By 
Let’s cross our fingers on this one, and I mean really really cross them, because it looks like Sprint is gearing up to announce the Android 2.2 update for the HTC EVO 4G tomorrow morning. A few devices will probably be involved in an early test round kicking off along with the announcement, with the OTA starting to roll out to all handsets beginning August 1st. But if Froyo on the EVO just isn’t enough to get you all hot about the month of August, you should be more than happy to know that the planned update will bring more than just that.
The update also comes with an assortment of new widgets, a flashlight mode for the on-board LED flash, and some enhancements to video recording (including improved 720p video quality and the ability to use the LED light during camera recording).
Sprint has named the update as “high priority for competitive reasons,” which doesn’t come as much of a surprise given the recent rumors of concurrent Froyo updates for all major Verizon handsets, the Droid 2 launching with Android 2.2, and even the Galaxy S inching closer to an updated OS. Sounds like Sprint is ready and rearing to go, the only thing that could stop them now is some unfortunate situation on HTC’s part. Sounds like all the doting over delayed Android 2.2 updates might have been for nothing, but we won’t speak so soon. We just hope they all come as quickly and concurrently as recent news has suggested.
[via Engadget]
Take that Verizon! Now can we get the EPIC with 2.2 Preloaded…Pretty please??
Verizon is pissing me off so much. Every damn time a new OS comes out it takes them months to get it out for the droid. After Froyo comes out I’m just going to root my phone and be done with it.
Uh huh….
Extremely similar to the leaked Incredible Froyo. :P
Fingers crossed!
Great NEWS!!!!… Now I can’t wait to root my phone!!!
@chaz
Just root your phone now and get froyo…with more features.
Chaz: Don’t get mad, just root put cyanogenmod on it and be a happy camper!
Awesome! Now I don’t have to hack cyanogen onto my Evo.
Wow, that’s the type of enhancement list you want to see with every update! Some pretty cool stuff in there.
If this is true…Wow!
Nice! But is nobody worried about that 4G hotspot “fix”?
The DROID was the first phone to get 2.0, the second to get 2.1, and looks to be tied for third to get 2.2, just a week after the second. Quit your complaining and start feeling sorry for Behold II users.
I have a rooted evo and as much as i would like to have all of this features plus froyo, I’m willing to give up wireless tether. google said that this ability will be include on froyo but pretty much sprint will block this, so until i know for sure that wireless tether is actually there i will try to stay away fro the update. F@#$&K
Yeah right
OK finally a phone will be better than the Nexus One(for now) once this happens. I’ll still stick with my Nexus and stock Android because I’d rather know that I am getting an updating asap then having to hope I am. I still got my fingers crossed that the HTC Emerald is a stock Android 3.0 phone.
I do feel a little bad for all of the Behold 11 users….damn poor suckers.
Sprint has named the update as “high priority for competitive reasons,”
They get it.
Wow, awesome, but I was hoping this came with a fix for 30fps cap. Well this is great news anyways. Full flash is going to be awesome. Wow.
This is what I have been waiting to root my evo for. YES I AM worried about the 4g fix. Does this mean I wont be able to use my phone as a hot spot without paying? Is sprint disabling that feature? I waited to root because I wanted that feature most of all for FREE! So if I root and install froyo will I be able to get it for free?
Sorry for all the ???
God Bless Dan Hesse
Did anyone notice the 2nd to last bullet point under the ‘Plan’ lists a date of Tuesday 8/2.
Sunday is 8/1, Monday is 8/2 and Tuesday is 8/3
@ari-free they kinda get it but that $29/month for tethering and $10/month for 4G charge has to go. I wanted to move to Sprint but having to pay $40 more per month for slower internet speeds and tethering is just to much, I’ll stick to my Nexus One and T-mobile’s 3G+ until Sprint really gets it hopefully soon.
Way to go Sprint. Now let’s hope wifi tether is in there.
