HTC has been in the news recently for a number of reasons, including the leaks, more leaks and even more leaks about their up and coming M9 flagship, plus their own announcement that some carriers would miss their self-imposed promise that the One M7 and One M8 devices would receive Android Lollipop inside ninety days of the source code being release. In defence of HTC, the hold up is the carriers; they’ve had the code in time and it’s their long testing process that’s holding things up. However, HTC clearly are not just concentrating on the current update but are working on other versions, too. I bring you news today that the HTC One M7 Developer Edition devices is receiving the update to the very latest released version of Android Lollipop, 5.0.2, complete with HTC Sense 6.0.
The download is a little over 700 MB for version 7.17.1540.7 and HTC have emphasized the improvements to the lockscreen and notifications, the change in multitasking view and search function in settings. Of course, Android 5.0 Lollipop also includes other changes including the implementation of Project Volta’s power saving network scheduler. This new function will attempt to ensure that as many applications and functions connect to the Internet at broadly the same time in order to save battery. It does this by delaying applications from connecting to the network until more than one wishes the connectivity; in older versions of Android, if an Internet connection is available, an application can connect at will. Under the new Project Volta code, applications will apply to the operating system to connect in a given timeframe and providing the developer is flexible with the programming, so the operating system can combine connection requests. This technology ensures that the device spends more time asleep and less time connecting to the Internet because a random application wants to check in with base – but it does need to be enabled by the application developer.
We’ve seen rumors that the HTC One M7 is reaching the end of life when it comes to software updates (the device is almost two years old now) but in my mind, until HTC officially confirm this, the device is likely to continue receiving updates. The hardware is more than capable of running Android Lollipop; HTC’s reason for dropping support will presumably be driven by the desire to encourage customers to upgrade to a new device, or perhaps because Qualcomm (or another component supplier) stop updating the drivers to suppose the new versions of Android. To our readers: do you use the One M7 Developer Edition? Have you received your over the air update yet? Let us know in the comments below if you have and how the update has worked out so far.