HTC's Android update plans for South Africa

The upgrade for the HTC Hero, which has already been confirmed, is "a week away," according to Leigh. No other HTC device is slated to receive upgrades.
 
This is honestly sad, sad news.

The Hero has been waiting for an update since its release and now it's going to be left behind again - at least this time it won't be alone, for whatever that's worth. The Legend not getting an update means that it's going to be almost the same as the Hero - a marginally faster CPU and some extra RAM along with that steel exterior, but all in all it's not worth getting a Legend over a Hero.

No other HTC device is slated to receive upgrades.
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Fantastic, that means that the Tattoo is being left on 1.6. I'm glad I rooted mine, because I'm now enjoying 2.1 very much, thanks. This also then leaves behind the Dream and the Magic, luckily they can enjoy the Cyanogen ROM's if they decide to root.

Basically, what Leaf is saying here is that they only want to support the highest-end device and who cares about the rest. If you only wanted to support one device then maybe you should have only released one device
 
I'm so glad I didnt end up buying any Android device.

Its a pity that so much is left in the hands of the device maker, and its local subsidiary. I mean, this useless company gets to decide what gets an upgrade and what doesnt. Its a pity that Google couldnt somehow release a platform agnostic upgrade.

Even if it requires a PC to actually compile the new source code for your platform of choice, and then just download it to your phone, its better than being at the mercy of the vendor. Plus google said they were going to restrict custom UIs so HTC sense looks set to die anyway.
 
Ancalagon said:
I'm so glad I didnt end up buying any Android device.
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This is just for HTC - arguably the biggest Android handset manufacturer, but not the only one. Motorola has been quite faithful to their Droid/Milestone IIRC and I'd like to see if Sony Ericsson is planning anything as well as what Samsung is going to offer. This is not mentioning the Nexus One which gets its updates straight from the big-G. Also, it's quite easy to root most of them and slap on a custom ROM.

Ancalagon said:
Its a pity that so much is left in the hands of the device maker, and its local subsidiary. I mean, this useless company gets to decide what gets an upgrade and what doesnt. Its a pity that Google couldnt somehow release a platform agnostic upgrade.
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Agreed. I understand that sometimes the hardware is just out of date, but thus far community ROM's have been able to get 2.1 to run smoothly on the HTC Dream/G1 - the first Android device. There are experimental 2.2 ROM's and I'm sure they'll manage just fine.

Ancalagon said:
Even if it requires a PC to actually compile the new source code for your platform of choice, and then just download it to your phone, its better than being at the mercy of the vendor. Plus google said they were going to restrict custom UIs so HTC sense looks set to die anyway.
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Sense is actually pretty good, but I'm fairly sure that it's too resource intensive. It's also the reason why updates take so long for HTC devices and, to be honest, I don't see it being at all necessary with Android 2.2, so I'm all for Sense dying if it means updates actually come out faster or, as in this case, at all.

I like Android and I'm not going to stop liking Android because of this, I'm going to stop liking Leaf(not that I ever really did anyway, but I hoped that things wold change...) and possibly HTC, the people that are actually responsible.
 
Getting my desire in this week probably - is Frodo out and will I be able to update soon? Soz for the ignorance, I can google it but quite busy at work thought I would ask.
 
I want an update for my HTC Magic... Its already available to other guys overseas...
 
Getting my desire in this week probably - is Frodo out and will I be able to update soon? Soz for the ignorance, I can google it but quite busy at work thought I would ask.
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The update for Froyo should be out sometime at the end of the 3rd quarter/beginning of 4th quarter IIRC.

midkemia said:
I want an update for my HTC Magic... Its already available to other guys overseas...
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Considering this wonderful news from Leaf, I'd suggest rooting it and installing one of Cyanogen's ROMS.
 
Thanks HawkiesZA. What are the implications of rooting your device? Do you lose your warranty?
 
mk1 said:
HTC Hero is getting 2.1. Not 2.2
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Thanks for clarifying that. The already confirmed upgrade that's set to be out this week is indeed to 2.1 ("Eclair").
 
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Cloud said:
Thanks HawkiesZA. What are the implications of rooting your device? Do you lose your warranty?
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Yes rooting will void the warranty.. I know the Desire has a unroot guide. Not sure about the Magic.
 
Cloud said:
Thanks HawkiesZA. What are the implications of rooting your device? Do you lose your warranty?
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I'm actually unsure about that. Can anyone else verify this?

EDIT
Yes rooting will void the warranty.
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Thanks cyb3rt.

There are risks involved obviously, like bricking your device(very, very, very unlikely), but I rooted my Tattoo without any problems and got a custom ROM on there from the XDA-forums in no time. Check out theunlockr for their "How To's" and then either check out the XDA-forums or Cyanogen's website directly.

I'm pretty sure that if you do root, you can "unroot" again. You can also make a backup of your current ROM and switch back to it if you want to.
 
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midkemia said:
I want an update for my HTC Magic... Its already available to other guys overseas...
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Do you know which countries have received Magic upgrades?

I've read that the French are getting a Froyo upgrade for the Magic and that there is a basically-confirmed rumour that Vodafone will be upgrading their Magic to 2.2 as well. These upgrades haven't been deployed yet, though.

Even the US upgrades for the myTouch line of phones on T-Mobile haven't got their upgrades yet from a quick Google on news on the subject.
 
No froyo for the Legend is a bit odd, but for the magic/hero it's not that surprising. The phones are starting to get a bit long in the tooth, by the time the updates were released and approved here it would be time for most of their owners to upgrade in any case. I dont get why everyone always gets upset about their phone not getting an upgrade - you were obviously happy enough with the way it worked when you bought it, does it not getting an update make it somehow perform worse? Don't get me wrong, I'm really looking forward to getting froyo on my desire, but if my phone gets skipped when gingerbread comes out, that's just too bad.
 
alt146 said:
No froyo for the Legend is a bit odd, but for the magic/hero it's not that surprising. The phones are starting to get a bit long in the tooth, by the time the updates were released and approved here it would be time for most of their owners to upgrade in any case. I dont get why everyone always gets upset about their phone not getting an upgrade - you were obviously happy enough with the way it worked when you bought it, does it not getting an update make it somehow perform worse? Don't get me wrong, I'm really looking forward to getting froyo on my desire, but if my phone gets skipped when gingerbread comes out, that's just too bad.
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The Hero was released in mid-late 2009, how is that long in the tooth? It's barely a year old! That means that owners of said Hero have to wait a year before they can upgrade, during which they will miss out on 2.2 and possibly 2.3. For the Tattoo owners (like me) it means that they get stuck with 1.6 and it was released after the Hero.

What about selling/handing it down. If the phone doesn't get updates then it loses a lot of resale value IMO as it doesn't have access to the latest content, apps and API's - it becomes a feature-phone instead of a smartphone.

It was great when it came out, but without the updates you can't access or use all the apps in the Market, which does then make it worse as some developers will only support the latest version or developed their app using the latest API.
 
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