Siri doesn't work outside America, 4G doesn't work outside America, anything else Apple?
New iPad 4G data connection will only work in America
One of the main new features in Apple's just-announced third iPad is 4G mobile networking: but keen fanbois planning to purchase it should note that the new fondleslab will only be able to achieve 4G connection in North America for the foreseeable future. Even in the States it won't be able to change networks. The "New iPad" …
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Thursday 8th March 2012 13:02 GMT Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
Re: What?
Disgraceful, how dare anyone use a standard other than a merkin standard,
global warming, climate change, this what happens when sheeple don’t use merkin statndards, I read that pedophiles are trying to control our lives. It is vital that we call in the army now. What would Churchill say?!?! somebody should introduce zero tolerance. we need less emotion and more backbone in this country!!
Appalled, in the house next door to yours.
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Thursday 8th March 2012 14:13 GMT Giles Jones
What rock have you been hiding under if you think 4G is in the UK?
Honestly, if Apple stalls and releases 3G late (iPhone 1) then people complain. If Apple gives you 4G too early you complain.
Anything using radio frequency always creates problems when deployed elsewhere. So many countries have different TV and radio systems so it's always hard to create a standard that works around the world.
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Friday 9th March 2012 01:46 GMT Nikolaus Heger
One more thing: Whining seems to be alive and kicking outside America.
It sounds like the whole 4G "standard" is once again an unmitigated mess where "anyone is allowed to do anything" which means we will have to wait a few years before all-in-one-all-frequency 4G chips become available.
Took a while with 3G, too - only the iPhone 4 / 4S could actually operate on all 3G bands. Not due to Apple but rather due to the availability of integrated chipsets.
What other devices work on all 4G bands world-wide? Oh yeah - none. As 4G is only implemented in a few places around the world.. America probably needs 4G the most and will implement it first on a large scale as the US 3G network is really a complete and utter disaster. Verizon uses CDMA-EVDO which is dead slow and can't do data and voice simultaneously. And AT&T's 3G network drops voice calls (pretty much have to go to America for that experience), is slow as snails, and has huge coverage holes in the middle of major metropolitan areas. E.g. I was in San Francisco and had 0 bars on AT&T in the middle of the city. Long story short the US carrier duopoly is going to roll out 4G as fast as they can - they need to.
Elsewhere, 3G works pretty well, no urgent need for 4G.
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Thursday 8th March 2012 11:26 GMT JetSetJim
New small print
Despite touting the "iPad with Wi-Fi + 4G" model iPad working on Vodafone, Orange, O2 and Three as "Connects to the Internet over Wi-Fi and 4G networks. For service from a wireless carrier, sign up for a simple, month-by-month tariff on your iPad and cancel anytime without penalty.", underneath, in a paler greay font is the text:
"The iPad with Wi-Fi + 4G model can roam worldwide on GSM/UMTS networks. When you travel internationally, you can also use a micro-SIM card from a local carrier. In countries without compatible 4G LTE networks, the new iPad will operate on GSM worldwide network technologies such as HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA."
I expect many a disappointed punter.
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Thursday 8th March 2012 12:55 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: New small print
Why? In practical terms the new iPad supports HSPA 42Mbit/s which is getting ready to launch here in the UK (I know at least Three is turning it on this summer)
Many punters will be more satisfied that they can use this rather than some theoretical LTE support that isn't even close to being available.
Also according to the ITU - who set the standards on these things - HSPA 42Mbit/s is 4G. But let's not go into that discussion.
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Thursday 8th March 2012 13:59 GMT JetSetJim
Re: New small print
Ignoring the "ITU are being led by operator marketing wonks on defining 4G" argument, the Apple blurb touts LTE as 4G, not HSPA. If I'm sold a "4G LTE" device, I expect to be able to use it on an LTE network - it's a shame that all the spectrum politics will make it difficult/impossible/expensive to make a global LTE device right now. Personally, I'm tempted to complain to the ASA about the UK marketing of it as a 4G device when it won't run on any UK LTE network when they get round to deploying them (next year at the earliest apart from that Swindon deployment?) - but considering recent ASA verdicts I doubt they'll do anything.
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Friday 9th March 2012 11:39 GMT Magnus Ramage
Re: 6 iPad stories on the front page of El Reg today
I think it's fair enough, actually. I have never owned an Apple product (not deliberately, I just can't afford them) but by any account the iPad has had a major impact on portable computing, so a new version is a significant event in tech news. Perhaps 6 stories is a couple too many, but at least the Reg doesn't slobber about Apple news in the way the Guardian (atrociously) and the BBC (noticeably) do.
