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Refresh Roundup: week of July 30th, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Apple hits HTC with third ITC dispute, One series goes under the gun
Apple chief Tim Cook might have said that he doesn't like lawsuits, but he must have left a loophole open for International Trade Commission disputes. His company quietly filed a third challenge against HTC on June 4th (just now coming to light) that -- surprise -- claims HTC is still violating patents that it supposedly worked hard to avoid. If successful, Apple would slap down 29 devices that include a much more modern set of hardware than the first two disputes, including the One X (and EVO 4G LTE), One S and One V. Apple had success in December with the final results of its first ITC complaint and may simply be rolling the dice to try for more. Whatever throw Apple lands, there's no doubt that HTC and its fans are exasperated at the thought of more launch delays, or worse.
Refresh Roundup: week of August 8, 2011
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging to get updated. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery from the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy! Official Android updates Acer took to its Facebook page in Malaysia to announce that the Honeycomb 3.2 OTA update for the Iconia Tab A500 has been delayed until August 25. [via Phandroid] The LG G-Slate is starting to receive Honeycomb 3.1. [via AndroidCentral] We've also heard the HTC Flyer's on the receiving end of a 2.3.4 bump in Germany. [via HTC Inside (translated)] Motorola's announced that Honeycomb 3.1 has arrived on the Xoom in Europe, after several months of waiting. [via ITProPortal] Tomorrow, Sprint's pushing out a maintenance fix known as RD.00.02 for the Motorola Titanium. From a leaked screenshot, the main "enhancement" is correcting a bug that kept users from dialing from a meeting on the Exchange calendar. [via SprintFeed] Android 2.3.4 is making its way to unbranded HTC Sensation units in Europe this week as an OTA update, and will likely spread to carrier-branded devices over the next couple weeks. [via Phandroid] Both Bell and Virgin Mobile Canada are rolling out Gingerbread to its Galaxy S Vibrant. The download is available to any of its users by accessing Samsung Kies. [via MobileSyrup] HTC began pushing Gingerbread to the Inspire 4G on Monday. If you still haven't received your update OTA yet, instructions can be found on how to do it manually via its website. [Thanks, Brian] Are you an HTC Desire owner that's been eagerly awaiting Gingerbread? It's here now, but the manufacturer isn't going to push it out OTA -- rather, you'll need to do it on your own, so head to the via for a video tutorial on how to do it step-by-step. [via PocketNow] T-Mobile has announced that its OTA Gingerbread rollout for the G2x is now officially over. If you missed your opportunity, you may still download it using the LG updater tool. [via TmoNews] This is definitely a rumor, but an HTC support rep apparently emailed a concerned Incredible user to assure them that Gingerbread was still indeed in the plans for the year-old device. No timeframe was given, however. [via Phandroid] AT&T took to its Twitter account to state that the Infuse 4G is on track to receive Gingerbread sometime this month. [via AndroidCentral] Unofficial Android updates / custom ROMs / misc. hackery We heard last week that the Motorola Photon 4G had been rooted, but it required the use of the phone's fancy (and expensive) HD dock. This obstacle has since been removed, and you can root your brand new phone without it. [via AndroidCentral] Speaking of the Photon 4G, a System Boot File (SBF) is now available for the device. The SBF is a backup that comes in handy if something goes awry and your phone ends up getting bricked. By using the SBF, your phone will be restored back to its original factory defaults. [via SprintFeed] A dev preview of CyanogenMod 7 for the HTC Sensation 4G is now being shown at a YouTube near you. Did someone say CyanogenMod 7? Well, this week also witnessed a user updating their Motorola Triumph to Android 2.3.5, but almost nothing works properly on it; since the kernel source hasn't been released for it yet, the update isn't quite up to par. CM7 is also said to be coming to the Motorola Atrix 4G and LG Optimus 3D soon as well. [via Phandroid] Other platforms The tools used to flash Windows Phone Mango's RTM version has been leaked, and you can find instructions on how to get it on this XDA thread. Remember that you do this at your own risk. [via WMPowerUser] A few rumors circulated the web this week that Mango would be released on September 1. WP7's own Joe Belfiore was the one responsible for shooting down that rumor via Twitter. [via WMPowerUser]
HTC leveraging window before next iPhone release
HTC may top Apple as the #1 smartphone vendor in the US for the next few months, according to a report in DigiTimes. The Taiwanese handset maker is selling two new and popular Android models, the Thunderbolt for Verizon and the Inspire 4G for AT&T. At the same time, Apple is still offering the iPhone 4, a model that is now more than one year old on AT&T. Sales are expected to slow for the iPhone 4 and rise for the HTC handsets. Apple did see a small boost in sales when it launched the iPhone 4 for Verizon and the white iPhone 4 earlier this year, but these additions may not be enough to fend off the growing sales of the HTC devices. HTC should enjoy its time at the top, as this may all change when the iPhone 5 is introduced -- hopefully this fall.
