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Sprint lights up WiMAX in NC, Chicago and Dallas, launches subsidized Mini 10

by Darren Murph posted Nov 2nd 2009 @ 9:44AM

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together? Or better yet, when a leaked roadmap doesn't get delayed in the slightest? After months upon months of waiting, broadband-lovin' citizens in the North Carolina Triangle and Triad will be celebrating alongside DFW residents and Chicago natives as Sprint's 4G WiMAX service rolls into town. As of right now (that's today, junior), consumers in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point and Charlotte, NC; Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas and Chicago, Illinois can roll into a Sprint store and snag a U300 3G / 4G WWAN modem on a $69.99 monthly data plan. We're told that San Antonio and Austin will get lit up later this month, while Honolulu and Maui, Hawaii; Salem, Oregon and Seattle, Washington will join the fray before 2010. Oh, and did we mention that Palm's favorite carrier finally snagged itself a WWAN-equipped netbook? 'Cause the Dell Mini 10 is available starting today for $199.99 at select Sprint stores in the metropolitan Baltimore area.

Update: Looks like Sprint changed "Baltimore" to "Bay Area." Odd.

Read - Sprint WiMAX in the Triangle
Read - Sprint WiMAX in the Triad
Read - Sprint WiMAX in Charlotte, NC
Read - Sprint WiMAX in Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX
Read - Sprint WiMAX in Chicago, IL
Read - Sprint's first netbook is Dell Mini 10

AT&T slinging HSPA 7.2 to six cities this year, adding backhaul capacity too

by Darren Murph posted Sep 9th 2009 @ 8:44AM

If there's one thing AT&T's network could use, it's more network. Particularly in major cities (we're looking at you and your dastardly street parking situation, San Francisco), AT&T's 3G network is perpetually overwhelmed, oftentimes forcing users to switch to EDGE just to tweet about how awful the coverage is. Thankfully, the operator is making good on its earlier promise to roll out HSPA 7.2Mbps to select cities, with Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami now destined to get lit this year. Potentially more interesting, however, is the deployment of "additional backhaul capacity to cell sites," which will also support LTE when the time comes. All told, around 2,000 new cell sites should be added before the year's end, and at least a half dozen 7.2Mbps-capable smartphones should be in AT&T's portfolio by the same deadline. Feel free to express your joy in comments below -- that is, if you can get comments to load on your existing 3G connection.

iPhone 3G S data isn't really faster than the 3G's in Chicago

by Chris Ziegler posted Jun 20th 2009 @ 10:19AM

There's been talk the last couple days about the fact that there really isn't anywhere in the States to take advantage of the blazing 7.2Mbps downlink connection supported by the iPhone 3G S -- except for one great hope, one diamond in the rough that could become a shining destination for 3G S owners the world over. That destination would be Chicago, where AT&T fired up 7.2Mbps trials late last year, and the hope was that they might be letting lay folk (like us) in on the action in time for the 3G S release. Well, we've been running side-by-side tests today, and the short answer is that we're clearly not accessing 7.2 -- granted, the 3G S is getting marginally faster speeds both up and down, but we figure this can easily be attributed to the new model's faster processor because a doubling of the downlink pipe simply doesn't account for a 100kbps bump in speed (latency was all over the map on both phones, for the record). If you're holding out on upgrading from a 3G to a 3G S, go ahead and crack a smile -- because for now, anyway, this is one spec bump that means precisely zilch in the real world.

Desperate for a Pre, woman uses car to create Sprint's first drive-thru store

by Ross Miller posted Jun 5th 2009 @ 10:12PM

NBC Chicago is reporting that an elderly woman who "apparently couldn't wait to get her Palm Pre" from a local Sprint store -- and yeah, we're pretty sure that's not the case -- decided to plow her car right through the entrance. Best of all, a security camera captured the whole incident. No one was hurt and the store will apparently be fixed in time for tomorrow's big day, so if that puts your mind at ease, head on over after the break to witness, and possibly enjoy, all the mayhem.