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Thursday 8th March 2012 11:50 GMT Lee Dowling
Re: 4g in Germany
Given the complexity of antenna-theory, you're in a lot of trouble if you don't design for the frequencies you use - especially in a small, low-powered, portable device that wants to operate at high-speed.
That's not to say they haven't, but it would seem weird for them to arrive at a generic design for all those frequencies and then not release it using all frequencies it was designed for. It's probably NOT just a case of switching a chip for a pin-equivalent (if it even exists), but a whole new range of FCC / CE certifications as to whether the radio emissions are valid and within limits. The fact that Apple are selling the device already means they've already done those and the design is pretty "locked" into the frequencies.
So to create an EU revision, you're looking at new chips (hopefully as simple as just soldering on a different one, but maybe not if they rely on external crystals, etc.), new antenna (possibly), new certifications, and then production on that model to the point you can supply the EU with it. That's a HECK of a lot of work. I'm not saying Apple won't do it, but it would appear unlikely given that they have already started selling the "US" version over here anyway - it would cause merry hell if you could pick up two seemingly-identical iPads in Dixons and find out that one can get 4G over here and one can't.
Looks like they just said "Oh, feck it, that's close enough" and decided against 4G functionality that was in any way different to the US versions.
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Thursday 8th March 2012 15:54 GMT Andy Miller
Re: Plug-in
As AC notes, irony was intended.
Can I name a mobile phone that has done this? No.
Can I name a laptop that does this? Yes - lots. It's called a USB dongle. If you pull it out whilst you are using the data connection, your application dies.
Think I read a review of a slab that supports just such a plug-in 3G dongle - probably here...
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Thursday 8th March 2012 12:58 GMT Charles 9
Re: Plug-in
Most chips, especially on portable hardware, have to be soldered on to prevent them jostling loose. The only things that are not are the pieces that are necessarily loose such as the SIM slot. Plus, if what I read is correct, tuning to certain LTE frequencies requires a delicate coordination of tuner, antenna, and other things that make a one-size-fits-all solution difficult.
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Thursday 8th March 2012 12:46 GMT Alan Edwards
3G is NOT single band
3G is most definitely not in a single band internationally.
Just about everywhere uses the 2.1Ghz band, but the same standard (W-CDMA) is on 850Mhz, 1700Mhz and 1900Mhz in the USA. It was at 900Mhz too, but I think that's died out now.
The iPad has 850/900/1900/2100Mhz 3G - the only place it won't work is T-Mobile at 1700Mhz, there it's restricted to EDGE speeds.
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Thursday 8th March 2012 12:53 GMT KAMiKZ
I knew it!! I was looking for a comprehensive map of "4G' whatever that means deployment of the world, I couldnt' reallly find one, but based on all that I can read about, only the US, Sweden have "4G", with the swedes' much faster. That's about it. ---
jesus, I thought my complaining about having to buy an 8 euro plug adapter down at BHV in Paris was bad.... say, most of the world now having heard the horn from Apple about 4G will now pushing for it harder, so they will get all their license or whatever ready in 2012, and by the end of the year, signal tower building commences, and let's say they go to pace of Chinese show-off-ism, by the end of 2013, most of the world should have some kind of 4G, And maybe by that time, Apple's iPad 5 will be able to deal with all the fragmented 4G standards and claim king
The Widest Band iPad.
Ever.
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Friday 9th March 2012 04:18 GMT P Zero
Re: So the fact..
Boohoo. Apple traditionally waited for something to work before implementing it into their hardware. Isn't that what Steve Jobs wanted? "Perfectly" formed craftsmanship on something that "just works." Standards are slipping at Cupertino, and only after you've invested shitloads into their application market.
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Thursday 8th March 2012 13:38 GMT Tim Hale 1
I'm outraged I won't be able to use my new iPad on one of the many nation-wide 4G networks here in the UK. Oh, wait.
Where I live (next to, but not actually in, the sticks) there still isn't even 3G!
The iPad 5 will be out long before 4G makes any difference here and if 3G is anything to go by it'll be a great many years after that for me.
