HTC Hero on Sprint. Build and Firmware.

Ok, so the Hero from Sprint launched with firmware v1.5.  HTC claims 1.6 will be released by the end of October, but other sources say it may not be until 2010.  Has anyone heard any solid news on this?

Also, the build in the settings in my phones says 1.29.651.1, where as build version 2.7... is out overseas.  There is no download for the new build on the HTC website for the Sprint version of the phone, so I was wondering if the 2 builds were completely separate.  Is 1.29 here comparable to 2.7 on the phones in other countries, or are we still waiting for a Sprint release of the new build?  The new build and firmware is supposed to speed up the phone, and while I read the firmware for the Sprint phone is optimized, I still see some slowdowns when doing things like bringing up my messages, or connecting to the internet.  Sometimes my clock lags too, and shows up as minutes behind for a few seconds.

I've been searching for new info for a couple of days now, but can't find any concrete information.  I also don't know how the builds work between countries, and if they are completely separate.  Any information would help!  Thanks.

I'm guessing the version # is different from our's and the UK one is because one is gsm and one is cdma.