Confirmed - Huawei planning update to Android 2.0 for Pulse

[Guest le_lutin]

Just wanted to give this news a bit more visibility to those how mightn't follow the thread on mailing Huawei.

We got replies from Huawei which basically confirms Android 2.0 for the Pulse: 

Hi,

We are planning to develop the ROM 2.0 and 2.1, the ROM 2.0 may be released before April and at the same time we need to get approval from T-Mobile.

Customers can get this information from the T-Mobile website when the new firmware is released and approved by T-Mobile.

Many thanks.

Great news. Even if T-Mobile uk don't approve the firmware we should be able to get hold of a 2.0 ROM from somewhere. 

Edited January 15, 2010 by le_lutin

[Guest helikopter]

Just wanted to give this news a bit more visibility to those how mightn't follow the thread on mailing Huawei.

We got replies from Huawei which basically confirms Android 2.0 for the Pulse:

Great news. Even if T-Mobile uk don't approve the firmware we should be able to get hold of a 2.0 ROM from somewhere.

great news! who gives a s*** if t-mobile will approve or not? most of us are already using the rom from u8230 which doesn't have the t-mo ugliness. :)

[Guest Roonil Wazlib]

Awesome, thanks for this! I recommended the Pulse to my boyfriend as a budget Android handset and I was afraid it was going to be stuck in the past forever, I felt so bad... I've installed Paul's custom ROM on there though, of course... so the phone is a damn sight better than it was. ;D

[Guest Calamity James]

That's brilliant news! :)

[Guest rss2k]

This is actually no news. T-Mobile Netherlands have said since last december that 2.0 would come in Q1 2010, this merely confirms what we already knew.

[Guest le_lutin]

This is actually no news. T-Mobile Netherlands have said since last december that 2.0 would come in Q1 2010, this merely confirms what we already knew.

This is not from T-Mobile, this is from Huawei. T-Mobile UK have not confirmed that they are releasing anything for the Pulse. 

It's new - it's news.

[Guest Neron]

This is not from T-Mobile, this is from Huawei. T-Mobile UK have not confirmed that they are releasing anything for the Pulse.

It's new - it's news.

As long as Huawei release Android 2 for any of its U8220 products I am sure Paul will be able to cook up a rom!

[Guest david_dawkins]

Well I've put their response in the wiki so that makes it official :)

[Guest twe]

Good to know, but April feels like a long time away! Another iteration of v2 will be out by then I bet!

[Guest jmmL]

Good to know, but April feels like a long time away! Another iteration of v2 will be out by then I bet!

I think I can safely say that we don't really care which version of android we get - as long as we get a working 2.6.29 kernel. This has been the major barrier to rolling any custom 1.6/2.0/2.1 roms - they pretty much require 2.6.29.

Of course android 2.next might move on to 2.6.32 - but we should be able to cook up until 2.1 ourselves, as long as TMO or Huawei bake us 2.6.29!

[Guest klutsh]

Well, I've taken this one step further and have contacted T-Mobile UK directly asking for confirmation that they will indeed be approving the now confirmed 2.0 update Huawei are producing for the u8220.

I now await T-Mobile's probably useless and generic reply.

[Guest David Horvath]

I've asked the Hungarian T-Mobile as well :) Maybe some of us will get lucky with an answer.

Edit1:

They've answered: they know nothing about any new firmware yet. ("Szia! Jelenleg még nincs infó erről a frissítésről.")

Edited January 15, 2010 by David Horvath

[Guest Bigsy]

Seems like a pretty weak reply.

I personally don't see the pulse ever getting an eclair build, by official channels at least.

[Guest tido]

I've asked the Hungarian T-Mobile as well :) Maybe some of us will get lucky with an answer.

Edit1:

They've answered: they know nothing about any new firmware yet. ("Szia! Jelenleg még nincs infó erről a frissítésről.")

The other day, I asked them about unlocking the phone, they said it's about 25000 HUF= 110 EUR

T-mobile in Hungary sucks like hell and they no nothing. They only care about money...

[Guest rob_turner_uk]

April isn't that far away. Even mainstream handsets like the hero won't get an update until mid Feb.

[Guest mehall]

This is fantastic to finally have confirmation from Huawei.

