The long awaited Gingerbread update for the HTC Desire looks like it has arrived, but don’t get too excited….
Now cast your mind back a few months, HTC announced they wouldn’t be bringing Gingerbread to the desire, they then changed their mind and announced they would be bringing it after all, then they started making noises that they would have to make some omissions…..
According to HTC’s Facebook page, they have had to remove several apps and customisation options, they are somewhat vague about what they have removed, but they do mention the Facebook app. This is all a result of the Desire apparently not having the spare memory to run their Sense UI and Gingerbread.
The other catch is that not only is it not available to Germany, Japan, South Korea and North America ( Why?), but it is not going to be an Over the Air update – you have to download it from HTC’s developers website.
The Rom update will wipe your phone, so make sure you backup everything that is important to you!
Below is the post on Facebook:
Link to HTC’s Facebook page: Facebook ( The download link is on the page)
Now, I have a few thoughts on this, I’m puzzled it has taken so long, quite why HTC couldn’t of released Gingerbread without their Sense UI as an option? we know the Nexus one can run Gingerbread fine and that is essentially the same phone.
Secondly, we know the Desire can run fine with Sense and Gingerbread as the custom Rom community has been mucking around with it for many many months.
Finally, this does seem a cop-out from HTC, they are many owners that will not even attempt to install this update as it involves a bit more than just clicking ‘install’ when a notification comes in to the phone. Updates should be a one click operation otherwise the vast majority will simply ignore it or not even be aware it is out there.
Still, it’s out for download now, so go and have a look to see if it was worth the wait!
Edit: It appears running this update will lock the bootloader, so if you have rooted your phone I’d advise not updating just yet.
Considering the fuss about locked/unlocked bootloaders recently this is very poor form from HTC.
It is amazing me as well and I am also unable to figure what actually HTC is upto. They know very well that their this move can result in loosing fans and users of HTC, i know people will call me stupid but I guess the competition is creating panic among the competitors and they are makings senseless moves
Pah. Pretty poor show if you ask me.
I’ve run the Gingerbread update and I can confirm that it’s missing the Facebook app. You can download this from the Market if you want (personally I would stick with the web page!). It’s the same with Adobe Flash. HTC have removed Flashlight, custom static wallpapers and Teeter from the ROM, but all can be installed manually. Otherwise it all seems to work quite nicely, SIP calls work, the browser has been updated, etc., the only downside I can find is that the trackball scrolling is now painfully slow in text boxes.
Well I know what I’m doing tonight!
I upgraded to the Cyanogen7 mod but haven’t found it to be as great as the praise deserves (having to redo basic system settings every day almost).
Sure I can live with out twitter thank you very much!
Great, I`ve been wondering how to get rid of that massive waste of space the Facebook app from my Desire. Gingerbread here I come.
To be fair to get most of the updates on custom roms require access to your sd card and custom rooms usually get rid of some apps etc. I think HTC were quite honest about the gingerbread update.
CM7.1 FTW – Not looked back.
T
A question for the simpletons like me, what does this locked bootloader mean to us. Does that mean it can’t be flashed again? does it mean it can’t be rooted?
It means that it probably can’t be rooted in the short time until a workaround is found.
I installed the Gingerbread ROM on my Orange-branded Desire this morning. Everything worked as advertised, and the upgrade got rid of all of the crappy Orange branding including the trial apps that were literally just a waste of space.
Installed this on my t-mobile desire. All is well and I now have an extra 30mb of storage for apps even after putting all mine back on. Result!
Few false starts with upgrade itself. Had to run it three times and restart my pc once but I took my brave pill and persevered.
i wouldnt mind trying this, would i be right in saying i rename the zip to update.zip and put it into recovery mode?