Verizon Rolls Out First Thunderbolt Update, Doesn’t Change Much

If you are a Thunderbolt owner you’ve either seen, or soon will, that Verizon has begun rolling out the much-anticipated first update to their first and only 4G phone. Rumored for last week, delayed until this week, this update was designed to address a number of issues, including:

Web Browsing and Data Access

• Enhanced data connectivity when accessing the Verizon 3G network

Email and Messaging

• SMS and MMS messages are stored properly in the Messaging
• Application (Inbox, Sent, etc.).

Additional Device Features

• Timing for device activation has been improved.
• “Backup Assistant” is correctly displayed in the Application menu.
• Stability improvements for data centric applications such as
• Facebook, KAYAK, Yahoo! Mail, My Verizon and more.
• Accurate location is displayed when accessing the Weather Widget
• Quickly load GPS updates for Google Maps and VZ Navigator™.

Many of us were also hoping against hope that this update would address the horrible battery life, or should I say lack of battery life, even though no mention was made in the announcement by VZW. 

Let me just tell you, this update does absolutely nothing to resolve any of the battery issues. After I updated by my Thunderbolt this morning I spent the rest of the day using my phone as I normally would. Lots of feeds to read, Tweets to consume, emails to read and respond to and Pandora to stream. I got 4.5 hours of 4G usage today, exactly the same as before this update. Oh, and that’s with the high-capacity HTC battery.

I don’t know when, or even if HTC and Big Red will do something about the battery issues with the Thunderbolt. At the time I thought I would regret not returning the Thunderbolt, now I know that I do.

Maybe they’ll get it right next time.