Does '到现在' imply a recent change? Chinese-to-English dictionaries seem to translate '到现在' as 'up to now' or 'until now'. In English this often implies a recent change in conditions rather than a continuation of conditions; however, in Chinese I don't seem to see this same implication.
Is this correct, that does '到现在' not imply a recent change? can it ever imply this by itself? If not, how would I convey the English logic (implied recent change) in Chinese?
Examples in English:

We haven't heard from him until now.
Up to now, we hadn't heard from him.

Both imply we just heard from him today or very recently.
No, it does not imply a recent change.

「到現在」does literally translate to until now, but their usage is different, as you've already noted (a continuation of conditions).


In English, until now means practically the same thing as until recently.
In Chinese,「到現在」means something like up to this very day in English.「到現在我還在...」means up to this very day, I'm still...
To say the equivalent of English until now (that is, implying a change in condition), you should say something similar to「到目前爲止...」.「爲止」is an explicit statement that stops the otherwise implied continuation.