Hero questions, need help.

[Rotormaster]

Hello everybody. I am new here and have not yet an android, as such, I have have a phew questions (actually quite a phew) so as to help me decide wether or not to purchase one. All help will be greatly appreciated.

By the way this is all in regards to the hero, okay I'll get into it.

1. Okay the first is concerning to rooting and ROMs, as you all know the hero is well known for all its problems and hiccups (as evident by all the Qs on this forum regarding hero), e.g screen glitches and flickers, key board fails to register, no video play back on certain formats, problems with the social websites sync, computer sync issues, downloading apps, list keeps on going (see forum threads). My question is, if I were to root and get a custom ROM this would void my warranty which would be a problem if any any of the problems above (which are likely) were to occur, so what I want to know is if I root and do the ROM, is there any way I can 'uninstall' so to speak so as to not void my warranty?

2. I run a mac so will this pose any complications regarding syncing, or loading music etc?

3. I hear many problems in regards to the video playback formating, I am unclear as to what this implies, does this refer to loading videos from your computer to the device? i just want to confirm that these problems do not refer to playback of videos that were actually taken with the phone.

4. Last of all, the 2.1 (or 2.2, not sure) update. I do not know if this update is even out yet nor actually compatible for hero but I have heard they are so, if the later, is the update compatible with the root and ROM upgrades? and if so does the update need to be applied prior to root and ROM or can I update after?

I know most of these questions have probably being asked before countless times and I apologize but I really need some help and if anyone can clear my uncertainty and help me decide it will be utterly appreciated.

Thanks in advance and as I said before any help will be appreciated.

 

[Xyro]

1) I think you're judging the hero a little too harshly. I think with it being a smartphone there's a lot to discuss when it comes to using it; I don't think it's any different to any other android phone. It's just that the more customisable something is, the more complex it is to use, especially if you're comparing it to a non-smartphone or a iPhone where you're far more restricted. The hero is one of the better reviewed phones when compared to devices with similar prices/release dates.

Plus, I think viewing a forum that mainly deals with help + support gives you a skewed view. The people who experience no problems with their heroes are far less likely to find an internet forum to discuss it in.

But yes, rooting is a good option. You can always flash an official firmware .exe to put everything back to stock. Nobody I've seen here has ever had a problem when it comes to their warranty, even when the phone wouldn't boot and they couldn't un-root. That said, even if the risk is very low, nobody can 100% guarantee that rooting wont come back to haunt you.

2) You can sync music via drag and drop to the SD card, or via any program capable of syncing to an SD card. There isn't a version of HTC Sync for the mac though, as far as I know.

3) The main trouble is playing .axi/divx files loaded on from your computer. If you encode videos in one of the mobile device friendly formats it should be fine. There's no problem with videos the hero has made it's self.

4) The official 2.1 has been released for Taiwanese heroes only, although it can be used by anybody who uses custom firmware. Everybody else is still waiting. But be aware that if you ever install the proper official 2.1 you may not ever be able to root/use custom firmware.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Rotormaster]

1) I think you're judging the hero a little too harshly. I think with it being a smartphone there's a lot to discuss when it comes to using it; I don't think it's any different to any other android phone. It's just that the more customisable something is, the more complex it is to use, especially if you're comparing it to a non-smartphone or a iPhone where you're far more restricted. The hero is one of the better reviewed phones when compared to devices with similar prices/release dates.

Perhaps I am, but only because it is apt. it is true that the more complex and sophisticated something is, the more problems it will face, but this is why you abstain from from making the system any more more complex. If you can't execute the three pointer than don't shoot from so far, it is like anything else, NASA doesn't attempt to go to mars because they know they cannot do it, it would be a fail of logic to attempt so knowing full well that the ship would burn up halfway there. htc should learn to not take more than they can chew, certainly I do applaud them for pushing toward more innovative and newfangled ideas, however these well praised efforts become unacceptable when it is the customer that begins to pay the price for they're faulty products.

Plus, I think viewing a forum that mainly deals with help + support gives you a skewed view. The people who experience no problems with their heroes are far less likely to find an internet forum to discuss it in.

I would agree but then again I doubt that iphone forums would have present within them this amount of posts in regards to faults and problems. the thread in concern to the headphone jack issues is a clear example of this, indeed with all types of products it is expectable for a small percentage to fail, but to have this degree of faults from a certain product is less than acceptable, I counted around 59 people that had experienced the same head phone jack issue.

You might be thinking that I am answering my own questions on wether I want one or not but I am only being honest, as much as I do like the device I wont be love blinded as to completely disregard and turn a blind I towards the undeniable negativities of the product, believe me I am definitely not an Iphone sucker and I really do want to love android and especially this little hero, and I am all for this free and open source movement, but there is just nothing worse than having something that just doesn't work, I think every one would be with me when I say that it is just the most frustrating thing having to work with something that just continuously and repeatedly fails, but I am keeping my heart open.

