Verizon Forcing Data Plans for Smarter Feature Phones

I guess the end of summer means "ramp up the data charges" for carriers, since Verizon's about force anyone with an "enhanced multimedia phone"—basically, phones with a QWERTY keyboard, EVDO Rev. A and HTML browser—to pick their (mandatory) choice between a $10/month plan with 25MB or $20/month for 75MB. It starts for all phones launching on or after Sept. 8. [BGR]

Gizmodo's Mission Critical E3 Gear

Essential to our E3 coverage: Canon's 5D Mark II's made our liveblog shots effortless and awesome in any light , Sprint's 3G network was our crucial lifeline in the bowels of convention centers, and UCC Black powered us.

Sprint Selling MiFi 2200 Portable Wi-Fi Hotspot for Its 3G Service

Remember how well Sprint 3G did in tests? And how much we like portable hotspots? Put them together with the $100 Novatel MiFi 2200, and you have a pretty nice setup, dubbed "Sprint Mobile Hotspot." More »

WiMax 4G To Hit 80 Markets by 2010; Clearwire Offering 3G/4G Modem Soon

Today, Clearwire announced network rollout plans for the "Clear" WiMax service, in conjunction with Sprint. In 2009, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Baltimore, Seattle, Honolulu and Charlotte are all scheduled to go live; next year, they'll light up New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Houston and the San Francisco Bay Area. Better yet, subscribers will be getting a 3G/4G modem this summer, that'll do WiMax in their home markets and Sprint EVDO Rev A in other cities—a lustworthy USB dongle if I ever heard of one. [Clearwire]

Sony Vaio P Modded To Accept SIM Cards, 3G via HSDPA Connection

The Vaio P comes with EV-DO hardware, but an enterprising modder has tweaked everyone's favorite makeup compact netbook to accept HSDPA SIM cards too, for 3G connections from AT&T. It's not for beginners, though.

Palm Pre Spec Sheet Confirms Tethering, But At What Cost?

Palm has updated their Pre website with a spec list, most of which we're already familiar with. Except for one thing: Unlike its stated nemesis, the Pre will feature data tethering from the get-go.

Fujitsu LifeBooks Get AT&T 3G Today, EVDO Soon

Fujitsu just updated their LifeBook T5010, T1010, P1630, and T2020 with AT&T BroadbandConnect (HSUPA) support. And better still, some models will support EVDO in a few months (Sprint or Verizon's 3G technology, carrier unannounced). [Yahoo]

The One Very Un-Pro Thing About The New Unibody MacBooks' USB Ports

When I pulled my MacBook Pro out for its first field run at CES, one limitation I hadn't previously anticipated arose. It's something you should consider if you're using anything larger than standard USB plugs. More »

Netgear Jumps in the Mobile Broadband Game With the WWAN 3G Mobile Broadband Router

The 3G Mobile Broadband Router is Netgear's first foray into the land of 3G sharing, and shares the connection of any compatible 3G USB dongle. More »

SF and Bay Area 3G Data Test: AT&T, Sprint and Verizon

SF intern Andi Wang set out to test over three afternoons, covering a wider range than most testers by hitting not just SF but Marin and a good bit of Silicon Valley. More »

Portland 3G Data Test: AT&T, Sprint and Verizon

My in-laws live in Portland's sorta twin city, Vancouver, WA. Over Thanksgiving weekend, I decided to check out the 3G situation. More »

Austin 3G Test: AT&T, Sprint and Verizon

Eric Sheline, one of our favorite former interns, gave us a hand in Austin. More »

Raleigh-Durham 3G Data Test: AT&T, Sprint and Verizon

Sean Fallon represents the Mid-Atlantic for Giz; he's a resident of a small town in the Raleigh-Durham area, home to a lot of college basketball. More »

Chicago 3G Test: AT&T, Sprint and Verizon

Giz Trivia: Did you know that Mark Wilson was our man in Illinois? That's right, up until this year he was living in Urbana, but now he's in Chicago, home of the very best and very worst of politics. More »

Boston 3G Data Test: AT&T, Sprint and Verizon

Weekend editor Jack Loftus tested his way around his hometown of Boston. There's no picture of him doing it, which, after you read his comments, might be a good thing. More »

Seattle 3G Data Test: AT&T, Sprint and Verizon

As a recent transplant to the Pacific Northwest, I got a chance to test out 3G in both Seattle and Portland. As you can imagine, most of my stops were in coffee shops. More »

