HTC Hero May Finally Get its Android OS 2.1 Upgrade in April

Sprint's version of the HTC may be getting its long-awaited upgrade to Android OS 2.1 in the coming weeks. An unconfirmed report says Sprint will introduce an operating system upgrade for this smartphone early next month.

A screenshot leaking out this this wireless carrier indicates that a "maintenance release" for the Hero is tenatitvly scheduled for March 9. The source for this image says that this will actually be upgrade to the latest version of Google's operating system.

What's New in Version 2.1?
Near the top of the list of improvements is support for Google's navigation service, which offers spoken turn-by-turn directions without a monthly service charge.

Android OS 2.1 also brings much greater support for speech-to-text, allowing users to enter text into any application with just their voice.

In addition, it offers an updated an updated version of the web browser, better camera software, and enhanced weather and news widgets..

More Sense, Too
One of the hallmarks of the HTC Hero is its alternate user interface, HTC Sense. This adds additional features to Google's standard one, rather than completely re-making it. For example, it brings support for the multi-touch gesture pinch-to-zoom to the web browser, and adds some additional homescreen widgets.

HTC has promised that along with the Android OS 2.1 upgrade for this smartphone will come an upgrade to the latest version  of Sense, which will add a new feature called FriendStream, designed to help users keep track of groups of their closest friends. It will bring together posts made to the most popular social networking services -- Facebook, Twitter, Flikr, etc.

The updated HTC Sense will also include some new widgets, including an agenda view for the calendar, and another that can display multiple e-mails.

More about the HTC Hero
The Hero is HTC's most widely-available phone running Google's Android OS -- its offered in Europe, and in the U.S. from Sprint. Plus, as mentioned earlier, Verizon also has its version, renamed the HTC Droid Eris.

It has a tablet shape with a 3.2-inch HVGA screen and trackball, but no hardware keyboard.

In addition, it offers mobile broadband, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 5 MPx camera, and a GPS receiver.

Source: Phandroid