Hasta La Gadget!

Yeah, that’s right, Portland, wipe that smug grin off your face. You too, Baltimore, because Clearwire has committed to a list of new mobile WiMAX launches for this year and next — and needless to say, there are some major markets in the mix. In its earnings call this week, Clearwire revealed 2009 will see Atlanta, Las Vegas, Chicago, Charlotte, Dallas / Fort Worth, Honolulu, Philadelphia, and Seattle all take the plunge, while ’10 will add New York, Washington DC, Boston, and San Fran (among other to-be-named metros). We’re not sure whether they’re talking about the same U300 USB modem that launched before, but the company has also mentioned that it’ll be launching a dual-mode data card this summer, and ahead of that, we’ll be getting that portable WiMAX WiFi hotspot by the end of this month. The goal is to cover about 120 million pops in 80 markets by the end of next year, which certainly seems strong enough to give the oncoming LTE rush a run for its money, doesn’t it?

[Via mocoNews]

Filed under: Wireless

Portland non-residents rejoice: Clearwire’s WiMAX service to expand to major markets this year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 03:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, March 15th looks like launch day for Sprint’s Palm Treo Pro, and it’s about time, after all, we’ve seen it rumored, unboxed, reviewed, and now finally you’ll get a chance to pick one up. If you hearken back to the glory days of early February, you’ll remember — or we’ll help you — we’d heard rumors of the Palm Pre launching on the 15th, seems the rumor was at least partially right as the Treo Pro is most definitely a Palm. The Price? Apparently it will fill your pocket whilst emptying your wallet for $199 as long as you’re willing to sign on the dotted line for a couple years. We’ll be back as soon we get more details on the plans and other contract / off contract pricing.

[Via The Official Palm Blog ]

Filed under: Cellphones

Sprint’s Palm Treo Pro set to make its debut on March 15th originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint has exclusive rights to sell the upcoming Palm Pre smartphone through the end of 2009, an anonymous source familiar with the deal told CNBC. That’s actually not all that unusual. Major cell phone carriers often strike deals to sell a brand new handset for about six months before its competitors get their hands on it. If the Palm Pre goes on sale sometime in the second quarter, that would be in line with prior Sprint exclusives.

Compare that to Apple, which has been reported to have signed a five-year exclusive deal for the iPhone on AT&T. So far, we’re not even two years into that, as the original iPhone didn’t go on sale until mid-2007. On the other hand, Sprint is currently third in the rankings of the four major carriers in terms of subscribers, and it’s the only major carrier to consistently lose large swaths of them from quarter to quarter. So it remains to be seen what effect this could have on Palm Pre sales, and whether or not Palm loyalists will jump to Sprint just to get their hands on the Pre.

Last week, Sprint unveiled more of the Palm Pre’s tech specs on its Web site.

Sprint’s Simply Everything plan’s always brought a lot of bang for the buck, and it looks like it’s about to include a little more everything — you’ll now be able to add mobile broadband to the package. $149 a month ain’t cheap, but you won’t be short of connectivity with unlimited messaging, data, and voice, GPS navigation, and 5GB of laptop internet access a month. That explains Sprint’s willingness to promote the Pre’s data tethering abilities — anyone going to take the plunge?

Update: Sprint pinged us to clarify that the additional fee only covers the use of a USB stick or laptop card, not tethering. We’d still love to just carry one thing, though.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Filed under: Cellphones

Sprint Simply Everything plan now includes mobile broadband for laptops originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are many things the Pre can do. Tragically, swallow a microSD card whole (or otherwise) is not one of them, which is kind of unfortunate considering that only 7.4GB of the integrated 8GB will be available to the user — but it turns out that tethering, thankfully, is. Newly-published tech specs on Sprint’s site reveal that you’ll be able to use your little EV-DO Rev. A monster as a modem both over Bluetooth and USB cable — something the Pre’s arch nemesis cannot so far (at least, not in any official capacity). Whether this helps push AT&T and Apple over the edge remains to be seen, but in the meantime, we’ll be pushing close to a megabit per second upstream, thank you very much.

[Via PreCentral]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Data tethering is a go on Palm Pre originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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