Even if T-Mo were discontinuing the Pulse and ceasing updates (which is a rumour going around, but not confirmed by T-Mo) then Huawei could release the update themselves for "U8220"/230 customers, and we could just use it sans the T-mo customisations.

As others have said, I just want the updated kernel (or the kernel source, as they are required to give as part of the GPL, since the Linux kernel is GPLv2, they have to contractually make it available to those who are using the kernel.)

[Guest jmmL]

As others have said, I just want the updated kernel (or the kernel source, as they are required to give as part of the GPL, since the Linux kernel is GPLv2, they have to contractually make it available to those who are using the kernel.)

They're only obliged to release the kernel sources if they distribute a binary. They can muck around with them all they want, as long as they don't distribute, and we don't have to see anything. That's why it's been slightly odd to see people emailing to ask to have the kernel sources in advance, as though Huawei are obliged to do this. Worth a shot I suppose if Huawei truly want to make it a community effort! I think we just have to watch not to annoy their customer services department too much!

Hopefully we'll see a leak before April! :)

[Guest Bakes]

They're only obliged to release the kernel sources if they distribute a binary. They can muck around with them all they want, as long as they don't distribute, and we don't have to see anything. That's why it's been slightly odd to see people emailing to ask to have the kernel sources in advance, as though Huawei are obliged to do this. Worth a shot I suppose if Huawei truly want to make it a community effort! I think we just have to watch not to annoy their customer services department too much!

Hopefully we'll see a leak before April! :)

Exactly, the kernel source would not even be too useful either, because the extensions are not gpl'd (Apache 2) meaning they don't have to do zilch.

[Guest flash2004]

Now begins the agonizing wait...:)

[Guest david_dawkins]

That's why it's been slightly odd to see people emailing to ask to have the kernel sources in advance, as though Huawei are obliged to do this.

As far as I know, they were all polite requests (certainly mine was). What I'm finding odd is the pessimism I'm seeing in this thread! It's all good news as far as I can tell.

Dave

[Guest jmmL]

As far as I know, they were all polite requests (certainly mine was). What I'm finding odd is the pessimism I'm seeing in this thread! It's all good news as far as I can tell.

Dave

Sorry, I don't mean to be pessimistic! I'm excited about this as well (even if April seems a long time away). I was just of the opinion that the people emailing should have chosen one question ("when will you release android 2.0?") and not try to add little extras too it ("please can we have the kernel sources", "will you release accessory X?"). I didn't want the main issue to get bogged down with all the other questions. That doesn't appear to have happened however, and Huawei have given us a positive reply (rather than getting annoyed with the volume and scope of the questions and us getting a "we don't comment on internal development" response).

[Guest bobbarnes]

2.0 is great news, I can't wait.

[Guest Casper-vH]

As far as I know, they were all polite requests (certainly mine was). What I'm finding odd is the pessimism I'm seeing in this thread! It's all good news as far as I can tell.

Dave

Im afraid some ppl will only beleive it and be satisfied when they actually see it :)

I for one, cant wait to hold it in my hands and hope it leaks :)

[Guest meinnit]

Sorry, I don't mean to be pessimistic! I'm excited about this as well (even if April seems a long time away). I was just of the opinion that the people emailing should have chosen one question ("when will you release android 2.0?") and not try to add little extras too it ("please can we have the kernel sources", "will you release accessory X?"). I didn't want the main issue to get bogged down with all the other questions. That doesn't appear to have happened however, and Huawei have given us a positive reply (rather than getting annoyed with the volume and scope of the questions and us getting a "we don't comment on internal development" response).

I dont see how they can get annoyed. By receiving so many emails asking the same questions will make them realise what customers actually want. If we get what we ask for, we will be more likely to recommend the company and buy from them in the future.

[Guest Bakes]

I dont see how they can get annoyed. By receiving so many emails asking the same questions will make them realise what customers actually want. If we get what we ask for, we will be more likely to recommend the company and buy from them in the future.

Well, if they had a new phone coming out, they would be less likely to support the old one.

We will get the Kernel source because the kernel is licensed under the GPL. Personally, it's the rest of the stuff I would like to see, the hardware drivers and custom libraries, just so we can update android to whatever version is newest.