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HTC Hero S coming to US Cellular next month alongside Wildfire S and Flyer
Guess what's officially on its way to US Cellular in October? The headline probably gave you a pretty good clue -- it's the HTC Hero S. And it's not coming alone: apparently the new device is big enough to warrant its very own entourage. Its brethren, the Wildfire S and Flyer, will both waltz into stores at roughly the same time. The Gingerbread-running Hero S will offer a 1.2GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 CPU, 4-inch qHD (960 x 540) display, a 1,520mAh battery and a 5MP CMOS rear camera accompanied by a 1.3MP front-facing cam. Add it to the lineup next to the Motorola Electrify, and we'd say the carrier's got some good options for the getting. The Hero S will be available sometime next month for $200 after $100 mail-in rebate, while the Wildfire S (which will come in grey and purple) will go for $80 after rebate and the Flyer can be yours for $400 -- once again, after rebate. Head below to find the full press release.
Mobile Miscellany: week of September 19, 2011
This week was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of September 19, 2011: Opera Software, builder of the popular mobile browser, announced it was acquiring Handster, an app store platform that supports Android, WP7, BlackBerry, and Symbian. [TechCrunch] Samsung unveiled three new HSDPA feature phones destined for India: the Champ 3.5G (S3770), Primo (S5610) and Chat 527 (S5270). [UnwiredView and SammyHub] A leaked image indicates the HTC Hero S will be coming to US Cellular in the near future. The device appears to be the Kingdom, and is expected to feature a 1.2GHz single-core Qualcomm CPU, 768MB of RAM, a 4-inch qHD display and Gingerbread. [PocketNow] Speaking of US Cellular, the Motorola Electrify officially became available for purchase online this week (expected in stores on September 26th), and can be yours for $200 after a $100 mail-in rebate. [AndroidCentral] Wirefly accidentally outed press renders of the Samsung Stratosphere -- on the retailer's Pantech Breakout page. The images have since been removed. [OwenJohnston] A white version of the Samsung Galaxy S II is making the rounds in the UK, but we learned this week that Bell Canada will be launching it well before the holidays. Interestingly, the device in the image (seen above) has retained the international version's three-button layout. [MobileSyrup] Among the barrage of new phones Sprint's releasing on October 2nd is the BlackBerry Curve 9350, according to another leaked employee memo. The price will likely be $80 after a $50 mail-in rebate. [CrackBerry] T-Mobile MVNO Simple Mobile announced a new unlimited prepaid plan for BlackBerry devices for $60 / month, which includes access to T-Mo's HSPA+ network. [N4BB] Huawei appears to have outed press images of the Honor, which is said to have a 4-inch FWVGA LCD, Gingerbread, 1.4GHz CPU (no specifics known yet), and an 8MP rear camera accompanied by a front-facing cam (again, no details on the resolution here). [EuroDroid] A member of the iPhone Dev Team has released a new version of Redsn0w, its popular iOS jailbreaking software, known as 0.9.9b1. Check the link to get the full list of new features. [Technobolt]
Screen Grabs: HTC Hero caught running WP7 on Smallville, Tess Mercer due for an upgrade
Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dot com. It looks like Tess Mercer's got more than one hero in her life, but only one of them is running Windows Phone 7. In this week's episode of Smallville, Lois Lane places a call to Tess Mercer, who appears to be packing a white HTC Hero. Oddly enough, though, it's not rocking Eclair. That's right, this Hero's a Microsoft man -- which has us wondering: what OS is Superman running? [Thanks, Rich]
Unlocked HTC Hero gets Android 2.1 update -- no, for real this time
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.
Sprint: EVO 4G users getting Android 2.2 'in the near future' (Update: No upgrade for Moment, Hero)
It looks like EVO 4G users will soon have one more thing to smile about, as Sprint has just announced that an Android 2.2 (aka Froyo) upgrade will indeed be coming to the "superphone." With the Android 2.2 upgrade, customers can expect improvements to include the following benefits: updates to user interface, improved EAS Support, improved browser performance, including Flash 10x Support, voice dialing over Bluetooth and application storage on external memory. No word on a timeframe yet, but you'll know as soon as we do -- promise. Update: According to this tweet from the carrier: "HTC EVO will be updated to Android 2.2; Samsung Moment & HTC Hero will not. Future devices launching w/ 2.1 will be also be updated to 2.2."
HTC Hero gets Android 2.1 update across Europe (update: nope, not 2.1 yet)
It's been a long, painful, drawn-out process, but it looks like we're finally closing in on getting everyone with an HTC Hero around the globe covered with Eclair. The company's European outpost has just posted some details on its Android 2.1 over-the-air update for the 2100MHz 3G Hero sold in most of the continent (including separate builds for units in Nordic countries, Greece, and Ireland), so this should quite a lot of brewing discontent -- just in time for owners to develop a raging case of Froyo envy, that is. C'est la vie; time for a Legend, right? [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Update: We've heard from our friends at CoolSmartPhone that this is just another minor update, amazingly -- not the 2.1 build that other Hero owners are enjoying. What gives, HTC? Update 2: And now HTC has gotten in touch with us directly, describing a two-part (the first of which seems to have already begun) end of June release. See it after the break.
