HTC Hero – My opinions, ROMS and Rooting

Got the HTC Hero a while back and the first opinion is: ITS AWESOME.. but there are negative points as well and I will go into the same below.

I got the HTC Hero from India which is distributed by Airtel. Airtel also brought the HTC Magic to India – which was a brick since there was no Android Market in it – who buys an Android phone without the intention of downloading apps from the Market? So I was more than happy when I found out that the Hero is released with all functions in it – or so I thought.

I knew that the Android market does not allow buying Apps in India – so I thought that it would be possible to do it if I am abroad. Now that I am in Germany I tried looking for paid Apps in the Market but still none are shown. The reason may be that the Locale options in the Airtel HTC Hero only has English as an option. The good news is that the software version is already in the latest version so an update for removing the sluggishness and auto touch focus is not necessary – and not available.

Other features which are not working on the HTC Hero are:

1. No bluetooth file transfer – this feature is not part of Android 1.5 (can be enabled by rooting your phone – more on it later)

2. Does not connect to WPA2-Personal and Enterprise secured WiFi networks. (also not supported by 1.5).

3. The Mail client will not connect to ActiveSync Exchange accounts which use SSL (who doesn’t), you can use the App Touchdown to access your mail instead.

Because of the upcoming HTC Hero update (planned for late April 2010) which will update Android OS to 2.1 I was not sure whether the update will be available early in India..so I changed my ROM to the Generic one with help from the following websites:

General info and instructions for changing the ROM :  http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-hero-hero-modaco-com/291520/de-brand-your-orange-t-mo-etc-device-via-nandroid/

Latest ROMS both rooted and originals : http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-hero-hero-modaco-com/291942/22-jan-stock-roms-radios-in-update-zip-format-for-gsm-hero/

How to use the update packages downloaded from the 2nd link above (in German): http://andreas-lehr.com/blog/archives/229-T-Mobile-HTC-Hero-unlock.html

After my update to the Generic ROM I realized why everyone was complaining about sluggishness, either way,  you can also download the update to the latest version and you are set.

After doing this update my Android Market shows all apps – free and paid.

Rooting: It allows superuser access into the Android OS and is disabled by default, my current ROM is rooted so hopefully Bluetooth File transfer will work, no luck on WPA2 Personal access .

Modaco also has their own customs ROMS which I haven’t tried and Online kitchen where you can cook a ROM tailored to your specs:

http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-hero-hero-modaco-com/292018/10-mar-3-2-modaco-custom-rom-for-gsm-hero-now-with-online-kitchen/

Check it out.

For those of you who can’t wait for the updated ROM you can opt for BeHero ROM which is based on the HTC Legend and Android 2.1, so check it out.

For the time being I will stick to my Rooted Generic ROM of the HTC Hero and toy around for a while.

NOTE: There is also a method called Gold Card which allows you to use the HTC update files posted on their website, I downloaded it but it would update after it failed a check which the Gold Card by-passes.

NOTE: Doing any of the above will wipe the data from your phone, downloaded Apps from the Market and other settings, if you have a google account sync your phone to it so that the Contacts are saved.

NOTE: Doing any of the activities voids your warranty, I did but I have no regrets.