Gingerbread on EVO 4G??

[ajonesma]

Who knows when the OTA for 2.3 is coming for the HTC EVO 4G?? Or any good ROMs that won't slow down my phone?

I have tried a couple gingerbread ROMs for my EVO but they have drastically used more battery and slowed down my system.

 

[lornaevo]

No one knows if and when there will be gingerbread ota.

 

[Apollo3T]

What he said^^

The CM7 nightlies have been pretty stable and fast for me. Salvage-Mod is another good one too.

 

[eric.atx]

I using cm7 but it does use more battery. Doesn't bother me enough to switch. Worth it to have gingerbread.

Sent from my Evo using Tapatalk

 

[splmonster]

Some Sprint and HTC reps I talk with closely have reported that the EVO series will get Gingerbread OTA. As for a date? Well they said it's being worked on currently. The latest was a Sprint admin saying it could be out late this month to early March.

 

[cardude10]

Sprint needs to do a better job of OTA updates instead of being mum about 2.3 on EVO

 

[EvoGenius]

if gingerbread came to evo in march that would be a fine birthday gift to me. 8)

 

[splmonster]

Sprint needs to do a better job of OTA updates instead of being mum about 2.3 on EVO

Really? Sprint seems to be the quickest out of all four major US carriers on getting out OTA's. Every single manufacturer and carrier are mum about these updates on every device. It is big news, and nobody is going to just come out and say when it releases. That statement is just ignorant...

 

[taadow1030]

Who knows when the OTA for 2.3 is coming for the HTC EVO 4G?? Or any good ROMs that won't slow down my phone?

I have tried a couple gingerbread ROMs for my EVO but they have drastically used more battery and slowed down my system.

Cyanogen Mod 7 Nightly Build 6 is excellent. Many features with incredible speed (with LauncherPro).

 

[RUSH]

Who make/control these updates.
Manufacturers or Google?

 

[Guamguy]

Once Gingerbread appears on the Nexus One, it clears the main major step to putting it on all Snapdragon phones.

The next step is to put it on all HTC phones that doesn't have carrier permission, like the HTC Desire, Desire S, international Incredible S, Desire Z and Desire HD.

Since the Nexus One uses the Qualcomm 8250, it means the 8250 powered phones will get it first, ergo, Desire, Droid Incredible, EVO. For the latter two, just the carrier permission.

Then the task heads to putting Gingerbread on the Qualcomm 7230, 8255 and the OMAP36xx chips. Once you get the new OS version out on a representative phone of each particular chip, the rest would follow assuming carrier permission.

Please note that seems Gingerbread first came out on the Hummingbird processor, the Galaxy S and Tab actually has a head start in getting this.

That is really how the true pattern of the OS updates go --- first processor to get the new Android OS, tends to have the phones using the chip to follow it. During Froyo's turn, it was Snapdragon 8250 (Nexus One), followed by OMAP36xx (Droid 2), then the Snapdragon 7230 (T-Mobile G2), then Snapdragon 8255 (Desire HD) and the Hummingbird trailed. Guess whose phones got Froyo updates last? Whoever gets and makes the Nexus or the flagship device actually has the first call advantage for the next Android OS version on their chosen processor. No surprise, Samsung wants the first base now, which lead to the Nexus S (Hummingbird).

In any case, Xoom, with the Tegra2, got the jackpot for Honeycomb. It will take a little while before Honeycomb gets to OMAP44xx, dual core Snapdragons and the like.

At the same time, you cannot have simultaneous development of the OS for all processors --- its likely to mess things up. You need to pick a platform, work, debug and perfect the OS on it, then when its ready and hardened, spread it out in other platforms. That's truly the proper development cycle for all these things. Debugging is the most tedious part in OS development, and you cannot have simultaneous multiple chip factors. You need to control all these factors. You cannot blame Google for what they are doing --- they are doing the most logical solution to the multi platform situation.

In any case, the job is done for the Qualcomm 8250, and that is symbolized by the Nexus One updates. Its the easy road ahead for the rest of the 8250 powered phones, like the Desire, Droid Incredible and HTC EVO. All it takes now is the carrier permission.

 

[igotsanevo4g]

You neglected to mention that the putting on of skins is the time killer, I mean, I just wrote this message from my evo that's running 2.3.3 via cm7.

