Android 2.1 fairy possibly visiting the Sprint Hero on April 9th

By on Mar 26, 2010 at 10:55 AM
Software March 26, 2010

hero-21-update-rumor

Here’s an intriguing one for all you Sprint Hero owners. A picture of an internal Sprint document leaked today regarding a future fix for the phone’s Picture Mail woes may very well contain the date the device will make its jump from Android 1.6 to 2.1. While other handsets are going to have everything worked out behind the scenes, the Hero’s patch is said to be coming alongside a broader “maintenance release” on April 9th, a day that fits nicely within the timeframe the smartphone is expected to receive its 2.1 update. Obviously April 9th could come and go and absolutely nothing will come of it, but this feels pretty right. Just promise us you won’t set you won’t set your hopes impossibly high. We wouldn’t want you Hero users to be a bunch of sad little pandas like the DROID folk.

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33 Comments

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  • AdamM

    Don’t hold your breath.

  • impaler

    The Sprint Hero has Android 1.5, NOT 1.6.

  • Lev

    what about the Cliq?

    • D

      Just in case you missed it, it says Sprint.. not T-Mobile

  • (The real Jarrett) Jarrett

    What about, I don’t know, releasing an update to all hardware at once? Strange concept I know. Google, please get control of your platform. The carriers are going to control it for you if you let them. If that happens you will lose all control over YOUR product. Search will make you money sure, but once your fragmented OS, hardware and marketplace become even more fragmented people will eventually search with other engines. I believe another search engine back in the day (late 90″s) told a hedge fund manager that they would be the first company to hit a market cap of $1 Trillion because they were the biggest. After the visit the hedge fund manager liguidated his stake in the company.
    Your success isn’t gaurnteed because you are the biggest. Without proper control, someone else will fill your space. Come on Google, you are needed in this market, get your shit together.

    • StevenGlansburg

      Unfortunately, the general public doesn’t really care about firmware updates as much as you or I. However, since there is so much fragmentation, it is causing some people to not be able to use apps or do things that other Android devices can. Eventually this will be problematic for Android, but whatever…

    • AndroidFella

      Double J, i think you’re wrong in thinking that Google needs to get “shit together”. It’s the phone manufacturers that need to get things going properly. For example, it’s HTC that is causing the very long delay in 2.1 with their Sense UI.

      The phone manufacturers need to be able to produce a plain Vanilla Android xx.xx ROM as soon as Google releases a new version. This why it will give user’s that want bleeding edge Andorid the ability to update their phone WITHOUT having to wait for the phone manufacturer to get THEIR “shit together”. Once the phone manufacturer has their “shit together” release AND push down the new customised Android firmware.

      Stop blaming Google for this OS fragmentation and start putting the blame where it rightfully belongs – the phone manufacturers.

      • StevenGlansburg

        the thing is that it is kind of Google’s fault for not having more control over who can manipulate their OS with skins and what not. Apple and Palm (with their limitations) are at least consistent.

      • Apple still sucks…

        What!? Are you serious? You’re asking Google to enforce whom, what, and when customisations occur to Android – that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, no offence. The Andorid OS is an Open Source project and anyone is allowed to modify it and fork it into their own branch.

        The bottom line is that the phone manufacturers are to blame for the delay. There is NOTHING stopping the phone manufacturers in producing an unmodified firmware up of 2.1 for their phone until they produce their own version. If they were smart they would have left the home screen untouched and focused on creating applications and home widgets.

        STOP BLAMING GOOGLE!!

      • endless

        i keep hearing this line trotted out.

        i call BS. major BS.

        case in point? droid. still no 2.1 update.

        bonus points? : samsung moment.

        neither come with Sense.

        think about it. if hero gets 2.1 before droid, thats going from 1.5 to 2.1 WITH sense.

  • dswiggs

    Droid eris too?????????

    • D

      Just in case you missed it, it says Sprint.. not Verizon

  • Android Guru

    @ Jarrett – Google cant posiably try to maintain the code for phone that manufactures have placed crappy skins over & they also cannot code for phones that include software that has offering placed into the OS that are not a part of “standard” Android without breaking those item (SprintTV, Exchange suppor, etc). So it has to be left up to those carriers who altered the coding of the OS in the first place. Anyone who knows anything about programming a major platform knows this. If you want to ensure you recieve your updates in a timely manner. Then stick with the phones that use “standard” android and have no carrier installed options and right now the only device that fits that criteria is the Nexus One (the G1 & MT3G just got an update a coulpe weeks ago that added some Tmobile service to the OS). Other than that, dont cry about how long it takes your carrier to issue you an update.

