Looks like some of the Skype crew might’ve had a sleepless night to please owners of the Nexus S 4G. If you’ll recall, June 30th saw a major update to its Android app enabling video chat on four devices; although the Nexus S was part of the club, its door was locked for Sprint’s 4G variant. That’s quickly changed, however, as the team’s set loose a hotfix to grant it access — this despite initially stating we’d have to wait for a “future release.” You can grab the app from the Android Market if you haven’t yet, and be sure to let us know how it goes in comments. Oh, and for those anxious Thunderbolt owners? We’d recommend not holding your breath until after the 4th of July holiday.
Technically speaking, it’s not actually the 28th of December in the Bay Area yet, but Sprint’s already out in front with its announcement that WiMAX connectivity has been activated in and around the city of San Francisco. We were promised this development exactly three weeks ago, back when Los Angeles and Washington DC were first familiarizing themselves with the glorious new speed, and today the Bay Area, which also includes San Jose, Palo Alto and Oakland, adds to a total of 71 metropolitan markets that have been lit up with Sprint’s finest wireless offering. Guess Verizon had better start fast and keep running if it wants to keep up, eh?
Seems like Sprint wants to get every last lick of 4G coverage in before Verizon flips the switch on LTE — today, its joint venture with Clearwire is launching WiMAX in the City of Angels a day ahead of schedule. Lest you think Los Angeles is getting special treatment, five other cellular markets can now also get a taste of 5Mbps to 7Mbps download speeds, including Miami, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus and our nation’s capitol, Washington D.C. That brings the total number of regions where you’ll get some mileage out of that $10 surcharge up to 68, in case you’re keeping track. What’s next? If the press release after the break is correct, San Francisco will finally satisfy its need for speed on December 28th. Not that any of these locales haven’t been secretly enjoying 4G already, of course.
We gave a fortunate sect of consumers a taste of WiMAX during our recent reader meetup in the Big Apple, but now it’s available to all: as promised, Sprint has just gone live with New York City’s first 4G network. With the holiday sales season just around the bend, this honestly couldn’t have come at a better time, and considering the bandwidth strain that hamstrings the city, it could very well make things easier on everyone if the adoption rate is high. Moreover, Sprint has blessed Hartford, New Haven, New Brunswick, Trenton and Tampa with WiMAX as of today, bringing the grand total of lit cities to 61. So, LTE — whatcha waitin’ for?
Update: Naturally, Clearwire has launched 4G in NYC as well. Of course, we’re splitting hairs with branding by now, but there it is.
Sprint’s treating the East Coast to a shot of adrenaline-fueled mobile internet today, with Daytona Beach in Florida, Providence in Rhode Island, and Boston (you know the state, right?) all getting the green light for 4G activation. Notably, this takes the number of markets Sprint has now lit up in sexy WiMAX airwaves beyond 50 and ratchets up the states that have at least some coverage up to 21. It’s also jolly good news for any residents of those three cities that were lustily eyeing the Epic or EVO 4G but felt they couldn’t justify it without an actual 4G network to hook up to.
Your existing iPhone (yeah, even the original) can surf the information superhighway at 4G speeds. Today. Who knew, right? Sprint’s Overdrive — which creates a WiFi hotspot that enables nearby devices to cruise on Clear’s 4G (or 3G, if you’re not in a 4G locale) network — can theoretically enable any WiFi-capable phone to surf on WiMAX, but Sprint’s taking a pretty bold approach by actually touting the feature in a new spot. Befuddled? Hop on past the break and mash play. Too bad this is about as close the iPhone will ever get to Sprint’s shelves…
Looks like some of the Skype crew might’ve had a sleepless night to please owners of the Nexus S 4G. If you’ll recall, June 30th saw a major update to its Android app enabling video chat on four devices; although the Nexus S was part of the club, its door was locked for Sprint’s 4G variant. That’s quickly changed, however, as the team’s set loose a hotfix to grant it access — this despite initially stating we’d have to wait for a “future release.” You can grab the app from the Android Market if you haven’t yet, and be sure to let us know how it goes in comments. Oh, and for those anxious Thunderbolt owners? We’d recommend not holding your breath until after the 4th of July holiday.