New York City 3G Data Test: AT&T, Sprint and Verizon

New York editor John Mahoney was all over this project, not only initiating testing in NYC but helping set up the program so that everyone else could follow suit. More »

Sprint Dual U300 Modem Will Connect to Both EVDO and WiMax

Sprint's partnership with WiMax provider ClearWire looks to be bearing some hardware fruit, with the release of the first dongle to combine 3G cellular and 4G capabilities. More »

Novatel Ovation MC760 Is World's Smallest USB EVDO Modem

We've been loving Sierra's U597 EVDO card for a while because the form factor is so damn tight, but it looks like they just got one-upped (downed?) by Novatel, whose Ovation MC760 Micro Modem is the world's smallest EVDO Rev. USB modem. It's got onboard GPS, an integrated microSD slot, and a dual band antenna system "for enhanced performance on network fringe areas." We can't wait to check it out (we're mobile internet whores)—it'll be on Verizon or Sprint by the end of the year. More »

Sprint Novatel EX720 EV-DO ExpressCard Now Comes With PC Card Adapter

While we USB is our interface of choice for 3G laptop cards, 'cause it'll work on anything and we switch laptops a lot, some people might still wanna leave a USB port free and fill up a standard PCMCIA slot instead. So Novatel's EX720 Rev-A ExpressCard for Sprint, one of the first Rev. A ExpressCards, has been refreshed and now comes up with a PCMCIA adapter for $70 after rebate—the adapter alone would run you $50. It's also got one touch activation, though you've still gotta install from a CD, unlike newer 3G cards. [EVDO Info]

Xohm Tested Out in Baltimore: Beats EVDO, Unsurprisingly

Laptopmag went ahead and tested out Xohm WiMax goodness, now that it's live in Baltimore. They jammed an ExpressCard Xohm into a Sony Vaio laptop, and compared it to a Kyocera EVDO card running on Verizon, at a spot where both signals were strong. The conclusion? Xohm beats EVDO for speed when doing intensive downloading, such as streaming video, or large file transfers—the top download speed they found for Xohm was 3.05Mbps while EVDO managed just 1.43MBps. So far so groovy, and Laptopmag gave a few more thumbs up to the system, like how it auto-connects when you plug in the adapter, and the daily subscription options. But this isn't much of a surprise—it's designed to be faster—and for now Xohm's coverage is severely limited, to say the least. Check out the link for the full picture. [Laptopmag]

Dell Studio 15 Laptops Packing EVDO Like Their Little Brother

The world gasped when Dell's Mini Inspiron 9 revealed its integrated 3G data, and now Dell is revealing their wider plan to integrate more 3G data cards into their computers. The new Studio 15 laptops feature an integrated EVDO card with a subscription available from Verizon or Sprint (the hardware is the same either way). It's a $150 add-on to any model in the line (about the same price a USB dongle will cost you), putting their cheapest EVDO Studio 15 at $799. But note that Verizon is already offering a $125 rebate with 2-year subscription, pretty much eating the upgrade price. Not bad at all, Dell. [Dell via bbGadgets]

Chrysler Gearing Up For In-Car Wi-Fi In 2009 Models Via Autonet

Chrysler is poised to be the first car manufacturer to offer built-in internet access in its vehicles. The service, called Uconnect Web, uses existing wireless data networks for internet access it then shares with devices in the car via Wi-Fi, essentially turning your car into one big hot spot. The core device, which costs $499 to install, can take advantage of WiMAX or EV-DO networks where available through a service called Autonet. The service will sell for $29 a month. We like the idea for some things, like getting traffic and weather updates on the fly, but is the world ready for motorists that are even more distracted while driving? [Twice via CG]

Nokia 8208 Two-way Slider Phone Looks Like N-Series, But Isn't Quite One

Inadvertently posted to the Nokia site, the 8208 not only looks similar to the n96, the first non N-Series phone to feature a two-way slider. Part of Nokia's music phone push, the phone features the 0-9 keys below the screen, and music player controls above the screen. In addition, the CDMA phone has a 3 Megapixel camera and EVDO Rev.A. No word on release date or price. [Electronista]

The Fine(ish) Print on Sprint's 5GB Data Cap

Yes, the upcoming 5GB cap on Sprint's data plan is twue. While heartbreaking, it's not all doom and gloom—according to these details from Cnet, at least Sprint won't be a total dick about it. Besides having an easy way to monitor your slurpage at Sprint.com, "going over once in a while is OK" and they'll be checking usage "using a rolling, three-month basis." But, if you go over two consecutive months, your ass may get terminated. They're still looking at options for people who need more data (like us), which hopefully they'll bring out soon. [Crave]

