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Jun

15

2010

HTC Hero gets ready for Android 2.1 OTA in UK

29

by Chris Moor
tagged ,

We wrote about the 2.1 update possibly coming to the UK a little over a week ago. Well apparently good things come to those who wait. HTC Europe has begun pushing out groundwork for the 2.1 update OTA to Hero owners today. If your phone receives the update, you will see a notification on the phone and all you have to do is press OK to accept the update, which will download via your data connection or wifi. After installing the update, you can verify it installed correctly by checking the Build number.

From the Home screen, go to Menu -> Settings -> About Phone -> Build Number. Once there, the new Build number after the update will be 2.73.405.93; 2.73.405.94 (Nordic) & 2.73.405.95 (Greece/ Ireland).

[via HTC]

» See more articles by Chris Moor

Categorized as Android Phones, Android Updates

Comments

  • Timbo

    This is NOT the 2.1 update. Its a pre 2.1 maintenance updating YouTube and adding an update software setting.

  • Scott Young

    You’re correct, I added a few words to make that clear

  • http://www.urban-design.org.uk/ eboye

    Yes this is FOTA update, but hey, after this there will be OTA with 2.1.

    Finally :) I`m updating it right now.

  • Dave

    If you are having problems getting this update, try changing the month to August, it seems to kick start the update.
    But T-mobile UK users should be aware that this update doesn’t work. It will allow the download, but on system restart the phone hangs on a warning screen and needs to be restarted. The update will NOT be effective.
    Hopefully T=mobile will sort this out soon as i’m sure it will hold up the 2.1 update, and that could cost them some customers.

  • Naz

    Yeah I just set my date to July 16th (my birthday xD haha)and it’s downloadin as I type this

  • james

    so will i have to reflash my custom ROM back to stock to get this do you think?

  • http://www.stevieb.net Steve Bremner

    Anyone had this on the 3 U.K network yet?

  • mihir

    nope.i have the htc hero currently on android 1.5 running on 3UK..no notifications as yet..tried changing the date and restarting..still nothing..my phone is not unlocked, is that making a difference? anyone on 3 done the update as yet?

  • http://www.stevieb.net Steve Bremner

    I still haven’t had anything yet Mihir, I’ll post as soon as I do. ;)

  • cashmang

    i heard that 3uk are testing it under there rom setup, so its progressing, no date thou

  • http://www.stevieb.net Steve Bremner

    As long as the networks are doing their thing I’m happy enough. It’s out there now so fingers crossed we’ll get it soon enough.

  • rabyburns

    I’m on UK orange and still nothing, i’ve tried the date thing and its not worked. I read on another website that carrier branded phones need to be updated by the carrier and orange havnt confirmed this yet? Is that true?

  • http://www.stevieb.net Steve Bremner

    It wouldn’t surprise me. I suppose we’ll just have to wait a bit longer!

    I know it’s on the way so I’m not to bothered. :)

  • John

    Personally I’m going stir crazy – which in some ways is better than the pit of dispair I was in when I wasn’t sure if we were ever going to see the update… Maybe I’m just taking this too seriously :)

    ZDNet (http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/mobile-devices/2010/06/16/htc-announces-android-21-upgrade-for-hero-users-40089258) reports that Orange gave them the incredibly helpful date of “in the coming weeks”. Based on that, I’m casting my guess at the first half of August.

    I would have rooted it months ago, but this is my main phone. It’s not that I’m afraid of bricking it, it’s that I don’t want to root it then find out that it no longer has the settings to do things on the Orange network – y’know luxuries like making calls and sending text messages…

  • tmobile g2

    ok, so I set the date on my device to august, which then of course prompted the download (bearing in mind I am on t-mobile UK) I clicked accept and it proceeded. it download then restarted my phone and went to a recovery flasher screen which took about five mins to complete. the phone then restarted again ( taking its time) and booted up…. exactly the same as before the update! so its not that it doesn’t work on the t-mobile g2 its just that it won’t do anything!

  • rabyburns

    I switched to the Hero from a iphone 3G, but this is really putting me off buying anything like this again, I prefer android being open source but having to wait on orange giving the go ahead now for the update sucks. I will buy a Google Phone next time, stuff waiting on the carrier, this is absolutely stupid. And its old now, 2.2 is out, a phone i bought in January is dated after 6 months and apparently wont be getting anymore updates? I’ve 18 months left of contract on this, its terrible. Im looking forward to the google satnav function, can anyone else tell me what else is different in 2.1? thanks

  • Scott Young

    Android 2.2 is out? Last I heard not one device had it officially yet.

