Common Paradox Tech Blog

Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing said on Friday that he sees mobile internet devices making up the vast majority of the company’s profits, possibly as much as 70-80%, in as little as 5 years. Currently, most sales come from the Thinkpad and Ideapad line of notebooks.  Lenovo plans to accomplish this changeover by expanding into emerging markets. Devices likely to make up these sales are tablets, smartphones, and smartbooks.

Lenovo is currently the world’s number four PC maker, having purchased IBM’s PC division in 2005. The China based company just released their first touchscreen smartphone, the Ophone O1, in China. Lenovo also plans to release another phone called the LePhone sometime in mid 2010. Most of Lenovo’s energies are being focused on the China market as part of their “protect and attack” strategy. After they feel more secure in China, Lenovo may more into underserved markets like Latin America and Eastern Europe.

It may be a while before the new cell standard known as Long Term Evolution (LTE) comes to your neck of the woods, but Verizon is already deep in testing of the new technology. They’ve been so good as to release some early speed estimates based on their tests in Boston and Seattle. The results are pretty good, but frankly not as good as we’d hoped.

According to Verizon’s PR statement, the LTE network is substantially faster than the current Ev-Do Rev. A network Big Red is running. This certainly doesn’t surprise anyone though. Verizon engineers were able to get an impressive 40-50Mbps down and 20-25Mbps up with ideal conditions. You know, the sort of ideal conditions you will basically never experience. Real world speeds should be around 5-12Mbps down and 2-5Mbps up.

This is nice (really, we’d love to get speeds like that on a cell network), but a little discouraging when you consider the theoretical max for this new LTE equipment is in the neighborhood of 100Mbps down. This is still preliminary, and the network could be stronger than expected when it rolls out to 25-30 markets later this year. With T-Mobile expected to bump up their data to HSPA+ 3G at 21Mbps maximum speed, the initial difference may not be as stark as we thought.

In his hundred-word inquiry to Steve Jobs as to whether or not the iPad will tether to the iPhone, the Swedish DJ Jezper Söderlund started by saying, “I’ll keep it short.” Steve’s response kept it really short: “No.”

OK, Steve’s answer hardly comes as a surprise, but I’m always tickled when there’s a report of Steve Jobs responding personally to someone’s e-mail. I imagine him sitting on the can, flicking idly on his iPhone, and finally deciding to open that massive folder of his inbox where all the e-mail from the plebs gets redirected. Oh, what’s this?

I’ll keep it short.

I’m Jezper from Sweden, a long time Apple fan, currently about to replace the very last computer at home with a brand spanking new iMac i7. I’m also awaiting the release of the iPad. However, I have one question:

Will the wifi-only version somehow support tethering thru my iPhone?

Two devices, based on the same OS, with already built-in technology to share one data plan suggests a secondary contract could possibly be redundant.

From the look of your keynote, where the iPad sits well between my MacBook Pro and my iPhone, I was hoping the three of them could interact as seamless as possible.

All the best,
Jezper Söderlund

Whether or not he knew that Jezper was a Swedish DJ of some acclaim (he didn’t), King Steve couldn’t be bothered to type more than a single word before he rose up off his throne.

No.

Sent from my iPhone

What do we learn from this? 1. You won’t be able to skimp on an iPad data plan by tethering to your iPhone. 2. There’s still the outside chance that someday “sjobs@apple.com” will pop up before your eyes, delivering a disappointingly terse (but change of pants-requiring nonetheless) message directly to your inbox. [9 to 5 Mac]

If you want to use a dedicated 3G dongle for your laptop, hardware choices are always limited. Here are AT&Ts two new offerings, the LG Velocity and Option Turbo. And no, you’re not the only one who thought “American Gladiators.”

LG Velocity

Free with a two-year contract, the Velocity is a no-frills card, with HSPA 7.2 support, MicroSD slot for thumb drive capability and a swiveling head that should allow you to—well, if you’ve actually used one of these 3G sticks, you know that they can be unwieldy. So it helps.

Option Turbo

Despite its plastic design, the Turbo is AT&T’s new premium 3G stick. It, too, supports MicroSD, but it also adds aGPS and will set you back $30 with two-year contract.

Both new dongles will be available starting March 7th.

DALLAS, March 1, 2010 – AT&T* today announced two new 3G LaptopConnect devices: the AT&T USBConnect Turbo from LG and AT&T USBConnect Velocity from Option. Both will be available in AT&T retail stores, business channels and online beginning March 7. The Turbo and Velocity enable customers to stay connected on their laptop while on the go with the nation’s fastest 3G network.

The Velocity, is the first GPS-enabled LaptopConnect device from AT&T. The built-in aGPS functionality opens the door to location-based applications making it easier than ever for customers to get to their desired destination. Option offers a free software application, the Option GPS Control Panel, that leverages location-enabled sites like Yahoo! Maps and Bing for directions and local points of interest. Option GPS Control Panel will be available for download on the Option support web page beginning March 7. Additionally, through TeleNav Track LITE™ and Xora GPS Locator from AT&T, enterprise customers can add tracking and location awareness thus improving response time by easily locating the closest worker to a service call.

