AT&T Dell Streak Getting Android 2.2 Froyo in January?

Dell Streak owners who took the plunge and bought their device unlocked are likely already enjoying Android 2.2, and even the ones on contract likely shoehorned the updated OS into their half-smartphone half-tablet mythological beast. For those who aren’t rich nor tech-savvy and waiting for an official update from Dell and AT&T, some internal e-mails indicated that Android 2.2 will be rolling out the week of January 12. Think of it as a late Christmas present.

The Dell Streak launched with Android 1.6 to the chagrin of many, but still had some charm about it – a 5-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen, 1 GHz processor, 5 megapixel camera with front-facing conferencing camera, Wi-Fi, 3G, and GPS are nothing to sneeze at. Folk interested in a full-blown Android tablet are probably more interested in the Samsung Galaxy Tab, or some of the other options coming out soon,

We’ve seen the Dell Streak running Froyo in the past, and given the pseudo-tablet form factor, we can only expect it to benefit even more from an Android 3.0 Honeycomb update which is optimized for bigger screens. Dell has shown a slight preference to working with Windows Phone, which might explain the lag in this update, and I can only wonder if they’ll make another Android phone after wrestling this much with the Streak. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen the Thunder / Venue… Maybe they’re trying to get Windows in there instead?

[via StreakSmart]

About The Author

Simon Sage

Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.

Marvinfrmn

Thats crazy that the dell steak thats running on 1.6 got to wait up the middle of jan…hell I’m saying to myself…..I was better off keeping my Iphone
Abcd

It is January 13th, and I did not see any confirmation to any updates being done!
MikeDrewME

I just contacted AT&T customer support and they tell me that they don’t even have an estimated release date for the Android 2.2 update for the Dell Streak. WTF is going on here?
Crys Morgan

Date: 1/17/2011 still no update. Status ETA Please.
Nvsinbad

Hope you’re not all holding your breath waiting.

I just hung up with AT&T. First I called Dell, who told me they have the OTA update and are ready to release it but cannot as AT&T has once again delayed it. No one seems to know WHY, just that it has happened.

So I called AT&T and worked my way 3 levels up the support chain to try and get an answer. Ultimately I was told that no one at AT&T could tell me when it would actually be released. Feeling rather incredulous over that answer, I actually asked “Are you telling me there is no one, in the entire corporate structure of AT&T, who can tell me when they’re going to allow it to be released, and was told “That’s correct”. REALLY?

When I told them I would have to consider switching carriers and going to someone who COULD support release it, they even offered to talk to billing to eliminate any penalties associated with my doing so. REALLY???

AT&T is obviously willing to sacrifice customers, or at the very least their customers good will rather than be straight with them.

This is much the same as when I bought my first iPhone through them over two years ago. A major selling point for me at the time was that the device be able to tether to my laptop. “Well, it doesn’t now, but with the new software release coming out next month it WILL be”. Two and a half years later my iPhone still doesn’t tether (UNLESS I’m willing to drop my unlimited data plan) and now they’re doing the same thing with the FROYO release.

Once again AT&T has decided to put the screws to their customers and has lied to us all.
bustedcelt

Oddly, the Software Update page on my 1.6 Streak (which I bought in August 2010 unlocked, but which I now find has it’s updates controlled by AT&T even though I’m not a customer) changed from displaying a Dell logo and “No software updates available at this time.” to having all that plus an at&t logo and the image of a Streak. At least that would seem to confirm they know I’m out hear. The one thing it doesn’t confirm is how really angry I am about not getting an update to 2.2. What’s the deal, and why do I have to wait when I’m not even an at&t customer?
noober

I called ATT today (1/28/2011) and asked when can my dell streak update to Android 2.2. The reply is:
“I am sorry, but it is shown that you just upgrade your phone 3 months ago, so that now you can not upgrade again”. WTF is that. Trying not to laugh, I said “no, this is not a phone upgrade, this is a version software upgrade”. Then he asked:

Customer service: what phone are you using now?
answer: Dell streak
Customer service: sorry sir. The phone is belong to Dell. We can not do anything about it. You have to call Dell
answer: i know the phone made from Dell, but i bought this phone through ATT. So…….
Customer service: sir, what phone is android?
answer: (this guy is starting pissing me off) noooo, my phone is Dell streak, Android is the software version it is using, like itune 8.0, itune 9.0….
Customer service: let me check again sir….(5mins)…..i have the information now. The software was release from Dell, you have to call Dell for upgrade
answer: nope, i called Dell before and they said they are working with ATT now to release. 1 month ago I called ATT and one other ATT customer service told me that it should be available around mid of Jan 2011. Now you are telling me ATT can not do anything with this?
Customer service: can i ask you again….what is the name of the phone you are using?
answer: (talk to myself: WTF) Ok how about this? can you transfer me to technical department?
Customer service: sure…you want technical department to help you with this? Please hold the line, I will transfer…….
2 mins waiting…then I hung up the phone

over all: ATT service: ????????
bojangles

If you hate them so much you can always work around them there are many ways to do so, you can get the 2.2 udate that went to the unlocked phones and still have tethering to
Cantemp

I have your answer. Think about it, unlocked versions of the Streak got their update a long long time ago. Same phone, why not the same time right? Its because ATT wants to lock the 2.2 release down. After all 2.2 allows you to tether and if you happen to be one of the people with an unlimited data plan such as myself, well you can take that little phone with its 2.2 android os and hook it up to a server if you want and watch it such the life right out of their network and theres not a darn thing they can do about it

ATT just like any big corp wants its money. Banks want to give you a 2% interest rate on your money but take 19% if you take theirs. Its called greed. It always comes down to it. So now you have your answer. Be quite an wait, you may never get what you want unless you have the money