    And it’s called an upgrade cycle. They’re already talking about the NEXT version of android, past Froyo, called Gingerbread. I’d much rather have a platform that gets frequent updates that one that gets updates every 2 years ;)

  • rabyburns

    Upgtrade cycle, so why am i getting no more updates past this one then? Whats the point in having frequent updates when you only get 1 & it takes almost 6 months to get it, then when you do its already a old update?

    It should have a 2 year cycle, and even that would be rubbish.

    1.5 – 2.1 = is the “update cycle” for HTC hero. Utter gash.

    Ill get a google branded phone next time,

  • John

    @tmobild g2: I would not have expected that to work since the Orange update doesn’t actually exist at the moment outside their test labs. The fact that it said there was an update is interesting, though.

    @rayburn: Voice recognition (wherever you get the keypad to type) is new, and Goggles requires 2.x so that’s new. Live Wallpapers is new, I think there’s some updates to both the base Android OS and the Sense UI.

    I agree that it kinda sucks that we’ve had to wait so long, but when you think about it we’re essentially seeing a pretty major update about 1 year after the device was released, which is kinda par for the course. Google have kept up an impressive release schedule which has left some of the manufacturers unable to keep up.

    I just wish they’d done this when all the other devices (particularly the HTC devices) got their 2.x updates. I’m kinda speaking from an armchair position of not really knowing much about the code base itself, but I wouldn’t have thought that the differences between the Hero and, say, the Legend would be so great that it took a team of developers so much longer to make the updates, or that they would have to start from scratch for each device.

    I would have thought that when the Desire and Legend were put out with Android 2.x and Sense, that the port to the Hero would be pretty much ready to go bar testing. So either they’ve done a whole heap of testing, or there’s a shedload of differences between the devices. Or, more likely, they’ve understaffed the team working on that port.

  • Scarletman

    Thanks everyone. Was getting frustrated waiting for part 1 update. Changing the date on my g2 to August worked and download appears to have worked. Once downloaded I noticed that on menu/settings/aboutphone a new item apeare (System software update) which alows you to manually check for updates or wait for the scheduled check.

    Roll on part two

  • rabyburns

    thanks John, im looking forward to the updates, i would prefer to get a android phone next time without a skin over it so i can just get the updates when their released, im not confident im going to get anything this month at all on orange. ah well

  • John

    No problem, and getting a sim-free model might be the best way if this is going to be the status quo.

    I doubt we’ll see anything this month since IIRC previous updates have taken them at least a month to push out. Besides “in the coming weeks” sounds further away than “next week or the week after”, wich is essentially all that’s left of this month.

  • rabyburns

    I’m actually thinking of getting a HTC desire the only thing though is it doesnt shoot HD video.. I read there was going to be a update but havnt seen anything actually confirmed

  • cashmang

    i say Nokia 3210′s all round :)

  • http://www.stevieb.net Steve Bremner

    I spoke with the “3″ network here in the U.K yesterday, less than helpful to be honest.

    They told me they didn’t have the updates from HTC yet, and then a few minutes later they told me they were actively working to make sure the software was rolled out as soon as possible….

  • rabyburns

    I just bought a desire so im going to sell my hero, i hope this doesnt happen again.

    Talking about the desire though, does anyone know how the 2.2 update will work for it? The one i got is unlocked apparently

  • Martyn Lesbirel

    Just got the first update from Orange to my Hero in the UK. The trick is to flip your clock forward a year.

  • John

    Interesting, and thanks for our guinnea pig :)

    Good news is that the update does exist, but of course the question is if the update is there, why not make it available straight away, and why is there nothing on the HTC website, where they’ve posted other FOTA updates?

    This could be just a testing version. A common trick for developers is to set the publish date to the future, that way no-one in the real world gets the update, but QA can still test the update process by setting the date on their test handsets. It could also be the real version and someone just mucked up but then you’d expect them to spot the error and correct it.

    Now, the gajillion-pound question : can you still make calls?

  • John

    Got the first update last night, second this morning. I did set my date to be 1 year ahead but then set it back while I waited to see if this update actually worked. I’m not sure if this caused it to download *something* that kicked the update into progress, or if it was just happening today anyway.

    Firmware version is “2.1-update1″, and it certainly looks snazzier. I’m updating & installing apps that require 2.x to play with the new features.

    Has anyone else (particularly anyone who hasn’t tweaked with the date at all) got these updates.