I've been putting off upgrading my phone to the latest firmware version because I thought it might be problematic. I'm not a technophobe, as anyone who has read my blog will probably realise. In fact, I'm rather good with computers and gadgets.

I didn't want to mess with the firmware of the phone as it would inevitably require backing up data and restoring it afterwards. However, I was goaded into it in the Orange shop today.

The man behind the till smugly identified my phone as an HTC Hero. I quickly retorted that I think it's a "piece of shit", an opinion I'm prepared to hold onto, since it's been slow, awkward and generally irritating. He countered with the usual "which software version are you using?" answer. This is meant to make me sound like an idiot for holding onto the original software, rather than upgrading.

I admitted I'd not done the upgrade as I'd heard mixed reports about the results. However, his sneering was all it took to send me down a path I rather regret.

Here's what I ended up doing.

• Searching round in vain for the right upgrade and the method of upgrading
• Downloaded a new HTC sync to find that it only works with the upgraded phone
• Found the ROM upgrade, after searching Google and Orange's site
• Did the ROM upgrade, only to find that this didn't get me compatibility with the new HTC Sync software, as the ROM upgrade only took me to Android 1.5, which wasn't much further forward
• Discovered the phone still doesn't work with my Wireless but DID have an auto-update over-the-air feature to get itself up to Android 2.1 via Mobile Web
• Left it downloading the update for about 4 hours
• Maybe five
• Then discovered that HTC Sync 3.0 doesn't actually work properly...
• Got irritated in the extreme and started writing this...

I now have a phone where I can't get the contacts onto it. Downgrading to the previous HTC Sync may help. I want to kill someone.