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Baby steps. That’s what owners of the Sprint HTC Hero have to live with when it comes to getting more goodness out of their Android phone. We’ve told you about the battery problems, DST mix up and other irritations causing Sprint Hero owners some frustration and the GOOD news is that a maintenance fix is on the way.
A maintenance release is being developed for the Hero to address key items such as SMS and DST issues. The target launch is in the next few weeks, but I do not have the exact date or a list of everything that will be included yet. I will post updates as they are made available to me.
Please note: This is not a 1.6 or 2.0 upgrade. I will post news about OS upgrades when I get it.
I’m guessing you read that last line about the Sprint HTC Hero having to live with Android 1.5 and how this won’t upgrade the phone to 1.6 or 2.0? Yeah, that’s the bad news. Although it DOES appear that the company is working on it and will announce something in the near future. Most likely they’re just waiting on HTC to finish updating their HTC Sense with Android 2.0.
I’m glad to see Sprint and HTC working on this as it is a pretty serious problem that has plagued the device and many unknowing customers – who unfortunately don’t read Phandroid – will never know what’s up. I’m also glad to see they’re not waiting for 2.0 to push out one big update but instead are working diligently on a solution NOW. I’m just wondering why a seemingly simple problem is taking so long to patch?
We’ll keep you posted.
[Via Sprint Community Forum]
from what i’ve been hearing, HTC says theyre waiting on sprint to approve the update to 2.0 and sprint is saying theyre waiting for HTC to finish the update…
Dear Sprint… fix my Hero already!
to fix the sms issue, just use handcent sms and disable the built in sms to not receive automatically. the phone will now be able to sleep and battery saved. as far as the DST i have not had any issues so im not sure the problem.
I hope all fixes for the Hero apply to the Droid Eris too. I don’t do texting, so the SMS thing doesn’t bother me, but the DST problem is annoying. All my calendar appointments that were created prior to the end of DST are showing up an hour early, which is quite annoying.
Well Rob, this patch is taking so long because it has been in Sprints hands for weeks now….not HTCs fault Sprint decided to release Palms 1.3.1 126MB update before the Heros critical update. The real question here is why was the device released with these critical battery and memory leak bugs? There is no doubt that both Sprint and HTC knew from the beginning.
How about the apps problem. You know, the one where some of your apps icons and/or names change after you restart your phone. And also, some apps revert back to previous versions, namely Handcent SMS. Hopefully this gets fixed.
It’s a little disappointing that it has taken so long for HTC/Sprint to push out a patch for something that should have never passed QC in the first place. Makes me wonder if Apple’s strict quality control procedures and very quick patching of the iPhone will ever be seen in other platforms, other than the equally quickly patched Palm Pre.
This is the problem with providers these days, they feel like they need to control everything. I would hate to see the day that I have to wait on Comcast to provide updates to my computer because I’m using their service to get to the Internet. This is what makes the iPhone successful, Apple releases the updates. HTC should be the ones who makes the updates available not Sprint or Verizon. When I started having problems with the DST issue, I took my phone out to the local Sprint store, they didn’t know how to fix it so they called HTC support.
This SMS thing should have been updated much quicker. I’m using handcet, which is actually pretty cool, but I want the default SMS app back so I can use the widget again.
@Chad, oh please. The iPhone has had plenty of bugs, there’s one for months and months now where it will randomly order your smart playlists when you sync, which is hell for syncing podcasts or any smart playlist like people who rely on recently added to listen to their newest songs, it’s all randomly shuffled. That’s just one that’s been around for months.
Sorry for the ignorance on the issue, but what the heck does DST stand for. I’m a fellow Htc Hero owner and am quite curious. Btw i want my Eclair already!
DST is a non issue when you live in Arizona. We don’t change the clocks. :)
@meatloaf DST(Day light savings time)Its what people use in the midwest. Really makes no since bc its dark @ 5pm now instead of 6pm. Anyway I wish that both sides would stop playing games and just make it happen. I love the phone and the possibilites of it but da^^n wtf. Still now giving it back though (2 much fun)
I have the Sprint HTC HERO and am not having these issues. Yay me! Meatloaf… I believe DST refers to daylight savings time.
Have they mentioned what issues will be fixed? I have 3 critical issues with my Hero. #1 the mentioned SMS battery issue #2 the headphones are mono (use headset toggle widget as workaround) #3 any updated apps have corrupt icons after phone reboot (as Tim mentioned above). Some of the apps I have downloaded have been through 4 or 5 updates, some specific to fix Hero issues and yet still nothing to fix the actual ones that matter from Sprint/HTC!
