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The Tablet Debate: 3G Or Wi-Fi?
Barence writes "We regularly review tablets and mention the fact that X tablet has Wi-Fi, Y tablet has 3G, but how many people are interested in each? Do most people view 3G as a must-have extra, or is Wi-Fi plenty for a device most commonly used in the home? We asked our readers for their opinions and the responses were fairly evenly split between those on both sides, with a healthy proportion also saying they may not choose it but like to have 3G as an option. What do Slashdotters think? Is 3G a must-have for tablets or will a tethered smartphone do the job?"
I would love 3G, so I can get web access all over the place, but when they want to charge me $50/month for 5Gb of data... GTFO
I concur. I think it's ridiculous to pay for a data plan on a tablet when I already have a smart phone with a data plan.
My laptop, my phone, and my tablet should all just be viewports and ways of interacting with one homogenous device. They should all be integrated parts of a whole.
To that end, I do not care which thing has which feature. I just care that I can seamlessly access the Internet no matter where I am.
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
It's amusing how a CDMA superiority has become spun as a GSM advantage, or a "limitation" of CDMA. CDMA scaled well enough that you could use the same radio for low-bandwidth transmissions (voice) and high-bandwidth transmissions (3G data). Consequently, CDMA carriers rolled out 3G service 1-2 years before GSM carriers. Unfortunately, since voice and data use different protocols, you couldn't do them simultaneously using the single radio. But hey, at least you could do 3G.
GSM OTOH uses time-domain multiplexing (basically the phones take turns talking to the tower). That's ok for voice, but horribly wasteful of bandwidth for data. Consequently, GSM providers had to develop an entirely new system and protocol for data, which is why it took them 1-2 years to catch up to CDMA's 3G data. When they finally did roll it out, it needed an entirely separate radio (you had to upgrade phones), which added to the complexity, cost, and power consumption of the phone. But a second radio carries with it the advantage of doing voice and data simultaneously. In terms of use, there are very few times when you actually need to use them simultaneously. The CDMA carriers didn't package a second dedicated 3G data radio in their phones simply because there wasn't enough demand for it. It only became an issue when Verizon and AT&T got into an advertising war.
Fast forward to today. The 4G on CDMA carriers uses a different technology for data and, just like GSM phones, a different radio than that used for voice. If your CDMA phone has a 4G connection, it can do simultaneous voice and data just fine. It has nothing to do with CDMA or GSM, everything to do with how many radios are on your phone. (The same is why phones can do simultaneous voice and WiFi. 802.11b/g/n uses yet another different radio.)