The Sprint/Clearwire joint WiMax venture announced back in July is a done deal, as is the $US3.2 billion investmentfrom Intel, Google and others. The WiMax network will branded Clear, replacing the stupid Xohm moniker.
The WiMax Acer Aspire One hasn’t even been announced yet (UPDATE: actually, it just was), but Laptop Magazine got their hands on a model and got to poke and prod it to their hearts’ content. So how did browsing the web on a tiny WiMax notebook work? Pretty decently.
Sprint’s Xohm WiMax network got extra super official today with a party and all, so laptop makers are tossing out confetti in the form of WiMax-enabled notebooks. Here’s what you’ve got to pick from. Acer dropped a pair of Aspire cheapies in 14- and 16-inch sizes, while Asus’s 14 and 15-inchers are a bit mo’ better for a bit mo’ money. Oh, there’s more.
Sprint’s enticing Xohm WiMax network is slowly making its way across the country, but Lenovo has complained of a major problem with it gaining popularity. According to GigaOM, Lenovo expected to dominate the market with a variety of WiMax products since they had put a lot of time and effort into testing equipment. But Lenovo explained that Sprint is requiring a “narrow” pipeline of internal product testing—something you don’t see for Wi-Fi equipment—which has nixed much of their WiMax product line for launch. It’s tough to tell where WiMax will go from here, but when a big company like Lenovo can’t get products approved for release, it’s hard to believe that the countless, smaller companies necessary to drive down prices and promote popularity will break into the market any time soon. [GigaOM]
Now that the Baltimore’s XOHM network is up and running, companies are scrambling to release WiMAX-enabled notebooks to capitalise on faster-than-EVDO internet. One of the first out the door is Acer, with two new WiMAX sporting Aspires. The Aspire 4930 comes with a 14.1-inch 1280×800 resolution CrystalBrite screen, 3GB RAM, a 320GB hard drive, a webcam, and retails for $900. The 6930 is all that (including the $US900 price point), but with a 16-inch screen instead. Both use Intel’s Centrino 2-based WiMAX/Wi-Fi modules. Happy on-the-go downloading!
We saw Sprint/Clearwire/whoever‘s Xohm WiMax tested in B-more with speedy results. And now, news from a Xohm employee in Baltimore is that the service is also live and working (albeit in an “unsupported” test capacity) in Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and northern Virginia. So anyone with WiMax-enabled hardware in those cities, let us know if you’re picking up any sweet 3 mbps pipe out there. [MP3Car]
Laptopmag went ahead and tested out Xohm WiMax goodness, now that it’s live in Baltimore. They jammed an ExpressCard Xohm into a Sony Vaio laptop, and compared it to a Kyocera EVDO card running on Verizon, at a spot where both signals were strong. The conclusion? Xohm beats EVDO for speed when doing intensive downloading, such as streaming video, or large file transfers—the top download speed they found for Xohm was 3.05Mbps while EVDO managed just 1.43MBps. So far so groovy, and Laptopmag gave a few more thumbs up to the system, like how it auto-connects when you plug in the adaptor, and the daily subscription options. But this isn’t much of a surprise—it’s designed to be faster—and for now Xohm’s coverage is severely limited, to say the least. Check out the link for the full picture. [Laptopmag]
For all the talk that Sprint’s freshly launched Xohm WiMax would be the openest internets ever and can totally replace your ISP, when it comes to bandwidth-sucking apps, that’s not the case. It’ll neuter file-sharing applications, or anything else—like VoIP—that uses a lot of bandwidth.
Just over a week ago the word was that Baltimore, the first city in a pilot program for the new wireless tech, might not see WiMax until October. With a minimal announcement and little fanfare, though, it looks like the service has gone live in select parts of the city. The pricing options are interesting though already controversial, as there are different fees for unlimited monthly access depending on whether or not that access comes from one or many locations.
We’ve been talking about Sprint’s Xohm Wimax service for ages—tracking its on again, off again status. And now it looks like it’s been slightly delayed again, from September to October 6th. A tipster at DSLreports is saying news on coverage, and the all-important pricing scheme will hit September 26th, on Sprint’s site. But, according to Gearlog, Sprint’s sticking with a September date when asked. So who knows when it’ll hit, but we hope its soon so we can check out its promise of super-speedy internet access. [DSLreports via BGR]
