[Hero, G2 Touch General] MysteryHero:
HTC HERO ECLAIR 2.1

written by MysteryHero

After the success of HTC Hero's debut, it is time that we are all getting ready to update our beloved device. HTC Hero will become one of the very first Android phones to power the new 2.1 Android firmware. HTC Hero has truely made it's debut unique through proudly presenting the features such as the new Sense UI from HTC, but you may be wondering what has actually changed in this new firmware update? So let's begin and take a exclusive preview on the upcoming features.

This post will be updated regulary and you can even re-post this article with my authors credit.

Futhurmore if you wished to contact me, please PM me via XDA-Developers Original topic at: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=5080445#post5080445

Please note that all this information is gathered from the Lox v1.4 rom which can be found at HTCpedia, information may change while the article develops.

Bluetooth

submited by habibas

You may now send files to other phones but this is restricted to the type of file your media is.

Browser

The browser hasn't been updated alot, but there has been a few tweaks that make it easier to use. Firstly the navigation tab above is now attached to the top instead of overlaying the top page. This has solved the annoying google problem where you would not be able to select the navigation links under the overlay for example, On Google's homepage you couldn't select the mail/news/images link until the page fully loaded.

Another minor UI change is featured in the loading bar, the input url box will now feature a sparkling green bar which will fill up as the page loads, this has removed the thin green loading bar below the screen in 1.5.

One final change which will effect the HTC browser is that the Google search in landscape mode will now function correctly. That's right folks! no more bouncing keyboard.

It seems the Flash has been improved, don't hold my word on it but it seems like it's running Flash 10? The lite version before didn't let me load Imeem's flash player but it seems like it's running like a charm now, Youtube desktop version also worked. Maybe not at it's best but it works.

Google Navigation

Googles GPS has finally arrived onto HTC HERO. You will ofcourse need to hack the application if you're from United Kingdom (Which works with Lox 1.4) You need to install the Voice data/ Nav Launcher and ofcourse the Maps 3685 (?) build? (I opted for non-rotted apk)

Home

The highly rumoured Landscape Rosie has been introduced, you can now rotate your Hero sideways. The clock, application short cuts will be left intact, and usable. Although phone panel on the right is not finished, the icons aren't properly positioned, but this should be fixed by HTC in a more recent build.

You can now pinch zoom the home screen and be welcomed by an overview of the seven different states. You can tap a screen to quickly change state which may come handy if you don't want to slide through multiple states.

Icons

New icons are presented in the Application menu:

Google Talk

Youtube

Maps

Market

Call History

Calculator

(HTC icons seems to be unchanged)

Loading

While the device loads, there is now a new spinning spindle. It looks alot better even if it is a small touch but makes it very nice.

Market

Updated to the new market, you can now see top paid, top free or all. It's more organised and the usability has improved overall. Expect to see a more friendly version of Googles Market.

Settings

The new settings menu have been organised into more precised catergories. This change was seen on the Droid and will be in 2.1. You can navigate through the settings easier and will be able to select some new options.

Sync

RRS Reader is inbuilt and you can read RRS feeds without installing any applications. You can also sync to Flickr and Google. HTC has also newly added sync options for Plurk, Exchange Active sync and Htc Facebook (Revised?).

Text-To-Speech

Text-to-Speech added, Google Navigation anyone? Yepp Text-to-speech is the library that is used with Google Navigation. You can now type text and it'll speak it out. You can also change/install new languages.

Weather Animation

Weather Animation makes a return in this new firmware. The removed feature in the revised 1.5 rom disappointed alot of users but it's now made it's return. The animation effect is basically a home screen effect inwhich when you greeted with weather animations occuring on your home screen which occurs if it's raining/snowing/lightning etc. Eye candy.

Notification Bar

There is a new icon for SD card, this will be shown once a memory card is inserted/loading/removed.

(Recent) The background of the Notification pull down is transparent, you can see through the overlay.

Messages

The Messages application has now been slightly updated, the text is larger. Although the people application isn't correctly working for me, I'm unsure wither it's actually for the better or worse since the text was completely fine before. Let's hope the final smooth build will fix some of the small problems introduced in this update.

Wallpapers

You can now select Wallpapers from your Home Gallery which includes all the original wallpapers in the default Android Gallery + the ones you add. You can also choose the Rosie wallpapers which have been left intact.

One feature that seemed amissed was the missing option of choosing a Rosie wallpaper for your lock screen, well good news! You can now select a Rosie wallpaper with a few simple clicks.

Widgets

There seems to be a new option to get more HTC widgets in the widget panel. This could be updates to the current widgets in the future or new skins (clock) or brand new widgets like the power control.

There is a new power control widget that can be added to your home screen. This widget is basically a quick switch for turning on/off the following: WiFi, Bluetooth, Mobile, Sync. You can also switch different brightness levels through the last button. (Dimmest, Normal, Brightest)

Untouched

submited by JBNAquatics

Music Application

Calender

Slightly Modified

submited by JBNAquatics

The call settings now have a "Silent" and a "Speaker" button that you can press directly like the Sprint Hero

Gmail appearance has been slightly modified but there are no new features

Camera and Camcorder has a slightly new appearance modification to match Donuts, but no new features

Rings extended (app) finally works on this ROM

You can now choose to link which accounts you want (Google, Facebook, or both)

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Last updated @ 08:02 PM 6th December 2009