Red HTC Inspire 4G now available exclusively at Radio Shack
We'd already had some indication that AT&T would soon let Radio Shack offer an exclusive red version of the HTC Inspire 4G, and that's now been made official (and available). As you can see above, you can snag the phone for $29.99 on a two-year AT&T contract (or $550 off-contract), which will buy you a 4.3-inch WVGA display, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, an 8 megapixel camera with an LED flash, and Android 2.2 with Sense -- there's still no word on a Gingerbread upgrade for this one. Of course, Radio Shack will also sell you a black one for the same price, but we're pretty sure the red one's faster. [Thanks, James]
AT&T bringing red HTC Inspire 4G to Radio Shack, purple Evo Shift to follow?
Why, yes, that is a red HTC Inspire 4G you're looking at. A friendly tipster provided us with these dummy unit images, adding that AT&T is planning to launch the jazzy model at Radio Shack. No word yet on when that'll actually happen, nor do we know how much they'll cost when it does. Our same source claims that a purple Evo Shift is also making its way to the Shack, so you know where to go to get your flashy phone fix this summer. [Thanks, Dave]
Amazon Wireless reduces Inspire 4G to $30, makes AT&T look downright miserly
If your desire for unibody enclosures is limited by a reluctance to pony up for premium designs, then you might grin knowing that Amazon Wireless is selling the HTC Inspire 4G for $30. Yes, this massive 4.3-inch slab can be the pride of your pocket without simultaneously emptying your wallet -- that's before you start piling on the accessories, anyway. While the Inspire 4G's reputation was initially sullied by an indictment in HSUPA-gate, it was later cleared of all charges thanks to AT&T's promised update. Now that users can upload with abandon, this might be a fine opportunity to recommit with Ma Bell while pocketing an easy $70. We know, it's a good find -- but don't start laughing too maniacally or your co-workers will get suspicious.
AT&T brings HSUPA to Atrix 4G and Inspire 4G, one requires WiFi to download update
If you're the somewhat-proud-but-feeling-throttled owner of a Motorola Atrix 4G or HTC Inspire 4G, your days of terribly slow uploads are nearly through -- following some preliminary tests, AT&T is rolling out updates that provide "increased potential data speed" to both HSPA+ handsets right on cue. The Inspire 4G's patch will also "make the email set up process much easier," while the Atrix 4G will actually get a pair of updates which will allegedly bring better Bluetooth headset compatibility, fingerprint reader performance and battery life (which is always a plus) as well as the questionable utility of turning the Atrix into an EDGE hotspot, and a bump to Android 2.2.2 to hopefully fix any lingering SMS routing bugs. Word of warning though, you'll need to throw your Atrix up on a WiFi network to obtain these goodies -- all the Gs in the world won't help you.
AT&T says Atrix 4G, Inspire 4G will have HSUPA enabled in April
We've already seen some hints that something was coming soon courtesy of the FCC, and now AT&T has confirmed to CNET that both the HTC Inspire 4G and Motorola Atrix 4G will have their HSUPA capabilities enabled sometime in April via a software update. That should dramatically increase upload speeds on the phones (up to 5.76 Mbps), and make them more "4G" than ever before, but still not quite as "4G" as some other "4G." Incidentally, the Samsung Infuse 4G has also been confirmed to be shipping with HSUPA enabled, although it's still not clear exactly when it will ship.
