Handsets

RUMOR: Sprint HTC Hero Getting Android 2.1 On April 9th

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File it as a rumor and tread carefully as you direct your eyes at an alleged screen shot of an internal Sprint document suggesting there will be a “maintenance release tentatively scheduled for April 9th”. It doesn’t say 2.1 directly, but the anonymous tipster suggested that the problem with picture thumbnails solved by the update weren’t the core purpose, and that 2.1 will be pushed.

hero-april-9th

We wouldn’t be surprised considering just last week a similar rumor pointed at the broader range of “April”. It’s just a picture of a text document and could be easily faked, but I think there are a boatload of Sprint-toting, Hero-rocking, Android-loving readers who want ANY possible morsel of information as to win their Sense-packing robot phone will get the call to the big leagues.

[Thanks Anonymous Tipster!]

Rob Jackson
I'm an Android and Tech lover, but first and foremost I consider myself a creative thinker and entrepreneurial spirit with a passion for ideas of all sizes. I'm a sports lover who cheers for the Orange (College), Ravens (NFL), (Orioles), and Yankees (long story). I live in Baltimore and wear it on my sleeve, with an Under Armour logo. I also love traveling... where do you want to go?

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44 Comments

  1. i dont have my hopes up… i do expect them to fix that issue kuz its flippin’ annoying… any idea how awkward it is to ask people to send pictures atleast twice?

  2. If you read the whole thing it’s talking about a fix to Sprint Picture Mail, not an update to the OS. I’ve talked to Sprint about this in the past because I do periodically have issues sending Picture Mail (not since I downloaded Handcent though, so it must be the native Picture Mail)…

  3. Well we will see what happens on that date.

  4. The 2.1 update is NEVER comming. EVER!

  5. What happened to the 3/26 date for the update?

  6. I have read on other websites that Sprint has lost their contract with NFL as of 4/1/10. I believe that this update may either be to remove the NFL application or it may update the NFL update with another application.

    I had my hopes up for 3/26/10 as many other web sites had implied. Still keeping my fingers crossed.

    I am just so beat up over this upgrade to 2.1. I don’t understand why it takes so long for Sprint and HTC to release this. Android 2.1 has been out since well before December 09. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy to have a great phone and have the ability to upgrade to the latest and greatest, it’s just taking such a long time!

  7. I want to know why you (phandroid) are not pumping the release date for 2.1 for the Eris from Verizon? Like, Oh my gosh!

  8. Waterboard someone if you have to.

  9. Rob Jackson wrote: “I think there are a boatload of Sprint-toting, Hero-rocking, Android-loving readers who want ANY possible morsel of information as to win their Sense-packing robot phone will get the call to the big leagues.”

    You, sir, are correct. I was really hoping we would see an update to 2.0 in January (boy was I premature in those hopes)… Its getting really hard to wait, especially since someone just stole my garmin out of my car.

  10. God I hope we get 2.1. Its been such a tease lagging behind all the great things 2.0+ has to offer. And I totally agree about the whole “hey i didnt get that pic send it again” I had a talk w sprint on this and it was fixed for about a week on my hero and now its doing it again. I LOVE UPDATES!

  11. can anyone remember how many hero 2.1 update rumors there have been since the phone came out? the last one i remember before this one was for March 26th.any guesses on how many more there will be before April 9th? ill say 3 more.

  12. if this was vodafone australia it would be released on april first

  13. Funny how one of the qualms of going with a SenseUI phone is the lagging updates to the new versions of Android, but none of the Google Experience phones like the G1 or the mytouch have been updated yet either (and may be behind the Hero if it gets 2.1 in early April). What are the folks at T-Mo waiting for?

  14. @james dont forget the droid too lol everyone bashing sense ui cause it wont get updated as fast well wheres there argument now…

  15. Que bien llevó esperando estó por mucho tiempo.
    Estoy impaciente por saber que traerá de nuevo esta actualización.
    Gracias

  16. The argument is still the same, because Hero runs the oldest version of Android from all phones ever sold. No phone goes under 1.5 and all the phones you have mentioned are above.

  17. Ok so last week I spoke to someone at Sprint that said the there’s a update for picture mail coming an it’s part of a major update (2.1?). People complained about the iPhone mms not working for 2 days. If this wa apple they would of fixed it the same week. Sprint and htc r slow as heck with this. I need 2.1 an a smooth os.

  18. Better not update the Hero and NOT the Moment. Sprint will have a lot of pissed off customers.

  19. @James, I thought it had been confirmed that G1 would not be getting Android 2+ because it just did not have enough RAM.

  20. @asqwerth: the issue with G1 was ROM size (the part of the mtd [“disk”] that will hold the system image from the update), not RAM. Cyanogen was able to get the 2.0.1 and I believe even 2.1 AOSP versions running on a G1, by pruning a lot of excess fat from the image. It’s also possible to rearrange the way the NAND is partitioned, to give the system partition more disk space.

    Either way, I’m pretty sure that the G1 issue with 2.1 was solved, either by Google or the community, though I don’t recall if there was ever a “plan” to rollout a 2.1 update to all G1s.

  21. that’s strange because when i had my hero i never had picture mail issues…and yeah the april 9th deal is for that…the picture mail issue…on that notification it was just addressing some issues sprint has with picture mail there past few days from what i heard months?

  22. phone companies need to take a cue from crApple.
    They know how to do a launch/OS update. None of this drip feed rubbish or shifting of dates every other day.

