While nosing around in the stats for my blog, I noticed a link coming from an old post on Boing-Boing. Just for fun I went to see what it was about (and out of vanity, to see who’d linked to me and why. Sadly, it wasn’t Cory.   ).

Looking through the comments I saw this:

The most interesting part (to me anyway) is this:

As you probably know, we cannot support unlocked or rooted phones because we just can’t guarantee how that will impact the device on our network.

What I’d like to know from Rogers and Mary (and I’ve asked this before, but got no response) is this: By “support” do they mean technical support or do they mean they can’t allow them on their network? I wonder about the distinction because many of us were booted off of data until/unless we updated to the 911bugfix (which I still have not done).

I wonder, because there are iPhones on the Rogers network, I am sure, that are Jailbroken.

So, Mary, can you please clarify for us the official policy for Rogers and rooted/jailbroken phones? Does “support” refer to technical support? If not, what does it mean? If it means that Rogers doesn’t want rooted phones on its network, does that mean that Rogers is working on a way to detect Jailbroken iPhones?

Obviously Rogers can scan the network for Android phones not running a Rogers-blessed ROM. They have also demonstrated a willingness to boot these phones of off the data network as punishment. Seems it’s only fair they should do this to JBed iPhones, right? Or are there two sets of rules, Rogers?

As I mentioned in my previous post, I sent an email to the Office of the President through Rogers site to let them know how upset we are about the continued delay of 2.1.

Yesterday I received a call from “Lisa” who unfortunately didn’t really understand what was going on, or what I wanted, she just knew I was upset. I explained that I was not alone, but part of a large, and vocal community. I said that I knew other people in the community were calling and emailing about the same issue; to let Rogers know how unhappy we were waiting for 2.1, and that we wanted to know about 2.2.

I asked if she was familiar with Android, and she admitted she was not. One thing I never will understand about customer service… if you have people in your organization who understand issue “A” and people who don’t understand issue “A”, why would you have the second group of people handle complaints about issue “A”? Can someone please explain that?

Anyway… I patiently, and very briefly, explained to here that we had the HTC Magic, that we were still stuck on Android version 1.5 after a year, and well after our US and French compatriots have received 1.6, and are soon to get 2.2!

She claimed she didn’t know anything about a date for when 2.1 might be available, so I informed her that Rogers intended to have it to us by the end of August. She was surprised by this information, and wanted to know how I knew. I told her about Mary Pretotto (don’t they have office parties or team-building exercises to get to know each other there? Maybe they should all go out for drinks one night. Like… all of them.) The information that we have all been in touch with Mary seemed to confuse her more (poor girl) and she didn’t seem to understand why, if I had the information from Mary, I was contacting the Office of the Head Cheese. I explained again that I wanted to express my anger at having to wait even longer for 2.1, and that we wanted to know when we could expect 2.2.

In the end, she promised to talk to Mary. Let’s hope she does, because I think Mary, and a small cadre, seem to be the only ones at Rogers who are even aware Android exists! (yes, a bit of sarcasm there).

Some people will probably question why some of us are bothering to complain to Rogers now, when we will eventually be getting 2.1. “Isn’t that what you wanted?” I hear them ask.

It’s like this, see… inaction breeds contempt. If you say nothing, they will think nothing is wrong. We don’t want Rogers to forget that we exist, that Android market share is growing, and that we want to be treated at least as well as iPhone customers are treated.

I just received a press release from Sony Ericsson (and I see them posting about it on twitter) about an update to the Xperia X10 in Canada.

To be clear, NO WHERE does it say anything about Android 2.1, so it seems to be a feature update?

Beware before you run this, who knows if it might block root. You might want to wait a little while to see what happens.

Here is the press release:

Sony Ericsson provides software update for Xperia™ X10

July 7, 2010, TORONTO:  Sony Ericsson has announced a global software update for Xperia™ X10 which is available to Canadian customers. By visiting www.sonyericsson.com/updateservice, customers can update the product software for optimal performance and get the latest enhancements. This update focuses on improving the general performance, power consumption, speed and responsiveness of the Xperia™ X10.

Once upgraded, the Xperia™ X10 will include:

• Free backup and restore application for your contacts, messages, bookmarks, settings etc.
• Improved usability of camera and media player.
• Improved overall phone performance, such as power consumption, touch sensitivity, and overall audio quality.

