Hasta La Gadget!

Live in the UK and have a burning desire for faster internet while on the run? Excellent, because Three is taking an important step forward with the announcement of its new Huawei E586 MiFi. It’s a mobile hotspot that supports 21.1Mbps HSDPA — a first for the British market — and is designed to complement the network’s current upgrade of its equally brisk HSPA+ network. The device is slated for a September arrival and features a charging cradle that’s designed to keep you in business beyond the stated 4.5 hour battery life. Additionally, an OLED screen on the hotspot’s face displays information such as your data usage, current connection speed and password. Pricing hasn’t been announced for the little one, but if we’ve piqued your curiosity, just follow the break for the full PR.

Continue reading Three announces UK’s first 21Mbps HSDPA+ hotspot for September arrival

Three announces UK’s first 21Mbps HSDPA+ hotspot for September arrival originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Aug 2011 00:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s a war on unlimited data being fought as we speak, and Ma Bell is leading the main charge. Just days after AT&T announced it would begin throttling data speeds for the heaviest bandwidth hogs grandfathered into the carrier’s no-limit internet service, it’s also confirmed it’s ready to crack the whip on illegal tethering as well. In attempt to achieve “fairness for all of [its] customers,” the carrier has added a bit of force behind its March announcement, sending out notices to anyone using their jailbroken iPhones as a mobile hotspot. The gist? Cut it out or be scaled back to a tiered data plan. In a statement originally given to 9to5mac, an AT&T spokesperson said:

Earlier this year, we began sending letters, emails, and text messages to a small number of smartphone customers who use their devices for tethering but aren’t on our required tethering plan. Our goal here is fairness for all of our customers. (This impacts a only small percentage of our smartphone customer base.)

The letters outline three choices:

1. Stop tethering and keep their current plan (including grandfathered unlimited plan)
2. Proactively call AT&T or visit our stores and move to the required tethering plan 3. Do nothing and we’ll go ahead and add the tethering plan on their behalf – after the dated noted in their customer notification

We reached out to AT&T and confirmed that this statement is indeed true. Consider this the company’s last warning — your time to enjoy all-you-can-eat tethering is almost at an end. How soon the day of reckoning will come, however, likely depends on when you received the notification originally. And you thought you were being so sneaky…

AT&T: no more unlimited data for illegal tetherers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 18:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, summertime it is. Not only is the livin’ e-zee, but staying connected at an even higher rate of speed should be as well for those situated on Ma Bell’s network. AT&T has just confirmed that a duo of HSPA + / LTE WWAN devices will be shipping within the next few months, with the USBConnect Momentum 4G offering plug-and-play access to both high-speed networks and the Mobile Hotspot Elevate 4G acting as a liaison for up to five nearby WiFi devices. The former is nothing more than a rebranded Sierra Wireless AirCard 313U — the same oversized (and we mean oversized) device that launched on Rogers’ own LTE network just days ago in Canada. Aside from being large enough to double as a cricket bat, the dongle features a microSD card slot, works with Mac and PC platforms and supports roaming in over 200 nations — not that you’ll be silly enough to actually take advantage, though. Moreover, those using the card will get gratis access to AT&T’s growing WiFi network if using a post-paid data plan.

Moving on, the carrier’s first 4G LTE mobile hotspot device (yeah, that’d be the AT&T Mobile Hotspot Elevate 4G) will include a 1.77-inch display for showing just how few megabytes you have left on your plan, support for five simultaneous connections and the ability to seamlessly hop between HSPA+ and LTE. AT&T will begin selling the AT&T USBConnect Momentum 4G for $49.99 with two-year contract after a $50 mail-in-rebate, while the Mobile Hotspot Elevate 4G will be available for $69.99 with a similar deal. The company’s not going any further than stating a “summer” ship date, and despite our pleading, we can’t get anything more solid out of ’em. Naturally, it’ll be folks in Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta and San Antonio enjoying the LTE spoils first, with ten more cities to be blessed by the end of the year. Too bad it’s still not saying what kind of scratch will be required on a month-to-month basis.

Continue reading AT&T shipping HSPA+ / LTE USBConnect Momentum 4G and Elevate 4G this summer

AT&T shipping HSPA+ / LTE USBConnect Momentum 4G and Elevate 4G this summer originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jul 2011 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Don’t act like Verizon didn’t warn you: for Thunderbolt owners who see an available software update pop up on their phone this evening, they’ll be placed squarely between a rock and a towering boulder. Why? On one hand, the Froyo OTA update promises to nix random reboots, improve data connectivity and fix the Bluetooth Discovery Mode pop-up windows. On the other, it adds a helping of bloatware (V CAST Music, V CAST Videos and My Verizon) while also killing the lust-worthy free mobile hotspot feature. Not like the carrier ever said it’d be any different come early July, but it’s certainly a case of picking your poison here. If your T-bolt seems to be humming along just fine, we’d probably avoid the urge to update to the latest build. If it’s rebooting as we speak, well… good luck pulling that trigger.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Verizon pushes latest Thunderbolt update: solves reboot issues, kills free mobile hotspot originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Jul 2011 02:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The scan above purports to show a Verizon customer brochure that will appear in stores next Thursday, revealing nothing beyond the detailed leaks we’ve already reported but at least providing some reassuringly crinkled corroboration of the salient details. New customers will barred from the happy land of unlimited data, and will instead have to cough up tiered monthly fees ranging from $10 for 75MB up to $80 for 10GB, plus an extra $20 for tethering rights. In a separate turn to this tale, we hear that customers who want to tether to a 4G handset will have to pay $30 per month to keep Big Red happy. This might come as a shock if you’ve been living it up on the free tethering offer that ends next week, but we had a strong inkling it was coming. Besides, it’s not all bad: those 30 bucks will get you unlimited data on the fastest LTE network around, whereas $20 crew must make do with a mere 2GB monthly.

[Thanks, Verizon Guy]

Verizon data charges leak continues, $30 tethering for 4G customers originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 02 Jul 2011 15:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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