AT&T's HTC Inspire 4G gets FCC permission to enable HSUPA
AT&T's teased that some of its existing models will eventually have HSUPA enabled, which should help mitigate the flack they've been taking over branding a network with glacial uplink speeds "4G." The recently-launched HTC Inspire 4G is among the models with disabled HSUPA out of the box, but the good news is that it shouldn't be disabled for much longer: an FCC Class II Permissive Change -- which gets generated when a device's RF characteristics are modified -- has just hit, clearly stating that "HTC Corporation will enable HSUPA function of this product." There's no time frame for the switch, but at least we know it's going to happen at some point; just try not to turn your Inspire into an FTP server in the meantime, alright?
AT&T says 'new devices and updates to existing models' will be HSUPA-ready
Our digging revealed that the Inspire 4G and other devices in AT&T's current stable are more than capable at the hardware level of using HSUPA for high-speed upstream connections, but for whatever reason, the carrier seems to currently require that most handsets handshake with the network using an old protocol stack that doesn't include HSUPA. The result? Glacial uploads, which especially suck when you're trying to tether. Though there's no resolution yet, AT&T's now circulating a mildly hopeful statement: "...we have a number of HSUPA devices today and we will have more HSUPA-enabled devices in the future-new devices and updates to existing models." We're hoping that means we'll see a bunch of firmware updates in the next few months that flip the switch on HSUPA, especially for owners of phones like the Inspire and the Atrix, both of which have a shaky "4G" tacked on to the ends of their names.
AT&T's brewing HSUPA-gate: the inside story
Though it really came to a head with the recently-launched Inspire 4G, users have noticed that there really aren't many phones in AT&T's stable that deliver stellar upload speeds -- the Atrix 4G is suffering the same sub-megabit performance, as are older devices that should seemingly support HSUPA like the Samsung Captivate. We've chatted in the past few days with a source who offers an interesting explanation: AT&T currently requires that all handsets that it sells "handshake" with the network as 3GPP Release 5 devices, the last official set of 3G specifications that lacked support for HSUPA. That feature -- also known as EDCH, or FDD Enhanced Uplink -- was added in Release 6. Though AT&T is apparently working on permitting the bulk of its handsets to handshake Release 6, presently only the iPhone 4 (and presumably all of its recent data devices like USB modems, which may also use Release 7) are allowed. Neither we, nor our source, know why this is. Our source believes that the Release 6 certification may happen within a "month or two," which would explain why some AT&T sales reps in live HSPA+ areas are telling customers that the "4G network" isn't live yet. You can form your own conclusions as to why AT&T might be imposing this arbitrary limitation, but we do know that "enhanced" backhaul figures prominently into the company's 4G story; there may be concerns that flipping on HSUPA for everyone right now would overwhelm its legacy infrastructure. At any rate, it sounds like this could all be solved soon through a combination of network changes and possibly firmware updates for individual devices, so let's keep our fingers crossed. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
AT&T's HTC Inspire 4G can do HSUPA, has it disabled for some mysterious reason
There's a story going around the past couple days that HTC's Inspire 4G for AT&T -- a phone that you would assume to be wicked fast on both uploads and downloads in light of the name -- doesn't support HSUPA, a critical element to offering reasonable uplink speeds. Turns out it's not quite that simple. Here's what we're hearing from trusted sources: Contrary to AT&T's official line -- which is flatly that the Inspire's specs don't include HSUPA -- the hardware most certainly does support it. For some reason, HSUPA has been disabled in the current firmware, but could be easily enabled in a future update if HTC and AT&T were to agree to do so. For what it's worth, we're not even aware of an HSPA+ chipset that lacks support for HSUPA, so that definitely sounds right. We've also been told that AT&T's network may simply have HSUPA disabled in 4G areas. That doesn't necessarily make sense since other HSUPA-compliant devices on AT&T (like the iPhone 4, to name an obvious example) can regularly hit HSUPA uplink speeds, but we suppose it's possible that there's some specific incompatibility between the infrastructure and the chipset used by the Inspire. An eerily-similar incident has happened in the past, after all. We'll keep our ear to the ground as we get more on this situation, but the bottom line is that hope is not lost for heavy uploaders with Inspires -- we just need to find out what it's going to take to get HTC to push an update.
