US smartphone user - where do I get OS updates?

[Guest sumradagnoth]

I am going to be getting a smartphone soon... plan on using it on T-Mobile's network.

Just curious though... where do I go to get OS updates from? If I get a Tanager do I go to a different site? If I get an Orange SPV do I go to Orange's site?

Just a little confused. Any help is appreciated! Thanks in advance.

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

Officially, you go to your network.

Hmmm :)

Unofficially, go to the network provider who sold the handset you're using initially, and download from their website (hopefully!)

It's unlikely you'd get official support tho...

P

[Guest sumradagnoth]

heh well, was going to buy a Tanager off of ebay... no provider.

There is no "unofficial" website that offers smartphone 2002 OS updates?

[Guest smartphone-web.com]

No - because this would be a copyright infringement.

[Guest spacemonkey]

Orange has provided updates for SPV via web download.

Tanager is shortly (tomorrow?) being released under Orange branded as the e100 so I imagine that you would be able to get unofficial tanager updates from them as well.

The other factor is, now we get tanager and it's on a lot of different networks, I would expect the general community to find ways and means of getting the latest update no matter who releases it.

So, buy the tanager (if that's the phone you want) and keep reading MoDaCo and I dare say you'll be fine (allthough no guarantees, don't sue me)

[Guest sumradagnoth]

appreciate all the comments. thanks a bunch.

what threw me off was when i went to orange's website, they had a different download for the SPV update depending on what country you purchased it in, and stated that it would be a different software version for each download... so i want to make sure i grab the right one.

and yes, the tanager is being sold as the qtek 7070 without being associated to a specific service provider... unfortunatly their website directs you to microsoft for software updates lol!

[Guest spacemonkey]

Yeah, the different version ARE much the same tho. I was running the dutch one for a while and it worked fine. The main difference was stuff like the T9 language stuff to support crazy european languages with accented characters.

I would say that a UK patch would be the best option for anyone in the US. I imagine software updates will become available through all the different networks that choose to sell tanager anyway so T-Mobile Australia will probably give you one with a modified T9 dictionary containing words such and "dingo"

[Guest sumradagnoth]

lol. sounds good.

now heres a possibly silly question:

are all of these phones in english? or do they all have an option to run them in english?

ugh im such a noob :?

[Guest spacemonkey]

I think most of them support a few languages, which list of languages you have depends on the operator. I'm pretty sure they'll ALL have one flavour of english (either UK or USA).

The other thing you'll find tho is things like homescreens and stuff, they can be configured to be multi lingual but a lot of them aren't as the coders can't/don't want to translate them. Not much of a problem tho.

[Guest sumradagnoth]

great thanks.

now heres another question... if the tanager and the spv are basicly the same phone with a different screen and button layout, can you safely use the SPV OS update from Orange on the tanager?

wonder if anyone has tried that... dont want to fry my phone though :shock:

[Guest nobznss]

Hopefully once the new Tanager on the Orange network is realeased, they should give a UK update for the regular SPV. If it's an Orange phone then you should update to new Orange OS. As far as using a SMART phone and updating with Orange software, I'm not too sure. Has anyone done this? I assume it'll work (I've read articles of people updating from the Orange version to a SMART version, etc) but I'm not sure it'd be that practical.

[Guest sumradagnoth]

actually i was just reading something about the smart rom updates locking the phone after its installed... that sucks.