Trying to get some media attention, I sent the following to Marketplace at CBC:
"In a similar vein to your other stories about the cell phone industry, there is a growing group of us who became early adopters of the new Android cell phones in Canada with Rogers, who are now being left with phones that are quickly becoming obsolete, though they were only purchased in July of 2009.
Android phones are like iPhones, they are really little computers that can make phone calls. Like the iPhone, users can download and install apps (applications). Just like the iPhone, or like your Windows computer, the Android phones use an Operating System (Android is made by Google). Google releases upgrades to the Android OS much like Microsoft releases updates to Windows. These upgrades provide more and better functionality for the phones.
At the moment, Rogers customers with the HTC Magic, HTC Dream, and LG Eve are stuck on version 1.5 of the operating system. Ver 1.6 was released at the beginning of October, and version 2.0 is coming out now. Even though owners of these phones in other countries (like the US) have already received this update to 1.6, Rogers customers have not.
A large group of us having been going back and forth with Rogers for the past month trying to get information about if/when we would receive the update. Though they initially said we would get it eventually, that changed to "we need to get it from HTC to test and Evaluate" to, most recently "HTC has no plans to make it".
We know that the update exists, and we know it works on these phones, because some people have already hacked their phones to use it. We can not confirm yet, but we believe that the only difference between the version of 1.6 released to other customers (like in the US) and the version that we would need is customization for Rogers. We don't know if Rogers is refusing to ask HTC for it (Pay for it?), but it seems highly dubious that HTC would refuse to give Rogers the update if no work was needed, since Rogers is their customer!
If you are interested in this story, you can read more here:
http://androidforums.com/rogers/10647-rogers-dream-1-6-update.html
And here:
I Want My One Point Six - Demanding Android 1.6 for our Rogers HTC Magic & Dream, and LG Eve Phones
Thank you,
Michael Schmidt
IWantMyOnePointSix.com"
We'll see if they are interested.