Android Tablet Update

Officially, the AT&T HTC One X bootloader can’t be unlocked due to certain restrictions, but that has not stopped the development community from devising a solution of their own. XDA member grankin01 has released a simple solution which allows the bootloader on the AT&T HTC One X to be unlocked by spoofing one of the phone’s internal identification codes which makes the phone and HTC’s bootloader unlock tool think that it is a Rogers HTC One XL.

The twelve step process is fairly simple, but you will need a hex editor, a little ADB knowledge and a rooted HTC One X. After the code changes are made on the AT&T HTC One X, you will then be able to use HTC’s bootloader unlock tool found on htcdev.com.

Now that the bootloader on the AT&T One X can be unlocked, it’s only a matter of time before the HTC One X development community releases countless tweaks and custom ROMs for the phone. Do any of you plan to unlock the bootloader on the AT&T HTC One X and make some tweaks to your phone or will you stick to the stock HTC Sense 4.0 experience for a little longer?

While addressing shareholders at the company’s annual meeting in Cologne, Germany, Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann told investors that a complete takeover of T-Mobile USA was out of the question after AT&T’s very public failed bid last year. Obermann did tell investors that it was considering all other options, including a potential merger of its T-Mobile USA business unit with another organization.

There are several options on the table in such a scenario; Sprint has had its eye on T-Mobile USA for a while, and a combined company would present a large competitor to AT&T and Verizon. Such a scenario is unlikely, however, as the technology these companies employ is so different that it would be extremely costly to make the networks compatible.

The more likely potential suitor is MetroPCS, as recent rumors have suggested that the two companies are actively speaking about a possible merger. Bloomberg reported a few weeks back that the company was essentially looking to do a joint venture with MetroPCS, with Deutsche Telekom holding the majority stake of the combined company. The deal could be similar to the Everything Everywhere carrier in the UK, a joint venture between T-Mobile and Orange. Deutsche Telekom is also considering a network sharing agreement with MetroPCS or Sprint, which would have the companies sharing spectrum but maintaining their current status as standalone organizations.

Meanwhile, it’s business as usual for T-Mobile USA. The company is beginning to actively build out an LTE network over the next two years. Time will tell the fate of T-Mobile USA, though the message from Deutsche Telekom is still crystal clear; T-Mobile USA does not work as a standalone business, and the company will be looking at ways to either make T-Mobile profitable, or spin it off into a new company combined with another carrier.

Today NVIDIA announced that their Icera 410 LTE multimode data modem was successfully validated by AT&T for operation on its 4G LTE network. This modem is designed for tablets and clamshell devices, but it’s an important step for NVIDIA that could lead to Icera LTE modems appearing in Tegra-powered smartphones.

“Validation with AT&T is an achievement that paves the way for NVIDIA Icera-powered LTE devices on the AT&T network through this year and next,” said Stan Boland, senior vice president of Mobile Communications at NVIDIA.

NVIDIA released their quad-core Tegra 3 chip last year, but you won’t find it inside any mobile devices at US carrier stores yet. The issue is that most US carriers are now demanding LTE connectivity, and the few modem providers that have gained approval to operate on these LTE networks (namely Qualcomm) are not interested in working with NVIDIA.

That should change in the second half of the year as NVIDIA releases their own LTE modem and the leading suppliers of cellular silicon solutions release additional LTE modems that will work with Tegra 3.

NVIDIA acquired the Icera technology last year this year ZTE announced the first smartphone based on both its Tegra processor and Icera modem, the Mimosa X.

Later this year we expect NVIDIA to reveal a newer chip called Tegra 3+ that should work with the latest LTE modems from GCT Semiconductor, Renesas Mobile, and ST-Ericsson. We also expect NVIDIA to release another chip codenamed Grey in early 2013, which will be their first Tegra chip to integrate an Icera LTE modem.

Head over to NVIDIA’s Icera products page for additional details on their modem lineup.

Back in December you might recall that the International Trade Commission ruled that HTC was infringing upon one of Apple’s patents (#5,946,647 if you must know) and a ban was to be placed on the importation of a number of HTC devices.

The good news for HTC was that the ban wasn’t immediate and they had until April 19th to rectify the situation or face the ban on a number of their devices. Further good news is that the patent in question was for the UI behavior that pulls up a menu in response to a user selecting a recognizable numeric sequence or string of text like a phone number or email address and so it could be corrected via a software update.