Jonathon,
Why don’t you use the Handcent widget? Works perfectly for me.
i earlier that sprint doesn’t want to make updates available to download bec. of the size and what not, now this is conflicting for me bec. i wana get a hero or moment for flash 10.1 android 2.0?
From ENGADGET: Sprint marketing exec talks Android, WiMAX, WinMo 7, and more:
He mentions that upgrades to Android 1.6 and 2.0 (presumably for the Hero and Moment, both of which are currently running 1.5) would likely not be over-the-air due to their size — this sounds bogus considering that T-Mobile has had no problem going from 1.0 all the way up to 1.6 on the G1, but we’ll need to see how this shakes out.
@bachinphx daylight savings time
The Hero needs a update fast. It’s a great phone with a lot of potential, but it has to many bugs. With out an update the Hero will be obsolete. THE LAG ON THE KEY BOARD IS KILLING ME! C+ for trying Sprint.
Well my day are messing up here and there and I don’t change time zones either. I love in HI. I have tried handcent sms and it makes my phone lag alot. I can live without it. Just want better battery life for my phone
@Pat – the fix you describe does NOT fix the SMS issue and battery life. It only temporarily works, and after about 10 days or so the awake time starts creeping back to at or near 100%. At least that has been the experience on my device.
In general I find the Hero quite buggy and am disappointed that it was RTM’d with the number of issues it has, I would have gladly waited longer for a better quality product.
@Jonathan, if you are referring to the widget that tells you how many unread SMS messages you have, Handcent offers that as well. There are two ways to put Handcent on a screen: the shortcut, and the (Android) widget. Choose the latter app category when hunting down Handcent in the Add To Home (“+”) menu.
handcent is better than the default messaging client, anyway. so i don’t get why this is an issue. sprint hero is the best phone i’ve ever owned, sprint has the best value in their phone plans i’ve ever seen, and i am a happier mobile customer than i’ve ever been :)
Just got my MR update and it’s OTA!!!
I just did a check for firmware udpates today (first try in a week or so) and by chance one was available. Download is quick… install takes some time. I wonder if it REALLY needed to take this long to release a maintenance update? I wonder how many casual customers out there have had their phone practically plugged into a charger at all times because they didn’t know about or understand the sleep issue w/ the stock messaging app. Seems like that stuff would be fixed in a manner of days…
Wow, I basically said the same thing in #24 that another Chad said in #7. That’s kinda weird. :P
Now its about x they finally released the da^^n thing….. wonder if it fixed all the issues we were having?
6PM 11-18-2009.
Just got the update. Took about 20 minutes. You have to wait forever for the phone to restart. You have to wait for a while on the “htc” screen. Wait it out.
Yes the update is here loving the Phone now. great job htc/sprint
Yeah I have the update now also and theres is a few standouts for one there is a mute and speaker phone button right on the screen when in a phone call and now when dialing someone you get heptic feedback, and they fixed the problem with the SMS.
…If you haven’t got the update yet here is the simple way of getting it…enjoy!!
1. Go to Home screen by pressing home button
2. Click Menu
3. Click Settings
4. Scroll Down to Bottom and Click About Phone
5. Click System updates
6. Click Firmware update
7. Follow instructions
..and there you have it…don’t get frighten when your phone stays on the HTC screen for a long time its just loading and there will be another short loading once you unlock the phone..
Downloading as I read here !!!! hope they do get the 2.0 Version update soon as I really want to use the better google maps navigation for version 2.0
Where can we read on what has been added to this update ????
Here I found the release notes!!!
