The Sprint HTC EVO 4G, powered by Google's Android OS (v2.1), is the hottest new smartphone on the market now.  You can get what might cost $100 from Verizon -- unlimited mobile calling, data, and text messages -- for only $80 via Sprint (and that's including 4G coverage in select areas).  Aside from the phone's industry leading hardware, another perk is the ability to turn your phone into a wireless hotspot for $29.99 a month.  The phone retails for $200 after $100 mail-in rebate.  It is backed by a complete satisfaction guarantee.

Amid all the launch excitement, though, the phone did have a couple of major issues in its launch form.  Fortunately, HTC appears to have jumped on them and has already issued fixes.

First and foremost, it appears that some of the 8 GB microSD cards that shipped with the phone were having issues being written to and would report "insufficient file permissions" when you tried to write to them.

Sprint is pushing a 13 MB over-the-air fix which solves that problem.  The fix bumps the phone to firmware version 1.32.651.6.  The only downside is the fix breaks the path to rooting the phone, which can allow you to install Android 2.2 on it long before HTC officially gets around to porting the update.

That might be a somewhat positive development, though.  According to Android hacker Matt Mastracci of Grack.com, who authored the root hack, the version of Sense UI (HTC) shipping with the phone had some serious security holes.  He reports being alarmed by how easy it was to get root access on the phone.  

News of a patch that breaks that access is probably a good sign.  It means that while you temporarily will have to wait to get Android 2.2, the average malicious software writer won't be able to freely attack your phone.  And the more serious Android hackers will likely make short work of the beefier protections, allowing a safer path to root.

A final piece of good news is that the video chat program Qik is up and running.  Qik is free to all Sprint customers.  Premium services such as video mail, high resolution (> 640x480 pixels) video, and group video sharing will be free at launch, but will cost a monthly subscription fee of $4.99, starting July 15.

Qik is available in Android's App Marketplace for download.  It looks to provide the same kind of polished video chat experience that's going to land with the iPhone 4G.  Let's just hope that the Qik and Apple work out some sort of arrangement to allow EVO-iPhone chats, as there aren't exactly going to be a lot of chat-enabled smart phones out there for a while.