Sprint Overdrive 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot by Sierra Wireless

Sooner or later internet will be everywhere we walk. No matter where you go there will be internet. But it used to be having Ethernet cables all up and down your house. Sprints new Overdrive gives you internet with a stupendous speed that can be compared to the internet from a cable modem as long as you are in the right city. Some of the U.S. carriers offer reasonably fast #G wireless data. The wireless speeds happen to be about one megabit per second. But surprisingly Sprint is the first American carrier that has came out with a faster 4G connection which will be faster. It is available in about 29 cities which include Austin, Texas where it was being tried out at the SXSW Music, Film and Interactive Festival. It is very similar to the Verizon MiFi which was reviewed last year. The Sprint Overdrive takes a wireless connection where ever you go and is used to create a local Wi-Fi hotspot that you are able to connect your device you. The Sprint Overdrive works similar to a regular Wi-Fi router, with the standard options like security. But with the overdrive you can unplug it and carry it outside and it works just like it did inside. One of the downfalls of the Overdrive is that it can only support up to five devices at a time. So for example that is enough for your laptop, cellphone, iPad, portable gaming device and your digital camera. While they tested the device, they realized that when the Overdrive is in default settings, they were able to squeeze out about three hours of battery life. This was while the device was engaged in typical internet usage (browsing, e-mailing, uploading a video file, streaming music). Usually that would be enough for a morning telecommuting session from a park or coffee shop. It would have been a great add on to have a optional battery pack so you can stay online for longer but when the battery is low or dead you are going to have to retreat to a power outlet. I bet you are wondering how fast the Sprint 4G network is! Well on a Wi-Fi-connected Motorola Droid it was average to be about 1.53 Mbps downstream. On the laptop the connection was 3.16 Mbps downstream and 0.59 Mbps upstream. This is not bad compared to the American broadband speed was 3.9 Mbps in Q3 of 2009. Even Akamai’s most recent report, they believe the Overdrive lives up to its promise of delivering mobile broadband. The Overdrive also has a plausible cellphone alternative, only if you want to take a step on voice over Internet Protocol, but only if you are also able to deal with the short battery life. It is a very small device, in fact small enough to fit in your back pocket or in your bag. It is not very cheap, but it is definitely less expensive than the iPhones 3GS service. You can also add extras. There is a microSD slot for adding up to 16 GB of shared network Storage. Also there is a optional Wi-Fi range reducer to conserve battery life. There is also a browser-based dashboard with GPS with Google Maps, MapQuest, Microsoft Bing or Yahoo. I can’t wait until this is available in more cites. This is something I would love to have.

New Ways of Learning

A new and improved way of learning has come to take place the old and boring traditional learning. IPods are not just for music and games anymore. Educational applications have been making students go haywire. I always wondered when a new type of learning was going to come in par. I was always bored with the old type of learning and traditional classes. Spicing it up with iPod learning applications is a great idea. The students at Somerset Elementary School in Minnesota have become very interested in Apple touch-screen media and handheld computers. IPods are starting to get more popular in U.S. schools for learning. For kids tapping, scrolling and swiping are more fun on a device rather than activities for math and spelling that are “boring”. Students show to be more engaged in learning suddenly when it is not paper and pencil. At the school the teacher passes around a laptop to have students download educational apps. The teacher one or more times during the week passes out the charged iPods and the students are excited because to them it is like playtime. Some people argue and are not convinced that students will not have a lasting educational value. Alex Silverman, a man who has thought high school students, is now an app developer has created a new app called eClicker. It allows the teachers and students to communicate with each other through the classrooms Wi-Fi network. This may also create a more interaction through class participation. The app only cost $25 for the teacher and its free for the students. "His students have a variety of learning disabilities that often cannot be overcome with regular teaching methods. But something as simple as a flash-card slide show on touch-screen iPods, with finger swipes for moving from one digital photo to the next, tends to electrify the kids." Suddenly a class of boring students turns into an interested and eager class to learn.
I am glad a new way of learning has finally come. I am already getting some of this new learning in my school now. A program called ISP. I hope we can integrate iPods in our class to.

Gonna Spread my Wings, Sweet 16

So I was bored and I decided to look through my computer for some pictures to blog about and I ran into one of my favorite pictures. It was a picture that was took by my brother but edited by me. It was the day before my sweet 16. I wanted to have a little photo shoot in my dress and I wanted to be able to blow it up really big and have my friends that come into my party sign it. It was a success. That was a really fun night and I am glad I was able to spend it with all of my friends and family I love so much. This is the picture above.

Snap! Snap! Snap!

I really enjoy photography. It seems like a very relaxing job depending on what side you take on. Other than taking the pictures I really enjoy the editing part. I feel as though i am very good at Photoshop and when I edit photos for the most part I am happy with the outcome. I also enjoy graphic design, which is a slight branch off of photography. Ever since my parents business, I have only became more interested is photography and editing photos. There is a lot to just pressing a button!

Above is a picture i took! ( Without editing)