Donut on hero??

[kasperknop]

How will donut be integrated into hero?XD Hero uses the sense ui, so will this be altered with donut? Like the top searchbox in the demo video? And what about the new appstore? And when will this hit europe(denmark) ?

 

[ticho]

We'll just have to wait until HTC provides a Donut-powered upgrade to Hero, won't we? Or does anyone here have a crystal ball they're not using?

 

[quantumrand]

I'm getting the feeling that HTC wont bother with a 1.6 upgrade. All of the big manufacturers have had 2.0 pre-releases for just about as long as devs have had the 1.6 SDK. HTC will probably just put out a ROM update with 2.0 Ecliar, incorporating the 1.6 parts as well.

The Hero is not a Google Experience phone, so HTC doesn't even have to update to 1.6 or 2.0, but it's really in their best interests simply because the new features 2.0 gives will be yet another selling point for their SenseUI enabled phones.

 

[Edaze55]

I'm getting the feeling that HTC wont bother with a 1.6 upgrade. All of the big manufacturers have had 2.0 pre-releases for just about as long as devs have had the 1.6 SDK. HTC will probably just put out a ROM update with 2.0 Ecliar, incorporating the 1.6 parts as well.

The Hero is not a Google Experience phone, so HTC doesn't even have to update to 1.6 or 2.0, but it's really in their best interests simply because the new features 2.0 gives will be yet another selling point for their SenseUI enabled phones.

HTC doesnt have to do anything, you're right there, but as you said, its in their best interest to keep Sense UI current with 1.6 as well as 2.0. The Hero GSM or CDMA isnt the only phone running Sense. HTC is putting a good deal of stock into the Sense UI. I really dont see them abandoning it anytime soon.

I was originally expecting them to drop a 1.6 update, but now Im not so sure they will. Not with 2.0 around the corner.

I also disagree with your "Hero is not a Google Experience phone". You really should rephrase that to "Not a PURE Google Experience". Cause the way I see it, the "Google Experience" wasnt removed from the phone with Sense, but rather just dressed up.

 

[quantumrand]

Google will not let them brand it as a Google Experience Phone. It's an actual trademark/marketting term, designated for phones that use an unmodified Android kernel.

 

[kasperknop]

OK so what advantages does a Google Experience Phone have over the HTC? And is there anything major that we will miss in 1.6?

 

[ticho]

OK so what advantages does a Google Experience Phone have over the HTC? And is there anything major that we will miss in 1.6?

Android 1.6 Platform Highlights | Android Developers

 

[kasperknop]

Android 1.6 Platform Highlights | Android Developers

Thanks =) So...

No text-to-speak
And no advanced search bar?

 

[Lunfai]

Ofcourse HTC will supply a 1.6 update, if you actually follow HTC on there Twitter page you can see them hinting at the 1.6 update a few days ago. I also disagree with your quote "2.0 is just around the corner". Your basically basing this from the leaked screenshots of the Droid. How do you know there not adding a host of other features since the update hasn't even been properly declared. And there should be a lot of tweaks and bug fixing to finish since 1.6 wasn't really fully finished till a few weeks ago. 1.5 jump to 1.6 was around 4-5 months.

 

[slbailey1]

Ofcourse HTC will supply a 1.6 update, if you actually follow HTC on there Twitter page you can see them hinting at the 1.6 update a few days ago. I also disagree with your quote "2.0 is just around the corner". Your basically basing this from the leaked screenshots of the Droid. How do you know there not adding a host of other features since the update hasn't even been properly declared. And there should be a lot of tweaks and bug fixing to finish since 1.6 wasn't really fully finished till a few weeks ago. 1.5 jump to 1.6 was around 4-5 months.

Verizon just released an Ad campaign that features there new Android phone running 2.0. This phone is to be released during the first half of November.

I'm in the camp of the people who say that HTC will skip the 1.6 release and release 2.0 about the same time as Verizon release there Android phone.

 

[quantumrand]

OK so what advantages does a Google Experience Phone have over the HTC? And is there anything major that we will miss in 1.6?

The Google Experience branding is Google's attempt to stop the fragmentation problem. All Google Experience Phones will be running the same Android kernel which will help ensure compatibility with apps and features. The HTC Dream (G1) and Magic (MyTouch) are both Google Experience phones, but the Hero and Tattoo (and any other with the SenseUI) have a modified kernel. Basically, with a Google Experience Phone, that list of features in the link that Ticho gave are guarenteed to be on the device. If the device doesn't support all those features, Google wont let the manufacturer brand it as a Google Experience Phone.