  • Eddie

    Evo 4g!!!!

  • frannkieflo

    This is bullshit….if the Hero gets the update before the droid does ill be highly dissapointed in motorola & vzw…this is just gonna be added to the reasons I cancel service and go to sprint when the evo launches…I just hope its launch date comes sooner then later if they were smart it would be early june to steal away some of the iphones thunder from them.

    • DC Mike

      After Moto & VZW dropped the ball again on the 2.1 update to the Droid I rooted and dropped in BuglessBeast v0.9 and overclocked my CPU all of which took 25 minutes of fumbling. I’m sorry I waited so long to do it. I fell in love with my Droid all over again. I figure I’m riding out my contract and by then the Smartphone Wars should be in FULL SWING. Just hold what you’ve got, the grass isn’t always greener, my friend.

    • StevenGlansburg

      the Hero was out 2 months before the Droid, so it makes perfect sense to me. Also, getting the Evo or switching carriers isn’t going to make any difference. The Evo has the Sense UI (like the hero) and will get an update well past when all the normal android phones have 3.6 or whatever the next obsessed over update is.

  • HunterA3

    I think this actually is just a bug fix. It has something to do with an issue with how the Hero does picture mail. The 2.1 release will be later. If it was the 2.1 release, I would think we would see something for the Moment, with basic Android 1.5 at the same time or sooner since it has minimal customizations to overcome.

  • 3 Phones Jugglin

    Im anticipating a Android 2.1 release on Sprint…Sadly, it has nothing to do with the HERO.

  • Jesterhead

    Excited for it. Love my Hero and sense UI, little laggy at times but overall satisfied with the choice.

  • joe cool

    see why does sprint get so much heat? vzw has slow 3g,slow os updates,overpriced etc

  • gary mazza

    Any news when TMO MyTouch 3G to get 2.1 update?

  • jack

    Make the jump from 1.5 dude… not 1.6

  • Kirk

    Yea, we already knew that the Android OS was for fairies.

    • androidrules

      hey kirk….. Poof……… your a pile of shit :-)

  • Adrock

    It is already here. call tech support and do a data profile reset and the 2.1 will download to the hero

  • Glock

    Eh…no sad panda here. Rooting dried all my tears…

    PS – Stop asking about your phone (IE Cliq and Eris). The carrier controls the update so when it hits this one phone, it does NOT indicate that you’re going to get anything

  • Sliznut

    All the bitching about the fragmentation misses the point. Google and ANY open source enthusiast individual and/or corporation embraces the idea of putting out the source code and letting everyone tweak it like crazy. Yes, Android is not going to be the slick corporate solution for everything. No, it is not going to fail because there are so many “flavors” floating around. That was the point all along. Am I the only one who remembers it is Linux? How many damn Linux distros are out there? It’s a dev geeks dream and that was their point.

  • jim

    I called tech support about a issue I am having with ring lag on my hero and they said the update was comming in 4/9. I had heard 4/26 so I was pretty stoked.

  • slayer86

    This so called “memo” is BS! Not only is there no proof it came from Sprint, but it also says nothing about Android on it. All it says is that the Hero will get a fix for the picture mail issue. Thats all! Sprint still says it will be released early 2nd quarter. So thats anytime between April 1st and mid May. As for calling some tech support person on the phone and asking them… Well lets just say, they’re not the brightest crayon’s in the box. I talked to two different people about my Moments GPS not working, and both of them had no idea the Moment even had GPS.

  • kaiyen

    Random question – presuming that the 2.1 update comes out “soon” (say..this month at all?), would you get a Hero or just wait it out for the Hero 2? Let’s presume the Evo4G is something you’re willing to then upgrade to again later.

    I am trying to convert my job workflow to an all Google environment so that I can use an Android phone rather than our Blackberry units. But I can’t “really” test it out until I get an Android phone and start hooking everything together. We have a sprint acct so no contracts.

    Thoughts? would you get a Hero now?

  • androidrocks

    Well 4/9/2010 has came and gone and still no 2.1 for the Sprint Hero. Go figure?

  • Jason

    Well 4/13/10 and nothing yet..
    Sprint BLOWS !

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