This sucks..I don’t know who to believe..I just called Sprint customer service and been on hold for 10 mins to make sure its true..they said we don’t see any update coming out for tomorrow :(
I hope they didn’t block the wifi tether, that’s like the only reason I was waiting on 2.2
If you are rooted, never mind a $29 fee, and the extra $10 is unlimited, and still cheaper than all other carriers. And once again sprint is not slower than T-Mobile. To say so as a whole is just stupid, when the majority of people on Tmobile barely get edge….LOL
Pay attention please…..WIMAX top range = 144 mbps > HSPA+ top range = 56 mbps
In it’s current state, T-Mobile has more HSPA+ coverage (ZERO HSPA+ Phones) than Sprint has WiMax coverage but this will change quickly. T-Mobile already has spotty 3G coverage compared to Sprint, and HSPA+ is dependent on their 3G coverage since it’s just an upgrade over that existing hardware. Combine that with the fact that Sprint also has a massive amount of spectrum for WiMax and that WiMax transfer speeds are dependent on coverage area (you have to tune the WiMax towers to either coverage area or speeds, hence the current poor coverage that prioritizes connection area but with only 3-6Mbps and 10Mbps bursts), and you have a recipe for Sprint WiMax eventually trumping T-Mobile HSPA+.
Well now, with Froyo, the EVO is going to be one sure fire iphony killer now. hail Dan Hesse, lol, Now all they need is some kick butt commercials to spread the news.
That’s very good news, let’s hope that works well, I was thinking to root my phone but now I’ll wait. Thanks for sharing info.
@Chaz comment #2
I got tired of waiting and rooted yesterday. Seems like agreat decision so far. Just use the guides here at Phandroid and block about 90 minutes start to finish.
LOL, come on John. It shouldn’t take that long.
@jdog you’re an idiot. Stop complaining about the additional $10, the price is the basically same on 500min plan t-mobile for 2 years contract, sprint’s is 450min however you get unlimiited mobile to mobile, which makes up for that 50min differential…
@Terrance
Wifi tether will still work. Sprint can’t block that if you are rooted.
@swazedahustla
@ or any one else
So if get the update and root wifi tether will be free?
I don’t believe it either!
do i have to unroot my phone to have allow this to install?
Color me skeptical. Although I do really hope that this is true.
Amusingly enough, I rooted and put Fresh 1.0.1 on my EVO last night…and then this morning it was running horribly. Stuttering, freezing…so I shrugged, content in my knowledge of knowing HOW to root, and just figuring I’d wait a while more before doing so. So I reflashed the stock rom and re-updated to current.
Now…now I’m glad I did. Quite interested to see how well this runs. Ive had my EVO for a full week as of 4 hours ago, and the only thing that worries me is battery life. Hoping this update, with the more efficient Froyo, will mitigate that just a tinge…
anyone?
If I have a rooted phone, will I need to un-root it to receive the update?
Im not the least skeptical about the rollout, this came from engadget and was supposed to be confidential, thats why the sprint reps dont know anything about it. The official annoncement is coming tomorow
All these features are great and everything, but isn’t this update supposed to help battery life??? Regardless I’ll still be updating it, but I’d like to know if it helps relieve the battery problem, even if it’s only slightly.
The camera update is pretty helpful too, I mostly take pictures with the phone in portrait mode
@max
Mostly like not, but knowing the public they’ll come out with a way pass that soon enough
Awesome for the EVO people. Sprint 4G is still garbage and their coverage area I think totals about 10 square feet for the entire country lol. I’m waiting for froyo on my G1…rumor has it T-mobile is pushing it out tonight. I’m just rambling my sugar is low. Hope this pans out to be true. If so, my Incredible is enraged.
10 Square feet? Seriously? That’s jealously for anyone stuck on a G1. Time to upgrade, even T-Mo has much better than that.
@max
i can almost assure that if you are rooted and you apply this official update you will lose root, and wifi tether and more than likely have to wait a long time until someone finds root again. My suggestion would be to wait until the update is rooted and then apply that rooted ROM so you can keep wifi tether and all the rest of the rooted goodies.
http://community.sprint.com/baw/community/sprintblogs/buzz-by-sprint/announcements/blog/2010/07/29/sprint-is-the-first-wireless-carrier-to-bring-android-22-to-customers-using-the-award-winning-htc-evo-4g-beginning-tuesday-aug-3
Here you go.
I think will be official by august 3, anyway Sprint new this on sometime in 2009 if u gays can read the small prints on the bottom of each page of the lightly confidential report, I’m happy anyway for all of us….
I’m in my 30-day evaluation window on a new EVO right now.
I am right on the edge of giving it back, due to the weight and battery life. And poor camera quality for an 8MP (my Nokia’s Zeiss 3.2MP looks better). And, I’ll admit, the stories of delicate micro USB ports breaking when charging are making me worried to commit to a 2-year contract.
But, I rooted a Nexus One and installed froyo on it, and the speed was impressive. If power management on the EVO can be addressed and we get the better JVM/JIT performance that 2.2 offers, it will be a great upgrade.