Well April 19th came and went without any grave consequences, but HTC confirmed in a press release this afternoon that both the AT&T One X and Sprint EVO 4G LTE are now being held by US Customs as a result of the ITC exclusion order.

The US availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC exclusion order. We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with Customs to secure approval. The HTC One X and HTC Evo 4G LTE have been received enthusiastically by customers and we appreciate their patience as we work to get these products into their hands as soon as possible.

No word yet on whether this will delay the May 18th launch of the Evo 4G LTE on Sprint and while the AT&T One X has made it out to some users in its first week of availability the stock has already dried up online and with no new stock coming in stores will likely follow soon.

Nick Gray, our resident HTC addict, has both an AT&T One X and T-Mobile One S at the moment and verified that both still launch the dialer when selecting a phone number which would seem to be in conflict with the ITC’s ruling.

It’s unfortunate to see this great hardware from HTC held up by a seemingly trivial software detail and it seems impossible that with this ITC exclusion order hanging over their heads that HTC wouldn’t have dealt with the issue by now.

We’ll update you as we find out more.

Update: The launch of the Sprint Evo 4G LTE has been postponed with Sprint now simply indicating that it will be “coming soon.”

The international Galaxy S II has already received the update to Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, leaving the sized-up Galaxy Note behind on Android 2.3. Today, several European users are reporting that their devices have received an OTA update notification that brings their phone-tablet hybrid into 2012 with the Android 4.0 update.

Of course, this is a Samsung device, and Samsung has revamped their Touchwiz UI overlay for the Note, which looks a lot more like its Gingerbread variant. Other features in the upgrade include a new and improved S Note application, a new S Memo widget, and the Premium Suite Shape Match and My Story applications. Of course, you’ll get the performance improvements that come with ICS as well.

Owners of the AT&T-branded Galaxy Note will have to wait for the update to pass through carrier testing, which tends to add 1-3 months to the process. Hopefully that process has already begun, and AT&T Note owners will be getting their own taste of Ice Cream Sandwich very soon. We’re leaning towards the update coming sooner than later, as an AT&T-branded Galaxy Note was spotted at CTIA this week.

Any non-US readers out there getting the Android 4 update on your Galaxy Note?

While HTC claims restrictions prevent them from unlocking the bootloader of the AT&T HTC One X, that has not stopped the development community from banding together to unlock root access on the phone. A new post by kennethpenn on XDA-Developers delivers a one-click rooting option for the HTC One X which takes advantage of an exploit identified by the community.

Gaining root access on the HTC One X allows users to make backups of their applications, remove AT&T’s bloatware or even make clock speed modifications to the phone’s CPU. Unfortunately, flashing unofficial ROMs to the HTC One X is still not possible, but we have a feeling it won’t be too long before the development community finds an exploit to solve that issue as well.

Will any of you be using kennethpenn’s method to gain root access on your AT&T HTC One X?

AT&T has finalized plans to offer a shared data service to families, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega told CNET yesterday. The plans are set to be unveiled later this year, though de la Vega was unwilling to provide details as to timing, plan details, or pricing. AT&T joins Verizon as the two companies considering rolling out a shared data plan as early as this summer.

Many wireless customers gripe at having to pay two separate data plans on family lines, especially when neither person comes remotely close to the standard 2-3GB limit most companies offer. Some would rather pay for the ability to share the same allotment of data and mitigate the need for costly separate plans. Of course, data plans tend to be where carriers make their money, so we’ll have to wait and see what AT&T come up with as final products for shared data services.

We should be learning more details of AT&T and Verizon shared data plans in coming weeks, perhaps as soon as a few days as the wireless industry settles into the big easy for the CTIA Spring 2012 show. Our own Taylor Wimberly is on hand in New Orleans, and we’ll be bringing you all the goods from the show floor as it emerges.

AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson isn’t too happy with the Android update process. In a response to a question about the slow update process, Stephenson put the blame squarely on Google, stating:

Google determines what platform gets the newest releases and when. A lot of times, that’s a negotiated arrangement and that’s something we work at hard. We know that’s important to our customers. That’s kind of an ambiguous answer because I can’t give you a direct answer in this setting.Randall StephensonAT&T

It’s unclear exactly what Mr. Stephenson is referring to here. This response flies in the face of how we understand the upgrade process to work. When Google finalizes an operating system update, it pushes that update as open source to source.android.com as soon as the first device with the new software is released. That gives handset makers access to the release, which they then customize to their heart’s content, then submit to carriers for approval.