But yes, rooting is a good option. You can always flash an official firmware .exe to put everything back to stock. Nobody I've seen here has ever had a problem when it comes to their warranty, even when the phone wouldn't boot and they couldn't un-root. That said, even if the risk is very low, nobody can 100% guarantee that rooting wont come back to haunt you.

I am not quite sure what you refer to by "flash an official firmware" I am guessing this means to unroot, are you saying that if I unroot they will have no way of knowing that it has been rooted? What about all this custom ROM fuss I hear about? can you also 'undo' the ROM?

2) You can sync music via drag and drop to the SD card, or via any program capable of syncing to an SD card. There isn't a version of HTC Sync for the mac though, as far as I know.

As long as you are sure that I can drag and drop.

4) The official 2.1 has been released for Taiwanese heroes only, although it can be used by anybody who uses custom firmware. Everybody else is still waiting. But be aware that if you ever install the proper official 2.1 you may not ever be able to root/use custom firmware.

I am a little unclear, you say that it can be used by anybody who uses custom firmware but then you say that if I install the proper official 2.1 I may not ever be able to root/use custom firmware, sorry for silly questions but custom firmware the same thing as custom ROM or two totally different things?

Welcome to the forum!

Cheers. And again thanks a lot for all your help.

 

[Xyro]

Perhaps I am, but only because it is apt. it is true that the more complex and sophisticated something is, the more problems it will face, but this is why you abstain from from making the system any more more complex. If you can't execute the three pointer than don't shoot from so far, it is like anything else, NASA doesn't attempt to go to mars because they know they cannot do it, it would be a fail of logic to attempt so knowing full well that the ship would burn up halfway there. htc should learn to not take more than they can chew, certainly I do applaud them for pushing toward more innovative and newfangled ideas, however these well praised efforts become unacceptable when it is the customer that begins to pay the price for they're faulty products.

I would agree but then again I doubt that iphone forums would have present within them this amount of posts in regards to faults and problems. the thread in concern to the headphone jack issues is a clear example of this, indeed with all types of products it is expectable for a small percentage to fail, but to have this degree of faults from a certain product is less than acceptable, I counted around 59 people that had experienced the same head phone jack issue.

You might be thinking that I am answering my own questions on wether I want one or not but I am only being honest, as much as I do like the device I wont be love blinded as to completely disregard and turn a blind I towards the undeniable negativities of the product, believe me I am definitely not an Iphone sucker and I really do want to love android and especially this little hero, and I am all for this free and open source movement, but there is just nothing worse than having something that just doesn't work, I think every one would be with me when I say that it is just the most frustrating thing having to work with something that just continuously and repeatedly fails, but I am keeping my heart open.

All I can say is that, if you buy any android phone you should know what you’re getting into. It probably will require more effort to get everything working than a regular phone would. But it’s also a more capable operating system.

As for actual hardware faults, all I can really share is my own experience. I’m certainly biased in it’s favour, since I own the hero, but I've never suffered from any of these faults so far *touch wood*.

I am not quite sure what you refer to by "flash an official firmware" I am guessing this means to unroot, are you saying that if I unroot they will have no way of knowing that it has been rooted? What about all this custom ROM fuss I hear about? can you also 'undo' the ROM?

If you install one of the official firmwares using a pc then you wipe everything on your phone. It’s a complete and utter factory reset, so no evidence of rooting/custom firmware is left behind. You can ‘undo’ a custom firmware this way too.

I am a little unclear, you say that it can be used by anybody who uses custom firmware but then you say that if I install the proper official 2.1 I may not ever be able to root/use custom firmware, sorry for silly questions but custom firmware the same thing as custom ROM or two totally different things?

At the moment people running the old 1.5 firmware can root their firmware or replace it with custom firmware. That’s how we have 2.1 on non-Taiwanese heroes; people have created custom firmwares based on it. However, if you were to install the official 2.1 update on your phone using the normal methods, you would not be able to root/install custom firmware. This is because the official 2.1 release patches all the vulnerabilities in the 1.5 firmware that we relied upon. Obviously, any custom firmware based on 2.1 would not do that.

People would probably find new vulnerabilities in 2.1, but there’s no guarantee of that.

And yes, ROM + firmware mean the same thing in this situation. Basically a ROM contains the firmware.

 

[Rotormaster]

If you install one of the official firmwares using a pc then you wipe everything on your phone. It

 

[Xyro]

Glad I could help

Though I have to say, if you can afford both those phones, the Desire might be better. It's newer and more powerful than the Hero. Even with custom ROMs, old phones can't keep up with the latest and greatest firmwares for ever.