False starts aside, that promised late June Android 2.1 upgrade for the GSM version of the HTC Hero is finally here -- for unlocked models, anyhow. It seems that users are being greeted with an update clocking in at nearly 80MB, and despite HTC's own warning to the contrary, apps aren't being wiped, so you should be able to undertake the endeavor pretty safely. Orange and T-Mobile versions of the phone apparently haven't yet begun to see the rollout, but the wait shouldn't be terribly long now -- meanwhile, let us know how your upgrade experience goes in comments, folks.

Unlocked HTC Hero gets Android 2.1 update -- no, for real this time originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ouch. Just a few days ago, it seems like a certainty that Sprint would be pushing out Android 2.1 updates to the aging Samsung Moment and HTC Hero, but now a company admin has stepped in to assure us that things aren't nearly that close to go. The full text is pasted in after the break, but the long and short of it is this: the long-awaited 2.1 update is now on track "to be available in Q2." The carrier did confess to wanting this out sooner rather than later, but hey, at least your patience is really, really appreciated.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Sprint: Samsung Moment and HTC Hero Android 2.1 updates now coming 'in Q2'

Sprint: Samsung Moment and HTC Hero Android 2.1 updates now coming 'in Q2' originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 May 2010 14:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Plenty of UK Hero owners were disappointed this morning upon hearing the news that free Google Maps Navigation had spread beyond the borders of the USA but required Android 1.6 as the minimum OS version. Stuck in their Android 1.5 world, they must have hoped that HTC would just hurry up and open the gates to Eclair heaven, but hurrying up is, regrettably, the opposite of what's happening. Tech Radar heard from a Google rep that the Hero's move to Android 2.1 won't be happening until June, and followed it up with HTC directly. The official response was that a free update for European Hero variants will indeed be provided "starting in June." At least this cloud of disappointment will only hang over Europe, as other territories -- like Taiwan -- might still get the update reasonably soon.

[Thanks, Paul]

HTC Hero won't see upgrade to Android 2.1 until June, at least in Europe originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you recall, about a month ago Sprint tweeted that it was working on delivering Android 2.1 upgrade for its HTC Hero and Samsung Moment in early Q2 this year. An optimistic guess would be April, right? Funnily enough, Techie Buzz has heard that two eager customers managed to squeeze a more precise date out of Sprint over a phone call -- end of March or even March 26th. Don't go reaching for that champagne just yet, though -- a self-proclaimed Sprint employee shared a recent internal memo on XDA-Developers forum, revealing that it's "actively working on having the Android 2.1 platform available to our Hero and Moment customers over the coming weeks," and that "more information coming in April." Oh Sprint, you do love playing with our little minds, don't you?

Sprint to release Android 2.1 update for Hero and Moment 'over the coming weeks' originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sat, 20 Mar 2010 13:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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pa rel="lytebox" href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/screencap_2010-02-25_at_12.50.35_pm.jpg"img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/500x_screencap_2010-02-25_at_12.50.35_pm.jpg" class="left image500" width="500" //aSuper-spec'd premium phones like the Droid and Nexus One are only part of Google's long term plan for Android. What we have here is a glimpse of Android's emother/em future: Free. Android handsets are the new flip-phones! Sort of!/ppToday's Motorola Devour launch at Best Buy Mobile brought some extra goodies, including an awkwardly priced Droid, which seems to render its new stablemate a href="http://gizmodo.com/5479482/motorola-devour-review-what-have-you-done-to-my-droid"kind of unbuyable/a, and this little surprise: A a class="autolink" title="Click here to read more posts tagged #droideris" href="http://gizmodo.com/tag/droideris/"Droid Eris/a, which is Verizon's version of the Sprint Hero, priced for a href="http://wireless.bestbuy.com/eCommerce/SpecialOffer.aspx?cid=34308_8892a98651d84e5bbf4028e224b395b2"free on contract/a. Not a single dollar! (Except for the 60 of them you'll have to pay out for two years, but who's counting emthat/em money, right? Right.)/p pPoint is, budget Android phones are a a href="http://gizmodo.com/5475748/the-12-best-new-phones-you-cant-buy/gallery/?utm_source=feedburnerutm_medium=feedutm_campaign=Feed:+gizmodo/full+%28Gizmodo%29"verifiable emthing/em/a right now, and even if they're sometimes loaded with out of date version of Google's OS or terrible custom interfaces, they are categorically better than virtually any feature phone. And as data plans become more ubiquitous and (dear god please) cheaper, always-connected, internet savvy smartphones will graduate from the massive trend to the status quo.* And Android, without any licensing fees for carriers or handset manufacturers, will play a huge part in this./p pem*Welcome, everyone, to the least glamorous kind of futurism!/em/pbr clear="both" style="clear: both;"/ br clear="both" style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=b0565ee2b2f3d1614b2a8a9c5dd5e3ddp=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=b0565ee2b2f3d1614b2a8a9c5dd5e3ddp=1"//a img alt="" height="0" width="0" border="0" style="display:none" src="http://a.rfihub.com/eus.gif?eui=2226"/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=mtJbzyGTZsE:LhX_4bGWGUw:H0mrP-F8Qgo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=mtJbzyGTZsE:LhX_4bGWGUw:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=mtJbzyGTZsE:LhX_4bGWGUw:D7DqB2pKExk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?i=mtJbzyGTZsE:LhX_4bGWGUw:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=mtJbzyGTZsE:LhX_4bGWGUw:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?i=mtJbzyGTZsE:LhX_4bGWGUw:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/mtJbzyGTZsE" height="1" width="1"/

