Never again! Never again do we have to write about Android 2.1 coming to the Sprint Hero. Why? Because it’s here.

Though never officially given a date, the Hero 2.1 update was pinned on dozens of leaked purported dates — all of which were either false or missed due to delays. At long last, all that nonsense is over.

This morning, HTC and ol’ Yellow made the Android 2.1 update package available. Alas, like the Samsung Moment, this won’t be coming over-the-air; you’ll have to run a manual update tool, which also means that this thing is going to wipe everything off your device. Backup your stuff!

Ready to do the update-dance? You can dig up the install kit here — and remember, backup! No one ever remembers to save that picture of their friend’s time as a sharpie canvas until it’s gone.