Last week, HTC released a somewhat cryptic update regarding their little customs problem, stating that some models had been released to carriers.
This left us with more questions than answers, as they did not specify which devices had been released. It also left us questioning whether the holdup, which was believed to only affect the One X and Evo 4G LTE, was in fact hampering the importation of additional devices.
Well it appears we might never have a straight answer. HTC sent out an e-mail this afternoon indicating that the Customs review is complete and all devices have been released.
HTC has completed the review process with US Customs, and HTC devices have been released, as they are in compliance with the ITC’s ruling… Future shipments should continue to enter the US, and we are confident that we will soon be able to meet the demand for our products. HTC Public Relations
HTC is still working with Customs to get the devices to retailers and did not have a firm timeline for that as of yet. Suffice it to say that the wait should not be long.
This has been an unfortunate distraction for what most reviewers (including our own Taylor Wimberly) have said are the best Android phones currently available in the US. Not to mention that HTC has to be hoping to ring up as many sales as possible before Samsung’s Galaxy S3 can land stateside as early as next month.
Motorola would do well to pay attention. This could be a glimpse of the future, if the company doesn’t act on the ITC exclusion order that was issued following the finding that it infringed on Microsoft patents.
Just in case you thought you had no plans this weekend, we’re here to say, “Sure you do!” with another chance to win a Tegra 3 device in honor of the recent release of Sonic 4 Episode II. So far, we’ve given an ASUS Transformer Prime and Acer Iconia Tab A510 to two lucky readers, and this week we have the famed One X from HTC! Be sure to read more about what you can do to win and “get your Sonic on.”
The Trailer
The Download
Sonic 4 Episode II is available as a paid title for $6.99 and a lite version is free to install.
The Sonic 4 saga continues with Sonic’s beloved sidekick, Miles “Tails” Power. Players can now experience the Sonic 4 saga as never before with the addition of a brand new engine; bringing you gameplay with updated physics and HD graphics.
“Sonic 4 Episode II is very special because we’ve integrated community feedback into the game,” said Haruki Satomi, Senior Vice President of Digital Business at SEGA of America. “We have some of the most loyal and dedicated fans and I hope they enjoy this next chapter in the Sonic 4 saga.”
For the first time Android gamers can enjoy an experience that is nearly identical to the PS3 and XBox versions, and it comes at half the price. Players with Tegra 3 devices like the HTC One X or ASUS Transformer Prime will enjoy higher quality textures, better lighting and glow effects, and objects on screen that are absent from other mobile versions.
Episode 2 also features a collaborative multiplayer mode where players can team up with a friend via Bluetooth and take control of Sonic and Tails as they battle against Dr. Eggman and Metal Sonic.
We just installed the game on our devices, so look for our full review in the coming weeks.
Release dates:
May 15: PS3, Playstation Network, PC digital download via Steam
May 16: TegraZone, Xbox Live Arcade
May 17: iTunes App Store
June: Google Play Store (non-Tegra devices)
July: Xbox Live on Windows Phone
Pricing:
PS3 and Steam: $14.99
Android, iOS: $6.99
Xbox Live Arcade: 1200 points
Episode Metal bonus pack:
Players who have Episodes I and II installed on the same device will gain access to a new bonus pack called “Episode Metal.” This unlockable story will feature a playable Metal Sonic, four exclusive levels, and allow players to discover the rebirth of Metal Sonic and learn more about how he survived the events at the end of Sonic CD. If you missed the first episode, grab it from the link below.
Tegra 3 offers gamers the most technically advanced mobile version.
The Tegra 3 version of Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode II is the most technically advanced mobile version of the game, a near mirror-image of the full-blown PS3 and Xbox versions of the game.
In fact, by enjoying a game with a gamepad (either with wired or Bluetooth controllers) and outputting the device to an television via HDMI, it’s the CLOSEST to the actual console experience you’ll get on a mobile device…. All with fast frame rates.
Sonic on Tegra 3 has dramatically higher quality textures, better lighting and glow effects, and objects on screen that are absent from other mobile versions.
Non-Tegra vs Tegra 3 version of Sonic 4.
The Contest – Win an unlocked HTC One X
Brace yourself for lightning-fast web browsing, remarkable picture quality and seamless gaming visuals thanks to the powerful quad-core Tegra 3 processor. You’ll love the minimalist design and the camera that captures every moment (even in low light) with crisp, vivid, beautiful photos. It also lets you take a photo while shooting HD video. Plus, with Beats Audio you hear authentic, deep sound with true, finely-tuned details.
How to Enter
Draw a picture of any Sonic character and an Android character. Upload the picture anywhere you like and leave a comment with a link below.
Multiple chances to win: Today marks the middle of a multi-week promotion. We will have additional Tegra 3 powered tablets and smartphones to give away, so be on the lookout. Sega also provided us with some limited edition action figures and comics to give away, so go buy the game if you want a chance at winning some more swag.