HTC Hero (GSM) Android 2.1 update finally arrives... in Taiwan
In its day, the HTC Hero with its brand new Sense UI and browser with Flash Lite was a breakthrough, multitouch Android handset. As such, it quickly became a big seller for HTC and the carriers that sold it. Now one year later, owners of the GSM variant are still waiting for their chance at the latest Android 2.1 update. As a harbinger of things to come (we hope), the Hero 2.1 update just landed in HTC's home country of Taiwan. Unfortunately, this will likely be the last update Hero owners receive... via official channels, anyway. [Thanks, Lee]
Sprint's Hero finally gets official Android 2.1 upgrade
Assuming you resisted the temptation to either root your Hero or update it with the recently leaked 2.1 firmware, this is your very first chance to finally slap a dash of Android future on your senescent device. Sprint has at long last made the update available, though it isn't quite yet ready to download from its site. Fear not, the good folks behind the yellow network have put together a guide on upgrading through your phone and we'll link up the download as soon as it's ready for consumption. Time to start enjoying that Google Maps Navigation magic and all the other goodies constituting Eclair's delectable filling. Update: It's now available direct from HTC's website, as well as Sprint's own site. Thanks, all! [Thanks, Jonathan]
Sprint: Samsung Moment and HTC Hero Android 2.1 updates now coming 'in Q2'
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]
HTC Hero won't see upgrade to Android 2.1 until June, at least in Europe
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]
Apple iPad vs. Dell Mini 5 / Streak... fight! (Bonus: smartphone pile-on!)
Occasionally we've had strangers -- very likely non-Engadget readers -- coming up to us and ask, "Sorry mate, but is that the iPad?" To which we reply, "No, it's the Dell Mini 5." This may sound like a silly boo-boo to make, but there is this common misconception of the iPad being just "a bigger iPhone" while not knowing how much bigger it is (despite our best effort). To clear this up once and for all, we've brought the two devices in question together -- the Mini 5 / Streak smartphone on the left, and the iPad on the right. Now it's up to you guys to spread the love. As a bonus, we also threw in various phones -- HTC HD mini, Nexus One, Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, and HTC HD2 -- to pile on top of Apple's latest toy, just to kill the Sunday afternoon. No magical and revolutionary devices were harmed in the making of this article. [Thanks for the toys, Chris and Andy]%Gallery-90236%
HTC Hero update to Android 2.1 on April 26th in home country of Taiwan
We're past mid-March and rapidly approaching the early Q2 launch estimates for the Android 2.1 update for HTC's Hero. Now Engadget Chinese has tipped us to an official HTC release date issued on Plurk (a very popular, Twitter-like social service used locally) in HTC's home country of Taiwan: April 26th. So we should see the update go hot globally, with the latest version of the Sense UI in tow, at about the same time. You know, if you haven't grown tired of waiting and already hacked it in.
Sprint to release Android 2.1 update for Hero and Moment 'over the coming weeks'
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: Android 2.1 update for Hero, Moment coming in early Q2
And there you have it, folks -- word straight from Sprint that the much-anticipated Android 2.1 update will be coming to the HTC Hero and Samsung Moment "early" in the second quarter of this year. As you may recall, Sprint has actually been talking about this update since December, but "early 2Q10" is at least slightly better news than the previous "1H2010" estimate the carrier's been dishing out. Update: Sprint has posted a follow-up tweet saying that OTA vs. PC-based or in-store upgrades are "still TBD upgrade options." [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
HTC enhances Sense with Leap and Friend Stream (updated with video)
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.
HTC Hero shows off multitouch-enabled Sense UI on video
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]
HTC Hero-controlled Mindstorms bot hints at Android uprising
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.
Android display battle: In the end, there can be only One
It's not everyday you get to see six (6!) Android devices pitted against each other in a display-quality grudge match. No, not that sensor sensitivity nonsense again, rather, just a plain ol' video playback comparison for your subjective observations. Fortunately, the Android-loving kids over at HDBlog shot a video of the MyTouch 3G, HTC Hero, Motorola Milestone / Droid, Acer Liquid, Nexus One, and Samsung Galaxy (laid out clockwise in the image above). In our opinion, the Nexus One with its 3.7-inch AMOLED display packing a 800 x 480 pixel resolution comes out on top with the best overall image (though slightly on the red end of the color spectrum) -- good thing the video wasn't shot outdoors where that AMOLED is all but unreadable. But hey, that's our opinion, form your own in the video after the break.
Russia gets mocha-edition HTC Hero, plastic flavor coming soon
Sure, you lament about this or that certain smartphone not coming to your wireless provider of choice, but imagine if that phone hadn't even been released in your country. For those who are Russian and for whom That Certain Smartphone is the HTC Hero, your time is finally coming, and soon. HTC sent out devices to many members of the .RU press, but rather than providing functioning ones they received models made entirely of chocolate. Not entirely encouraging, but the company's Cyrillic Twitter page (which has been responsible for creating a stir in the past) is saying the phone is coming soon, as in the next few weeks, and HTC also created a Facebook fan page for the phone over the weekend. So, buckle up Russian readers; looks like you're getting your Hero soon.
HTC Hero gets firmware update (no, not you, Sprint customers)
The GSM version of the Hero just got hooked up with a new firmware update, version 2.73.771.73 (H3G). We don't know what's in here yet -- HTC hasn't offered up a changelog -- but we're foolishly hopeful that it's something newer than Android 1.5 (emphasis on "foolishly"). Let us know how it goes, folks. [Thanks, Nabeel M.]
