Bottom line, if you buy a carrier supported phone (I am using my experience with TMobile for this discussion, not sure about Vodaphone), you will not be able to upgrade the phone manually on a regular basis.
Most of the upgrades currently have come over the air (OTA). For the cupcake release, there was a manual upgrade procedure available, that wasn't supported by the carrier (read, if anything went wrong, the warranty was likely voided, etc). The Android OS is officially upgradeable (meaning, there likely isn't a 1.5 version phone, that won't be allowed to be updated). So Android will support upgrading to 2.0 (when it officially is released, and supported by your carrier). The only way to be allowed to upgrade your phone manually, would be to buy the phones that are released for developer use (called Android Dev Phone - ADP1 and ADP2). However, they are much more expensive (they are not subsidized by the carrier). If you have either of these phones, you can flash whatever software you want, whenever you want (and also have root access to the deep core of the OS, which is another thing missing from the carrier provided phones). Bottom line, if you absolutely need to upgrade manually, you will need to buy a unlocked phone, at increased expense. Otherwise, you will be only be allowed to upgrade a carrier provided phone, when they officially release the upgrade (at which time, you may be able to speed up the process with a manual procedure, to avoid the wait for an OTA update). On Jun 1, 9:52 am, Koala Yeung <koa...@gmail.com> wrote: > I need to ask more specific on this. > > I'm going to buy a HTC Magic, which comes with Android 1.5 > I also know that Android 2.0 is under development. > What I really want to know is: > > "Will I be able to upgrade HTC Magic to Android 2.0?" > > I know I might be able to upgrade manually. > I want to know if Android officially support this. > > Thanks. > > Koala > > On 6月1日, 下午7時24分, Disconnect <dc.disconn...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > It depends on the phone but for G1 and Magic (T-mobile and Vodafone) > > you receive updates automatically off the air (OTA). The ADP1 (and if > > it comes out, the ADP2) upgrade manually by copying a file to sdcard. > > (The files appear on HTC's web site, or you can use community versions > > such as JF's - jf.andblogs.net.) The final option is that one provider > > evidently used a desktop application to do the same thing, but I don't > > know the details. > > > On Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 2:26 AM, Koala (Shu Hung) <koa...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > I'm planning to buy an Android powered phone. But I want to be sure of > > > what I'm buying. One of my concern is upgrade. I want to buy a phone > > > which I can upgrade my OS easily. Android, like other phone OS, rolls > > > out new version frequently. I don't want to miss those lovely new > > > features. With an iPhone, I can upgrade my firmware through App Store. > > > Can I do the same with an Android phone? > > > > Is there any official way to upgrade Android OS? > > > For example, can I do OS upgrade through Android Market? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Beginners" group. To post to this group, send email to android-beginners@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-beginners-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-beginners?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