Currently, I've only noticed a few big things the Hero is lacking. One is the standard speech recognizer (used for Voice Recognition). Another is a STT library, but that can be fixed by installing the extended library in the Market.

Hero users wont be missing anything from 1.6 if HTC decides to skip it and go straight to 2.0. Anything that would be added from 1.6 will be included with their 2.0 update. Because the Hero is not a Google Experience phone though, it's hard to know for sure which featurs will make it to the device and which wont.

 

[quantumrand]

Ofcourse HTC will supply a 1.6 update, if you actually follow HTC on there Twitter page you can see them hinting at the 1.6 update a few days ago. I also disagree with your quote "2.0 is just around the corner". Your basically basing this from the leaked screenshots of the Droid. How do you know there not adding a host of other features since the update hasn't even been properly declared. And there should be a lot of tweaks and bug fixing to finish since 1.6 wasn't really fully finished till a few weeks ago. 1.5 jump to 1.6 was around 4-5 months.

Android Developers have most likely been working on 1.6 and 2.0 in separate groups. The purpose of 1.6 was to add necessary things like CDMA compatibility and important features needed to keep the Android platform competitive. 2.0 on the other hand is more of an interface makeover.

1.6 probably took longer than it was supposed to, but its delay wont affect the release of 2.0 because the two updates are mostly independent of each other. They can do this because the updates are patched into the kernel. The only thing they will need to check when finalizing 2.0 is if it patches any parts of the kernel that 1.6 also patched.

 

[kasperknop]

The Google Experience branding is Google's attempt to stop the fragmentation problem. All Google Experience Phones will be running the same Android kernel which will help ensure compatibility with apps and features. The HTC Dream (G1) and Magic (MyTouch) are both Google Experience phones, but the Hero and Tattoo (and any other with the SenseUI) have a modified kernel. Basically, with a Google Experience Phone, that list of features in the link that Ticho gave are guarenteed to be on the device. If the device doesn't support all those features, Google wont let the manufacturer brand it as a Google Experience Phone.

Currently, I've only noticed a few big things the Hero is lacking. One is the standard speech recognizer (used for Voice Recognition). Another is a STT library, but that can be fixed by installing the extended library in the Market.

Hero users wont be missing anything from 1.6 if HTC decides to skip it and go straight to 2.0. Anything that would be added from 1.6 will be included with their 2.0 update. Because the Hero is not a Google Experience phone though, it's hard to know for sure which featurs will make it to the device and which wont.

Thanks a lot for clearing that out that means that the Google voice caller id thing wouldn't work jet?

 

[quantumrand]

Thanks a lot for clearing that out that means that the Google voice caller id thing wouldn't work jet?

I'm not sure which packages the Google Voice app relies on. I'd imagine it uses some pretty standard packages (data/network stuff), and relies on the Google Voice servers to sort it all out. If that's the case, it should work fine on the Hero.

Best way to find out is to install the app and see.

Edit: If you're referring to apps that use the Google Voice Recognition service, then yes, you'res correct. The Hero does not appear to have the required packages to do voice recognition (using the Google service) right now.

 

[kasperknop]

I'm not sure which packages the Google Voice app relies on. I'd imagine it uses some pretty standard packages (data/network stuff), and relies on the Google Voice servers to sort it all out. If that's the case, it should work fine on the Hero.

Best way to find out is to install the app and see.

Edit: If you're referring to apps that use the Google Voice Recognition service, then yes, you'res correct. The Hero does not appear to have the required packages to do voice recognition (using the Google service) right now.

Ok thanks again can't find the +rep button on the mobile version of this forum xD maybe that doesn't even exist xD thanks nontheless

 

[quantumrand]

I sent a support request into HTC, asking about the issues with Google Voice Recognition services. I submitted the query at the end of last week, so I'd expect to get a response before too long. I'll let you know what the tell me.

 

[akkadian]

I was looking around for info on when we might get paid apps from Android Market here in Finland, and found my way to the forum of local operator Saunalahti, who is selling Hero over here. A Saunalahti representative is saying that they have been in contact with HTC and been informed that HTC is planning to release a maintenance update in December which will update the firmware to 1.6 Donut and also enable access to paid Market applications for us here. Don't know how reliable this info might be but there you go.

Relevant forum thread here, in Finnish...