Mobile Phone News

Great news: the original Android 2.1 firmware for Sprint’s HTC Hero was recently rooted. Bad news: Sprint and HTC were entirely too quick about fixing it, pushing out an over-the-air update this weekend that patches up the so-called “security vulnerability” without a new root yet in sight. Owners of rooted devices are naturally being advised not to pull the trigger on the new build at this time; too bad HTC couldn’t have shown this kind of hustle with the 2.1 upgrade in the first place, isn’t it?

Look, we’re calling it: as Android goes, anything older than Eclair is officially lame sauce at this point. Manufacturers need kick things into high gear and offer upgrades for the good of their customers — custom skin or no — so we’re glad to see that folks on Sprint might be mere weeks away from official updates for a couple of their devices. The Hero and Moment are both stuck on Cupcake for at this time, but we’ve known for a while that Android 2.1 is in the cards, and an internal screen at Sprint appears to show that we can expect the updates to launch in “early May.” For what it’s worth, enterprising Moment owners can already get their Eclair on — but a more official option is continuously the best way to go, right?

Sprint’s HTC Hero and Samsung Moment Android 2.1 updates on track for early May? originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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 to release Android 2.1 update for Hero and Moment ‘over the coming weeks’ originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sat, 20 Mar 2010 13:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.