AT&T has a whopping two devices that has been upgraded to Android 4 “Ice Cream Sandwich,” Google’s own Nexus S and the HTC Vivid. All other Android handsets on the carrier’s network are running either Android 2.3 Gingerbread or 2.2 Froyo, though some Samsung Galaxy S II devices have ICS coming soon. It’s possible Stephenson is referring to the Verizon-branded Galaxy Nexus, which went nearly 5 months without getting an update from 4.0.2 (to 4.0.3 or 4.0.4), an update rumored to fix several issues with the device and bring it in line with the most recent version of ICS.

Still, only a handful of devices are currently running Android 4, with all of Google’s Nexus handsets running on the newest platform except for the three year old Nexus One. It’s clear to us that Google has done all it can to get the update out to devices, and that the delayed implementation lies in the hands of handset makers and carriers.

Google was obviously bothered by Stephenson’s criticism, and issued the following response:

Mr. Stephenson’s carefully worded quote caught our attention and frankly we don’t understand what he is referring to. Google does not have any agreements in place that require a negotiation before a handset launches. Google has always made the latest release of Android available as open source at source.android.com as soon as the first device based on it has launched. This way, we know the software runs error-free on hardware that has been accepted and approved by manufacturers, operators and regulatory agencies such as the FCC. We then release it to the world.Google

Google obviously doesn’t want to take blame for the Android 4 update mess, which sees only a handful of smartphones running the latest version of Android, which has been available to handset makers for over 5 months. Motorola, soon to become part of Google itself, provided insights as to the upgrade process back in December, and it was crystal clear from their account that the bulk of time taken in the update process is attributed to handset makers updating/re-building their custom UIs, and carriers adding the customary bloatware.

I think we can safely say that Mr. Stephenson got his facts wrong here, and that handset makers and carriers (including AT&T) need to take some responsibility for the delayed upgrade cycle. We’ll bring you any updates from AT&T as they weigh a response to Google’s statements this morning.

After a huge backlash in 2011, HTC changed their strategy and said they would start allowing customers to unlock the bootloaders on their devices. Over the past six months HTC has unlocked over 45 devices, but it looks like the AT&T One X might not be participating in that program quite yet.

Android hacker Paul O’Brien of MoDaCo noticed that his AT&T One X kept getting an error when he tried to unlock the bootloader, but he assumed this was an issue with pre-release software. Now it’s been confirmed that others are seeing the same issue, after the AT&T One X went on sale today.

Paul reached out to HTC who quickly responded with a message that doesn’t look good for AT&T customers.

HTC is committed to listening to users and delivering customer satisfaction. Since announcing our commitment to unlockable bootloaders, HTC has worked to enable our customers to unlock the bootloader on more than 45 devices over the past six months. In some cases, however, restrictions prevent certain devices from participating in our bootloader unlocking program. Rest assured, HTC is committed to assisting developers in unlocking bootloaders for HTC devices and we'll continue to unlock additional devices in the future.HTC Representative

Last year Peter Chou, HTC CEO, said, “There has been overwhelmingly customer feedback that people want access to open bootloaders on HTC phones [and] we’ve listened. I’m confirming we will no longer be locking the bootloaders on our devices.”

Unfortunately in this case it looks like AT&T has overturned the will of its customers. This doesn’t mean that the One X will never see its bootloader officially unlocked, but it might take a little outcry to convince the carrier to change their mind.

AT&T has a history of crippling the Android experience, but they have gotten better over the years by allowing users to install non-Market apps and improving the speed of software updates.

If you planned on buying the HTC One X from AT&T (or already picked one up), let AT&T know what you think of their decision to keep the bootloader locked.

The HTC One X from AT&T is finally here! AT&T stores across the country are now selling the HTC One X for $199.99 with a new two year contract while off-contract pricing is set at $549. If you’re looking to save a little extra cash, you can pick up the HTC One X from Amazon Wireless for only $149.99.

Based on our review of the HTC One X, it is currently the best Android powered phone money can buy in the U.S. market. The HTC One X’s 4.7-inch 720p Super LCD2 display is breathtaking and the battery life of the phone will impress even the toughest skeptics.  Is the HTC One X right phone for you? Only you can decide that. Leave us a comment below and let us know if you plan to or have already purchased the HTC One X.