[Via PalmPre.org]

Continue reading Desperate for a Pre, woman uses car to create Sprint's first drive-thru store

Nokia E75 NAM hits the US flagship stores

by Chris Ziegler posted May 6th 2009 @ 2:55PM

If you're up for a trip to New York or Chicago (both are lovely this time of year), you now have a shot at scoring the North American version of Nokia's landscape QWERTY slider, the E75. Of course, "scoring" costs you $529.99 in this case -- and you can only get it in black right now -- but if you spend a lot of time in the seedier parts of either of these towns, the concept of scoring for several hundred dollars should be very familiar.

[Via Symbian-Guru]

Sprint unveils WiMAX expansion cities, devices for 2009 and 2010

by Darren Murph posted Mar 25th 2009 @ 11:34AM

The XOHM label may be gone, but the potency of Sprint's WiMAX network is still kickin' in and around Baltimore. For those itching for wicked fast mobile broadband outside of The Charm City, Sprint has just unveiled a slew of expansion areas that'll get gifted in 2009 and 2010. As for the rest of this year, folks in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Portland and Seattle can expect Sprint 4G rollouts, while residents of Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. can be on the lookout in 2010. In related news, the carrier is also taking this opportunity to reveal that it has "several new 4G devices planned for 2009 and 2010, including a single-mode 4G data card, embedded laptops, a small-office-home-office broadband modem and a tri-mode phone." Lovely.

Man charged $28,000 for using data card, Slingbox to watch football game

by Ross Miller posted Feb 24th 2009 @ 7:31AM

While waiting for a Caribbean cruise liner to set sail from the Port of Miami last November, a Chicago native with an AT&T wireless card and Slingbox decided to catch the Bears vs. Lions football game on his laptop. The end result? A $28,067.31 bill from for international data charges, despite the ship never leaving the harbor. Apparently the card was picking up a signal it shouldn't have, and while the bill was eventually dropped to $290.65 after a considerable number of calls to customer service, let that be a warning to mobile users traveling on the fringe of international roaming areas -- and in case you were wondering, the Bears ended up winning 27 to 23.

[Via The Register]

Sprint hopeful to take WiMAX live in Chicago by end of 2009

by Chris Ziegler posted Jan 4th 2009 @ 9:45AM

We'd kill to understand the politics, technical issues, or combination thereof that are responsible for stopping Sprint from taking its long-completed Chicago WiMAX footprint live. Not only has the launch now missed its 2008 target window -- at this point, the company is merely saying that it's hopeful to launch the network "in the latter half of the year," where "year" is 2009. Meanwhile, Chicagoans are rife in 4G (or so Sprint and WiMAX's backers are billing it, anyhow) that they're unable to use, and if this all boils down to a delay due to a branding transition, that's a year of wheel-spinning buffoonery that Sprint and Clearwire really can't afford to waste -- especially with LTE pilot markets right around the corner.

[Thanks, David C.]

RIM sues Motorola right back for blocking poaching

by Chris Ziegler posted Dec 25th 2008 @ 7:01PM

RIM has seen Moto's recent misfortunes as a great opportunity to ramp up its Chicago office and bring in some fresh talent that would otherwise be out of work, but in the process, they've allegedly been poaching folks that are still on the payroll -- and that's where things start to get a little complicated. Motorola didn't like that terribly much and went all legal on 'em a few months ago, but RIM is now countersuing on the claim that Moto's going a little too far in blocking RIM's job offers to prospective employees. Turns out the two companies had an agreement in place at one time that they'd not solicit each others' staff, but RIM says that agreement expired in August, making it open season in Schaumburg. Let's put it this way: if the Storm suddenly gets rebranded the "RIMSTRM" next year, we think we know why.

European Nokia 5800 XpressMusic now available at Chicago flagship store

by Darren Murph posted Dec 14th 2008 @ 5:31PM

Nokia's 5800 XpressMusic (or the Tube, as we prefer to say) has been on sale in certain corners of the globe for a few weeks now, but the touchscreen-heavy handset has just now made itself to US soil. Sadly, it lacks the support necessary for US 3G data, but those who simply cannot wait another day can hop a flight to O'Hare (or Midway, if you please) and snap up one of the Euro versions at the Chicago flagship store. 'Course, you'll get the US warranty and all, and you'll only be asked to hand over $349.99 to take one home. As of now, only the blue variant is in stock, and the NYC store is still waiting for shipment.

