but not part 2! I am frustrated with this but will wait until the end of June. Then, if no update I will be pissed off!
Kevin
/ June 29, 2010I got Orange UK Branded HTC Hero and still no signs of any updates
David Churchill
/ June 30, 2010I’m on T-mobile UK but i have the OTA update. I cheated by using the goldcard method to downgrade my ROM to the older un-branded version. As soon as it install and booted up the OTA updated for 2.1 kicked in. So if you really want the update you can get it with about 2 hours of work.
Abdullah
/ June 30, 2010I got no updates from orange i unlocked my orange branded phone but not software unlocked (debrand) do i have to put an orange sim into my phone or can i recieve it through the current network sim which is 3 (yes i know great combo of companies).
stan
/ June 30, 2010I did my desire upgrade in carphone whorehouse on day 1, cost me a bit more but it was worth it so i dont have any tmob branded crap. But i was told that in the future carphone will stock branded phones so it wont last forever.
One bad point tho is you do get carphone sales reps calling trying to sell you insurance, and the odd sales text message every month even tho i opted out.
cokey
/ June 30, 2010got an email from htc last night saying the first part of the update has been sent out to all networks in uk but i still havnt had it on orange with orange branded phone. hope i get this update coz i know if theres something wrong with the phone i wont get exchange and iam not sending it away. downloaded the most recent rom from htc because i had done a factory reset and thought that might of done something but no joy, so fingers crossed.
Matt
/ June 30, 2010The very worst thing about owning an Orange HTC is the phone casing isn’t branded like my old TyTNII, and the winmob home page was oranged, the only thing I can see is the crappy orange logo.
Seriously, how long does that take to get right?! Orange have been working with HTC for years. HTC have been working on this update for what seems like years. Other HTC HERO users around the world have had their 2.1 for what seems like years.
How about a little bit of customer service Orange.
lckf
/ June 30, 2010T-Mobile have put out a notice saying
“Just a quick note to say that we are not ignoring you and that we hope to have something to share with you about the update shortly. I will post back in this thread once I have news about the update.”
‘Shortly’ apparently means today.
Matt S
/ June 30, 2010If Orange branded the phone casing a bit more perhaps we wouldn’t have to indure the bastardising of the actual software.
I can see why the carriers want to brand the phones their own way but everything they do should be able to be removed back to vanilla. The image of the HTC Desire on the Orange website is not what it looks like when I got it out the box. Orange should be able to push out the updates to the phones as soon as they are released by HTC. Any widgets/apps/wallpapers and themes would be added seperately and not part of the ROM. This should stop delays while the carriers plaster thier colours/logos on everything, add uninstallable apps & game demos and remove Gtalk.
keef
/ June 30, 2010t mobile announced its releasing the prep update over the next few days, with the secondary 2.1 update mid July!
Kevin
/ June 30, 2010I did a Deband on my Orange UK HTC Hero and then received update for 2.1 but after i installed it it asked for Network Unlock pin code. So i had revert back to Orange UK stock ROM
k0zmic
/ June 30, 2010@ Keef and lckf
Is there a link for this announcement from T-Mobile? I haven’t seen anything on their forum or site.
keef
/ June 30, 2010scuse, was in a rush before, there ya go….
http://support.t-mobile.co.uk/discussions/index?page=forums&topic=8010382aef5d7601298628adf0007d82
k0zmic
/ June 30, 2010@ keef
Thanks for that. I was looking in the Android section before.
Dougster
/ July 4, 2010When a new ROM update is made available by a handset manufacturer they will pass a version of this to Orange so that we can run the required tests to confirm that this ROM update they have released will co-exist with the Orange branding that you are required to use on your phone.
It is possible that the new ROM update that is released may not co-exist with the Orange branding and thus we will not be able to release the ROM update for the HTC Hero, if they can not co-exist and we were to release this to your phone, this could effectively be detrimental to your handset and Orange will not process for this reason.
If the ROM update version can not co-exist with the Orange branding then we will wait for HTC to release a new ROM update to which we will restart the testing process accordingly.
Be aware that it is not possible to advise of any estimated timescale for the testing of this ROM update by Orange, furthermore, we can not guarantee that a ROM update will be released at all regarding the HTC Hero as the ROM updates that could be released may never work alongside the Orange branding on the phone.
Because some of this information is speculative and based on situations regarding the testing of ROM updates that may or may not ever be released by HTC a and the time it takes to complete the testing of the new ROM updates, please accept my sincere apologies that we can not be more specific regarding your query.
Dougster
/ July 4, 2010Above is an e-mail from Orange…………
Matt S
/ July 4, 2010Solution: STOP ADDING SHITTY BRANDING TO THE PHONES!
Dougster
/ July 4, 2010Tried calling them too which was utterly pointless.
