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Samsung Breaks the 4G Barrier
eastbayted writes "Samsung shifted wireless networking into a higher gear yesterday, demonstrating for the first time in public the power of it WiBro (Wireless Broadband) 4G technology. The company had two 4G demonstrations. A mobile stunt entailed providing delegates on a specially designed bus with a live broadcast of the forum, Internet access, and video on demand, all simultaneously at speeds of 100Mbps. Inside the forum venue, Samsung showed off its 1Gbps 4G service with 32 HD channel broadcast downloads, Internet access, and video telephony. The downside for users craving that kind of speed: WiBro won't be out until 2010, though Sprint has a 4G WiMax service in the works for later this year. The downstream speeds will be 2Mbps to 4Mbps, which seem downright sluggish — compared to WiBro."
The entertainment industry will have to come up with a new business model, such as product placement instead of ad space due to the speed and the storage levels on the horizon. It's actually old school. Texaco theater might make a come back. Or, like ESPN does with Soccer games, there might be split screen ads during credits, little product logos in the corner, etc. Crack may kill, but speed is going to bring death to modern advertising.
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When you come to a fork in the road, take it! --Yogi Berra--
What does "breaking the 4G barrier" mean? The Samsung demo looks cool enough, but saying that they "broke the 4G barrier" means about as much as "this one goes to eleven". The "4G" moniker isn't well defined enough to use as a litmus test of anything other than "hey, if you thought that 3G was overhyped and overpriced, well, just wait until you see this!"
f**k cares when it costs ass loads just to opt into this rediculously expensive market. I don't even see my fellow nerds using '3g' technologies of today since telocs keep the prices outragously high (at least where I live).
The next slashdot poll should be
My cell phone supports
1. Analog
2. 2g
3. 3g
4. Cowboynealg
5. I don't have a cell phone you insensitive clod!
Bye!
I'm still waiting for 3G or GPRS to be affordable...nevermind 4G. Perhaps the carriers will lower the prices for 3G or GPRS when 4G comes out... or maybe not.
So "G" is a measurement? I always thought 1G, 2G and 3G were labels applied to generations. And all you have to do to have "4G" is produce a product sufficiently different from previous generations.
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They have a non-standard wimax network in vancouver, and you can actually feel the radiation coming off the receiving unit.
But to be fair, technology is improving not because they are pumping out more watts through the transmitter (although that helps range) it's more because computational power and the ability for them to multiplex more data on the proverbial line.
We have already been toasting our gonads with wireless data for the past 60+ years and I haven't heard of increased birth defects from people living next to radio stations and cellular towers.
Samsung isn't the new Sony - they have far surpassed whatever ever Sony was by now!
:)
I just walked around their booth (hah! ok, their "massive quadrant of the show floor") at CES 2006 and just shook my head in amazement. They are the largest flash manufacturer (as well as having a large share of the phones, mp3 players, cameras, flash cards, etc that use it), they are the largest LCD panel manufacturer AND one of the larger plasma panel manufacturers (why worry about competition? Just sell them both!) meaning they make consumer TVs and a lot of the panels for other TV manufacturers. They may even be playing both sides of the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD war. I read they are not only providing all of the flash for Apple's iPods, but will be providing a custom CPU as well...
And I agree with you, not only is their volume astounding, they have been first to market with a lot of innovations (LED DLPs, LED backlights for LCDs, high density flash) and at prices Sony has never come NEAR matching