Oh No: Sprint Capping "Unlimited" 3G Data Service at 5GB

We've raved on Sprint's EV-DO data service more than once, in no small part because they were the only carrier to have truly unlimited 3G data, while AT&T and Verizon capped their service at 5GB. Our love affair just might be over. According to a leaked update of their terms of service, effective July 31st, they'll be enacting a 5GB cap as well. More »

3G Networks Reviewed: AT&T Is the Fastest

Computerworld took Verizon, Sprint and AT&T's 3G data services for a spin all around the tri-state area—500 points in NY, NJ and CT—with data cards from everyone and an X300 to determine the king of 3G. Surprisingly (or maybe not), AT&T was the snappiest of the bunch in both average (755Kbps) and top data speeds (1.6Mbps). Of course, there's more to consider: As we've said, only Sprint gives you unlimited data freedom; Verizon and AT&T have 5GB caps (they're squishy, but they're there). Also, EV-DO has a bit wider coverage area. But if you're mostly roaming around the NYC area, it looks like AT&T might be the new go-to, especially if speed is your main concern. [ComputerWorld]

AT&T Confirms First Dibs on BlackBerry Bold

AT&T told our friend Sascha at PC Mag that it would be the first carrier to sell the new BlackBerry Bold. Others may very well follow this year, and judging from the fact that the hardware specs include room for T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon, they most certainly will. AT&T also said that it's got exclusivity on international 3G usage—Sprint/Verizon's EV-DO isn't as universal as AT&T's HSDPA—and the ability to use the BB in Japan and South Korea. [Gearlog]

Hacked MacBook Air With Built-In 3G Wireless

This is what every MacBook Air needs: built-in 3G wireless. In order to get this goodness into the MBA, Jordan Bunnell busted up a Verizon USB727 Air Card and soldered it up with the MBA's unused USB controllers on the motherboard and used a little bit of voodoo to get power flowing to the card. There's a little bit more elbow grease to get the antenna ports situated and the card crammed in there nice and properly, but as you can see, it pays off. Check out the whole nerdy process in detail over at his site, though our heart's a little too faint to attempt the feat. [Get Listed Locally via engadget]

Unlimited Voice and Data Plans Forcing Carriers to Make Networks Better, Faster, Stronger

Carriers are finding out that a side effect of offering unlimited voice and data plans is that people tend to use them more. Great, right? Not if their backend can't handle the new flood of traffic. One of Sprint's VPs told a panel at CTIA that "the increase in unlimited data and voice plans exponentially increases the backhaul requirements of 2G and 3G networks" so they're being forced to upgrade their network with higher speed pipes, like fiber. (AT&T already had its 3G wake-up call.) This is good for us, because it means faster, more reliable data services. More »

Verizon Promises In-Home Cell Boosters This Year, But For How Much?

Femtocell, femtocell, femtocell. Get used to it, because it's a word you'll be hearing a lot of from now on. Yesterday, Verizon Wireless promised to offer broadband-connected mini cell towers (yep, femtocells) to customers in 2008. We're told that products such as the EV-Do model just introduced by Motorola and Airvana are intended for home use, not just in offices. There will be a cost of some kind for the hardware, possibly along the same lines as your monthly cable-box fee. The question is, how much more will you pay to get guaranteed cell voice and data reception in your home? [AP]

Hands On HTC Shift EV-DO

HTC had their Shift UMPC on display here at CTIA, which packs Sprint EV-DO, an 800 MHz Celeron processor, 1 GB RAM and a 40 GB SSD into a tidy $1500 package. After getting touchy feely with it for a few minutes, I found it wasn't half bad. I was especially impressed by the proprietary HTC SnapView interface that runs on top of Windows Vista, and provides quick access to weather, calendars and emails (similar to the Windows Mobile 6.1 homescreen that it's based around). More »

Motorola and Airvana To Make High-Speed Cell-to-Broadband Boxes

One of the ugliest named cool new technologies is the "femtocell," a desktop-friendly cell tower that connects to your broadband network to add cell service where it otherwise might be crappy. Today Motorola and Airvana announced that they are partnering to build CDMA femtocells that provide standard 1xRTT and high-speed EV-DO connectivity. It's not clear whether this would be geared for the home, like Sprint's Samsung Airave (which, though cool, apparently doesn't do EV-DO). This one might be more for businesses, but we hope that changes—and that Verizon follows Sprint's lead and picks it up—because I would love to have the ability to add cell service to my home as needed. Wouldn't you? [Airvana]