Cell Phones : T-Mobile adds new daily and monthly plans

If you're of the ilk who vehemently hates contracts, yet adores T-Mobile, read on. Alongside its existing pay-as-you go plans, Little Magenta has introduced a new $60 choice, offering unlimited minutes, texting and data -- though the latter is throttled after consuming 2GB. If a month of commitment is too rich for your blood, how about about one of three new "pay by the day" plans? The priciest option's three bucks for all the minutes and texts you could ever want and 200MB of data at full speed. A dollar less still gets you unlimited talk time and texts, but slows that all you can eat data buffet down to 2G speeds. True cheapskates (or those who only communicate via the written word) will love the dollar daily plan, which grants boundless texting, but dispenses the data altogether and runs ten cents per minute for phone calls.

Tech : Clearwire boosts NYC WiMAX coverage by 21 percent

Consider yourself a New Yorker? If so, you could find yourself underneath Sprint / TWC / Clearwire's 4G umbrella, as the trio has announced a 21 percent coverage expansion in the greater New York City area. Folks in Alpine, Bayonne, Elizabeth, Fair Lawn, Newark, Paramus, Secaucus, Union, NJ; and Hartsdale, New Rochelle, New York, Rockville Centre, Yonkers, NY will now be covered in the regional Clear network, and as of last count, that amounts to an extra 91,363 people. 'Course, a few newcomers will be born every minute, so maybe we've breached 91,369 by now. Or maybe more. Talk about confusing.

 

 

Clearwire, Time Warner Cable and Sprint Expand New York City Metro 4G Mobile Broadband Network By 21 Percent

Regional New York City 4G Network Covers 11,927,000 People

KIRKLAND, Wash., NEW YORK CITY, and OVERLAND PARK, Kan., July 12, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and Sprint (NYSE: S) today announced a significant expansion of the Clearwire 4G network footprint and key capacity upgrades for mobile broadband customers in the greater New York City metro area. The regional CLEAR®, Time Warner Cable Mobile Internet and Sprint 4G service area have added coverage for an additional 91,363 people. Now, more than 11,927,000 people in the New York City area have access to Clearwire's 4G mobile broadband network. This expansion represents new coverage since Clearwire's initial launch on November 1, 2010.

Enhanced capacity and expanded coverage can be experienced in the following communities: Alpine, Bayonne, Elizabeth, Fair Lawn, Newark, Paramus, Secaucus, Union, NJ; and Hartsdale, New Rochelle, New York, Rockville Centre, Yonkers, NY.

"Across New York and New Jersey, Clearwire's 4G speed continues to set the standard in delivering a high-speed network that businesses and consumers demand," said Sean Reid, regional general manager for Clearwire. "Unlimited mobile broadband usage is a product that Clearwire pioneered across the country over the last several years and is currently now in seventy-one markets across the United States."

"Sprint 4G customers in the Greater New York area will benefit from these enhancements," said Karen Paletta, Sprint vice president-East Region. "Our customers enjoy a wide selection of cutting-edge 4G devices - smartphones, tablets and mobile connectivity devices. Sprint 4G allows for sophisticated services such as video chat and a wide variety of applications that keep expanding every day with great new mobile devices from Sprint."

"Time Warner Cable continues to take steps as a leader in the industry by offering our customers multiple ways to access the information and content they want at home, at work and on the go," said Lou Lazzaro, vice president of wireless, Time Warner Cable New York City. "Mobile Internet keeps Time Warner Cable business and residential customers connected in multiple ways from multiple places so they're never out of touch."

4G customers in these cities will be able to increase their mobility and productivity in many ways: from instantly downloading large files to get work done on the run, browsing the Web just like at home from across the city, or watching online videos and movies while travelling in the family car around town. A variety of 4G devices are available from both service providers.

A detailed coverage map of CLEAR 4G service is available at www.clear.com/coverage.

Additional information about Sprint 4G is available at www.sprint.com/4G.

