Live from Sprint's '4G Experience' event at CES 2010
We're live from Sprint's "4G Experience" event here at CES, which leaves little to the imagination -- or does it? We don't know what the company intends to unveil here, but we spied Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo wandering around outside, so it could be an extraordinarily surprising get-together indeed.
9:12PM ...and it actually turns out that's it. We spotted folks from virtually every hardware partner of Sprint's in the audience, so we're pretty weirded out that the Overdrive was the only thing revealed here -- but let's hope this is a sign of good things to come.
8:53PM We're taking a break to watch Mario cook, it seems.
8:44PM He's like, this food is awesome, it's pretty much like 4G. Analogies are awesome!
8:43PM That famous Mario chef dude is here. Does this event get any trippier?
8:37PM Gah, Caliendo's back. Less funny, more product. Please!
8:37PM "I congratulate Sprint on bringing this product to market!" and poof! He's gone. Alrighty then!
8:36PM He's really stoked about the Overdrive, talking about how you can take it everywhere you go along with your PC... or, you know, maybe an HP Slate. Just saying.
8:35PM WHOA, how did Steve Ballmer get here from his own keynote so fast?
8:34PM Best Buy's bringing this to stores on January 10!
8:33PM Best Buy's CEO is in the house -- something tells us this sucker's gonna see action in those Best Buy Mobile kiosks around the country.
8:32PM He's giving a shout out to Sierra Wireless, which apparently makes the Overdrive. Perhaps the most interesting thing here is that Hesse's touting all sorts of traditionally non-carrier-friendly services for the router -- streaming Hulu, for example.
8:30PM There we go: he just officially introduced the Overdrive, which as best as we can tell is pretty much the awesomest thing ever: 3G / 4G routing on the go over WiFi.
8:29PM Dan's touting the awesomeness of 4G, not surprising considering that it's the only US carrier with a live 4G network.
8:26PM Here comes Dan Hesse, finally replacing the funnyman. We suspect we're finally going to get some straight dope on this thing.
8:23PM The Overdrive 3G / 4G mobile router is being shown off on a commercial now -- hasn't been discussed yet, though.
8:16PM Frank Caliendo is on stage. We're not seeing the 4G connection yet, but we're getting there. We think. We hope.
8:14PM The music here was, put simply, deafening -- but we're excited to see that things are getting underway. Here we go!
