Promised for the “near future” in early March, it appears that Android handsets on the Sprint network will finally receive the 2.1 firmware update.
XDA Developers revealed the screenshot today, a memo leaked from Sprint itself.
The memo says the Samsung Moment will get the update this weekend and the HTC Hero will get it in the next week.
A leaked Best Buy Mobile memo seems to point to the Hero update coming next week as well but seeing is believing in this situation.
The updates will not be OTA as they are both pretty large (80MB and 117MB respectively) so it seems like they will have to be downloaded manually.
Result for: sprint network
Palm Pre, the latest in a long line of “iPhone Killers”, is set to be one of the most anticipated smartphones of the year.
Although the company has not yet confirmed its release date, Wired is reporting that it could be available as soon as March, and on the Sprint network.
Citing an internal document from Sprint however, Boy Genius Report is saying that a May release is more likely as that will give Sprint time to stock up and clear out older Palm inventory.
The smartphone was initially showed off at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show and the company’s stock has exploded on anticipation that the phone will be a blockbuster seller.
The phone has a rounded shape, a 3.1-inch touchscreen, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and uses a powerful interface to “pull together information, photos and current online status data from sites such as Facebook, Gmail and Exchange to seamlessly integrate them into the address book and contacts list.”
Result for: sprint network
The parent company of cell phone carrier T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, is in talks to either merge with or acquire the large mobile phone carrier Sprint.
Citing a gradual weakening of the US dollar and worsening profits at Sprint, Deutsche Telekom is now looking for any transaction that will help T-Mobile’s US branch gain ground in the large US market.
The deal, if it goes through, would make Deutsche Telekom the largest American carrier, and with the currency rate as it is, the deal would be cheaper than Telekom’s acquisition of VoiceStream in 2001.
Sprint has declined to comment on “market rumors.”
There is however a hitch to this report. T-Mobile uses the GSM standard while Sprint uses the mainly North American-focused CDMA network. T-Mobile phones are not compatible on the Sprint network and vice versa meaning Sprint customers would have to trade in their handsets or purchase new ones that are GSM (SIM card) compatible.