Sprint: Android 2.1 update for Hero, Moment coming in early Q2 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our recent chance encounter with a multitouch-friendly iteration of HTC's Sense UI turns out to have been a preview of the company's latest version of the software. Announcing that it has "enhanced" the already quite delectable skin, HTC has noted it'll be available preloaded on the brand new Desire and Legend handsets, and as a free download for the venerable Hero. So what's new? The press event this morning told us about Leap, the new pinching function that allows you to view all your home screens at once (see above), and Friend Stream, which aims to be your social media aggregator du jour with its one stream combining Facebook, Twitter and Flickr updates. There's also a new newsreader application and widget, along with additional improvements to the browser and web client. You'll find the full PR after the break and early impressions of the new interface in our hands-on with the new phones.

Update: See a full walkthrough of the new UI in a video after the break.

Continue reading HTC enhances Sense with Leap and Friend Stream (updated with video)

HTC enhances Sense with Leap and Friend Stream (updated with video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bear in mind we don't know for sure whether this is a forthcoming iteration of the Sense UI or just an industrious hacker, but the video after the break shows off some pretty sweet multitouch integration into HTC's Android skin. Pinch-to-zoom, that most notorious of functions, is used to achieve an Exposé-like overview of all the widgets you have open, with an easy tap getting you into the one you want. It seems a relatively intuitive action, even if the person showing it off does his or her best to make it look as clumsy as possible. This should be most enticing when considered in light of the purportedly upcoming HTC Hero update to Android 2.1 -- who's to say this isn't what HTC is cooking up as an extra topping for that Eclair?

[Thanks, Nader]

Continue reading HTC Hero shows off multitouch-enabled Sense UI on video

HTC Hero shows off multitouch-enabled Sense UI on video originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Using a cellphone to control a robot -- or a pretty sweet helicopter -- isn't exactly a new idea, but there's something about the combination of Android and Lego Mindstorms that promises to break the possibilities wide open. Swedish tech company Enea Linköping is one of the first we've seen to directly link an Android app to the Mindstorms brain over Bluetooth -- they're using an HTC Hero to control two simple rover bots. Unfortunately, since Android 1.5 doesn't support the Bluetooth serial profile, there's a hack involved: the phone actually sends out commands over WiFi,which are passed through a WiFi-Bluetooth tunneling app on laptop before hitting the bots. That means there's a little lag involved, but now that Android 2.1 has serial Bluetooth support we're hoping things get a little more streamlined in the future. Video after the break.

Continue reading HTC Hero-controlled Mindstorms bot hints at Android uprising

HTC Hero-controlled Mindstorms bot hints at Android uprising originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We've seen all manner of phones controlling robots, cars and helicopters, but a HTC Hero operating a Lego Mindstorms robot? Awesome. It works via a purpose-built app which uses the Hero's accelerometer, connecting to the 'bot over Wi-Fi.

It's from the creative minds at Swedish tech company ENEA, who created the app to harness the Hero's accelerometer to control the Mindstorms bot. Normally such a relationship between a controller and robot would be over Bluetooth, but ENEA was forced to use Wi-Fi due to the "limited Bluetooth support in Android OS version 1.5 (not supporting the Bluetooth serial port profile, SPP)".

It's not the best quality, but do check out the video below for a glimpse at the Hero getting all domineering on a little LEGO creature. [ENEA via Recombu]