AT&T adding an extra 2GB to phone tethering plans, launching Mobile Hotspot app February 13th
What, 2GB of monthly data isn't enough for your laptoppin' needs? Yeah, us either -- fortunately, AT&T's tweaking its phone tethering plan a bit with an extra 2GB that can be shared among all devices for a grand total of 4GB. As before, you'll need to start off with the $25 DataPro plan and tack on an extra $20 for tethering, bringing the total to $45 a month. In conjunction with the move, AT&T has announced that it'll begin rolling out a Mobile Hotspot app starting with the HTC Inspire 4G at its launch on February 13th, which means these guys are finally coming around and embracing the data revolution that's been taking hold the last year or two across the industry -- a trend that began with its first launch of a MiFi a few months back. Existing DataPro tethering customers will get the extra 2GB automatically added to their accounts, so there shouldn't be anything you need to do; obviously, we would've preferred something closer to unlimited, but something tells us that ship has sailed. Follow the break for the press release.
HTC Inspire 4G hits AT&T on February 13th, does HSPA+ for $99.99
AT&T subscribers, it's time to finally get a taste of Android on HSPA+. Well, almost. On February 13th the HTC Inspire 4G will release, bringing not-quite-4G speeds and Android 2.2 for a quite affordable $99.99. It'll feature AT&T's Mobile Hotspot service, so you can share that bandwidth, while offering a generous 4.3-inch WVGA display up front and an eight megapixel camera on the back, all packaged in a "premium" unibody aluminum design. We know, it's all very exciting, but don't get so enamored that you forget to make reservations for you and your special someone on the following day.
4G at CES 2011: AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile make big moves
Traditionally, CES isn't a huge mobile event -- the biggest phone news has historically been saved for MWC in February and CTIA in March -- but that changed in a huge way this week. Looks like 2011 is shaping up to be the year of 4G, and both carriers and manufacturers alike wasted no time jumping on the hype bandwagon with a variety of announcements that promise to make the next few months exciting... and really, really fast. AT&T kicked things off early in the show, but it was just the beginning of a relentless torrent of mobile news that lasted for days and ultimately left us with a pile of devices and network upgrades that should take us at least through the middle of the year. Read on for the recap!
HTC Inspire 4G for AT&T hands-on
We just got to spend a few minutes with the HTC Inspire 4G, one of the new AT&T 4G devices announced here at CES. Unfortunately, the particular unit on hand here didn't have a battery, but since it's rocking Android 2.2 with Sense, the software experience shouldn't be too different from HTC's other offerings. That 3.6 4.3-inch WVGA display eats up most of this slim phone's facade, and there's a fairly pronounced lens for that 8 megapixel shooter around back. We actually heard HTC reps chatting about how the software is still not finalized and AT&T needs to sign off, which could be part of the reason no batteries could be found. We'll do our best to follow up later in the show, but for now feast your eyes on some glorious hardware shots in our gallery below. %Gallery-112851%
HTC Inspire 4G goes official on AT&T
Yet another of the many announcements at today's AT&T Developer Summit, the Inspire 4G is a 4.3-inch monster from HTC that looks ripe to do battle with its counterparts on Sprint and Verizon with the very latest version of Sense first launched on the Desire Z and Desire HD a few months back featuring a lost phone finder, cached maps, fastboot, and more. As with the other "4G" phones that AT&T has announced today, the Inspire 4G doesn't support the carrier's upcoming LTE network -- it'll top out with HSPA+. More details as we have them! %Gallery-112705%
HTC ThunderBolt for Verizon and Inspire 4G for AT&T break cover courtesy of Rolling Stone ad
So yes, it's looking about as confirmed as can be: thanks to a full-page ad in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, we're finding out that the name of HTC's first LTE phone for Verizon -- and its first LTE phone regardless of carrier, actually -- will definitely be "ThunderBolt." This is the same phone that we've seen rumored and leaked over the last few months as the Mecha and the Droid Incredible HD, but we'll admit -- ThunderBolt seems like a pretty solid name for a phone that's sporting a 4.3-inch display and some of the fastest data around. Behind and to the right of the ThunderBolt, though, is another leak: the Inspire 4G for AT&T, though it's unclear what "4G" means in this context exactly -- AT&T's in the same boat as T-Mobile right now where they're topping out with HSPA+ and don't have any LTE markets live, so it seems they might be borrowing a play from their smaller rival's playbook and labeling the HSPA+ airwaves as straight-up 4G. We're sad to see that trend start to snowball -- but we'll admit, T-Mobile kinda forced their hand on that one. At any rate, we're pretty confident both of these suckers are going to get official here at CES this week, so keep your ear to the ground.
