This week, CTIA kicks off in sunny Las Vegas.  We’re expecting to hear some official news on the upcoming Verizon HTC Incredible and the Sprint HTC Supersonic, but for now all we have are some more rumors surrounding the release of Android 2.1 for the Sprint HTC Hero.  Late last week, we heard that the Sprint Hero 2.1 update was to be released in “the coming weeks.” Though the news sounds hopeful, it was a bit vague and didn’t offer any more specifics.  Today, we just got wind that the Hero’s 2.1 update is scheduled for release in March 26.  For those of you trying to figure out that math, that’s one week from today. 

Androinica is quoting two different sources to back up these claims.

I kept on asking about the firmware release and they finally released a date for the 2.1 firmware. He stated and confirm that this update will come on 03/26/2010.

Called sprint to find out when 2.1 update was coming. After being transferred several times I ended up talking to a sprint HTC hero tech specialist. He said it will be released end of March and can be downloaded athttp://www.sprint.com/downloads or over the air by accessing the firmware update feature on your hero.

Here at HTC Source, we can’t attest to the accuracy of these claims.  I placed a call into Sprint’s support line and was able to talk with one of their Android tech specialists.  He was not able to give me a specific date, but he did mention “end of March.”  Hearing this right from Sprint is a little comforting, though I’m sure most of you have heard of the Motorola DROID’s Android 2.1 update fiasco.  Verizon made an official announcement about the update and even gave details of what it would be included.  Unfortunately, the launch date came, but no update.  Rumors are that there are issues with the OTA update infrastructure from Motorola.  Let’s just home that the same thing does not happen once we finally get an official date from HTC or Sprint.

The new HTC Supersonic has finally made it into the wild! Ok, not really.  We’ve seen renderings and even blurry-cam pictures of the Supersonic in the past, but this is the first time we can seen a video of the handset.  If you were looking for a quick hands-on review, you’ve come to the wrong place.   The video simply shows the Sprint HTC Supersonic while it’s booting up and a quick look at the back of the handset.  It’s a bit off that the person shooting the video is wearing gloves, but that’s about the most exciting thing we were able to spot.  With CTIA right around the corners, I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of the Snapdragon powered HTC Supersonic. 

Update: we did some quick searching on YouTube and spotted a second video of the HTC Supersonic.  This second video actually shows the handset on, though all we really see if the camera app.

Update: it’s been brought to our attention that though the video is labeles at the Supersonic, it is infact the HTC In redible which is expected to launch on Verizon soon.  Thanks guys for pointing it out.

Source: MobileCrunch