“We apologise for the delay in Orange Hero customers receiving their Éclair update. Testing the update across European markets took longer than anticipated. However, we hope to receive final approval by the end of the week and Orange handsets should start updating from next week.”

Does that mean we should still keep our fingers crossed? Let’s hope not.

[Orange via Phandroid]

You may have never heard of Cellular South, but they could really give the big boys a run for their money. With a smartphone unlimited plan for $59/month and a summer promo to pay your ETF if you switch carriers, they can make a switch sound enticing. Now you have one more reason to think about passing over on the Big Four, Cellular South announced plans today to carry the Motorola Milestone. You should be familiar with the Motorola Droid carried by Verizon, and the Milestone is essentially the exact same phone for GSM networks, already carried by many carriers in Canada and Europe.

Specs on the Milestone include:

• 3.7” high resolution (16:9 widescreen) screen display with 854 pixel width and more than 400,000 total pixels so you can see more of the web, e-mail, and more
• Access to thousands of apps available through Android Market. Navigate seamlessly back and forth and keep up to six applications open and running at a time. Android Market currently has over 50,000 applications available for download and about 65 percent of them are free of charge.
• Powered by Android 2.1 mobile operating system from Google with pinch to zoom, Live Wallpapers and a full HTML web browser
• Superior call quality with CrystalTalk Plus that filters out background noise and enhances voice quality.
• Full suite of Google applications including: Google Maps, Gmail, Google Talk, and YouTube
• Google Maps Navigation BETA, which provides turn-by-turn voice directions as a free feature of Google Maps along with live traffic, Street View and satellite imagery.
• 5 megapixel digital camera with dual-LED flash, AutoFocus and image stabilization and DVD-broadcast quality advanced video record and playback (30 fps) in 16 million colors with easy 3G or Wi-Fi YouTube uploads
• An 8 GB memory card included (up to 32 GB capable) for storage of your favorite music, pictures and video

No word on exactly when the Milestone will be available or the pricing, but expect it to be on par or cheaper than the $199 w/ contract price it is on Verizon now. Currently the only Android phone Cellular South carries is the HTC Hero, which they have since November.

The HTC Hero that was released in Europe and other parts of the world, the GSM verson is one of the oldest Android phones around. It was the hottest thing when it came out and seems to be neglected in terms of software updates, leaving a lot of owners upset. With no word from HTC or carriers on a 2.1 upgrade, the hackers have come to the rescue. The upgrade was actually released by Chungwa Telecom in Taiwan, but I think the majority of Hero users don’t live there, so it’s been released as a rooted ROM for you. Head over to xda-developers for all the downloads. And as always with these sort of things, be aware you could brick your phone. And if you’re not experienced at reflashing your phone, please do some research.

Yes finally. After many rumors of release dates and being teased, Sprint customers with the HTC Hero can finally enjoy Android 2.1 in all its glory. Including features such as voice typing, new widgets and other bug fixes. The update should be pushed to your handset in the upcoming few days, or available soon at the Sprint support site for manual download and install.

Anyone receive the update yet? How ya liking it so far?

[via BGR]

From the information provided by this internal communication at Best Buy, it appears that HTC Hero owners will finally be getting the long-promised upgrade to Android 2.1 starting this Friday, May 7th. This isn’t a simple OTA update, push a button on your phone and done, but it appears the upgrade must be done in a Best Buy store, possibly also a Sprint store, or via a download from the HTC website. We’ll have details and links for you on Friday if this turns out to be true.

[via Engadget]

For Samsung Behold 2 owners, head over to All Droid for your rooting instructions.

I don’t have either of these handsets, so I can test myself, but if anyone successfully roots (or doesn’t), let us know in the comments how it went. And as always with hacking and modifying your phone, do so at your own risk.

[Thanks Ted for the tip on the Behold 2]

I had a little chuckle and a little frown at this unboxing video. Unboxing videos are generally crap, but this one is worth a look. It’s a bit long, but skip ahead to about the 1 minute mark for the action. Nobody likes to see a brand new phone destroyed, especially if it’s an Android phone.

[via PhoneDog]

The update will speed things up a bit for a snappier experience and touch-to-focus for the your 5MP camera. And unlike other software upgrades for Android phones, you will need a Windows PC to install the update, sorry Mac and Linux users.
[thanks to @burrom for the tip]

The videos and pics were floating around for a while as the Click, and now HTC has official announced their newest Android handset, know as the HTC Tattoo. You can think of it as the Hero’s younger brother with a bit of attitude. It’s a full-featured smart phone sporting the standard Android features and the acclaimed HTC Sense UI. And decent specs for a device aimed at the low end of the smart phone market:

• 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 processor
• 512MB/256MB ROM/RAM
• 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen LCD
• 900/2100MHz HSPA/UMTS
• GPS
• 802.11b/g Wifi
• Compass and accelerometer
• 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera
• And the much desired 3.5mm stereo headset jack

And per it’s namesake, customers will be able to design and purchase custom “tattooed” covers for the phone, or choose from popular choices. Just like the old Nokias with the snap-on faceplaces! Will the gimmick be enough to drive the average phone buyer to get this over a budget flip or slider phone? We’ll find out when the HTC Tattoo is rolled out in Europe next month, and to the rest of the world in the next few months. No word on carriers or pricing yet, but you can imagine this will be a lot less than the similar featured Hero.

What would you put on your HTC Tattoo?  And how long before an Apple fanboy gets one adorned with the Apple logo?

[Press release]

Just another tidbit of great news for Sprint users that are fans of Android. The HTC Hero just passed FCC approval with CDMA/EVDO, which Sprint and Verizon use. Along with all the other evidence, we’re now just waiting for an announcement from Sprint or HTC. The rumored release date is still October 11th, along with the Samsung InstinctQ. With this, the HTC Hero may be the most widespread Android phone, with at least 4 carriers as of right now. We’re still waiting to hear more about the Hero with AT&T 3G bands that skated through the FCC nearly 2 months ago.

[FCC via Engadget]