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

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!