HTC ThunderBolt Screams On LTE

Get your hands on this Android smartphone and it will hit you like lightning. This is the future of mobile connectivity. The HTC ThunderBolt doesn’t just run on Verizon’s LTE network. It screams.

Not so long ago you could turn a colleague’s eyes green with envy by showing off your cutting edge smartphone with amazingly fast 3G broadband. Remember those days? You couldn’t possibly be that young! It was only a few years ago. That’s how fast things have been moving in the world of mobile devices.

When 3G entered the marketplace it really did seem fast. Well, fast in the way that 56K modems seemed amazingly fast when you remembered poking along at 300 baud. There are all sorts of speeds quoted for 3G and 4G transmission, but let’s say that 3G comes in at about 1 Mbps and 4G takes that up to 10 Mbps. You know that you may get more than that or a mere fraction depending on how strong your signal is and how congested the tower is that you are connected to.

When they say that 4G is an order of magnitude times the speed of 3G, they're not kidding. All that extra speed lets you download apps faster and enjoy video experiences that might not be up to it with lower bandwidth. Also like all technology advancements, there seem to be two competitors trying to claim the market.

First out of the gate was WiMAX technology deployed by Sprint and Clearwire as CLEAR. You’ll find CLEAR capability on Sprint Android smartphones. So fast is this technology and so powerful is the signal that CLEAR is selling wireless service for both desktop and mobile applications. You still have a broadband modem on your desktop. There just aren’t any phone or cable wires running to it.

T-Mobile and Verizon have shunned WiMAX in favor of a competing technology called LTE. AT&T is also planning to deploy LTE and not WiMAX. Some pundits are predicting that LTE will be the universal standard in a few years, but WiMAX is also a worldwide standard and may be more resilient than anyone expects.

Is this the end of the line as far as speed enhancements are concerned? Not hardly. Both WiMAX and LTE are upgrading their standards to offer peak rates of at least 1 Gbps for fixed operation and 100 Mbps in mobile use. Nobody’s talking 5G yet, but those speeds suggest the order of magnitude increase that justifies a new descriptor.

The ThunderBolt itself is a 4.3 inch full touch screen (800 x480 pixels) smartphone running Android 2.2 OS with HTC Sense 2.0. It uses the Snapdragon 1 GHZ processor with 8 GB of built-in memory that’s expandable up to 32 GB via plug-in microSD card. You have enough horsepower onboard to act as a WiFi hotspot for up to 8 other devices. You also have excellent photographic capability with an 8 Megapixel 2x LED flash camera that takes HD videos plus a 1.3 Megapixel front facing camera for video chatting.

Do you live in one of the 39 initial cities where Verizon LTE has been deployed or the 150 markets where it should be installed by the end of 2011? If so, you may have a hard time resisting the urge to move up 5x to 10x the download speed of your once-amazing 3G smartphone. If so, learn more and order your HTC ThunderBolt with Verizon Wireless Service and get a tremendous discount off the suggested retail price.

MiFi Points The Way to Wireless Transition

Verizon Wireless just made an amazing announcement. They will be selling the Apple iPad in their stores. But aren’t Apple and AT&T exclusive partners? Indeed. So, why is Verizon selling a product that won’t work on their network? ...Or will it?

Yes, it will. How Verizon accomplished this clever feat of engineering points the way to the future of wireless broadband. Actually, not the future future. Just the immediate future. Call it the era of wireless transition.

Wireless technology has pretty much developed along two lines. One is the telecom carriers, including AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. There are other players in the cellular wireless game, but they are simply private branded versions of the big four within the US. What characterizes the major carriers is that their offerings are proprietary. What works on AT&T won’t work on Verizon Wireless, and vice versa.

The other wireless path is an industry standard known a WiFi. It comes in flavors such as a, b, g, and n. But unlike telecom carrier services there is enough commonality and backwards compatibility that pretty much any WiFi device will work on pretty much any wireless router, hotspot or access point.

What Verizon has cleverly done is marry the two lines. They can’t get into the iPad through the front door, so the come in the back door. How? Very simple. They use an interface device to convert cellular to WiFi. That device is the MiFi. The Verizon MiFi is a little box about the size of a pack of cards. Inside is a cellular radio, a WiFi radio, a battery and some circuitry to make it all work. All you do is push a button to turn it on and the converter works automatically. It allows up to 5 wireless devices to gain access to the Verizon 3G wireless network as if they were Verizon-enabled to begin with.

The Verizon iPad will consist of an Apple iPad and a Verizon MiFi bundled together. They are separate pieces of equipment, but the MiFi will slip into your pocket or bag so it isn’t intrusive. At first blush, it may seem like having to carry around two pieces of equipment instead of just one is a big disadvantage for Verizon compared to AT&T. But Verizon may get the last laugh after all. The MiFi provides 3G connectivity for your iPad, but it also provides 3G connectivity for your other devices that don’t have their own 3G service built-in. That includes your laptop computer, netbook, games, and even your Apple iPod. If you had to buy separate 3G service for each device, you’d go broke. But one MiFi can serve whatever gadgets need connectivity, as long as they are WiFi enabled.

Verizon isn’t the only one with a MiFi. Novatel, maker of the MiFi, offers an unlocked version for GSM carriers AT&T and T-Mobile. There’s a MiFi specifically for Virgin Mobile. Sprint goes one further with their Sierra Wireless Overdrive 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot. It works on both the Sprint 3G Mobile Broadband network and its 4G WiMAX network. CLEAR offers a similar 3G/4G converter called Clear Spot.

