G1 News

The Android-powered HTC Hero has only had one major fault levelled at it since release (apart from that opinion-splitting chin), that of the unique ‘Sense’ interface feeling a tad sluggish and unresponsive to use.

Following on from HTC’s own attempts to pimp out the Hero, Orange has released a fix on the official site, allowing users to upgrade their firmware for a boost in speed as well as the odd tweak in other departments.

The process is fairly simple, but be warned that the update will delete all your data, so be sure to back up you contacts and saucy texts beforehand…

The T-Mobile G2 Touch – the network’s take on the HTC Hero – is a little more liveried up with carrier-specific functions, and in turn seems to require a lot of tinkering before the release of a performance update.

With T-Mobile asking customers to sit tight on their forum, it looks like the G2 will see its update brought forward from an initial October/November release to the next couple of weeks, keeping up with the HTC Hero’s new go-faster stripes as well as calming the crowd of pitchfork-wielding Touch owners.

The debate of whether network-specific firmware is detrimental to phone features is a fair one, but at least the respective carriers are making a concerted effort to appease impatient owners this time.

Source: Register

Well, it seems like T-Mobile UK is taking those Twitter 101 business lessons to heart, using their account to announce the release of the T-Mobile G2 Touch on their site from the 28th of July, and in stores in the coming days.

A HTC Hero by another name (but still as sweet), the G2 Touch is impressive thanks to the slick user interface and refreshing handset design.

The smartphone offers an antidote to those ’sold out iPhone 3GS’ woes, and has the Android Marketplace and a fine line in personalisation thanks to widgets and profiles that each offer a markedly different user experience.

Other plus points include Flash support on the G2’s browser and Microsoft Exchange mail support, although we are yet to see what magenta-flavoured additions T-Mobile will bring to the device.

Best Android phone out now (well, tomorrow)? Certainly. Best touchscreen phone on the market? It’s a close one.

What will become of our humble T-Mobile G1? I shudder to think…

Well, the title says it all really. Although the HTC Magic is released through Vodafone worldwide, it may be that T-Mobile that gets the US release. This would entail a bit of a name change. How doe G2 sound to everyone? Picture courtesy of Engadget.com

TalkAndroid

Courtesy of Android Authority, a hands-on impression of the new Sapphire 2.0 / T-Mobile G2, compared to the original G1.

As well as confirming the T-Mobile G2 pictures doing the rounds as real, here are the salient points picked out from the G2 feedback:

• The OS looks pretty much like that on the G1 (at the mo)
• The phone body itself looks nice, and has a smaller ‘chin’ than the G1 (yay!)
• It is solidly built, and quite a bit lighter than the G1
• The paint is a smooth and shiny pearly white color
• The button to the left of the trackball is the Home key, not a MyFaves key

• Auto-focus camera, but still no flash (told you!)
• Still no video (though again, this is pre-production software)
• It uses the same screen as the G1
• Auto-rotation works only for certain apps, like the browser.  No auto-rotate support for the home screen or main menu at this point
• Still no 3.5mm headphone jack (d’oh!)
• All the “iPhone lovers” seem to love the virtual keyboard
• The virtual keyboard works in both landscape and portrait modes

So…all pretty interesting. Is definitely an evolutionary rather than revolutionary leap, but that’s what a 2.0 is though, right? The good/bad conclusion that she reached after playing with the G2:

“…basically a G1 without the keyboard.”

Still awfully exciting to see the Android interface being beefed up with nice hardware!

Thanks to Gizmodo, we have some spy pictures of the HTC Sapphire 2.0 in the valley of the real, sans T-Mobile G1 keyboard, with sleek iPhone 3G-ish curves and a shiny back end!

Still runs Android, still has that ergonomic ‘chin’ at the bottom, and has a nice 3.2 megapixel camera (no flash??).

With the launch of the T-Mobile G2 rumoured as early as May, it’s nice to know that there are some physical handsets for HTC’s ‘09 line up floating about already!

Without a keyboard, that bad boy better come with Cupcake!

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, this is still Sciphone straight jacking Android. Did no-one tell them that Google’s platform was open source, freely available to use on their Dream G2 handset…for free? All that effort, all that reverse engineering, for nought!

Sad.

Anyway, the phone doesn’t look half bad.

It looks all bad.

Source: Engadget

Bad news for HTC. Their entire ‘09 lineup of phones ended up on the interwebs for technology fans to pore over and speculate about. No specifications, but plenty of photographic evidence proving their design doctrine of ‘if it ain’t broke’ continues unabated. What happened to using the graphics studio One & Co they’ve bought up to make exciting new devices? Everything shown looks decidedly HTC, channeling either the Touch Diamond or the curved edges of the original HTC Touch.

Good news? It looks like the potential successor to the T-Mobile G1 could have been prematurely unveiled amongst this chaos, as the Sapphire 2.o looks strangely familiar…

The ‘TMo’ subscript under the name is a dead giveaway as to which network the Sapphire is headed to, and there seems to be a striking similarity to the stylings of the G1. A trackball is still present, and the ‘MyFaves’ button which T-Mobile handsets are often equipped with seems to be to the left of it.

Could it be that the G2 is coming sooner than we thought, complete with a Cupcake-filled virtual keyboard? Maybe…

Source: IntoMobile

You heard about that fancy new Cupcake firmware? Apparently not all the swanky features are going to be shoehorned into the humble G1.

No surprises there. The handset is a little lacking in terms of upgradable parts, but all these rumours of a G2 as early as January? Don’t bank on it. To have such a massive lead time developing the G1, then launch a sequel less than 5 months later? Sounds like falsehood.

That being said, the onslaught of Android mobiles in 2009 will absolutely drown T-Mobile’s unique selling point, so why not try to get another competitive handset out there?

Either way, the stuff that Cupcake will turbocharge make whichever Android handsets are coming very exciting prospects…

With the T-Mobile G1 out and the Android SDK free for any enterprising developer to take advantage of, it comes as little surprise that the first new handset to run the operating system is from China, and is also cunningly named to take advantage of all blogosphere and internet hype…ever.

The SciPhone Dream G2 (real name) promises to be the most photo-friendly phone ever, and the long list of specs reveals some interesting choices beyond Android.

With neither a virtual touchscreen keyboard nor one of the physical variety, it seems like the G2 will actually harness the power of dreams to create texts and e-mail, or could go back to the T9 predictive text days on the screen.

Either way, unless you find yourself haggling in a market in downtown Qinghai for the G2 and a Coke Phone, you are unlikely to ever see this curio again. And is that really a bad thing?

Source: Trusted Reviews

Lots and lots and lots of rumours abound today, stating that the HTC Touch HD coul be given an Android makeover to become the second handheld device to run the revolutionary platform.

Makes sense, given as it is pretty amazing phone based on some reviews on the internet, and has the specs and slickness to genuinely be called an iPhone killer.

PhoneDog has two independent sources, both of whom have given up this rumour about the HTC Touch HD being a possible suitor…let’s hope it’s true!

You will too once you see this HTC Touch HD video…