To upgrade the Xperia™ X10, please follow these steps:

1. Before you start, back up your contacts, messages, media files, bookmarks, calendar, tasks, notes, etc.

2. Go to www.sonyericsson.com/updateservice

3. Select your phone – Xperia™ X10

4. Install and run the update by clicking on the link “Download here”

5. Follow the instructions on your computer to connect your Xperia™ X10 and update the software.

Interestingly, this update seems to (hopefully) fix some of the gripes I had about the X10 when I reviewed it, namely the battery life and the sensitivity of the touch screen.

Holy friggin’ let-down’s Batman! Rogers, if you thought we’d be happy with your announcement, just for the record WE’RE NOT!!!

Rogers Social Media Manager, Mary Pretotto announced on Twitter that Rogers has 2.1 for testing, and MIGHT have it to us by the end of AUGUST! They are claiming that it also has to be approved by Google.

Argh! This is ridiculous! After all the crap Rogers CSRs and the “office of the president” put us through in November and December of last year, after all the work we had to do just to get Rogers to understand why we wanted the update, they still insist on “playing catchup”.

Just to be clear, so it doesn’t seem like simple whining, WE ARE STILL ON ANDROID 1.5!!!!

The MyTouch in the US on T-Mobile (the US version of the Magic, but with LESS MEMORY) received Android 1.6 in OCTOBER 2009, and now they will be getting Android _2.2_!!! The French version of the Magic is getting 2.2 THIS SUMMER, while we still wait for 2.1, and languish on 1.5!!!

Rogers, this is NOT acceptable! You continue to treat us like second-rate citizens next to your beloved fucking iPhone lusers!

We have waited for so long, stuck on Android 1.5 while the rest of the world passes us by (you want the coolest new apps? TO FRIGGIN BAD!) and now we have to wait ANOTHER 2 months!

Rogers, in the computer/smart phone world, 2 months is a loooong time. I imagine about 4 or 5 new awesome Android phones will be announced in that time, as well as a release date for Android _3.0_!

So, it’s time to start letting Rogers know how pissed we are.

1. Call customer service and tell them you want 2.1 sooner than the end of August. If they say no, or even better, if they claim not to know anything about it (or that it’s not coming, cause they are pretty ignorant) ELEVATE THE CALL! Keep elevating, and maybe even threaten to leave.

2. Contact the office of the president… repeatedly.

3. Pester ALL the Rogers reps on Twitter.

4. Write on blogs, in blog comments, and in forums. Make sure that any potential Rogers customer knows what they are in for if they buy an Android phone from Rogers.

Mary Pretotto on Twitter: @RogersMary: http://twitter.com/RogersMary

Miranda on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RogersMiranda

Office of the President:

Fax: 1-877-331-1573
By mail:	Rogers Communications Inc. Office of the President 855 York Mills Road Don Mills, ON M3B 1Z1

Email by going here: http://www.rogers.com/web/content/contactus

Rogers Red Board (let’s pound on them in the comments): http://redboard.rogers.com/

Here is my email to the office of the president:

As a long-time (18 year) Rogers customer with an HTC Magic STILL running Android 1.5 I am VERY angry that we have been told today that Rogers has received (finally) the update to Android 2.1, but that we will have to wait until MAYBE THE END OF AUGUST before we MIGHT get it on our phones!

This is unacceptable! We have been using an old and outdated version of Android 1.5 since June 2009, while the same phone on other carriers (T-Mobile in the US, and SFR in France) have already received updates to 1.6, 2.1, and now (this summer) to 2.2!!!

Don’t tell me that 1.5 is a stable, great Android experience, because it’s not. Every day more and more apps in the marketplace are added or updated requiring Android 1.6 or better to use, which means we can’t use them.

The rest of the world is passing us by! we paid for SMART phones that would be superior technology, and instead we are being left behind because of Rogers’ inability to understand just want Android is, and how to use it.

I will be working hard with others in the Canadian Android Community to bring this problem to the attention of existing and potential Rogers customers, so they can make an informed choice about whether or not to choose Rogers for Android, or any other phone.

Regards,

Michael Schmidt
www.iwantmyonepointsix.com
www.leavenodroidbehind.com

The email addresses and phone numbers for many Rogers managers, including the President, can very easily be found online. Perhaps I’ll post them here soon enough if we don’t get some better “feedback” from Rogers.