What’s New
Fixes
* broken app icons are fixed. This issue was also known as the boot caching issue
* broken app names are somewhat fixed. Some of mine weren’t but I reinstalled them and so far they display correctly
* reportedly, the major battery draining 100% awake SMS and letting the phone go to sleep after boot bugs are fixed. I’ve gone ahead and uninstalled HandcentSMS to see if my visual voicemail notifications will come back (they seemed to have gone away after I switched to Handcent)
* not receiving SMS when low on space is reportedly fixed
* memory leak related to bluetooth is reportedly fixed
* daylight savings time calendar issue is reportedly fixed
* the stereo headphone issue is reportedly fixed (not sure what it was exactly)
Improvements
* the phone is a lot snappier – the lag is pretty much gone in a lot of cases but it’s still there in others, especially in the Phone app and the browser. For example, I killed the browser and started it again – it took 20 seconds before google.com was loaded, 10 of which I spent staring at an almost completely white screen
I have a feeling it is due to fixing something with the cleaning up of the old uninstalled apps. My theory is that the Hero didn’t uninstall the apps properly, perhaps leaving their cache behind, thus slowing down more and more as I tried out more and more apps
* Update: I just charged the battery and I think the battery charged a lot faster than before, which is a really good sign
* loading of app lists seems to be a lot faster. By that I mean any time the phone shows a list of installed applications, it seems to show up a lot faster than before (Add shortcut, Manage, etc)
* reportedly, improved camera quality – I’ll have to do some tests to validate this one
New Features
* app search – if you push the search button from anywhere inside the Market app, it now pops up the app search dialog rather than the regular google search
* there are 2 new icons during a phone call: mute and speaker. I took a photo of this, which you can see below
* the green Android dude looks more 3D-ish now – a minor but nice UI change
Miscellaneous Notes
* the update did not fix the all-day event 1 day too early notification problem
* I did not find an update for the voicemail app that some people mentioned (mine is at v5.0.0.32)
* the “linked program is no longer installed on your phone” problem that I’m having with my Twidroid shortcut every time I update it is still there (it goes away after phone reboot)
* the haptic feedback (vibrate on press) in the Phone app is now permanently on, even though I turned it off in the keyboard settings. I am fairly sure it’s either a bug or a new “feature” that we didn’t want, as it doesn’t respect phone-wide settings
What’s New
Fixes
* broken app icons are fixed. This issue was also known as the boot caching issue
* broken app names are somewhat fixed. Some of mine weren’t but I reinstalled them and so far they display correctly
* reportedly, the major battery draining 100% awake SMS and letting the phone go to sleep after boot bugs are fixed.
* not receiving SMS when low on space is reportedly fixed
* memory leak related to bluetooth is reportedly fixed
* daylight savings time calendar issue is reportedly fixed
* the stereo headphone issue is reportedly fixed (not sure what it was exactly)
Improvements
* the phone is a lot snappier – the lag is pretty much gone in a lot of cases but it’s still there in others, especially in the Phone app and the browser. For example, I killed the browser and started it again – it took 20 seconds before google.com was loaded, 10 of which I spent staring at an almost completely white screen
I have a feeling it is due to fixing something with the cleaning up of the old uninstalled apps. My theory is that the Hero didn’t uninstall the apps properly, perhaps leaving their cache behind, thus slowing down more and more as I tried out more and more apps
* Update: I just charged the battery and I think the battery charged a lot faster than before, which is a really good sign
* loading of app lists seems to be a lot faster. By that I mean any time the phone shows a list of installed applications, it seems to show up a lot faster than before (Add shortcut, Manage, etc)
* reportedly, improved camera quality – I’ll have to do some tests to validate this one
New Features
* app search – if you push the search button from anywhere inside the Market app, it now pops up the app search dialog rather than the regular google search
* there are 2 new icons during a phone call: mute and speaker. I took a photo of this, which you can see below
* the green Android dude looks more 3D-ish now – a minor but nice UI change
Miscellaneous Notes
* the update did not fix the all-day event 1 day too early notification problem
* I did not find an update for the voicemail app that some people mentioned (mine is at v5.0.0.32)
* the “linked program is no longer installed on your phone” problem that I’m having with my Twidroid shortcut every time I update it is still there (it goes away after phone reboot)
* the haptic feedback (vibrate on press) in the Phone app is now permanently on, even though I turned it off in the keyboard settings. I am fairly sure it’s either a bug or a new “feature” that we didn’t want, as it doesn’t respect phone-wide settings
oops sorry for the double post if someone can delete one, thanks
Does anyone know if Sprint will upgrade the Hero to Version 2.0
mine has a prblem with constant sync. so it just drains on the batt. had to turn off sync on contacts and calander.
Hi,
does anyone know if this update is just for sprint? i just got my hero for orange (europe) and i think i may be having the same issues as you guys explain.
I just got the latest HTC orange ROM upgrade which is:
ROM version 2.73.61.5
I’ve looked under ‘about phone’ section in the settings menu but i cant find the option to check for latest firmware or software.
Does anyone know if this fix you guys got will be released by HTC? or is it just specific to sprint?
Thanks
I recently switched from g1 to sprint hero because I found the phone very attractive, my ex-girl friend will testify to that. Over the first week I was on the in till I realize that the phone key lags some time especially when am texting and browsing which is kinda disappointing after all that is been said about the ohone. An I wonder when either sprint or HTC will release update to 1.6. Am as new phone it should get some the new updates out there. As once g1 user I feel rob off my money. We need updates come on.
I also feel robbed I switched from Verizon to sprint because I wanted the hero. Coming from a blackberry storm It was an upgrade to me. But the fact that every other HTC android phone are receiving updates besides
the hero is pissing me off. I should have stuck with Verizon. If we don’t have an update by January I’m so switching back. Peace to sprint.
By the way chomp sms is way better handcent, and if I turn off you haptic feedback (vibration when I type) then your keyboard won’t lag.