AT&T NoDo Update To Include Extra Software - The Cause of Surround's Delay?

There was a huge sigh of relief yesterday when word broke out that the AT&T Samsung Focus and LG Quantum would finally receive their NoDo updates on April 19th (sorry Surround owners). However, it looks like AT&T's penchant for bloating their phones with unnecessary software will be making an appearance in the update. Last night's post on the Windows Phone Blog was updated by Hautala and briefly mentions exactly what users can expect to find coupled with their update:

P.S. I forgot to mention the update we’ll be shipping to AT&T customers also includes support for two special AT&T features. The first is “WISPr” protocol support, which makes it possible for your phone’s data connection to automatically switch over to AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots when in range. The update also includes support for AT&T Address Book.

Fortunately, this is not the worst thing in the world compared to how AT&T has completely neutered their Android devices. The new WISPr support does sound at least somewhat useful as AT&T subscribers do have free access to the network's huge amount of  their own Wi-Fi hotspots. One thing to note is that AT&T could be including this feature in order to minimize the load on their network. Since the iPhone became such a huge hit the network has struggled to maintain its quality, and WISPr could be a part of the solution to improve customers' experience. On the other hand, the AT&T Address Book is mostly garbage unless you really like to use those features or are planning to switch to a different AT&T device that isn't a smartphone in the near future.

Another thing to note is that it's highly likely the reason the update for the HTC Surround was delayed was due to this AT&T software. Hautala mentioned in his post that the Surround was earmarked because of an issue with a "third-party package" and the only two suspects are AT&T and HTC, and considering the latter's strong track record we can safely assume who was more likely the culprit.

But it's not all bad--when Surround owners finally receive their updates in mid-May they can furiously uninstall the garbage software that caused the delay in the first place.

Via: @WithinRafael, Midwest Geek
Source: Windows Phone Blog