Well, this changes things. Right after it came out, Matt called the HTC Hero “tragically flawed.” Why? Because the otherwise fantastic Sense UI was slooooow. HTC, presumably run by competent, rational human beings, has fixed this.

From the review in July:

The Hero is flawed, though, in ways that are truly depressing in light of its potential and how much it does get truly right: It’s often sluggish, which absolutely destroys the user experience. It’s a particularly unfortunate affliction as the iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre emphasise speed, making the Hero feel that much slower.

This was all but a dealbreaker, this frustrating slowness. But! Paul at MoDaCo has a preview of HTC’s forthcoming update, which was vaguely announced yesterday, without much mention of what it would actually do. Now we know: It’s about speed. And as someone who’s been using a Hero for a few weeks now, this video makes my fingers tingle, ever so slightly.

Now, excuse me while I go remove the asterisk from that “Best Android Phone Ever” title. [MoDaCo via Slashgear]

To be more specific, they actually say: “HTC Dream owners on Optus network will start receiving the upgrade to Android 1.5 (Cupcake) from late July.”

So if you’re a Dream owner, I wouldn’t panic if August 1 rolls around and you’re still on 1.0.

[Optus Twitter feed – Thanks Daniel]

Of course, this could be a symptom of wider software optimisations or just a false alarm altogether. If it’s true though, this is great news—aside from a few awkward interface difficulties, diminished battery life is (or was) the best argument against giving OS X a try on your netbook.

Hackintoshers: comment if you’ve noticed anything like this. [MSI Wind Forums via Gadget Lab]

The Back to My Mac is only for MobileMe users, and Airport Express remains unchanged, but if you’re looking forward to being able to access a bunch of files easily while you’re at work/home/somewhere else, it’s pretty handy. [Apple Insider]

At this point, the 4.7.0.86 update is untested—so what specific enhancements Storm 9530 owners can expect are unknown. So, as always, download at your own risk. [CrackBerry]

Looks like a pretty commonplace list. A couple of standouts are better compatibility with AT&T 3G cards (maybe they don’t summon a kernel panic if unplugged accidentally without disconnecting now?), MobileMe syncing within one minute on your Mac for any change made elsewhere, and general graphics improvements for gaming and elsewhere. And, finally, Chess.app has received the performance and reliability overhaul it has needed for so long.

Let us know if you spot anything else. [Apple - Thanks, Joseph!]

Address Book

* Improves reliability of Address Book syncing with iPhone and other devices and applications.

AirPort

* Improves the reliability of AirPort connections, including improvements when roaming in large wireless networks with an Intel-based Mac.

Client management

* Improves reliability of synchronizing files on a portable home directory.
* Fixes an issue in Mac OS X 10.5.4 and 10.5.5 in which managed users may not see printers that use the Generic PPD.
* Client computers that use UUID-based ByHost preferences now respect managed Screen Saver settings.

iChat

* Addresses an issue that could cause an encryption alert to appear in the chat window.
* Setting your iChat status to “invisible” via AppleScript no longer logs you out of iChat.
* Resolves an issue in which pasting text from a Microsoft Office document could insert an image rather than text.

Graphics

* Includes general improvements to gaming performance.
* Includes graphics improvements for iChat, Cover Flow, Aperture, and iTunes.
* Includes fixes for possible graphics distortion issues with certain ATI graphics cards.

Mail

* Includes overall performance and reliability fixes.
* Improves Connection Doctor accuracy.
* Fixes an issue that could cause messages identified as junk to remain in the inbox.
* Fixes an issue that could cause Mail to append a character to the file extension of an attachment.
* Addresses an issue that could prevent Mail from quitting.
* Improves reliability when printing PDF attachments.

MobileMe

* Contacts, calendars, and bookmarks on a Mac automatically sync within a minute of the change being made on the computer, another device, or the web at me.com.

Networking

* Improves Apple File Service performance, especially when using a home directory hosted on an AFP server. Important: If you are using Mac OS X 10.5.6 (client) to connect to a Mac OS X Server 10.4-based server, it is strongly recommended that you update the server to Mac OS X Server version 10.4.11.
* Improves the performance and reliability of TCP connections.
* Improves reliability and performance for AT&T 3G cards.
* Updates the ssh Terminal command for compatibility with more ssh servers.

Printing

* Improves printing for the Adobe CS3 application suite.
* Improves printing for USB-based Brother and Canon printers.

Parental Controls

* Addresses an issue in which a parentally-controlled account could be unable to access the iTunes Store.
* Includes general fixes for time limits.
* Resolves an issue that prevented adding allowed websites from Safari via drag and drop.

Time Machine

* Fixes issues that could cause Time Machine to state the backup volume could not be found.
* Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.

Safari
* Improves compatibility with web proxy servers.

General
* Includes Mac OS X security improvements. See this website for more information.
* Addresses inaccuracies with Calculator when the Mac OS X language is set to German or Swiss German.
* Improves the performance and reliability of Chess.
* Improves DVD Player performance and reliability.
* Performance improvements for iCal are included.
* Fixes an issue when running the New iCal Events Automator action as an applet.
* Adds a Trackpad System Preference pane for portable Macs.
* Improves compatibility with smart cards such as the U.S. Department of Defence Common Access Card.
* Updates time zone data and Daylight Saving Time rules for several countries.