“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.]
Apple’s approach means that you get several things:
1. A backup of your iPhone’s previous state
2. A method of restoring the previous state should an update go awry
3. A conscious decision that you should update your iPhone’s software at a time that is convenient for you, as in when you won’t need to use the phone in a few minutes
I love how people rail against Apple for tying the iPhone to the Mac or PC, but the fact is that it provides a good safety net for the user.
Apple really does have valid reasons for doing much of what it does. Their people don’t just say, “Well, it’s easier to plug the iPhone into your Mac instead of updating over the air, so let’s make everyone plug it into their Macs.” Sheesh.
Glitches happen… Let’s see how they fix it and how quickly…
Maybe that’s a feature?
It is fair to wonder what % of updates resulted in brickatude.
Bizlaw makes a great point. I recently use that approach to revive a 3GS.
REPEAT:
People who settle for inferior goods deserve the pain they inevitably receive.
HINT:
It’s not the quantity that counts it’s the quality, stupid.
Oh boy… A firmware update over the air? Are these people crazy? I bet they were hoping to flaunt how brilliant and advanced they are.
Upgraded my iPhone 3GS while on vacation in Hawaii with no problems at all as with every other SW update from Apple!!!!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> ………. Buy AAPL stocks!!!!!
It just works without thinking about it.
… Trust in Apple!
Software and Hardware are made for each other.
…. Go Apple
@iAppleTennisU
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I couldn’t agree with you more.
I love reading the MacDailyNews but it would appear that I said something to piss them off. They deleted my post. It may have come across as a dig at apple but it was meant as a joke. If you want to piss off a dedicated MDN reader go ahead and delete it again, I am sure your advertisers would love that.
I said , as a joke, ” I guess you have to look at the up side, I bet they antenna works great.” Sorry if you don’t see the humour in that.
Also a side not that may make you happy, I plan to get an iphone and this is posted from one (1) of my 5 imacs.
Thanks for letting me rant.
Dave from Canada,
Perhaps MDN deleted your unfunny comment to save you the embarrassment of the rest of us knowing that you can’t read.
See the excerpt from the “HTC’s Android Community Forum” that MDN provided above.
Years ago, I gave my wife one of those primitive “personal organizers”; I can’t recall the maker. She spent a lot of time entering all of her contacts and used it for several months until the battery died. I thought her info would be saved by the backup battery, but no, that was dead, too. All her info was lost. Having a regular backup is crucial for the success of portable devices.
another nice feature of having to plug in to update is that my new iphone has all the records my previous iphone had. I didn’t even lose a single text message, let alone get bricked.
Apple should use that incident in their ads to quiet people that complain about lack of over the air sync.
Hi, I’m a brick, and I’m an iPhone.
IPhone = Farah Fawcett
EVO = Michael Jackson
I went to the beginning of the Evo 4G forums and I found this quote:
HTC EVO™ 4G (SPRINT) With the EVO 4G, you’ve got the power to do more than you ever thought possible with a phone.
More like you never thought possible with a iPhone. The iPhone doesn’t have awesome features like Turning into a brick and unresponsive screens
It’s a good thing that the iPhone 4 is perfect.
Hi Mike from Winnipeg. Are you related to Mike from Canmore?
I guess your right I don’t know how to read. I should have known MDN wouldn’t let me down. But eh, what do you expect from a hillbilly from Saskatchewan.
I still think its funny!
Have a great day in Winnipeg.
Lost all my data upgrading my 3G to iOS4. My backup got me right back to where I started WITH OS4 installed to boot 15min. later
By the power (in)vested in my by no one– I hereby procaliam today, June 30th, 2010 “iPhone Backup Day”
iPhone/Mac users- your backup resides here: Home folder/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
the folder in the backup folder to a external drive or even better
your DropBox.com account–you’ll be glad you did!!
Go ahead…do it now..I’ll wait…
iPhone/PC users…uuhh…good luck with that!!
MAN! looks like I typed that on an EVO keyboard!!
Droidtards!
The firmware fix solves the HTC patent infringement issues completely. A brick is not an illegal iPhone copy.
“People who settle for inferior goods deserve the pain they inevitably receive.”
This is not a reasonable statement. Not everyone wants, needs, or can afford the absolute best in everything. Not every user has the choice or wants the choice of AT&T;as his mobile provider.
MDN, please stick to Apple news, rather than attempting your sharp political attacks at everything that wasn’t designed in Cupertino.
Hmmm….
My wife just updated her EVO over the air with no problems at all. Based on most people’s response to the Apple “non-defects” since she didn’t experience it, it must be overblown hype driven by the Apple Fanboy Press.
What they call ‘cumbersome’ I call ‘control’.
I have had my iPhone flake on me and after doing a full restore via iTunes it’s business as usual.
All my calendars, contacts, email, notes – every last little piece of data wiped from the phone and replaced without a hitch.
+1 to the post requesting MDN stick to Apple news. As a Macbook Pro, iPod 3rd gen, and iPad owner, the slams against Android are getting old to me. When it comes to cellular iPhone may be great, but it’s locked in to an expensive carrier that some of us don’t want to sign up for. I love my Sprint service and plan pricing, and I love my EVO just as I do my Apple products. The regular trashing of anything but Apple is starting to smell “rotten”. Right now hands down the EVO is the best phone in Sprints lineup, in my opinion. I won’t switch carriers for any phone, even the iPhone. Bring it to Sprint next year, and I’ll be happy to upgrade, especially since I get new upgrades every year!
For the record, I updated just fine. I’m guessing some people panicked since a couple of reboots were a part of the process, and they probably power cycled in the middle of it.
Quick! Call a lawyer.