Additional information about Time Warner Cable Mobile Internet is available at http://mobileservices.timewarnercable.com

Wireless : Verizon tiered data plans coming July 7, starting at $30? (update)

We were hoping it wouldn't happen, but it appears that Verizon CFO Fran Shammo's summer foreboding of his company's dreaded tiered data plans could be right on the money. Droid-Life is reporting the magic date will be July 7 and has provided supposed pricing details: data plans without tethering would start at $30 for 2GB, while 5GB and 10GB will cost $50 and $80 respectively. Tethering will cost an extra $20 and adds another 2GB to the pool. There's said to be no notable separation between 3G and 4G -- you'd be billed exactly the same whether you're packing a Droid X2 or a Droid Charge. These new plans wouldn't affect anyone currently under contract, though it's still unknown if customers can hang onto them when it's time to renew. While this remains filed in the "grain of salt" cabinet for now, it may be a good time to at least start checking out your next phone.

Data Pricing Evolution...The Present

Our legacy data pricing structure was designed to address a somewhat different customer need profile than what we are seeing and can expect in the future.

Consider this. Data usage has more than doubled over the last three years. Consumers and business users alike are doing more and more with their mobile devices. The notion of "send and end" has migrated to "managing multiple aspects of one's lifestyle through mobility." Whether it's social media (85%+ of Smartphone users), mobile internet (88%+ of Smartphone users), or email/applications (71%+ of Smartphone users), this usage has one thing in common-dramatically increased demand for data and media consumption.

As a result, we are evolving our approach around how we package our data solutions and pricing to our customers. Coming soon, Verizon Wireless will move from our existing pricing format to a structure designed to allow customers to choose the right data solution that best aligns with their needs.

The Value Benefit Equation...
With the new usage based pricing plans, the vast majority of our customers will be able to enjoy their typical level of data consumption for the same value that they outlay today. Additionally, for those who have greater requirements for data, we will have solutions that they can tailor to their unique needs.

Perhaps more importantly, given our strong desire to continue to provide enhanced capability and value to our customers, the new data pricing will apply to both our 3G AND 4G LTE networks. So in essence, for those customers in our ever and rapidly expanding 4G LTE network coverage footprint, users will gain the benefit of the fastest and most advanced 4G LTE network in the U.S. all for the same usage based value. More speed. More functionality. Same value.

Tech : Logitec's new wireless router is crazy-looking, crazy fast

The new Logitec (not Logitech) LAN-WH450N/GR offers four Gigabit Ethernet ports, 802.11a/b/g/n wireless networking that maxes out at a theoretical 450Mbps, and just about the wildest router design we've yet seen. Yes, it's justified by improved wireless throughput as a result of having three antennas sprouting out of the thin-bodied device, but who is Logitec trying to kid? It's a futuristic, desktop-straddling robocopter and everyone at that company knows it. Should you or the geek in your life be interested in obtaining one, the new routers are going on sale in Japan in mid-April for ¥19,000 ($230).

McDonald's to start accepting contactless Visa payments in all UK restaurants by

The UK already has a big old investment in contactless technology with London's rather successful Oystercard travel scheme, but now the whole Kingdom can get a taste for airborne payments thanks to a new initiative from McDonald's and Visa. The two giants of commerce are uniting to bring NFC tech to all of the former's 1,200 fast food restaurants within the UK, allowing hungry Brits to pay for meals costing up to £15 by simply waving their credit card in front of the till Obi-wan-style. Of course, the real excitement of such large-scale NFC proliferation is in the potential to use those automated tills with your Nexus S (which has an NFC chip built right in) and other devices coming up this year that look set to feature the technology. So yeah, Visa had better be working hard on putting together some mobile apps.

Wall Street Journal: Verizon iPhone Coming Tuesday

We know you've been promised this before, so we don't blame you if you don't believe us this time, but we have it on good authority that the long-awaited Verizon, CDMA version of the iPhone will be announced Tuesday at an event back in our wonderful hometown of New York City. Word came in earlier today that Verizon would be holding an event at Lincoln Center, just days after the end of CES. Why wait till after the world's largest electronics show? Possibly because there is one company glaringly absent from the CES proceedings: Apple.