Well, the “end of June” has come and gone, and we still have no word from the Big R about the Android 2.1 update for the Magic.

Rogers (through their online social media rep Mary Pretotto) confirmed a while back that HTC would be delivering 2.1 to Rogers for internal testing by the end of June of this year. Now, however, Mary and the other social media reps are ignoring our requests for confirmation of whether or not the update was actually delivered to them.

Considering the Magic (MyTouch) is not only getting 2.1 but 2.2 on other carriers, it’s ridiculous that we haven’t got it yet for the Magic.

Rogers PR machine keeps telling us they are committed to Android, and they have been bringing out more Andy phones, but how committed are they really when they don’t understand how Android works, and why customers would want the updates? At the moment, 6 days after the end of June with no response from Big-R, I am reluctant to believe the veracity of their claims.

Perhaps we will have to go back on the offensive; call and email Rogers big-wigs until they beg us to stop again, as well as perhaps even counseling potential customers to look elsewhere for an Android phone? (Like maybe Bell, who will have the Samsung Galaxy S).

Hey, Mary or Miranda, please feel free to respond in the comments here.

According to MobileSyrup, Bell will be bringing the Samsung Galaxy S to Canada as the “Vibrant”. if that sounds a little confusing, it’s because in the US the Galaxy S is being released by the four big carriers under four different names with some spec differences as well. In this case, the T-Mobile version is also called the “Vibrant”, and will NOT have the forward-facing camera for video chat (unless Bell’s Vibrant is different from T-Mo’s).

The Galaxy S is a pretty sweet phone, and this is a cannon shot across the bow of Rogers, whose only Android device with 2.1 is the Acer Liquid E. While the Acer is a nice phone, you could kind of consider it a generation behind the new phones coming out state-side like the Galaxy S, the HTC Evo, and the Droid X. (Rogers also has the X10, but it’s still on 1.6, and won’t get 2.1 until the end of this year. No word if it will go beyond 2.1. You can read my review of the Acer LE vs the Sony X10 here.)

Considering the way things have been going here in Canada with Android phones and the carriers, they tend not to  carry the same phones (unless it’s the iPhone). If Bell already has the Galaxy S, and Telus has the Motorola Milestone (the Droid in the US), and Rogers doesn’t have any good* Motorola Android phones, I think we can speculate that Telus will likely (hopefully) get the Droid X, leaving Rogers with the HTC Evo 4G. (*Is the Quench really a good phone? A good “inexpensive” Android phone i suppose, but it’s no Droid).

The HTC Evo 4g is a nice phone, but given our experience with Rogers and HTC so far (cough… Magic… cough… Dream…) you will forgive us if we don’t think that maybe our next Android purchases should maybe be from Bell or Telus?

Unfortunately we won’t know what Rogers will do until they actually launch something as the company line seems to be no comments on anything not already launched. Which is dumb with a capital DUMB!

Your move, Rogers.

Awww shucks, Rogers, we really are happy that you agreed to give us 2.1 for the Magic (Sorry, Dream owners, no love) but see… Google came out with this even better version of Android called 2.2, and everyone seems to be getting it! Will we?

Back on June 9th MobileCrunch reported that T-Mobile customers with the MyTouch 3G (the T-Mo version of the Magic) would be getting Android 2.2.

Yesterday afternoon, TmoNews got ahold of the memo above, confirming that the myTouch 3G (in addition to the myTouch Slide, which we already knew would be getting updated) will be getting Android 2.2. There it is, in good ol’ plain English: “Coming soon, we plan to update existing myTouch 3G phones — not just our new Slide — to the latest software version, Android 2.2″

And now today we hear that the French carrier SFR will be giving its Magic customers 2.2 THIS SUMMER! (Funny, it’s summer here in Canada, and we don’t even have 2.1 yet!)

As reported by Phandroid:

Second-ranked French carrier SFR has announced that the HTC Magic will receive an update to Android 2.2 (Froyo) later this summer along with another of their Android phones, the Nexus One. This shouldn’t come as too much of a shocker considering the Magic’s US counterpart, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G, has also been pegged as a device that should be receiving the anticipated OS update. There is no word whether this update will be coming to all Magic owners or merely those on SFR, but chances are if it’s ready for prime time France won’t be the only place seeing it.

