CLIQs to Bricks and Bricks to CLIQs

Jason Lackey

One of my favorite device blogs, the Boy Genius Report, today reported that something seems to have gone wrong with the latest round of OTA updates for the CLIQ where CLIQs are getting bricked.

Oops!

Some things, like OTA updates, may seem fairly simple, almost technical slamdunks. However, once you start peeling back the onion, you will find that things are not nearly as simple as they might appear.

When we work with and OEM, we do extensive testing, not only of the client/server delivery mechanism, but also of the packages as well. The overall system must work end-to-end in order for it to be considered successful. Fortunately we have a world class team of device engineers at InnoPath. This fact was hammered home for me a few months back when we were up the peninsula doing some demos for a device maker and our device team made some observations with regards to how a new device was being built and made some suggestions to a large OEM about how they could improve their device. I was a bit shocked, but the guys at the OEM looked at each other, nodded, and said that there had been some internal debate, with the more clueful side recommending the InnoPath approach.

Anyway, testing and careful coordination between the concerned parties is one thing, building in failsafe is another. This is why, starting with our 5.6 Embedded FOTA client, we include the ability to back out of an update on the device, that way even if things go horribly horribly wrong, the worst that happens is you lose a few minutes time and end up no worse than you were when things started, which is a lot better than having a brick in your pocket!