“The firmware update has ‘bricked’ [the] phones — a term not so affectionately used for phones that behave more like doorstops than multifunction communications devices,” Hill reports. “The screen is blank, the signal is gone, the phone is dead.”
MacDailyNews Take: Awww, no more fake iPhone.
Hill continues, “Blogs and Web sites are buzzing with user experiences, replete with expletives and disappointment expressed by customers whose phones are anywhere from one day to a couple of weeks old.”
MacDailyNews Take: You should’ve gotten an iPhone.
Hill continues, “In a comment to a ZDNet blog entry on the firmware update, EVO owner ‘gabato’ said, “My EVO is totally bricked. None of the Sprint stores in my area have new ones to replace it with. I was offered a [refurbished] EVO but I refused it.”
MacDailyNews Take: Maybe there are no HTC EVO phones because the screens keeps peeling apart.
Hill continues, “However it happened, the incident points directly at a flaw inherent in delivering software updates directly to a mobile device, Carl Howe, director with the Yankee Group, told TechNewsWorld. ‘Over the air updates leave the consumer doing updates without a net,’ he explained.”
MacDailyNews Take:
Hill continues, “Howe said, ‘If it doesn’t work, it can require the consumer to return a phone for service.’ In fact, this is exactly what Sprint customers are reporting. Once bricked, their phones can no longer be patched via the cellular airwaves or even via WiFi.’”By comparison, said Howe, the update process used for some other smartphones, such as Apple’s iPhone, provides a way for customers to restore a phone to its original settings. ‘While Apple’s requirement to use a computer and iTunes to update iPhones is a bit cumbersome,’ he said, ‘it does have the advantage of leaving the consumer with a backup plan.’”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: HTC EVO is an ugly device with a low-res screen that doesn’t work and isn’t built very well that accesses a second-rate app store. But, hey, at least you have 8-megapixels, even if your images look worse than iPhone’s.
People who settle for inferior goods deserve the pain they inevitably receive.
And, before the Tardroids arrive to roll out the astroturf, the following exchange is from HTC’s Android Community Forum:
• Posted by AlanT on 22 Jun 2010 10:01 AM: I have been having some 4G issues so I was taking a look at my signal strength today and noticed that if I cover the top/back of the phone (i.e. over the camera) with my hand the signal drops from about ~90 dBm to ~100 dBm. As soon as I move my hand down goes back to about 90 dBm. FYI, this is happening while I am on 3G not 4G.
• Posted by buzz1 on 23 Jun 2010 8:47 PM: Talked to tech at sprint and best buy , all evos and HTC phones are having major reception problems and told me to exchange phone. I have 1 or two bars most of day in muliple locations and dropped calls constantly and bad connections were people complain all day long.
Smirk.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Tayster" for the heads up.]
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