Hasta La Gadget!

Hey look, it’s a Hero! We’ve got the brand new DROID ERIS for Verizon in hand, and it’s not hard to see which particular family of phones it hails from. Still, Verizon has its own twist on the form factor, almost scoring a compromise between the “shiny” Sprint Hero and the more angular, matte GSM Hero. Confusingly, the capacitive touch buttons along the bottom of the ERIS’ screen are a haphazard twist on the DROID’s arrangement (though it’s really Motorola that’s the non-standard one here), but the phones don’t look completely unrelated. In all the rounded, black matte body of the ERIS sort of “fades away” and you’re just left with a nice, bright LCD — it’s not making a statement, which is sort of the statement. There’s also an iPhone-style face proximity sensor for turning off the display during calls, and HTC has multitouch pinch-to-zoom on here, something Motorola hasn’t seemed to manage. Sure it can’t stack up to the DROID for aggressiveness or sheer specs, but it’s got it’s own sort of budget-friendly charm that’s not overshadowed by the DROID’s bombastic ways, and two out of three Engadget editors agree that the HTC keyboard beats the pants off the stock Android keyboard.

Filed under: Cellphones

DROID ERIS hands-on and unboxing! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, there still isn’t a fix for the problem some people seem to be having with receiving text messages on their HTC Hero, but it looks like a workaround has been discovered for another pesky issue that can put a strain on the phone’s battery life. Apparently, the phone has a bit of trouble going back into sleep mode after you send a text, or after you simply turn on the phone and immediately disable the screen without any activity. While some fairly elaborate fixes were tried by some users initially, it looks like the simplest actually works the best: just don’t use the default SMS app to send texts. Instead, you can use a third-party app like ChompSMS or HandCent, which apparently have no problems letting the phone go back to sleep after you send a text. Of course, an official fix would still be the best but, in the meantime, you can hit up the link below for all the necessary details on making the (hopefully temporary) switch.

[Thanks, Sean]

Filed under: Cellphones

Workaround for HTC Hero battery life issues discovered originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Telus already announced that it’d be launching the iPhone in November, but it’s just now gotten official with an actual date: November 5th — which just so happens to also be the day that it lights up its brand new HSPA+ network. Unfortunately for anyone hoping that a little competition would spark a price war, Telus is matching Rogers’ prices across the board, starting at $99.99 for the basic 8GB iPhone 3G, and moving up to $199.99 for the 16GB 3GS, and $299.99 for the 32GB 3GS (all on a three-year contract, of course). What’s more, Telus has also taken the opportunity to offer the first official confirmation of some of the other devices that’ll take advantage of its new network, including the HTC Hero, the previously rumored LG New Chocolate (a.k.a BL40), the Blackberry Bold 9700, and the Nokia E71 (plus a USB stick, for good measure). No prices or release dates for any of those just yet, unfortunately, but the Hero and New Chocolate are apparently Telus exclusives.

Filed under: Cellphones

Telus kicks off HSPA+ network with iPhone November 5th, HTC Hero, LG New Chocolate and more to follow originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ruh roh. Without claiming that there’s some sort of high-speed conspiracy going on at Sprint (read: there’s not), we’d like to point out that quite a few early adopters are claiming that their Hero refuses to hop on the carrier’s EV-DO Rev. A network. We took a peek back at the company’s press release for this very phone, and sure enough, the Rev. A experience is promised. We’re guessing that a simple firmware update will be all it takes to remedy the issue (if there’s truly an issue at all), but ’til then, there’s always WiFi! Right, guys?

[Via Examiner, thanks Tracknod]

Update: We just heard directly from HTC about this snafu, and as it turns out, the message that Sprint Hero users are seeing is merely a mislabeling. If you’re within an EV-DO Rev. A area, you’ll get Rev. A speeds — despite that fact that your phone says it’s only on Rev. 0. We’re also told that a future maintenance release will address the message. Check the full quote after the break.

Continue reading Some HTC Hero units shipping sans EV-DO Rev. A on Sprint? (update: nope!)

Filed under: Cellphones

Some HTC Hero units shipping sans EV-DO Rev. A on Sprint? (update: nope!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Joining the world’s shortest list of exciting exclusives, Sprint’s HTC Hero is available for purchase to Best Buy Reward Zone members only today, two full days before the October 11 street date. You’ll need to be a Reward Zone member as of yesterday to participate, but if no Best Buy clerk has already hard-sold you a Reward Zone card during a particularly momentous purchase of yours, you’re clearly not one to be swayed by petty early purchase options anyway.

[Thanks, Ted]

Filed under: Cellphones

Sprint HTC Hero available today to Best Buy Reward Zone members originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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