Lots of people say that the R4 is dead but it isn't. It was never dead in the beginning at all. The R4 team had 3 flashcarts with different names. R4, R4li, EX4DS. The original R4 was there first flashcart its website is r4ds.cn they stopped making new firmwares for awhile for this flashcart. After that they moved on and made there 2nd flashcart which is the R4li its website is r4li.com they made there i flashcart and made a website for it there. On that website they still supported the original R4 and supported the R4li. Then they stopped supporting the R4li and original R4 because they started to make there 3rd flashcart which is the EX4DS.
Currently if you check there website r4li.com this is what it says.
New product R4i
We apologize for our slow action of updating firmware. Our new product Ex4DS movie card is coming soon. All of the engineers are working hard on the new product that lack of hand fixes the bugs in 1.24. We promise to support original R4 in the future. Thanks.
They will start making new firmwares after the EX4DS is released for the original R4 and R4li.