I want high speed Internet everywhere. Forget the WiFi hotspot locator attached to your keychain or the questionable reliability of a local cafe, I want a reliable and fast connection everywhere I go, even if it’s on a train or car moving 60 mph. Thankfully the cellular phone industry is up to the task and rolling out wireless data connections with up to 3 Mb/s in the San Francisco Bay area and other large metropolitan areas throughout the U.S.
These new mobile technologies are known as EV-DO or HSDPA depending on the carrier and are delivering high enough speed with low latency for us to start taking it seriously. The technology is built-in to many mobile phones and even a few laptops and getting online anywhere might be as simple as a $8 USB or a $100 specialized PC card and a data plan costing around $60 for unlimited data usage.
In this week’s PodSession Om and I discuss the latest wireless broadband offerings from major U.S. carriers such as Sprint, Verizon, and Cingular available today and in the next 6 months. What would you do with a 1 Mb/s always-on connection in your car, pocket, or on your laptop? How would it change the types of applications you develop or the way you seek out new information?
If you have an ExpressCard 34 slot in your laptop, help is on the way! Novatel will introduce a EV-DO card in about 5 weeks that will work with your MacBook Pro and other laptops using the new card format.
This week’s podcast, Wireless broadband, is 22 minutes long, a 10 MB download.