Tag: "wireless"

Infineon Takeover: Intel Now an iPad and iPhone Chip Supplier

By dag | August 31, 2010 | No comment yet

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Intel announced yesterday evening that it will acquire Infineon Technologies’ wireless division for a whopping $1.4 billion. If you never heard about Infineon, the German company is the exclusive providers of the 3G wireless chips and baseband processors inside the iPad and the iPhone.

Despite several attempts at convincing wireless devices makers to look at its options, especially the Atom product line, Intel never really managed to gain any significant market share in the wireless space. Given its specific needs (ultra low power processors, smaller screens…), the wireless market almost exclusively relies on ARM technology, an architecture radically different from Intel’s x86 architecture.

But Intel was not ready to give up, as the smartphone market is growing exponentially, and the acquisition of Infineon’s wireless division will offer Intel a wide – yet expensive – “back door” into the wireless world. In the process, the acquisition will also allow the firm to claim millions of devices as “Intel Inside” devices.

American’s Mobile Internet Usage on the Rise

By Bill | July 7, 2010 | 2 comments

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More Americans are using mobile devices to access the Internet than ever before according to a recent report from the Pew Research Center. 59% of Americans now use a wireless tablet, laptop or cell phone to access the Internet. This represents a nearly 18% increase in wireless Internet usage compared to the previous year.

The results are part of Pew’s Internet & American Life Project yearly survey which asks 2,252 Americans over the age of 18 about their Internet usage.

Other interesting statistics from the report:

More people use their mobile phone to access the Internet than to play games
47% of those surveyed use a laptop to wirelessly connect to the Internet
40% of Americans use their mobile phone to access the Internet

This is the first year Pew asked respondents if they owned a tablet device like the iPad and a surprising 3% said they did. According to Pew’s survey, six in ten tablet owners used their device to access the Internet.

From our own informal iPad owner survey, we’ve seen almost a 100% Internet usage. We expect next year’s Pew survey to show a dramatic increase in tablet ownership and Internet usage based on the huge success of the iPad.

iPad Wireless Syncing Coming “Someday”

By dag | June 23, 2010 | No comment yet

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WiFi syncing, a feature most iPod/iPhone/iPad users would love to use, seems to be on Apple’s roadmap: according to an email sent by Steve Jobs to an iOS developer, wireless syncing is coming “someday”.

According to Mashable, Rick Proctor, a developer who actually built his own iOS wireless syncing app, simply asked Jobs “Do you think you will ever allow syncing iPhone to Mac over wifi?”. As usual, Jobs’ response was short and straight to the point, “Yep, someday”.

Given that all iOS-powered devices support WiFi, most of us still wonder why Apple never built a wireless syncing feature, as using a cable to sync a wireless device seems totally unnatural. In the past, Apple mentioned security and performance issues as the main reasons why the feature has never been implemented.

As for when the feature will be available, nobody can really tell, as even if Jobs’ response is encouraging, it remains utterly vague.

Photo courtesy of mashable

What’s the Difference Between the 3G and WiFi Only iPad?

By Bill | May 5, 2010 | 35 comments

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Now that both the WiFi and 3G iPad models are available, we’ve been getting a lot of questions asking the differences between the two iPads. Here are five things you need to know.

1.) The biggest difference between the two is the addition of 3G wireless capabilities which allow you to stay connected to the Internet while on the go. To use the 3G service you’ll need to sign up for one of two iPad data plans. One plan gives you 250MB for $14.99 while the other is an unlimited monthly plan for $29.99. Both plans are limited to domestic US coverage. You have the option to sign-up for international roaming if you need coverage while traveling abroad, but be careful as international roaming fees can be extremely expensive.

Is 250MB Enough for the iPad?

By Bill | May 1, 2010 | 6 comments

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Now that you’ve had a chance to pick up a new 3G iPad, you’re probably ready to pull out the credit card and pick one of the two iPad wireless data plans. Question is, which one should you pick? One gives you 250MB for $14.99 while the other one is unlimited and doubles the prices to $29.99.

To help you figure out what’s right for you, let’s take a look at what you can do with 250MB. Bandwidth breakdown after the break.

Boingo’s Airport WiFi Ready and Waiting for iPad

By Roberto | March 24, 2010 | 3 comments

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Good news for all of you travelers or just simply people on-the-go. Boingo is ready and awaiting the iPad launch on April 3rd. This is another reason to pre-order your iPad since you’ll be able to do more with it than simply read the newspaper. No matter which model you buy —3G and WiFi or just WiFi—with Boingo’s WiFi service you’ll be able to access Boingo hotspots, which you’ll find across many airports and various chains around the world.

Another interesting thing is that Boingo plans to offer the same service many of you may be accustomed to via your laptops. In addition, they plan to offer their wireless in 1-hour segments. This is the perfect way to cater to everyone around that daunting airport terminal. One thing is for sure, your iPad will bring you lots of fun and now with the wireless in 1-hour segment you get to enjoy your new toy and pay for wireless access for a reasonable amount of time.