Now that I’m using an HTC One – and loving it – I’m wondering how I keep the firmware operating system (Android) up to date?
The good news is that there’s surprisingly little you need to do to keep your phone happy on the latest version of Android. In fact, it’ll tell you when there’s an update available, as you’ll see in just a moment.
Should you keep your cell phone up to date? Most definitely. The biggest reason is that most of the updates, particularly “fractional” or “dot” updates, are related to both security and stability. In other words, your phone becomes more resistant to bad guys hacking into it and less prone to apps crashing or the system not working properly. Both are good, right?
Android also has a long series of silly version names like Cupcake, Eclair, Gingerbread, Froyo, Honeycomb, Jelly Bean and the latest, KitKat. You can read about all of them on the Android release history page if you’re so inclined. What’s next in the release queue? I’m guessing Butterfinger, but maybe that’s not such a good name for a mobile device operating system, so perhaps not. 🙂  The good news is that you really don’t need to care about any of that. Your HTC One will just do the work and you’ll be fine.
For example, on my HTC One I powered up one morning and here’s what I saw:
That’s darn friendly of them to just push out the notification, isn’t it?
If you’re ready to proceed (and do notice that the phone will go offline for a few minutes during the process) tap on “Next”…
Not so sure about the grammar of that message, but that’s okay. We’ll proceed.
Tap on “Restart” or just wait for the timer to count down and…
That progress bar will slowly ooze across the screen as the new firmware is downloaded.
After a while, the phone will restart, showing the HTC logo:
Then it will go further, finally ready for the actual install of the new Android version:
What is it doing when it’s optimizing apps? Who knows. Just be patient.
This does mean that the more apps you have, the slower the process will be. Oh well. Nice time for a cup of tea.
Once that’s done you’re good to go:
There. That wasn’t too bad, was it? 🙂