A "person familiar with the matter" told the Wall Street Journal that indeed Tuesday would bring the announcement of the Verizon iPhone, and AllThingsD is reporting that Steve Jobs will be making an appearance at the event. It's a little strange that Apple and Jobs would let Verizon take the reins on the event, but we've also heard the Apple has issued a restriction on vacation for retail employees for three weeks starting at the end of January. So will the Verizon iPhone actually be announced on Tuesday and go on sale early in February as the rumors suggest? Check back Tuesday to find out.

China Declares Skype Illegal

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After having already banned Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, the Chinese government has now decided to outlaw Skype, as well. The move, announced in the People's Daily, means that all Internet phone services will now be considered illegal within the country, except for those offered by two state-operated telecom companies -- China Unicom and China Telecom.

In 2007, Skype launched a joint venture with Hong Kong-based Tom Group, which has largely acceded to the Communist Party's demands. Earlier this year, for example, the company cut ties with Google over the search engine's ongoing battles with the People's Republic. Skype China, meanwhile, came under criticism for helping the Chinese government keep an eye out for taboo words or phrases like 'Falun Gong,' or 'Tibet.'

The new regulation will reportedly ban all calls made from computers to land lines, but it may still be legal for users to make computer-to-computer calls. The Chinese ministry of Industry and Information Technology has not yet announced when the ban will go into effect, and Skype declined to comment on "speculation" that its service would be blocked on the mainland anytime soon. "Users in China currently can access Skype via Tom Online, our partner," a company spokeswoman affirmed.

It's no secret that the Chinese government maintains tight control over the flow of information within its country, but experts say that its most recent move is intended primarily to protect state-run companies, and to curb Skype's growth. "If the ministry hadn't made this announcement, I think Skype would have offered its services in a very large scale," said Wang Yuquan, a Beijing-based consultant at Frost and Sullivan. "Now, with the announcement, it can't."

Others, however, aren't convinced that China will be able to completely root out competing online phone services. Kan Kaili, a professor at Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, told the Telegraph that a comprehensive Skype shut-down is "very unlikely." Even if the government did manage to wipe out the service, Kaili argued, consumers could always turn to similar services, like Gmail Talk, or MSN.

"The children of Chinese government officials, who are studying abroad, use these services to call home, so I do not think anyone is going to cut the lines," Kaili said. "Even if they take a strict approach, such as getting local operators to block the broadband services of people who use Skype, people will still find a way around it."

Tech - Sprint's 3G / 4G MiFi 4082 revealed?

Wasn't long ago that we found hard evidence of a WiMAX-capable MiFi from Novatel in the FCC -- and now, we might have the first press shot of it. Of course, press shots are always prettier than the actual devices, but even if you beat this image with the ugly stick for a minute or two, we're pretty sure it'd still be a good deal more handsome than the first-gen 3G MiFi that Sprint, Verizon, and others are using currently. No word on when this might launch, but with FCC certification under its belt, it's plausible that we'll see it next week at CES -- probably without the tipster's own professionally-Photoshopped status light below the battery indicator, we'd bet.

Video : Wireless Midi Dj Control For The IPAD & Serato (Video)

TRENDnet TEW-690AP wireless access point has a theoretical 450Mbps top speed, a real $200 price

It's a sad fact of our digital lives that no matter how stylish we make our daily-used devices, we'll still need some antenna-riddled ogre in the corner of the room to blast out the WiFi goodness. Enter TRENDnet's latest contender, the TEW-690AP (even its name betrays an absolute lack of charisma), which has three spatial streams per antenna to deliver a max theoretical throughput of 450Mbps. It goes up to a full gigabit should you find any reason to connect via its wired Ethernet port, while a few extra bells and whistles -- like a repeater mode, WiFi Protected Setup with compatible devices, and up to four unique, encrypted SSIDs per wireless band -- complete the $200 value proposition. Whether you say yay or nay, look out for more from these guys at CES, they're promising to announce some more "first to market" wireless innovations.