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Thursday 8th March 2012 16:18 GMT Gil Grissum
So if you're buying an iPad with LTE on either network (Verizon or AT&T) hoping to be able to travel through Europe and use it, it seems to me that WiFi makes more sense than paying for a second data plan that you can't even use outside the USA. It doesn't even make sense to have a second data plan IN the USA, unless you have more money than sense. WiFi is everywhere these days. Save the money. WiFi is all you need in that iPad.
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Thursday 8th March 2012 20:14 GMT mrfill
Great money saving plan
I'm afraid wifi is not actually 'everywhere'. In France it is illegal to operate wi-fi equipment outside for a start. In the UK, free open wifi is quite rare. You may be able to pick up a dozen signals but will you have the keys for all of them?? Clue: No.
A rather better money saving idea would be to not buy a vastly overpriced touch screen netbook. Depending on the model chosen you could save up to £649.
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Friday 16th March 2012 17:24 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Great money saving plan
WiFi in France - The restriction is on the WiFi power levels used by devices, not that WiFi is itself is illegal...or else how would you explain this...
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/08/how-to-find-and-use-free-wifi-in/
And this helpful signpost on how to use WiFi in a parisian park.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidlebovitz/4905005402/
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Friday 9th March 2012 00:42 GMT JeffyPooh
Wide frequency range is "so" difficult...
As noted above, the Apple RF Modules & Antenna Department is staffed by idiots.
Even if they don't know how to design a high performance moderately wide band antenna system, there's bags of room inside an iPad to install half a dozen different elements. For gosh sakes, even little tiny mobile phones can cover four bands.
This is the same Apple that won't provide GPS unless you buy the LTE version of iPad?
Typed on an iPhone 4S. :-)
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Tuesday 13th March 2012 08:24 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Wide frequency range is "so" difficult...
Hmm. Do you care to expand on this?
In their previous guise as TV channels, 1 TV could happily pick up both, and AFAIK there are not different 3G phones for 3, O2, T-Mobile, Vodafone and Orange and their 5MHz are adjacent, so would you care to elaborate on why operating in 700 band upturns the laws of physics?
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Saturday 10th March 2012 17:27 GMT Stephen Bouvier
Is mobile LTE the wrong place to start?
Typing this post from Nowheresville in the middle of the former GDR -- a village outside Dresden -- I'm puzzled by a lot of the debate around LTE in the U.K.
No surprise that the 4G auction is a mess with the network operators playing the role of squabbling, self-destructive children.
What surprises me is the starting point that LTE should be rolled out as a mobile technology. Here in my bit of Saxony we have no quick DSL access. The best Telekom can offer is 2,000 k/Bit download, although the offer is rendered more attractive by the prospect of dirt-cheap ISDN and even cheaper Europe-wide call packages. VDSL is a non-starter here because no-one wants to invest in upgrading the fixed-line network -- unlike the British approach -- when there is a cheaper alternative on the horizon.
And that cheaper alternative is LTE. Next week, thanks to a supplementary aerial, I will be trialling a Vodafone LTE package. My friendly local telephony engineer will source all the equipment, and take care of the installation, so as to get me up and running with 50 M/bit downloads and an Up- and Download allowance of 30 G/bit per month. O.K., so that is not quite unlimited downloading from Piratebay, but that I can do, if I'm so inclined, using the slower DSL line over night.
The networks are in the process of rolling out LTE handsets. Frankly, other than downloading email and checking news websites, I tend to do my surfing at home, so I'm not sure that the ability to play Doom on the move, thanks to LTE's reduced latency times, is much of a help.
Where LTE does help me is in bridging the gap between a cable connection that will never happen, DSL that is frozen in time, and a 21st-century broadband connection.
The trouble is that I don't think this state of affairs could ever exist in the U.K. The kind of installer who will fit aerials to homes tends not to be on the radar; in the U.K. we'd much rather wait for a mast to be built and then complain that the radiation from it has fried the cat.
And the operators, instead of seeing LTE as a way to stuff BT over their historically imperfect access to the fixed-line network, simply see the LTE as a way to act out historical disputes between each other over spectrum allocation.
Hate to say it, but the future is the former GDR.
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Tuesday 13th March 2012 17:23 GMT Jon182
HSPA+ will be good enough
I'm not bothered about LTE, Orange and T-Mobile are rolling out HSPA+ this year.
http://everythingeverywhere.com/2012/02/23/everything-everywhere-announces-major-steps-towards-a-4g-future/
LTE frequencies are a mess, looks like EE wil have the first LTE network in the UK - at 1800 Mhz!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17355399