Did you get yourself a cheap HTC Flyer this Christmas? If so, it’s time to check for updates as we’re hearing that the Honeycomb update has started to arrive.
We’ll have a hands-on with the new Android update later on, but do let us know if it has arrived on yours.
Link – Earlier story
I can confirm that 3.2 is downloading on my 16GB WiFi Flyer right now.
Please let me know when it completes as I want to find out if the home, pen, settings and return buttons are in fact disabled and presented on screen instead. This is reported when I am offered the update by HTC in a disclaimer before downloading the update so I have stopped before doing the update until I can confirm what the position is.
Home, back and menu hardware buttons are indeed disabled, as they are obsolete in Honeycomb, however Pen button is still functional. In fact, pen is more usable after the update, as it can be used for basic UI interactions, not just drawing.
Anything more about how the pen is better? Lke Steve I stopped when i saw the disclaimer and having used hc on my like wife’s ASUS I’m not sure i want to give up the sense build I have now. Sure its cool, newer etc but it it actually better in anyway?
Like William I have reservations also about losing the Sense UI as I like it. I have a Dell Streak 7″ and that has HC on and thats great but Dell kept their UI which has its cool parts as well. HC is better but maybe not at the expense of the hardware buttons and the Sense UI, I will have to think hard like William if I want to go this route. Any comments are welcome to help me make a decision, as I believe is the case for others here reading these updates.
HTC Sense *does* stay after Honeycomb update, no worries about that.
To be fair the sense widgets stay but not the launcher where I have apps pinned at the bottom. And there are replacements for the home and back buttons but I’ve not seen a menu equivalent in HC.
I disagree about the hardware buttons, losing them on a device that has them is a big deal. If they were problematic or worked like a Samsung device I could see replacing them.
I still think HC is a negative rather than a positive for the flyer. Its ok for 10 inch screens where the UI can waste a lot of space but I haven’t seen anything that makes me think ill like it in a smaller screen. I particularly dislike the notification system. Closing notifications individually is nice but the rest of the notifications are 2 steps backwards from the GB sense that’s already on the device.
The only things that make me consider upgrading are extended pen functionality and hardware acceleration. The pen being the main driver for me using the flyer.
Well, I *personally* like Honeycomb way more than Gingerbread, especially on a tablet – a device it was designed for. Missing “menu” button appear on on-demand basis in apps which do not explicitly follow Honeycomb’s new UI paradigm, where context actions and menus are located in the top-right corner of the screen. As for launcher – yes, one could argue pinned apps in the bottom are gone but on the other hand launcher in Honeycomb doesn’t waste as much real estate of the homescreen as original Gingerbread on Flyer does, hence give a bit more flexibility. But once again, that’s my personal opinion and feeling, disagreements are more than welcome. 🙂
I hear you and there are things i like about HC but in general i think its a down grade.  Using a transformer i am constantly looking for things like the menu option which are simply not well implemented.  I also prefer having the recent apps in the notifications rather than separated.  I find that i use it often on GB from the notification pull down but rarely ever on HC, instead i find myself going the hard way to open things and getting frustrated. That’s in part because the app arrangement is less natural than in gb and it doesn’t offer a list option which i like to use.  I also like being able to clear all notifications at once.  I tend to get a lot but in hc i cant just browse them and clear them together.  i’m not sure than being able to leave some open until you specifically want to close it is better or not.
HC might have been designed for tablets but im fairly certain they focused on 10 tabs and not 7 inches.  And i cant believe you said HC doesn’t waste as much real estate.  I haven’t seen ti clearly on the flyer but in the transformer it it takes up space at both the top and bottom of the screen and leaves quite a bit of space open on either side of the home screen.  Poor use of space is a hallmark of HC as is distributing things which used to be centralized so that you have to go more places to do simple tasks.
I’m usually an early adopter, i have ICS, WP7 & Win 8 on my desk right now so i’m sure i’ll upgrade eventually I’m just not sold on the merits of HC.
Maybe its just hard to let go of something that already works so well when i know most of whats in store with the upgrade.
Loosing hardware buttons is not a big deal at all, as there are on-screen equivalents in Honeycomb. HTC Sense does stay after the update, all widgets, apps etc. are still in place. The pen functionality after the update is extended, so it can be used for UI interactions like tapping icons, on-screen buttons etc. while in Gingerbread its functionality was limited to drawing in “pen mode”, afair.
Worth noting that this is an update for WiFi-only model, as 3G+WiFi models have had Honeycomb update few weeks ago.