 

[Guamguy]

Skins are not really the time killer. Skins basically, are apps and widget systems. When you upgrade from Android 2.1 to 2.2, did it necessarily break your Launcher Pro. SlideScreen or your ADWLauncher? Not necessarily. The idea that skins are the ones that take the longest is a myth. It is a well propagated myth. As long as the skin, which really is an app---is coded following the well documented APIs, it should and can be ported easily.

The problem is when apps start to muck around undocumented APIs in the OS. There is a whole history of that starting from the IBM OS/360 all the way to Windows. When OS versions change, these undocumented APIs often change, the apps break and the apps have to be rewritten again.

The early UI layers (Sense, Blur, Touchwiz, Mediascape) took many liberties with the API and essentially broke when newer OS versions came in. But a few generations later, they're "smarter", much more aware of the dangers of using strange APIs, and well into keeping within the documented fences. Thus when there is change, they are more ready to accomodate such changes.

 

[jesusprice]

I'm running CM7 on my EVO...

I don't know if there will ever be an official HTC Sense Based 2.3 update.
I was happy with the froyo update. If they update to 2.3 that would be amazing

 

[Insp_Gadget]

The carriers have every incentive to drag their feet providing updates. Think about it. If they allow every phone to be upgraded to the latest OS (and features) what incentive do consumers have for buying new phones?

If the performance of the EVO is adequate with both Froyo and Gingerbread, and the carriers make Gingerbread available, there isn't much reason for most "regular Joes" to buy a new phone (locking them into a new contract). That's all about money.

Further, with new OS updates, there are often features that are native to the OS (like tethering or hot spot) that carriers want to restrict. Disabling features and testing/debugging shovelware takes time, too.

I expect Gingerbread will eventually come once Sprint feels they have netted all the EVO buyers they can get with Froyo. That's how they think. They want customers to keep buying (as opposed to improving what they already have).

Don't be surprised if the next generation of EVO devices is announced/released before we see an official upgrade to Gingerbread on the original EVO. They don't want to make what we currently have too attractive when compared to what's coming (thus stifling sales).

 

[Guamguy]

Lets make one thing clear.

The reality is that carriers do not have the incentive for its existing users to upgrade their phones before the contract is up. Its a myth that carriers want every user to buy new phones.

Carriers are in business selling contracts, not new phones. If you already have a contract, then you're not in their radar. That's why an ETF exists.

What carriers want to do is grab new contracts from users of other carriers, move prepaid users to contracts and move featurephone contracts to smartphone contracts. That's the three real deals.

Its to their interest that you stay with your existing contract and with your existing phone, and so a software upgrade helps in that.

Carriers are wary of upgrades for the same reason IT departments in big corporations are wary: they may break in the network and cause problems. That's why they are ultraconservative and runs a whole battery of field tests before it is approved.

 

[Guamguy]

I'm running CM7 on my EVO...

I don't know if there will ever be an official HTC Sense Based 2.3 update.
I was happy with the froyo update. If they update to 2.3 that would be amazing

HTC upgrades the OS yes, and they do it diligently. But they won't update the Sense on that particular phone. You're going to stay with 2nd generation Sense on the EVO even if they put Gingerbread as the OS. When I had my Droid Eris, which had the first generation sense, it was upgraded to Android 2.1, but Sense stayed the same. My Droid Incredible has been upgraded from 2.1 to 2.2, but it still has the 2nd generation Sense, not the third generation Sense of the Desire HD.

The Sense thing is HTC's secret weapon for you to upgrade to a new HTC phone.

Samsung and Sony Ericsson does upgrade their respective UIs, Touchwiz and Mediascape, with their OS updates. The Galaxy S Froyo update has new improvements on Touchwiz. But then again, when you tie a UI update to the OS update, its all going to take longer, and guess what, people will ***** about it and which they did.

Lesson: There is no free lunch for everyone. Compromises have to be made. And handset makers are only human.

 

[rem_kujawa]

I don't really care at this point. I hope its before sprint gets the nexus though. Because after that I won't have it anymore.

 

[jjeffcoat]

If the EVO gets Gingerbread, would it be likely that the Shift would get it at the same time?

 

[DarkBeam]

i think so :/