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Last week, HTC dropped the bomb: "due to memory constraints," Gingerbread would not be coming to the Desire. Then, less than 24 hours later, it flipped the script and said that Gingerbread will hit the Desire, minus a few apps. It appears that Australian carrier Telstra doesn't want to deal with the flip-flop, according to a statement on the software updates page of its site:
Sprint subscribers, you can stop holding your breath now - the nation's third-largest carrier has officially announced the release date of the EVO 3D and EVO View 4G. The duo will be coming out of HTC's factories and landing in a Sprint retail store near you on June 24, just as we've been hearing from the rumor mill.
The newest version of Sense UI has been somewhat of a hot topic among HTC owners, as HTC itself said that certain aspects of it has been reserved for newer devices only. Naturally, the dev community over at XDA was not about to stand for that, and shortly after the Sensation ROM leak, got to work on spreading the Sense 3.0 love.
I know that everyone loves leaks, so here is a good one for all of the devs out there, especially ones that are looking to port Sense 3.0 to devices that HTC says won't get it (at least not all of it anyway). A test ROM for the HTC Sensation (yes, the one we just told you about on earlier this week, also known as the Pyramid) has publically leaked with all goodies, including Sense 3.0, intact.
We first showed you HTC's 3.0 version of Sense UI earlier this week, and the next logical question from a lot of people was "when am I getting this?" Well, one man went straight to HTC via Twitter with that same question in mind and the response he got back was not exactly what anyone had hoped to hear: never.
Fragmentation has been one of the biggest criticisms of the Android platform. Essentially, Google allows anybody to take the Android code and tweak it suit their own needs. This is how manufacturers like Motorola, HTC, and Samsung are able to create custom layers (MotoBlur, Sense UI, and TouchWiz, respectively) over the vanilla Android interface and how some carriers load up new phones with crapware. Although this is a price to pay for openness and customizability, a recent study indicates that 86% of developers are unhappy with the state of Android fragmentation (24% of them describing it as a "huge problem").
The rumor mill has been abuzz with gossip about Sprint's CTIA event lately, and if BGR's sources are to be believed, the speculation was spot-on: the conference will indeed be centered around the HTC EVO 3D and EVO View 4G, with a WiMAX version of the Motorola XOOM making an appearance as well.
Fellow EVO 4G owners, were you envious when Sony Ericsson demoed the Xperia arc's full HDMI capabilities? Fear not - once again, the developer community has come to the rescue!
I'm no huge fan of UI overlays, but even I have to admit that HTC's Sense is getting better and better. With features like HTCSense.com and even an e-books store, there's no arguing that it's become more than just an Android skin - in Europe, at least.
After the positive impact HTC's T-Mobile G2 made on American reviewers, it's no wonder the company has decided to try to impress their European colleagues with a similar phone, the Desire Z. The phone is available now from Vodafone, 3 Mobile, Virgin Mobile, O2, Talk Mobile, Orange, and Tesco Mobile if you want to take the leap; the question is, should you? Read on to see what four expert reviewers from TechRadar, CNET UK, Pocket-Lint, and PhoneArena had to say on the subject.
While everyone else ranted and raved (or, alternatively, raged) about the Nexus S, the folks over at Android Central were busy getting their hands on a picture of Verizon's upcoming Incredible HD:
As is traditional following the leak of a new ROM dump, developers have already set to work porting the novel Android flavour to other devices. As he did with the Desire HD ROM, XDA-developers' eVil D: has stepped forward to provide a working port of yesterday's HTC Glacier/myTouch 4G ROM to the Nexus One. Cautioning that he "may or may not support this", eVil D: goes on to describe the semi-functional state that the port is currently in:
On the one hand, we have the Desire HD. People may call it the EVO 4G for Europe, but it really isn't. Here we have the newly unveiled HTC Gratia. People are calling it the HTC Aria for Europe, and that's exactly what it is. The hardware appears to be identical save for some new colours, which, considering people seem quite fond of the Aria in the USA, is probably a good thing.
Looks like T-Mobile's G2 isn't the only HTC-built Android device having its source code outed today - the Desire Z (better known as the international version of the G2) has just had its source code revealed as well.
XDA-Devs forum member JAguirre1231 has put together a theme for ADWLauncher that makes it look pretty similar to the Sense UI launcher found on HTC devices. Unfortunately, at this point only MDPI devices are supported (for those who don't know, MDPI is for lower-resolution phones, while HDPI is for phones such as the EVO, Epic, and Droid series). However, JAguirre says in the thread that he's planning on making an HDPI version as well.
Along with the announcement of the less patriotic versions of the EVO 4G and G2, HTC informed attendees of their London press event today that the Sense UI overlay would be receiving an update - in addition to new cloud services through HTCSense.com.
If you're willing to believe a Chinese website by the name of “911sniper,” then you may be excited to hear that HTC is prepping two new Froyo-running handsets with Sense on top, though neither will be “superphones” or very ground-breaking.
While its author openly claims the ROM is far from perfect, most Incredible owners would probably be happy to give this new ROM, codenamed Sky Raider, a whirl simply to see what Froyo+Sense feel like on their rare, practically extinct, phones.
The very recently unveiled HTC Wildfire now has a release date for those of you over in the UK who want to get your hands on this entry level Android phone. T-Mobile UK just announced, via Twitter, that they will offer the HTC Wildfire starting June 14th, 2010.