3 more weeks until I have to decide for sure.
Sorry, misspelled I meant to say Guys.
Sprint just sent out a tweet saying that the 2.2 update will begin rollout starting the week of Aug. 1……… Carrier confirmation…………I say O Yeah!!!!!!!
my evo is rooted and dont want to lose wireless tether, would i lose it if i update, and would i also lose all the apps i downloaded…
First off, this is a great site.
I want to put my two cents in about something. Its sort of like “stealing cable”. I understand the desire to tweak the phone as someone who builds occasional gaming pc’s, but where I frown is using it to gain services not included in the contract, especially if you root specifically for that purpose. Rooting should be an enthusiastic thing, not a theft ring.
I started with the everything unlimited at $99 and didnt get the tether or hotspot, even after another $10, which is bad, I called and talked to them, they wouldnt even clearly admit it to me, I did get my activation waived but hey, the phones cool, we are not in 1940 buying nickel ice cream cones. I reduced my plan to the 450 minute and kept the unlimited data, added the tether/hotspot and I’m at the same price per month. Fortunately I have a voip provider (ViaTalk) that I use my own device with, a grandstream bt200 desktop voip phone and had used an original iphone, the Linksys WIP300 to acheive voip over Wifi. This has evolved over the years….
I found an Android App called SipDroid to connect to my voip server (I’ll unplug the home phone if I know im using sipdroid that day so they dont both login the viatalk server), which is a no brainer over the wifi’s, but it actually works over the 3G’s! I don’t use it unless my minutes are high or I’m going to be on the phone for a while. This is what I thought was going to cause riots with the cellular carriers, but is now reality: Voip on my unlimited data, albeit with icky call quality sometimes.
I have my unlimited minutes now, my business number and mobile number on 1 device, hotspot and tether, etc. and it is all awesome. Buying a year of ViaTalk I end up paying $10 a month for unlimited calls and international is cheap too. So…
I’m just saying, tech enthusiasm is a better reason to root than to try to get free services from the carriers. If a lot of people do it, the people paying for the hotspot and the extra traffic it uses will suffer.
That said, I’m glad about the update. There arent too many things I need from it, but Im hoping for better aesthetics and some neat tools I guess.
Btw, SipDroid probably works with lots of free or other services, I’m not sure though. I do not represent them or ViaTalk but I have enjoyed the fun of using voip over the years and my Evo has made it even cooler.
I’m supposed to get a laptop again this week, so I will be happy with the tethering. For now it’s just a novelty that I show the fanbois with their iPhones, along with other features and they start sweating : )
Now this is the posting I have been waiting for. I got that Froyo Fever.
I got it too! Anyone else wanna jump on this train. :D
just curious , iam trying to find some clarity , I have a rooted htc evo wich was done with unrevocked 3, v 3.1 , I want to update to froyo this week when its available, do i have to unroot my evo , or can i just accept the ota update .. ? anyone please help? new to this stuff and guidance would be appreciated.
levijohns, I too rooted my EVO using unrevoked 3 and the OTA Froyo update offered on my phone wouldn’t work, nor would it work on another EVO I rooted using the same method. I had to flash the factory image I created using ClockworMod at the time I rooted using unrevoked 3 in order to get Froyo installed. Unfortunately, when I used the HTC Update in settings to check for the upgrade which previously showed up after midnight on 8/3, it now said my phone was up to date and no upgrade was available. This happened after I did a hard reset, thinking this would revert me back to factory…it did not. I eventually installed Froyo successfully but only after finding the official OTA zip file, renaming it update.zip as found in many posts, booting into bootloader mode and selecting install/upgrade from sd card…upgrade.zip.
Wifi Tether isn’t working, nor is screen capture. Both require root so, flashing the factory image created by ClockworMod definitely unrooted (as I had hoped) which allowed the successful (although manual) install of Froyo. If I hadn’t hard reset prior to flashing back to the factory image, I don’t think there would have been the problem of not seeing the OTA notification (just a guess though). No, I’m about to root again to install Wifi Tether (again) on Froyo. It does appear that Sprint has disabled the wifi hotspot capability on the Froyo update. I get the same error I’ve received on my previous Windows Mobile phones when I tried to USB tether to laptop before applying my hacks that allowed me to successfully tether in that way for free. There are many posts circulating about successfull OTA Froyo w/working wifi hotspot so, if you haven’t already, start searching and I’m sure you’ll find what you need.