The Turbo is AT&T’s first LaptopConnect device from LG and features a compact, lightweight design. Turbo’s HSPA 7.2 capability offers a high speed Internet connection that allows users to meet their professional and personal computing needs away from their office or home computer. The ergonomic design and unique USB connector makes Turbo compatible with a wide variety of laptop configurations.

Both devices feature an integrated microSD card slot making them portable storage devices that allow users to carry the data and files they need at their fingertips. LaptopConnect devices allow customers to get more done on-the-go as well as keep up to date with their professional network from anywhere AT&T provides data coverage.

“Velocity and Turbo both offer a first for AT&T: our first GPS enabled LaptopConnect device and our first LaptopConnect device from LG,” said Michael Woodward, vice president, Mobile Phone Portfolio, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “In addition to being compatible with our latest HSPA technology, the two devices let AT&T customers get more done while on the go. From traveling professionals to students, AT&T offers a LaptopConnect solution for everyone.”

Pricing and Availability
Beginning March 7, both the Turbo and Velocity will be available online and in AT&T stores nationwide. AT&T USBConnect Turbo will be available for free after mail-in rebate and a new two-year DataConnect contract of at least $35 a month (pay $99.99 and after mail-in rebate receive $100 AT&T Promotion Card. Two-year agreement and DataConnect plan required).

AT&T USBConnect Velocity will be available for $29.99 after mail-in rebate and a new two-year DataConnect contract of at least $35 a month (pay $129.99 and after mail-in rebate receive $100 AT&T Promotion Card. Two-year agreement and DataConnect plan required).

AT&T CEO, Randall Stephenson, has been quoted in saying that the Apple iPad will be a “Wi-Fi driven product” so no customers should be concerned with poor 3G data. But it did not end there, he also went on to say the following.

“My expectation is that there’s not going to be a lot of people [...]

AT&T Not Banking on Selling 3G Data Plans for iPad? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

According to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, iPad will be a Wi-Fi driven product. “My expectation is that there’s not going to be a lot of people out there looking for another subscription,” he said.

It makes sense; people who already have an iPhone subscription may be unlikely to go for another subscription, especially since it’s not crucial to the iPad experience, which comes in both Wi-Fi and 3G flavors.

But, have you ever actually tried to do some meaningful work (or even casual browsing) using only a Wi-Fi connection when you’re on the move? Often, you’ll find many Wi-Fi connections available, but they’re all password-protected. When you find one, you’re not very mobile anymore: sit on a tram, bus, or a subway, and your Wi-Fi is lost, then you have to search for another one. Finally, open Wi-Fi connections are often unsafe, and many users won’t dare access or send sensitive data over them.

Being able to fall back to a 3G connection improves your mobile Internet experience tremendously, and the logical question (that no one answered yet) is this: Will iPad users will be able to tether 3G connection from the iPhone? After all, if you’re paying for a 3G iPhone subscription, shouldn’t you be able to use that connection on another device (bought from the same carrier and the same manufacturer)?

Apple has so far been silent about tethering on the iPad, but it’s a question that needs to be answered, perhaps even before iPad hits the market.

Tags: 3g, att, ipad, iphone, Tethering

Yes that’s right, you can now be a certified couch potato anywhere you find yourself with the new update to SlingPlayer Moblie, which can play back your DVR shows and control live TV from your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Do you hear a faint fapping? That’s the sound of thousands of iPhone and iPod Touch users who have been hotly anticipating 3G SlingBox streaming for the some time now, finally able to control their home TVs on the go. Full channel-changing and PVR support is included.

The app costs $30 or comes as a free upgrade for existing users and can be snatched up riiiiiight now on iTunes. [iTunes - Thanks David!]

Verizon has officially stated that they will be holding a joint press conference with Skype at MWC on Tuesday, and now Business Week is reporting that Verizon will announce new phones preloaded with Skype for use with their 3G network.

Well yes, that seems like a pretty reasonable guess for what the two companies will be announcing come Tuesday. Despite constant rumors of such, there’s no iPhone or iPad on the Verizon horizon, and adding Skype to their stable would be an attractive option for customers who are making fewer and fewer calls but are already plunking down considerable cash for beefy data plans.

With Skype tinkering away on the 3G functionality of their iPhone app—3G Skype calls are already possible with Fring—it seems like as good a time as ever for Verizon to make a strong push for 3G data calling and the more flexible plans it will engender. [Business Week]

Apple’s latest bulletin via the iPhone Developer News feed highlight how we really might see 3G connected SlingPlayer — and even Hulu — on the iPhone and iPad without melting the cell towers, courtesy of HTTP Live Streaming:

HTTP Live Streaming provides a state-of-the-art standards-based solution for streaming video over wireless networks. A key [...]

Apple: Want to Stream Video Over 3G? Use HTTP and Have a 64 Kbps Option for the Network is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Netgear and Ericsson have been tinkering away on a joint project, the fruits of which have weaned today—the MBRN3300E 3G mobile broadband router.

It’s essentially a router which uses 3G WAN in addition to 802.11n wireless and four ethernet LAN ports for 270Mbps connectivity, so there’s plenty o’ choice for internet users whether they’re in their houses or on the road (with 3G connection).

It’s available now, although Netgear hasn’t confirmed for just how much. [Netgear]