Hasta La Gadget!

We can’t say there are an awful lot of folks out there looking for a single mobile broadband card that’ll play nice in both PC Card and ExpressCard slots, but for that niche that’s intently paying attention, have a look at this. The Sierra Wireless AirCard 402 is the company’s first to offer such 2-in-1 functionality, and it’s designed to operate on EV-DO Rev. A networks handling speeds of up to 3.1Mbps (downlink) / 1.8Mbps (uplink). Users can also bank on the company’s TRU-Locate GPS service to “quickly and accurately establish location for local searches and navigation.” There’s no mention of a price or release date, but it should be on hand for us to peer at during CTIA this week.

[Via ExpressCard-Info]

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Sierra Wireless AirCard 402 plays PC Card and ExpressCard roles originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It seems like just yesterday that Big Red was firing up its EV-DO Rev. A network in America, and already we’re seeing signs of life with Rev. B. In all honesty, though, we’ve known about the next iteration of EV-DO (and the next-next, for that matter) for years now, but said Chinese carrier has just completed what it calls the world’s first EV-DO Rev. B VoIP call on its CDMA2000 system. In other words, this is the first time a CDMA carrier has achieved a 9.3Mbps download rate and 5.4Mbps upload rate. The lovely part of this is that ZTE can upgrade from Rev. A to Rev. B without any additional hardware, thus paving the way for a quick commercialization in Q3 2009. Huzzah!

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

ZTE completes EV-DO Rev. B VoIP call on CDMA2000 system originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just in case Microsoft hadn’t locked down enough support for Windows Mobile at MWC last week, the company also managed to shake hands with a slew of PC makers in order to extend support for Mobile Broadband enhancements within Windows 7. It’s still quite unclear what all this means, but we’re guessing that the likes of Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP and Fujitsu will happily support WWAN modules from Huawei, Option, Qualcomm, Sierra Wireless and ZTE. The writeup also gives us reason to believe that WWAN connections will be more tightly integrated than before, possibly even showing up alongside potential WiFi hotspots when looking for a wireless connection. At any rate, we’re all about getting a signal regardless of location, so we’ll take this as a definite positive despite the glaring dearth of details.

[Thanks, Jacob]

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Microsoft gets big support for Mobile Broadband enhancements in Windows 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Despite the fact that LTE looks to be the de facto standard for next-gen mobile data, ASUS has an unwavering love affair with WiMAX. In fact, we’ve already seen the company introduce a WiMAX-equipped laptop, and a WiMAX-enabled Eee PC was demoed way back at CES 2008. That said, the company is just now getting around to producing a new one for the adoring public, but for whatever reason, it’s not even boasting about it. Tucked deep, deep within a release gloating about the Eee PC 1003HA and T91‘s ability to handle Windows 7 Beta is the promise of an Eee PC 1000HG. Said netbook will include both WiMAX and WiFi capabilities — or, more specifically, IEEE 802.16e, WAVE2 and WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n support in the 2.4GHz~2.7GHz and 5.1GHz~5.8GHz bands. Of course, “future” could mean “we’ll release this in late 2019,” but we’re banking on hearing more details sooner rather than later.

Filed under: Laptops

ASUS announces WiMAX-equipped Eee PC 1000HG originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Leave Ericsson alone for five seconds, and it goes and makes the technology it was just bragging about seem archaic. Just in case Telstra’s 21Mbps Next G network seemed a bit — how do you say, sluggish? — Ericsson will be showcasing a new approach that enables peak downlink data rates of 42Mbps at Mobile World Congress. In order to achieve such tremendous speeds, it will rely on its so-called multi-carrier technology, which is the next (or is that next-next?) generation of HSPA. The secret? It allows users to “receive data simultaneously on two frequency channels,” which doubles the data rate in the coverage area of an HSPA network and on the cell edge. The best part of all this isn’t that you can one day look forward to crushing your cable modem with a wireless USB stick, it’s that “one day” will be ready to happen before the dawn of 2010. Huzzah!

[Via phonescoop, image courtesy of TornadoChaser]

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Ericsson promises 42Mbps HSPA demo using multi-carrier technology originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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