GadgetReview

It’s been not more than a week or so, and a flood of Wimax enabled products are hitting the market.  Today, Toshiba added to the mix with the introduction of their Satellite U405-ST550W Wimax laptop.  The 13.3-inch lappy sports an Intel Centrino 2 Processor, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, an eSata and USB combo port, webcam with face recognition, 320GB hard drive and a 13.3-inch LCD with TruBrite technology.

No word or price or availability

Official page here

Staying ahead of the curve, unlike their cell phone operations, Motorola unveiled the World’s first WiMax USB adapter for laptops.  The USBw 100 is available in three versions: 2.3GHz, 2.5GHz and 3.5GHz enabling worldwide compatibility with today’s approved 4G networks.  If you recall, Sprint is set to officially unveil their Wimax network next month.

The USBw 100 will be available Q4 2008.  Price is unknown.

Full release after the ‘leap’ …Continue reading: Motorola Unveils USBw 100, World’s First WiMax USB Adapter

According to a source via Gearlog, the Sprint Wimax network is already up and running.  Commercially, it’s not yet available, but Sprint and their partners have set Ocotober 8th as the official launch date.  Expect pricing and all the details next week.

[Gearlog]

By: Albert S

Sprint announced the availability of XOHM this month, starting with Baltimore then moving onto Chicago, Washington D.C, Boston, Philadelphia, and Dallas-Fort Worth. Did you catch the serious omission here? Los Angeles! Punks.

Anyways, for those of you unfamiliar with the technology, XOHM uses the 4G WiMAX network to deliver wireless hotspots across the entire city at speeds of 2-4Mbps. That’s pretty tremendous if you think about it…home broadband speeds anywhere you go? Oh, thou charmed city of Baltimore, here I come.

Read more about it here.

[engadget]

If I’m not mistaken, broadband penetration currently sits above 50% in the US. Hard to believe, but it does, at least according to the last set of reports I read. Course, this could mean these folks are sporting something over 128Kbps, which is obnoxiously slow in my book. Now, according to PCWorld, broadband penetration will hit 77% by 2012. What’s the upside of this? Perhaps the networks will begin concentrating on our connection quality versus distribution. Daily my Internet connection is problematic. It’s not that I can’t download a file at a reasonable speed, it’s that I can’t request websites quickly (talking over 50ms). The reason for the penetration will be attributable to 4G, such as Wimax.

There isn’t a ton to tell here, but WiMax, from Sprint, will be available for public use starting September 2008.  Unfortunately, it will only be available in the Baltimore area (why there, I don’t know) and hit Washington D.C and Chicago by the end of the year.

[TheRegister]

Are you sick and tired of Comcast and TimeWarner?  Would you ditch your Cable company if you could get a decent Internet connect else where?  Well, in 2010 Clearwire is promising to make Wimax available for wholesale access.  Course this means Comcast or TW could buy in and resell it (they’re actually a partner on it, but not THE owner), but since it’s a high speed, go any where wireless signal we wouldn’t be stricken to a few providers based on geographical location.  Clearwire is reporting download speeds up to 6Mbs and upload 3Mbs.

On the flip side, since they’re will only be one provider of such a service, at least for the foreseeable future, they can grossly inflate the price for service.  Argggg!

Check what Clearwire is promising (bulleted list) after the ‘leap’ …Continue reading: Wimax Will Unleash Comcast And TimeWarner’s Death Grip On Us Peasants

Altair Semiconductor is stepping into the 4G arena by developing WiMax chips. They claim their chips are more efficient than their competitor’s, using 3 times less energy, and are really small measuring just 7mm (I assume squared). The chips will be shown off later this year and will be ideal for mobile devices.

[Gigaom]