Update: It's available at the New York City store as well, so get your (European) S60 5.0 on, won't you?

Nokia's North American E66 shows up in flagship stores

by Darren Murph posted Sep 2nd 2008 @ 7:56AM

Barely a month after Nokia's North American E71 went on sale at the Chicago / New York flagship stores, we've received word that the QWERTY-less sibling (that'd be the E66) has now arrived at the same locales. The quad-band slider boasts support for AT&T's 3G network, and there's also a 3.2-megapixel camera, GPS, WiFi and all the other goodies you'd expect from another solid S60 contender. Snap it up now in Grey Steel for $540.

[Via IntoMobile]

City of Chicago sued for illegally ticketing in-car yappers

by Darren Murph posted Dec 21st 2007 @ 7:22PM

So, you've got an outstanding ticket from talking while behind the wheel in Chicago, do you? Meet attorney Blake Horwitz, who is now likely to be the best friend you don't even know. Reportedly, Mr. Horwitz is suing the city and claiming that arrests of citizens caught driving and talking were in fact illegal, and furthermore, he's demanding that Chicago "dismiss any outstanding tickets and refund almost $2 million in fines collected since 2005." Apparently, the actual law that prevents users from yapping and motoring requires that the city erect signs that instruct drivers not to converse while driving, yet such signs have purportedly not been posted across Chi-town. The devil's in the details, we suppose.

[Image courtesy of ImportTuner]

iPhone madness hit or miss in Chicago

by Nilay Patel posted Jun 28th 2007 @ 11:14PM

We just stopped by the Chicago Apple flagship store and were greeted by chaos -- at least 35 to 40 people in line and a media frenzy of interviews taking place. Tyler Tessmann, the first guy in line, had gotten there at 2:30 and was holding court with NBC 5, while the rest of the media patiently waited to pounce. The store seemed busy but ready -- employees told us that most of the prep was done, and that the store was closing down tomorrow just to manage to crowd flow.

Continue reading iPhone madness hit or miss in Chicago

Nokia unloads N95 on US flagships

by Chris Ziegler posted Apr 7th 2007 @ 7:00PM

In the plus column, Nokia's gotten consistently better and better about keeping the US -- or its two US flagship stores, at least -- in the loop on its hottest releases, and as "hot releases" go, it really doesn't get much hotter than the GPS-sportin', HSDPA-havin' dual slide N95. In the minus column, though, the guts inside the American N95 are identical to its European counterparts, meaning we still have to go without any 3G data (let alone HSDPA, a Nokia first). Is it just us, or is EDGE no longer cool? Anyway, yeah, grab yours next time you're in New York or Chicago for a stout $750.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Nokia E70, N93 semi-officially available in US

by Chris Ziegler posted Sep 9th 2006 @ 6:08PM

Besides opening their second flagship store this side of the pond, Nokia had a couple other tricks up their sleeve in preparation for what has turned out to be an exciting weekend for Nokia fanboys of the American persuasion -- namely, the US releases of the E70 and N93. We can personally attest that E70s have been quietly flying off shelves of the Chicago outpost (see picture above) for the past week or so; Nokia's been unable to keep them in stock, in fact, though we don't know whether the release was supposed to have been synched with New York's grand opening today. At any rate, the model being sold is the US-friendly E70-2 variant that swaps out 3G support in favor of a GSM 850 radio, and features a black face that (in our humblest of opinions) looks better than its European counterpart. Meanwhile, the N93 is the same ol' model Europe gets, lacking 850; caveat emptor for peeps with marginal 1900 coverage. Oddly, these handsets are both still listed as "coming soon" on Nokia USA's website, and rumor has it that they may never officially be released here outside the flagship facilities, so book your flights now, folks -- they say the Midwest and the East Coast are nice this time of year.