Kevin
/ July 4, 2010I’ve just sent my Orange UK HTC Hero off to be Debranded and unlocked
neil
/ July 5, 2010I have spoken to orange a few times know about an issue that the firmware may sort and then seem fairly certain it will be out soon, When I spoke to them on Friday 2nd July they Implied it was expected within 7 days
Matt S
/ July 5, 2010@Kevin: Where did you send it to? I emailed HTC and they replied they could do it hypothetically but that Orange wouldnt be very happy with them for doing it.
cokey
/ July 5, 2010i got the same shitty email dougster got from orange so have downloaded all files need for root from unlockr just in case ;)
Kevin
/ July 5, 2010@Matt S sent to it my local mobile unlocking store
Steve
/ July 6, 2010Still… no… update. Where is it!?
Kevin
/ July 7, 2010guys android 2.1 not much different to 1.5. I paid £25 for debrand then got the 2.1 update and there really isnt that much difference. To be honest i prefair the 1.5 android
Matt
/ July 8, 2010Hi
I’ve rang Orange technical support about this on three occassions so. First sent an update message which they assured me, after shutting down the phone, removing the battery for 30 seconds and then switching back on would start the upgrade. Second said it was down to HTC. Third was told they didn’t know anything about any update in the near future, and she went and spoke to her team leader allegadely to confirm this, but that there a was a “general update” that everyone would be getting in October…
Complete and utter waste of space.
Kevin
/ July 9, 2010I ended up installing VillainROM 10.3. its faster then offical 2.1 by far and it has Java support
Dougster
/ July 9, 2010Kevin I looked at it and cleared my SIM tonight.
AndroidForums are saying there may be news on Monday though. Source from an Orange tech??
I got put off by the radio fix.
Matt
/ July 15, 2010Hi
Anyone got an update on this please?
Thanks
Matt
Gary C
/ July 15, 2010It’s out today on T-Mobile, Matt.
Matt
/ July 15, 2010Sorry I’m on Orange :(
Anyone got any idea when they might pull their digit…
Mystro
/ July 18, 2010Orange,
Still no word as to the whereabouts of an update from them. I was sold this phone on the understanding that there would soon be an update and it will do ‘x’ things. I’m really quite angry now. I’m of the right mind to demand a refund.
Dougster
/ July 19, 2010More standard crap from Orange Online Services today:
“Dear Doug
Thank you for your return email regarding the Android update.
I am sorry to learn that you are unhappy with the responses that you have already received and I understand the frustration this must be causing.
Unfortunately the reason you have not received a clear definitive answer to your question is that it is still in testing. As a matter of fact a spokesperson for Orange released this statement.
“The HTC 2.1 update will be available in the near future; we’ll keep you posted on specific timings,”
I trust the above is of assistance and I apologise that I can not assist you further via email.
Kind regards
Mark
Orange Online Services
Andy
/ July 19, 2010Best thing orange customers can do is get there phone unlocked to all networks. Costs between 10 n 20 quid. Orange are a joke
MattW
/ July 19, 2010just been told by orange cust rep that as of couple of days ago the HTC website should now take the serial number – I’m not at pc so can’t verify this. can anyone else check this out? tried before and it said software not suitable
MattW
/ July 19, 2010Managed to try it in the end and surprise surprise did not work. phoned orange again and to be fair to the person I spoke to but frustratingly for everyone admitted he didn’t have a scooby what I was going on about! there is no chance of me getting a branded handset again. gingerbread 3.0 is rumoured to do away with this branding stuff – that’s my only hope of sticking with the alternative to following the masses
Gary C
/ July 19, 2010Thanks for letting us know, Matt.
bill
/ July 22, 2010Got bored and installed villain12, its awesome. Cba to wait for orange to sort it !
MattW
/ July 27, 2010at last got the first part. hopefully not long until full 2.1 on orange.
MattW
/ July 28, 2010Wahey – just checked for updates after the first and now downloading full 2.1. At long last
Dan
/ July 28, 2010Hmmm…. Couple of random reboots at the black Hero startup screen (the first one, I think the one with the Android waving at you is gone :( ) but it’s now loading. If this fails, I’m rooting and installing VillainRom.
MattW
/ July 28, 2010in all mine went through in about half hour. so far all looks intact, all my messages, contacts etc still in place.
usbrit
/ July 28, 20102.1 Part 2 installing right now on Orange
tony
/ August 2, 2010Looks like 3 still haven’t got there act together. There tech support dept ain’t got a clue what I am going on about
Gary C
/ August 3, 2010There is, unsurprisingly, now a Facebook petition regarding Three and the Hero: http://www.facebook.com/pages/3-UK-Give-HTC-Hero-owners-the-21-Update-NOW/141762185851305