HTC EVO 4G LTE Android 4.3 update quietly yanked
The HTC EVO 4G LTE Android 4.3 update that was available for download to the public for the past few days on HTC’s servers, the same update that was being promoted by HTC employees on their Twitter accounts (both public and private), and with emails from developers confirming that this was the final version of the update, has been yanked from HTC’s servers today, or possibly moved to a new unlisted location.
With the update came new and interesting bugs with Beats audio, the inability to roam off of Sprint’s network, several bricked and unrecoverable phones, and it also turned people who simply wanted to update their phone’s software into Windows diagnosticians as dozens of problems popped up with the Windows-side driver component to the EVO software update.
So it’s gone. HTC’s page listing the status of updates still doesn’t list it as being released, which you might find odd since it was announced and released on Twitter, and then the general public download was allowed to run with it for the next few weeks – sort of like they were using EVO users as guinea pigs.
Meanwhile, the software was never marked as beta, and HTC announced it voided your warranty and was the final release, so then the question I guess becomes, did HTC employees lie about that being the released/finished version, or did they lie about having a releasable version in February?
Because unless that update is live in the next six or so hours, they’ll have missed their deadline for it again with no announcement, no notice, and no update for the people who have been waiting for months for a version that fixes the last set of problems HTC released.
Whatever the case, one side of HTC still claims it was not released, and the other side provided links to the public to software that’s no longer there. The software was not ready for the general public, and it was made available publicly, informing people where to go all the while saying it didn’t or hadn’t released it. HTC has the most interesting way to roll things out these days. With the “Android 4.3 kernel source,” that wasn’t being rolled out yesterday, it’s on fire this week.
I’m not particularly angry with HTC, since this update was not ready for prime time for the unrooted crowd. It needs work. If the download was just moved somewhere else, I’d advise people against installing it until they are S-OFF/rooted and can install a fully working copy of the ROM.
If you want a copy of it, I’m pretty sure asking “where can I get a copy of it,” will return links, and searching for “RUU_JEWEL_CL_JB43_SENSE50_MR_Sprint_WWE_4.13.651.3_Radio_1.13.11.1105_NV_3.02_003_PRL25007_release_353492_signed_one_step.exe” is probably going to find you a download link on the first page. But seriously, wait.
Let’s see what comes out as the official official update. That single official somewhat on-time update just wasn’t great. Or, of course, it could be an accident it’s missing, but I honestly hope for the sake of the end users that update was not what it is really releasing.