Now, when we began our odyssey to have the Rogers Magic updated beyond 1.5 we received a lot of different bull shit answers from Rogers, including the so-called official word from HTC that our phones couldn’t handle updates, and/or that the hardware was “different”. Of course we all know that’s not true.

The MyTouch 3G has 512MB of Flash memory, and 192 MB of RAM memory. That’s less RAM than the Rogers Magic!

The French Magic has 512MB ROM, and 288 MB of RAM. That’s the same amount of memory as the Rogers Magic!

SO what could possibly be the reason Rogers might give for not giving us some delicious Froyo?

Here’s the thing we all know, it’s kind of a dirty secret though… Rogers had HTC customize the crap out of the version of Android they installed on the Magic they sold us here in Canada. Now, it seems they have three choices, give us an update without the customizations, give us the update with the customizations, or give us NO update.

The first option would be my favourite, and possibly the easiest, of course that would mean giving up those lovely customizations, and whatever else they claim they need to do to “make it work” on Roger’s “Reliable Network TM”. Would they do this? Probably not.

The second option means going back to HTC again, and getting them to update the customized ROM. The one thing Rogers and HTC would never answer for us the first time around was whether or not Rogers would have to pay for these updates, or what sort of contract they had with HTC for updates. I’m guessing HTC doesn’t like doing these things for free, but it’s just a guess, and I could be wrong I suppose.

The last option is our least favourite, but if Rogers does say no, they better give us a real, honest answer as to why. None of this PR double-speak (I have a degree in Political Science, I was taught to decipher PR double-speak), and please don’t insult our intelligence by telling us the hardware won’t support it, that would be a lie, plain and simple. Oh, and please don’t try to convince us that HTC honestly and truly believes 1.5 is such an amazing user experience that no one could ever want or need anything else. We didn’t buy that the first time.

So consider this me officially asking you to please confirm: 1. Will the Rogers Magic get Android 2.2; and 2. If not, why not?

Please feel free to renew the email and twitter bombardment of Rogers until they give us some satisfactory answers. If they don’t like it, maybe they should either beg HTC to stop updating Android for other countries, or just get out of the Android game all together.

(For the record, I do realize there is a difference between “Google Experience” phones, and others, however the fact remains that HTC and Rogers agreed to give us 2.1, and 2.2 does work on the hardware, so there can’t really be much of an excuse not to give it to us).

@RogersMary confirmed last night to me (and i assume others) that the Rogers Acer Liquid E will get Android 2.2, however we’re not sure yet exactly when.

According to Mary, Rogers will be getting 2.2 from Acer for “testing” some time in Q4 2010.

We’ll be sure to let you know more when we do.

Phandroid and BGR are reporting that there is a big privacy issue with HTC Sense UI.

According to BGR, the HTC Sense Bookmark Widget takes screen shots not only of the web sites you bookmark, but the ones you don’t! That’s only part of the issue, however. The “scarier” part is that these screen shots are stored as JPG files in a folder on the phone’s internal memory. Further, these files are apparently NOT deleted when the browser is closed, cache is emptied, or even when the phone has a factory reset!!!

In other words, if you were looking at some naughty sites, or, oh, I don’t know, your BANKING, your HTC Sense-enabled phone might have kept JPG images of those sites for someone to find when/if you sell your phone (or have to send it in for fixing or exchange).

From the BGR site:

The problem is these JPEG files are extremely hard to get rid of. They remain when the current browser session is closed, they remain after you clear the browser history, and they remain after a full factory reset. The JPEG files are saved to a folder named .bookmark_thumb1 which is located within the emmc folder of the phones internal storage (so you would expect a full factory reset to delete them). We found some screenshots of us logged into Facebook, logged into our online banking website, and viewing several other mundane websites (see picture above) even after having completed a factory reset.

So what might this mean for Rogers customers forced to install the last HTC E911 Bug-fix on the Magic and Dream? To be honest, I’m not sure yet. I never installed it (my data was cut, and still is) so I fortunately don’t have Sense UI. We will need to check in to this and see if this issue is specific only to some HTC phones, or all HTC phones running HTC Sense.

