Not getting the cell phone reception that you need?  Maybe you should bring your own femtocell repeater on your next trip.  Sprint has been selling them under the Airave brand name since late last year.  Now Verizon Wireless is joining the fray, offering their Verizon Wireless Network Extender for a one-time charge of $250.

You’ll need to hook it up to a broadband connection in your home (or hotel) and the ability to get a GPS fix on the device but once connected the Network Extender will provide both voice and 1xRTT data speeds to mobile devices in the vicinity.  Verizon claims coverage of up to 5000 square feet, which should cover a pretty decent sized house, or most of my apartment building here in NYC. 

Verizon claims that it uses about 40Kbps of bandwidth per call, which isn’t too bad.  You can even lock it down so only you and your friends can use the device.

AT&T has their own femtocell product in development with an expected release later this year.  Theirs will support 3G data services, though I’d imagine that will put a much bigger hit on the bandwidth requirements.

So if your travels find you on the road in locations where your Verizon Wireless phone isn’t working so well, just bring your own cell tower with you.

CES 2009 had a ton of news come out of it, but nothing truly groundbreaking that I read.  Still, there were a few interesting nuggets worth looking at a bit more for their suitability to travel technology.

One such bit was a report coming out from Freescale suggesting that $400 is too much to pay for a NetBook device and that they had found a solution to drive the prices down even further.  They’ve got a new chipset that will sell at volume discount prices such that OEMs will be able to see units at $199 or $299.

There is a review (and a bunch of photos) of some prototypes at notebooks.com that suggests it is a pretty good physical design.  The pictures look an awfully lot like the Asus AspireOne shell, with the mouse buttons on the sides of the touchpad.

There is mention of the operating system – a stripped down Linux build – and also the limited application set supported – a web browser and video player, but nothing else and no ability to install more.  That’s a HUGE problem.  There have been many “internet appliances” before, and they all sucked because they were too limited.  The concept of the $199 NetBook seems destined to follow in that path, with their different/weaker chipset and limited OS.

Don’t get me wrong – I understand the value of pricing pressure on the products.  But manufacturers need to balance price against having something that is actually functional as more than just a web browser.  Sony is nuts thinking that a $900 NetBook is competitive, but at the same time, a $199 model that doesn’t do very much is a losing proposition.  Besides, paying $400 for one isn’t such a horrible price point, and there are plenty in the $300-350 range that are pretty functional.

I’m a huge fan of the cellular WAN cards and the connectivity options that they provide.  Extending that access to a group of people was always a bit of work, but made it real easy to set up an office on the go or otherwise share the joy of being online. 

Novatel is addressing the complexities of the sharing with their new line of EvDO routers.  The device is a combination of a cellular WAN card and wireless router.  A single device to handle both the LAN and WAN halves of the connection.  Plus, it looks good.  It even runs on a battery rather than requiring a plug, so you can set up your own personal hotspot on the train.  I’m officially in lust.

Following on the news a couple weeks back that Sprint wasn’t too keen on the Android platform, it seems like Nokia is joining the fracas.  They are very happy to use Linux, which is the base of the Android platform, but aren’t particularly keen on Android itself.

“In the longer perspective, Linux will become a serious alternative for our high-end phones,” Ukko Lappalainen, vice president at Nokia’s markets unit, told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the “Nokia World” industry conference….

“I don’t see anything in Android which would make it better than Linux maemo,” Lappalainen said.

Yeah…Google probably isn’t going to be too happy about this hit on their platform.

Sprint and Clearwire have finally completed the merger of their wireless metropolitan data services (Sprint’s WiMAX service operating under the Xohm brand name and Clearwire’s pre-WiMax services).  And, as part of the merger, they’ve decided to rebrand the whole thing.  The new product will now be called “Clear” which shouldn’t be too confusing or particularly useful in identifying the product or what it does.

Sprint has been selling the Xohm service in Baltimore since the end of September so this will be interesting to see how the rebranding affects their marketing plans.  It will also be interesting to see if it affects their ability to differentiate between the new service and the legacy pre-WiMax systems.

In the mean time, however, it is good to know the name of what you’re buying should WiMax be in your future.

Also, it looks like the build-out of the network is slowing down a bit.  That’s not a good thing.

As noted in my previous post, I had the privilege to be one of the first people to test out Virgin America‘s new inflight Wifi last weekend on a special test flight over San Francisco.

I got a chance to put the service through its paces – trying things like VoIP, email, chat, video, etc. Read on for my full review and some more pictures.
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Virgin America is premiering their in-flight broadband internet access, which is powered by Gogo, this weekend. The service, which utilizes the Aircell network, will deliver broadband speeds at 35,000 feet, while in US airspace, allowing you to access the Internet using your Wifi-enabled laptop, PDA, or Smartphone, or through the inflight entertainment system. They plan to have the service available on all flights by the Spring of 2009, making them the first US carrier to have Wifi across their entire fleet. Preliminary pricing is set at $12.95 per flight, but this is subject to change.

Virgin plans to introduce the service during a special test flight this weekend, where they will be hosting what they claim is the “first-ever live air-to-ground video stream,” as a part of the YouTube Live streaming event. TravelTechTalk has been invited along to test out the service on the flight, and we’ll have a full rundown of the service, including speed and latency, coverage, and usability of various applications like IM and video chat, email, VoIP, VPN, and many more. We hope to be able to post preliminary reviews and photos live from the plane!

A recent discussion I read has prompted me to remind you (again) about the danger of international data roaming. Remember folks, at $19 per Megabyte of data, you too could end up with a $2000 bill before you know it!

Thankfully AT&T appear to be taking a friendlier approach to data charges, and are retroactively moving people onto their data bundles once they get back home.

Initially AT&T told people to pound sand, and had no problems getting UPS involved to send their 5 box data bills, thankfully that seems to have changed.

This week, Belkin announced their newest laptop bag. The Flythru bag features a clear window and a zipper that unfolds the bag in the middle, allowing it to pass through the checkpoint without removing your laptop.

At $42.80 it is currently the cheapest checkpoint friendly bag on the market.

iPhone owner with some gripes about the lack of common features? Join the fun at “Please fix the iPhone”.

The current nr.1 “please fix” item is of course the lack of MMS support, followed by wireless syncing, then the ability to use cut and paste.

At the end of the day it will be real iPhone users that convince Apple to add these things; it’s been a long time since the first iPhone appeared, and these basic features are still missing. Perhaps Apple will listen?

Source: Please fix the iPhone (via Downloadsquad)