Hasta La Gadget!

One of the cool WiMAX devices I saw today in Seoul was a router called the “Egg,” which turns a WiMAX subscription into a Wi-Fi hotspot. With broadband speeds around 4 megabits down and 1.5 megabits up in the subway, and a monthly fee of $20 for 30GB of usage, KT’s WiBro (Wireless Broadband) WiMAX service seems really compelling.

Korea doesn’t have the iPhone yet, but apparently they have something almost as good. Twitter user Min Lee (@the_verdict) told me that Koreans are using Eggs to get their iPod Touches online at super-high speeds. You can stash an Egg in your bag and pow, you have a hotspot the Touch can use. It’s a similar strategy to the trick of buying a Verizon Wireless MiFi router so the iPod Touch can pretend to work on Verizon – except the Korean version is cheaper, faster, and better. (Verizon charges $60/month for only 5GB, at slower speeds than WiBro.)

Of course, the iPod Touch still isn’t a phone, but there are various VOIP apps available for the device that let it make calls, including Skype. The whole assemblage gets a wee bit clunky, but the idea of a $20/month, WiMAX-speed quasi-iPhone must really smart to everyone on AT&T in the USA.

Sprint  just turned on WiMAX service in a number of cities last week, and now the carrier is throwing in a little extra motivation for prospective customers: a price cut.

FierceWireless reports that Sprint has quietly lowered the monthly cost of its 4G CDMA/mobile WiMAX service $10 to $69.99 per month. Plus, Sprint is now promising a month of free service as a sign-up bonus.

The carrier is also selling its 3G/4G USB Modem U300 (pictured) for free with a two-year service contract and after rebate, compared to its initial cost of $149 back in December, the report said.

Verizon has announced that its V CAST Video on Demand service is now accessible on the BlackBerry Storm.

The service–available since 2005–now features over 100 full-length programs, as well as live NHL hockey games and college football games.

To get to the service from a Storm, click the VZ Today link in the browser, click Get Apps, and then select V CAST Videos in order to download and install the app.

Verizon said in a statement that the app has a redesigned UI specific to the Storm, along with higher-resolution video. It requires an unlimited data plan and costs an extra $10 per month.

OnStar announced that it just sent its 100,000,000th Vehicle Diagnostics e-mail, an alert that lets subscribers know maintenance information for their cars or trucks. (Who knew GM was one of the world’s leading sources of spam?)

Joking aside, the alerts include service notifications, oil status, and tire pressure, and also include messages about subsystems in the car that may be in trouble. The oil life monitoring is particularly interesting to me, just because there’s always a lot of debate about that (i.e. are oil changes every 3K miles necessary or just a waste and indicative of marketing by Jiffy Lube and other overly aggressive service providers).

OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics became available in 2005 and currently has more than 3.5 million subscribers, according to the company. Over the years, OnStar has been adding additional services, such as Ignition Block for aiding stolen vehicle recovery, and Injury Severity Prediction, which helps emergency first responders determine the level of care needed at an accident site before they even get there–important stuff, indeed.

Plantronics has unveiled the Discovery 975 Bluetooth headset, which replaces the Discovery 925 in the company’s lineup.

The dual-mic Discovery 975 features AudioIQ2 DSP and WindSmart technologies for compensating for noisy environments. They’re in effect all of the time; as part of the design, the 975 includes grooved vents on the boom and acoustic fabrics that envelop the mics in order to block wind noise.

The headset also features an adaptive 20-band equalizer to keep voices sounding natural and maintain volume. There’s a rechargeable carrying case that triples talk time from 5 hours to 15 hours, complete with a built-in LCD to show battery and earpiece levels as well as Bluetooth status.

The Plantronics Discovery 975 costs $129.99 and is now available from Plantronics.com; you can also pre-order it at Best Buy and Amazon.com ahead of its release in those outlets later this month.

For more on Bluetooth headsets, read PCMag.com’s How to Buy a Bluetooth Headset guide.