Aside from the potential privacy issue, it is further aggravating to think that if it is happening on the Magic and Dream (unwittingly, perhaps) Rogers Magic and Dream owners might have have this forced upon them at the risk of losing data. Those who have rooted (and yes, we can do that now, even to the Magic+) or who never updated don’t have to worry (unless running Sense UI).

I will, of course, be posing the questions to @RogersMary, but in the mean time, if you have a Dream of Magic with Sense UI, please have a look for the folder mentioned in the BGR quote and see if those JPGs are there. Let’s hope they’re not.

UPDATE: There seems to be some debate over whether this is in internal memory or on the SD Card. It is also (hopefully!) possible that this only affects some HTC phones with Sense, and not all. If you have a Magic or a Dream with Sense UI, please check and see, and let us know in the comments.

We will keep an eye on the story and update as appropriate.

UPDATE 2: Some important clarifications are necessary to this story, seeing as many people are misunderstanding, as follows:

Internal vs SD debate: The issue was originally noticed on an HTC Incredible, and the story referred to it as being saved on the “internal” memory. Commenters started jumping on the writer, accusing him of not knowing what he was talking about because it is actually being saved to the SD card, and so “of course” it won’t be deleted by a factory reset.

Well, here’s the facts that have been misunderstood. The HTC Incredible comes with RAM/ROM (just like other Android phones) and so most of us are used to calling the ROM the “internal” memory, since it’s the only “internal” memory we have, however the HTC Incredible also comes with 8 GB of flash memory that are NON-REMOVABLE! It is inside the phone and can not be removed. The Incredible also has a microSD slot, so it has ROM, 8GB of Flash memory internally and the option for an extra microSD card added to it. This is what the writer meant by “internal” so it is a semantic misunderstanding.

Non-Bookmarked Sites: People are calling shenanigans and saying that it is only bookmarked sites that are being saved by the widget so that it can fulfill its function. The problem is, lost of users are also saying that there are non-bookmarked sites showing up in this particular folder. Now, either they are all lying, or don’t know what they’re doing. Rather then jump to either of those considerations, maybe we should see if it may be true?

One user commented that he believes it is only happening when you type a URL into the address bar of the stock browser (thus making it part of the history, even though not bookmarked). Since I don’t have Sense UI, I can’t test it, but I’m sure others can. Someone needs to. Simply put, if it’s happening to some people, then it’s happening. Someone who hasn’t seen the behaviour should keep trying to replicate it, or someone should check the phones of those who claims it has happened to see if it’s real.

The Privacy Issue: I see a lot of people saying “Big deal, who cares! It’s just like your browser history on your computer! Delete it manually or it’s your own fault!” Whether or not you don’t care about someone else seeing where you’ve been doesn’t mean that no one else should care. With a web browser you can choose form the menu to delete the cache, however apparently emptying the cache with these phones is not deleting these, because they are not kept in the cache.

As for the argument that people should just delete them manually, it’s easy for us to say that, we are tech-savvy people, we know what we are doing. There are more and more people buying Android phones who are NOT tech savvy. These people don’t read the blogs, and we shouldn’t expect them to either. We can believe that they should, but not expect it, human behaviour being what it is.

If we want Android to truly grow and be popular, it must do so among the “common” user. The people who don’t read the blogs, who just want it to work.  These users will not know, nor know how, to find and delete these files manually, and shouldn’t have to. These people might sell their phones, or send them in for repair or exchange, of let friends or family use them, which brings us back to the HTC Incredible. Since that 8GB “internal” flash memory can’t be removed, they can’t take it out before selling or sending in like we can with our microSD’s, so the concern is a valid one.

UPDATE 06/22/10: HTC has admitted to the problem and is working on the fix, but apparently only for the Incredible. They acknowledge that with the Incredible, a factory reset does not remove the images since they are not in ROM, but are on an internal 8GB flash memory chip (and thus can not be removed when selling/trading/exchanging the phone). Some people are reporting that the issue of non-bookmark thumbnails is specific to the Incredible, but HTC doesn’t seem to have mentioned this. Users of the Rogers HTC Magic+ (and the Magic with the Sense UI update) report that it does keep snapshots of bookmarked sites in a folder on the microSD card. So WARNING… if you are going to sell/trade/exchange your Rogers HTC Magic (or Magic+), or send it in for repairs, you should really go in and manually delete those files, or just hold on to the microSD card.

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