Hasta La Gadget!

Good news for HTC Hero early adopters: HTC has a new firmware update out now for the device, and it considerably speeds up the interface if the multitude of reports to be found on the internet can be believed. Seeing as this was the number one gripe with the overall excellent UI, we’re incredibly glad HTC has gotten work on this, and we’ll be spending some more time with the device to return our newly tinted impressions. There’s a video after the break demonstrating changes, and most actions seems quite a bit quicker and smoother, all the way down to opening and closing the apps menu, and sliding between home screens. The update doesn’t really include much else in the way of features, but since it’s addressing the main pain point of the phone, we sure don’t mind — and neither will Sprint users, who we suppose will be getting this newly improved interface right out of the gate.

[Via Gizmodo]

Continue reading HTC Hero firmware update peps up the Sense Experience to something usable

Filed under: Cellphones

HTC Hero firmware update peps up the Sense Experience to something usable originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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End users of HTC’s Hero are now getting official access to the major new firmware build that’s been floating around lately, with the company’s Danish site being among the first to offer it to downloaders official stamped as version 2.73.405.5 (for comparison, UK visitors are still left out in the cold as of this writing). The big deal here is speed — the new build stamps out many lag-related concerns buyers had at the phone’s initial release, and we’ve heard (and seen) that the new code is nothing short of magic. Unfortunately, US residents still don’t have a good reason to expect to find this on their local HTC support site yet — Sprint won’t be dropping the Hero until early next month, at which point we’d certainly hope the latest and greatest speed improvements would’ve already been incorporated — but Europeans hesitant to give the Hero a shot might want to give it another look with the new goods installed.

[Thanks, Frederik C.]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Speedy new HTC Hero firmware starts to pop around the world originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As QWERTY-equipped Nokias go we’re having a hard time taking our eyes off the N900 (and the E72, come to think of it) — but it might be worth keeping the N97 hanging around on the back burner, because Nokia certainly hasn’t moved on yet. In fact, the company is crafting a rather hefty new update that’ll be available next month, and on video, it seems to directly address a few areas that should immediately make the phone more usable, chiefly kinetic scrolling which makes lists behave in a way that’s more natural and obvious for a full-touch device. There’s also a smattering of bug fixes and performance improvements, more stock widgets available, alternate keyboard characters are now available via long press, and amazingly, they’ve managed to do all of this while still leaving more phone memory available. We’d venture to say it’s still not an “N900 killer” by any stretch, but it’s definitely a new lease on life. Follow the break for a video demo of the new firmware in action.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Nokia N97 firmware 2.0 looks to squash major pain points

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Nokia N97 firmware 2.0 looks to squash major pain points originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As we’ve seen, for many people the migration to Snow Leopard has been eventful (to say the least). Even if you’ve been spared most of the growing pains, you’ll want to make note of this next item: According to the kids at Adobe, the initial release of Mac OS X 10.6 includes an earlier version of Adobe Flash Player (10.0.23.1), necessitating an upgrade to 10.0.32.18 if you want to take advantage of the enhanced security the latter provides. What’s more, even if your plug-in was up-to-date, an upgrade to Snow Leopard will downgrade your Flash Player version — so much for auto-magically downloading the most recent updates when you install the OS, eh? Our feeling is this: if you’re including Flash Player in the OS, you’d better update that as well. As Daily Tech points out, Adobe products (especially Flash) are a favorite of hackers and malcontents everywhere, so if you’re serious about security you’ll want to get your hands on the update ASAP. And as always, the read link is a terrific place to start.

[Via Daily Tech]

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Snow Leopard ships with old version of Flash – great for hackers, not so much for the rest of us originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pioneering T-Mobile G1 owners have been enjoying the spoils of Android 1.5 (or Cupcake, as it’s known ’round these parts) for months now, but it looks as if that very treat will be the last taste of confectionery goodness that the smartphone gets. According to Android software engineer Dave Sparks, a time is soon coming when devs “wont be able to fit the latest [Android] release on the G1’s internal flash,” and yet another engineer has chimed in via Twitter to say that he “can’t promise” that any update after 1.5 will fit. For whatever reason, HTC gifted the G1 with an incredibly meager amount of internal flash, and considering that no Android phone will support app storage / loading from a microSD card, there’s no way to free up room for Donut, Eclair or Flan. You’ve been a real champ, G1, but without 2.0+, we just can’t give you the love and devotion you truly need. Go on, call us fickle — we deserve it.

[Via Electronista and jkOnTheRun]

Update: We’ve received a statement directly from T-Mobile on the matter, saying “We plan to continue working with Google to introduce future software updates to the T-Mobile G1. Reports to the contrary are inaccurate.” It’s unclear whether those are just going to be security and stability updates to 1.5 or whether we’ll see wholesale new versions like Donut and beyond, but for the sake of G1 owners everywhere, we’re hoping it’s the latter.

Filed under: Cellphones

T-Mobile G1 won’t see any Android updates beyond 1.5 (update: maybe it will) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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