I loathe mail-in rebates. The last few handsets that I bought for my wife have had mail-in rebates and I always forget to send them in, which I assume is the reason rebates are offered as mail-in rather than instant in most cases. One of the things that I really like about Best Buy Mobile is that there are no mail-in rebates there, everything is instant.
It comes as little surprise given we’ve already seen it unboxed and know the pricing, but Verizon Wireless have officially announced that, as of tomorrow, they’ll be offering the DROID Eris by HTC. Basically another version of the HTC Hero, the HTC DROID Eris packs a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, 5-megapixel autofocus camera, EVDO Rev.A and the HTC Sense UI.
Neither Verizon nor HTC have officially confirmed the existence of the Verizon DROID Eris, but unless you’re looking at the handiwork of a particularly impressive Halloween costume (sized for hamster) then we’d say the Android smartphone’s existence is pretty much assured. The BGR received two live shots of the HTC DROID Eris – you can see the second after the cut – together with a little feedback as to how the handset performs.
We may have accused the HTC Eris – aka the Verizon DROID Eris by HTC – as having underwhelming specs this week (what can we say, we want some Snapdragon!) but according to the latest batch of leaks Verizon will at least be pricing it right. gdgt’s Peter Rojas has heard from “a very trustworthy source” that the Android smartphone will be priced at $99 with a new two-year agreement, just half the price of the Verizon DROID by Motorola.
HTC have confirmed to us that they’ll be offering an update to Android 2.0 for the HTC Hero. The update means that HTC will be skipping Android 1.6 – as on the HTC Tattoo, for instance – to concentrate on fettling HTC Sense to play nicely with the newest version of Android. However, the company have not given a definitive timescale for the release, asking only that owners “be patient”. Full statement after the cut.
Back in August HTC confirmed that certain models in their Android line-up would eventually get an upgrade to HTC Sense, the UI debuted on the well-received HTC Hero. Now HTC Asia has pushed out Sense for the Magic; however it appears to be only for unlocked versions of the Magic (and potentially only Asian-language models) rather than carrier-branded versions such as the T-Mobile myTouch 3G.
HTC have quietly answered many Android developer’s prayers, and pushed out the kernel source code for the Hero smartphone. Available to download now – though admittedly of little use to most of us – it opens up the potential for much more modification of the Hero with custom ROMs.
Continued »
Been holding off on picking up an HTC Hero until your next paycheck comes in? Might not be such a great idea to wait; according to HTC exec Jack Tong, strong sales of the chin-tastic European and Asian Hero are putting the pressure on production of the Android smartphone.
Streaming music looks to be the next step in driving smartphone adoption, with UK carrier 3 to offer the HTC Hero with the Spotify app preloaded and a subscription to the premium service included in the monthly contract. According to Mobile Entertainment News, the Hero will be priced at £99 ($161) with a 24-month agreement, the £35 ($57) tariff integrating Spotify’s £9.99 ($16) subscription fee.
Update: 3 UK have put up a pre-registration page for the deal, though there’s no specific availability date. The Hero will come with a voucher for 24 months Spotify Premium subscription; that does mean that after two years your monthly plan will stay the same price but you’ll no longer get inclusive streaming music.
US friends and lovers: you read the European review and seethed with envy; you read our Sprint review and drooled with delight; now you can buy the HTC Hero yourself and seethe/drool on your own time. Sprint have finally pushed the CDMA HTC Hero out of the door, priced at $179.99 with a new, two-year agreement and following a wretched $100 mail-in rebate.
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