Even these converters are transitional technology. Smartphones, starting with the Droid X by Motorola and Samsung Epic, have the cellular to WiFi hotspot capability built-in. This is likely to become a standard feature on smartphone designs, as WiFi and Bluetooth are the industry standard wireless technologies. WiFi has the greater transmission range.

Down the road a few years, the tide of wireless seems to be going in the direction of standardizing on LTE as a 4G standard. Cellular phone may give way to VoIP over LTE. At that point it will be hard to tell the difference between a mobile phone, a smartphone and a digital device like a tablet computer. Perhaps a single smart radio chip will provide universal wireless connectivity. Just pick your carrier and sign up for a service plan after you buy the device. The wireless transition era will be complete.

Who Wants A Computer In Their Car?

Now that Ford is offering an onboard computer for its work trucks and vans, could the time be right for the debut of an in-dash computer option in passenger cars? If so, would you want one? I'll bet you will.

Ford's intent right now is to offer a substitute for laptop computers that contractors take to the job site. Computers are useful in the construction trades as replacements for paper forms and planning documents. Ford's offering will include an optional printer to spit out invoices as needed.

Pretty cool technology for trades people, but what about those of us not employed in construction? Seems like an in-dash computer should be pretty useful for sales people, consultants, and anyone else who does business on the road. You'd be able to get messages and documents from the home office, enter orders and print out receipts in your car. FAX messages would come right out of the dash.

OK. Your handy laptop or notebook computer will do that now. So let's take a wider view. For general users, the dashboard PC has some other intriguing possibilities. Let's face it, the onboard navigation system is really a limited use computer itself. By moving that function into an broadband connected general purpose PC, you could do some interesting mash ups.

To me the most valuable would be superimposing weather radar on top of the map display. With GPS feedback, the system could keep the radar display centered on your location and looking outward. You'd be able to see what's coming and find shelter or take alternate routes to avoid the nasty stuff.

While we're at it, the in-dash computer might as well take the place of the radio. This might be the kiss of death to satellite radio if the broadband signal plus some buffering were solid enough to prevent signal cutouts as you drive. How about Pandora on the go? Come to think of it, the vanilla offerings served up by over the air broadcast stations are also at risk when you can design your own station with an almost infinite variety of programming. At that point, local content would again regain its unique value.

With an Wireless Internet connected PC and printer, the landmark and service features of GPS databases could expand to include full website access for the restaurants, retail businesses, service facilities, and popular tourist destinations. Order your tickets and have them printed out as you arrive at your destination.

Of course, we don't want to encourage a generation of drivers with their eyes on the PC and a keyboard in their lap. But there's no reason why the passenger seat couldn't have full access en route. The same goes for remote screens and even game controls or keyboards for the back seat passengers. Perhaps the kids can keep up with their homework when they're not downloading new video content. Make every trip a scavenger hunt with travel games that require you spot certain things and enter a description into the system. A powerful enough computer should have no trouble multi-tasking several screens and input devices.

Include hands-free cell phone service and perhaps two-way video conferencing and you have a complete communications system on the road. What else do you suppose can be included once you have the power of a general purpose PC with a broadband Internet connection right in the dashboard of your car?

Novatel's Brilliant Mobile In-Ovation

It looks like a USB memory drive, and it is. But look closer. Thumb drives don't have pop-up antennas. This one does. That's because the Novatel Ovation U727 is more than solid state memory. It's also a cellular broadband modem and a GPS receiver. Call it the "Swiss Army Knife" of mobile technology. Or call it the upgrade your notebook computer really needs. This Novatel product is three upgrades in one.

The primary function of this broadband card is to connect you to the data networks of either Sprint or Verizon. You'll need the version that is enabled for the carrier you want. Both feature downloads at the highest cellular speed currently available. That's EV-DO Rev A with downloads up to 3.1 Mbps and uploads to 1.8 Mbps. If the base station you are nearest isn't upgraded to Rev A yet, standard EV-DO Rev 0 will give you 2.4 Mbps download and 153 Kbps upload. Those are burst ratings. Your actual connection speed will probably be less.

Both of these cellular network data standards will allow you to roam free of the home office or WiFi hotspots. The original standard was meant to emulate a DSL connection for email and Web browsing. The new EV-DO Rev A speeds downloads a bit, but the big change is to the upload bandwidth. 153 Kbps is pretty marginal for things like video conferencing or file uploading. The 1.8 Mbps burst capability is more suited to real-time applications.

What happens if you are out in the boonies? If you can get cellular coverage at all, then you'll be able to at least access 1xRTT, the oldest CDMA cellular data standard and nearly universally installed in tower base stations. The performance is more like dial-up, around 50 Kbps. But at least you can stay connected way, way out there where coffee shops with WiFi are few and far between.

A feature of the Ovation U727 is that it connects to your PC via a USB port. The standard for cellular broadband cards has been the PCMCIA card slot. Those aren't universally available on notebook computers any more, but USB ports are truly ubiquitous. I imagine that the USB connection and memory stick form factor is what gave designers the idea to have this device do double duty as a removable solid state hard drive. To make use of this feature, you'll need to buy microSD card up to 4 GB maximum capacity. Plug in that little card like you would on a cell phone and you've got a thumb drive.

The third capability built into the Novatel Ovation U727 is a GPS receiver. Lots of of wireless productivity devices and common cell phones now include built-in GPS receivers. They were put there to aid location in emergency calls, but have been put into service as navigation systems and for mapping. Adding this card to your PC gives you the ability to use location-based services.

What are the hottest cell phone deals available right now, including free cell phones? Use the Cell Phone Plan Finder to check out the top phones and associated wireless service plans.