    Either put out the update or pick a friggin date and stick to it. These phone manufaturers/operator are pathetic and could not organise a pissup in a brewery.

    I am still waiting to here whats happening to the Liquid upgrade…Acer did not even notify people of any patches to their current shitty handsets!

  23. I really need this update. With all these other sweet phones about to come out I may have to say peace to my sprint hero but I still think the update is gonna be sweet. I hope the lock screen is similar to the droid I was playing with one today @ work

  24. i just tried to update my phone. and instead of saying no updates available it said can not complete update at this time try again later

  25. lol of course it would

  26. *pic messages not recieved
    *text messages not recieved
    *voicemails come late
    *phone rings late
    *automatically runs apps you dont need and slows down your phone
    *youtube app doesnt play
    *sprint tv is slow and laggy
    *no user dictionary modifications
    *cant delete text threads

    this phone has tons of problems!
    give it all these features but it candle them
    pisses me off,im ready to sell this ******* phone

  27. Hmm.. Evo’s looking pretty hot every day I wait longer for the Hero update.

  28. Everyone should send a message to Sprint and try to download the update simultaneously at noon today.

  29. @Cru: What, so you can just keep waiting even more for updates to the EVO? It’s still an HTC phone running on Sprint. It will have the exact same problems.

  30. This would be great news if it’s true. Some how, I don’t know if it is though.

    It mentions there is an update for the HTC Hero on April 9th, but it doesn’t mention the Samsung Moment. Wouldn’t Sprint be releasing the updates for both phones in tandem? The lack of the Samsung Moment being mentioned (especially given it doesn’t use Sense UI, so it should be ready before the HTC Hero), really has me worried. I’ve read elsewhere that this is just an update patch to fix an MMS issue.

  31. its not the nfl mobile app that update comes out 3/31 to cover college football as well. Actually almost all there apps are being updated this week ie. navigator just got an update too. which leads me to believe that if they are rolling out updates to there apps this week and next wed. april 9th could be a good date for OTA. However it is Sprint we are talking about.

  32. I can 100% verify the authenticity of this memo as I used to work for Sprint on their network and know for a fact there’s terminology in this memo that an outside person wouldn’t have a clue. See the “CTMS” acronym? That’s the internal ticking application we used in Sprint to create & track issues – everything from network to individual customer phone issues. When we were just Nextel we used “NTM” developed by Oracle and in the merger there was this tug of war between previous individual company cultures over which we’d wind up using in the end. CTMS won out.

    The only possible fault here would be if an internal employee thought it’d be fun to joke around and include that acronym in a faked memo just to screw around with people. IMHO that’s too much forethought just to fake something for fun.

  33. @Petros: Sprint themselves have actually been pretty responsible about not officially announcing any update dates (except for the “first half of FY2010” announcement). It’s sites like this, frankly, that keep reporting bullshit rumors as though they were fact, but half the time when you look into the source it’s just some random guy on a forum who talked to first-tier Sprint tech support. Frankly, it really sucks and I wish the Android blogger community would start exercise a tiny modicum of discretion about what they publish. Some information belongs in a forum.

  34. I kno some inside info and i can deffinitely say that FOR A FACT this FIRMWARE update set for april 9/10 is NOT for the android 2.1. It is however a fix for a pic mail issue that many hero users have been experiencing for. the past month. It will also fix issues with battery life and intermittent unable to send text (for those of you who still havent downloaded handcent sms or adv task killer). But dont be discouraged b/c the os 2.1 update is comming extremely soon.. start to look. for it late april and it will be for both the hero as well as the moment. Sprint should also get the nexus one right when or right before it releases the htc evo 4g… so now at least we’ll have options.

  35. Woopty freakin doo… I’ve been reading this tripe sense Dec. (It’s coming soon. It’ll be out next month.) Blah blah blah. You wouldn’t buy a used car just cause the salesman says it runs perfect, would you? So why believe this dribble? Sprint will release 2.1 when they feel like it. Which sould be around the time the new Evo will be launched. Hmm… funny how that works out.

  36. why do we even bother with sprint it a fact that they don’t care about the update or their custumers.would jump ship but will get the same results no matter where u go so that being said.I want to leave a word of warning to those who are waiting for the EVO wait for the later version are you will be sorry i can’t even tell people to get sprint anymore they are starting to suck big time. I hope someone from sprint reads this and response,because this is so messed up the way we are being treated.U R REALY STARTING TO SUCK BIG TIME.

  37. I just got off the phone with Sprint, after a long talk with the HTC Tech. He told me the delay was with Sprint and not HTC. Not surprised to hear someone blaming someone else. Anyway, Sprint did give me a definiteve date of April 9,2010 for out update. Said we will receive infor via our phones. Guess we will still have to wait and see.

  38. To the guy who comment about Sprint losing NFL l, but now we got ESPN with is a whole lot better, u can watch all sports including the NFL

  39. All I think is they want us to buy the new phone coming out. So, with that said their making us hate the hero that way we buy the Evo. Just give it a thought and it will all add up trust me..

  40. I am about to just go Root my phone or install the leaked 2.0 and say screw Sprints software if they can’t get the programmers to move their asses and getting this update pushed to us…

  41. Does everyone realize, that in less than an hour with a usb cable. you can root the phone and install a 2.1 rom and it works great. I been running google maps navigation since i bought my phone.

  42. well, april 9 is here and still no update. color me NOT-surprised.

  43. Just attempted the firmware update…

    Still nothing…

  44. WTF? April 28th… Nothing. Keep writing awesome articles.

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