Contest Rules
This contest is open to residents of any country. Entries will be accepted until Monday, May 28th. We’ll announce the winner on this page and on our Twitter account as soon as we draw.
Contest Winner
Wow! You guys really delivered! Thanks for all of the great submissions. It truly was an extremely difficult decision, but congratulations to our winner, Tunoby Whaley!
Again, it was a really hard decision. Thank you to everyone who took time out of their lives to participate! Take a look at the gallery below to see our favorite runner-ups.
The U.S. Customs holdup of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE may soon come to an end. In a statement submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, HTC claims some of their handset models have passed the U.S. Customs inspection and are on their way to various carriers. At the time the statement was released, HTC was not given any specifics as to which devices had passed inspection, but we have a feeling the ITCs exclusion order is holding up more devices than we originally thought.
According to T-Mobile, shipments of the HTC Amaze 4G have been delayed due to ”an unforeseen issue with receiving the product from the manufacturer.” There’s no direct evidence that the Amaze 4G delays are connected to the U.S. Customs inspections which are currently holding up the HTC One X and EVO 4G LTE, but the exclusion order issued by the ITC can be applied to all HTC devices which pass through U.S. Customs. We’re sure HTC is trying to keep things as quiet as possible, knowing that widespread delays to all U.S. service providers could result in significant losses for the quarter. There’s no indication as to how long the rest of HTC’s handsets will be kept out of the hands of customers, but we’re hoping for the best.
An active clarification regarding the US Custom’s inspection status of HTC products
1.Date of occurrence of the event:2012/05/20
2.Company name:HTC Corporation
3.Relationship to the Company (please enter “head office” or “affiliate company”):Head Office
4.Reciprocal shareholding ratios:N/A
5.Cause of occurrence:Each imported HTC model must be reviewed by Customs and will be released once Customs officials have completed the inspection. Some models have gone through inspection and been released to our carriers customers. We don’t have the status of each specific device model at this time, but we are working closely with Customs. We remain confident that this issue will be resolved soon.
The delayed launch of the HTC EVO 4G LTE has pissed more than a few people off. Earlier this week, we learned that the ITC has blocked imports of Sprint’s new flagship HTC device at U.S. Customs to inspect the software loaded on the devices to make sure HTC is no longer infringing upon Apple’s patent #5,946,647. Sprint’s official notice of the delayed launch went out on its community forums while HTC issued an official comment to the media.
We can confirm that the product will not be in stores this Friday. Products for pre-order are on hold. We’ll provide a ship date as soon as we’re able. HTC will work with Sprint to maintain the promise for pre-order customers so they will be among the first to receive their HTC EVO 4G LTE units when available.HTC
While all of this is bad new for consumers, the delay of the HTC EVO 4G LTE may be short lived. A glimmer of hope appeared this afternoon when Best Buy customers who had pre-ordered the HTC EVO 4G LTE restarted receiving emails which state that the new release date for the phone has been pushed back from May 18th to May 23rd.
Best Buy could have some information which has not yet been made available to the public, but HTC has not released any new information on the issue. We are waiting to hear back from them regarding this new development. For all we know, the ITC has already lifted the U.S. Customs hold on the HTC EVO 4G LTE and HTC One X and HTC is waiting to release an official statement until the devices start moving through their supply chain again.
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.”
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?
Capturing that perfect moment with an Android phone’s digital camera has always been tough, but HTC seems to think that the new HTC One series has solved the issue. To prove its point, HTC has launched an interactive page on its blog to see if you can tell the difference between pictures taken with an HTC One series device and a “professional digital camera.”
Having used the HTC One S and HTC One X extensively, I was able to easily identify the images which were captured with an HTC One device – achieving a score of 8/10.
There are a few distinct characteristics to look for when trying to identify the images taken by the HTC One, but I don’t want to give them away quite yet. Take the HTC One camera challenge and let us know what you score. Do you think the HTC One lives up to the high expectation HTC has set?
Though we’ve known this date was coming for quite some time now, Sprint has officially announced that the HTC EVO 4G LTE is now up for preorder, and will run $199.99 with a new 2 year agreement. Customers looking to get their hands on the latest in the EVO line can head over to Sprint’s EVO 4G LTE landing page to reserve your device.
Of course, you may want to wait until a bit later this week to get your preorder on, as Sprint should be unveiling more information on their LTE rollout at the CTIA conference kicking off today in New Orleans. As you probably are aware, Sprint has the slowest 3G network of the major US carriers, and you probably won’t want to be stuck with 3G service if their speedy LTE network isn’t making its way to your town until next year.
The EVO 4G LTE is widely believed to be available on May 18th, so you won’t have to wait too long to get your hands on the EVO after preordering the device.
As a reminder, specs for the EVO 4G LTE include:
4.7″ 720P HD display
Dual-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor
8 megapixel rear camera with an f2.0 lens BSI sensor, dedicated imaging chip and HTC’s new Image Sense technology
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.
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.
