Cutting Through the 4G Hype 283
crimeandpunishment writes "Cell phone companies are about to bombard us with advertising for the next big thing — 4G access. The first 4G phone, Sprint Nextel's EVO, comes out this week. But just how big a deal is 4G? Is it fast enough to warrant the hype, or are consumers better off waiting a while? AP technology writer Peter Svensson looks at the differences between 4G and 3G technologies."
Oh c'mon (Score:5, Insightful)
You guys are just posting this story because...Apple doesn't have a 4G and you're jealous.
Sorry.
Had to be said.
Marketing 101 (Score:4, Insightful)
4 > 3. 'nuff said.
Wasn't the same thing said of Dial-Up (Score:5, Insightful)
Other than that, it's difficult to point to completely new uses for 4G phones -- things they can do that 3G phones can't.
Couldn't you say the same thing about Dial-Up? After all, its difficult to point to completely new uses for broadband, things they can do that dial-up connected computers can't. The point of 4G isn't to be "revolutionary", it wasn't claimed to be. It is simply trying to be faster. The same thing could have been said about EDGE to 3G.
edge - 3G - 4G (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:On paper it looks like a good phone. (Score:5, Insightful)
No need to worry about HTC (who, with your worry about speed, will probably only ever update your device once. Or twice) - just jump on the XDA-Developers bandwagon!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/ [xda-developers.com]
Re:4G is used for what? (Score:3, Insightful)
Oddly enough, non-geeks seem to love video conferencing. We tend not to care much about seeing a person, but lots of grandparents of the world consider to be really great.
I think geeks are more interested in what a person has to say. The mundanes love all the non-lingual communication with body language, and seeing people smile and stuff. I don't really understand it, but it is very common.
Yes, some people play multiplayer games on their cell phones. As the technology improves, and makes a wider range of multiplayer games easy an impressive, I'm sure it'll become more common. The cell phone is becoming a more ubiquitous platform for applications than the PC, which means that people have come up with all sorts of uses for them, and will continue to push the envelope with new ideas.
And, Skype is one of the things people commonly use for video conferencing.
Video is a new use for broadband (Score:5, Insightful)
After all, its difficult to point to completely new uses for broadband, things they can do that dial-up connected computers can't
YouTube. Now was that so hard?
Re:Difference between 3G and 4G (Score:2, Insightful)
No, that would be 4g-3g
4G-3G is more like 6.67428*10^-11 N m^2/kg^2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_constant
Re:Much ado about nothing (Score:4, Insightful)
Uh? I found this article quite good: it explain to users why they could care about lower latency (not for surfing the web but for multiplayer games) and it doesn't oversell 4G.
As they say the 4G can theoretically provide higher bandwith and lower latency but as always it depends on the implementation:
if the backbone is overused for example, a better radio access network won't bring much benefit to users..
So that's not weasel words, just being cautious..
Re:4G? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Oh c'mon - what about it? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Difference between 3G and 4G (Score:3, Insightful)