Apple device users are getting more ways to access the cloud, with Clearwire’s new iSpot, and an unearthed iDisk update from Apple. The two announcements are separate, but indicate the growth around improved access points around cloud data. In this larger virtualization trend, infrastructure builds are carving out paths for consumers and brands to access each other, and that’s a major value point for services, marketing and data collection. First up is Clearwire’s new iSpot, which introduces a mobile wifi device for creating your own hotspot. The iSpot supports 4G, and has a battery life of 4 hours. It support eight connections, with a range of 150 feet. The draw here is the iSpot’s appeal to Apple users, which have se

Millennial Media’s MobileMix report is out this month. The highlights: - Android’s market share continues to grow in the smartphone market, with Android requests growing 15% month-over-month. - iPad requests grew over 160% month-over-month. - Backing up reports that the new HTC Evo 4G Android phones enjoyed monumental consumer demand despite lukewarm reviews, HTC recieved the largest share increase month-over-month. - Apple OS still shows the the largest market share at 48%, but posted a decrease of 14% month-over-month. [Editor’s Note: Millennial Media is a sponsor of SiliconANGLE. –mrh]

Today, AT&T announced the end of unlimited data plans. They currently charge $29.99 for this on the iPad and iPhone. On June 7th, the new plans will be: DataPlus: $15/month includes 200MB of data, overage $15/200MB DataPro: $25/month includes 2GB of data, overage $10/1GB Their tethering option is similarly unattractive. It costs $20 on top of the DataPro plan, and worst of all, it uses the same pool of data. Thus your 2GB allotment applies to both your smartphone usage AND tethering! The current situation with Verizon Wireless is better. They continue to offer unlimited data for $29.99, but have signaled that they will be moving away from this in the future. Their new pricing has not been shared, but you can bet that it wil

In case you’ve been living under a rock and didn’t realize this, there’s a whole thriving culture of piracy in China. This encompasses piracy of music, video, software and increasing hardware devices. I’ve talked extensively why I feel the iPad is a giant #fail, and most of the reasons have to do with Apple’s selfish desire to keep a pristine and pure path of content borrowing that leads straight to the iTunes store. To think that they can construct a completely walled garden around a product that no one knows they need, jack the price up sky high, and expect it to sell directly to the mainstream is the height of arrogance (but then, that’s Apple). If you needed proof as to why this is a failing business model, here it is fro

A lot of digital ink has been slain in the coverage of Cisco’s ongoing war to kill the WiMax standard in favor of the LTE standard. In the end, the topic is ultimately esoteric in light of the mainstream’s understanding of what the wireless broadband space options actually are: cheap and solid or expensive and unreliable. While we all sat around in Austin this year giving AT&T kudos for finally getting their network to work during a global gathering of geeks at SxSW, a company has been dipping in and out of our collective radars for offering superior speeds and superior pricing: Clear. Clear, the broadband wireless provider that believes WiMax isn’t dead. They’ve been banking that people would cut the cord with their cable and

In the last decade, mobile phones have been the only constant in my tech gadget collection. As I rolled into 2000, I didn’t own a personal computer, rather using one from work for all my personal digital items, which didn’t include photos or music, just a couple dozen simple word documents and spreadsheets. I didn’t have a digital camera. I didn’t have a printer, fax machine, or home scanner, or the two terabytes of network attached storage I currently have, something that, if it even had been available, which it wasn’t, would have cost something like $30K across no fewer several dozen drives. I used Thomas Brother’s book of maps to go from business meeting to business meeting as a technology analyst, or called and asked for

I’d committed to keep y’all up to date on my ongoing experience with my MiFi.  After a couple of months of use, I’m still enamored. Verizon’s network delivers as promised, with only a few occasions where I’ve had little or no signal; ironically, in each of those situations I’ve been able to fail back to my previous connectivity method of Bluetooth tethering to my 2G T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve, so I have yet to encounter a situation where I’m totally off the air, although I realize that it’s just a matter of time until I do. The power characteristics of the device are interesting (he says euphemistically).  From a full charge, I’ve been pretty consistently getting four hours or so of use when on EVDO Rev. A.

I love me my MiFi. I don't mean to wax rhapsodic like some central government-backed campaign, but the MiFi has brought me harmonious and glorifying wisdom, in order that my lymphatic system feels cleaner. Or something like that. Ever since Novatel introduced the MiFi earlier this year, I knew that it (or a derivative) would end up in my bag. If you're not familiar with the MiFi, think of a WiFi hotspot, but mobile--small enough to fit in your business card case. Seriously. The device itself is astonishingly simple--a CDMA 3G radio, a WiFi radio, and a battery. Simple, but elegant. Over the past couple of months (or the last decade, really), I've found myself in airports, hotels, meetings, and conferences where WiFi wasn't available, o

The battle over our always connected future will be decided over the next several years as WiMax and LTE slug it out as the platforms vying for our 4G attention.  They each have their arguments against each other why the other won't succeed, in the end it will be the consumer that decides based on pricing plans, device availability and features/applications delivered by the developer community. Clearwire has officially announced their Clear WiMax service in Las Vegas today for service that will be available as of August 1st.  They are targeting the Vegas region that spans 683 square miles and 1.7 million consumers with dual mode 4G/3G modems.  Customers will connect up to Clearwires 4G network and when traveling out of the