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We've clearly got a little bias on the subject, but Android has a long and storied history filled with its own triumphs and pitfalls. It's been well over a decade now since that first HTC G1 landed, the inaugural Android smartphone, and things have changed drastically since then. Being "first" might make you think the G1 was the most influential Android phone — but was it, really?
HTC must've been doing a bit of spring (read: summer) cleaning when it suddenly stumbled across some source code that should've been released to the public ages ago. First up is the AT&T HTC One's kernel source, which was nowhere to be found back in late April when all other One variants' source hit the scene.
The Thunderbolt has had one weird life. It was VZW's first LTE phone. But it was less than stellar, and had lots of problems. Then HTC promised that it would get ICS, which got delayed again and again. And again. But it finally came out, and Tbolt owners were kinda happy about it for five minutes.
Update: The OTA is rolling out now. Go get it! Thanks for the heads-up, James!
Since hearing earlier this month that HTC's Desire S, Thunderbolt, and other select handsets would receive ICS updates "by the end of August," we have heard nary a peep from the Taiwanese manufacturer. Today though, thanks to an alleged leaked RUU, we have a stock Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3 build for the Thunderbolt (aka Mecha).
HTC Publishes Official, Detailed List Of Phones To Get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Updates
HTC Publishes Official, Detailed List Of Phones To Get Android 4.0
The title should make this one obvious. HTC has published a brand-new list of its devices to get Android 4.0, but the difference between this one and previous lists is the level of detail. Most phones have a target OTA deployment range of 2 months, significantly more precise than the typical "quarterly" guestimates we see manufacturers publish generally. Here's the list:
It's been a while since VZW showed any love to Thunderbolt owners, but that doesn't mean that it has forgotten about them completely. In fact, we just received a leak of a new build that brings some fixes and enhancements to Big Red's first LTE device.
Verizon Wireless has just made public an official list of handsets on the network poised to receive Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OTA updates, most being devices for which such updates were a given at this point:
Last week, HTC detailed the Android 4.0 update for several handsets, but many U.S. models were noticeable absent form the list. Today, the Taiwanese manufacturer has taken to its Facebook page to highlight some of the North American handsets that will see the update, most of which are on Verizon. It's a shorty, but goodie:
Koushik Dutta, the mastermind behind ClockworkMod recoveries and other goodies, has been hard at work today after releasing the initial beta versions of the new Touch iteration of CWM for the Nexuses. "What was he doing?" you may ask. Adding support for more devices, one by one. They are, as of this moment:
In a continued effort to unlock bootloaders everywhere using their online tool, HTC has added several exciting entries to the "supported devices" list. Perhaps the most notable of the new entries are the Droid Incredible 2 and HTC Thunderbolt. Officially, HTC's online unlock tool is compatible with all devices launched after September 2011, but the new additions reflect an effort to add compatibility for older devices.
At the beginning of the month, we broke the news about a huge security vulnerability in several HTC phones, including the Thunderbolt, EVO 3D, EVO 4G, and possibly more. Not long after word of this issue hit the 'net, HTC issued a response acknowledging it, as well as promising to deliver a patch to correct it. Looks like they are making good on that promise now, as several HTC devices are currently receiving an OTA update to correct this vulnerability.
I am quite speechless right now. Justin Case and I have spent all day together with Trevor Eckhart (you may remember him as TrevE of DamageControl and Virus ROMs) looking into Trev's findings deep inside HTC's latest software installed on such phones as EVO 3D, EVO 4G, Thunderbolt, and others.
If you're having difficulty controlling your desire to get Gingerbread on your HTC Thunderbolt right now, you're not alone. But, if you've been waiting for the official release, you've probably grown very impatient by this point. It appears the wait is nearing an end, as Verizon's support site now contains a page for the Thunderbolt's long-overdue bump to Android 2.3.4. Here are the changes they've listed:
Yeah, we know -- it has only been three days since we leaked Gingerbread build 2.11.605.2 RUU for the TBolt, but how could we say no when our homie Justin Case from TeamAndIRC asked us if we want to drop a newer leak?
When I switched from AT&T from Verizon and swapped my aging, battered, and bruised Nexus One for a DROID BIONIC, the possibility of buyer’s remorse was not on my mind. I was coming from AT&T - America’s single least reliable network in terms of dropped calls. So, I thought the last thing I’d end up doing was wishing I was back there. And now, at least part of me does.
At the beginning of the month, HTC announced that it would be bringing Gingerbread to the Droid Incredible and ThunderBolt. While that promised has been fulfilled for the former, there's been nary a word of the status of the update for the latter. Until now.