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Sprint raising $2 billion, may throw some dough Clearwire's way
Sprint is looking to sell $2 billion in notes to raise cash, a large chunk of that likely earmarked for network upgrades. The money will come in handy too, as making the leap from WiMAX to LTE won't be cheap. Then, there's its partner Clearwire. After Sprint's board shot down a quest to snatch up MetroPCS, the carrier is even more reliant on the former WiMAX champion -- a company that just saw Google announce plans to dump its shares at a $450 million loss. According to Bloomberg, Sprint may take some of the $2 billion it plans to raise and use it to prop up Clear, which is making the transition to TD-LTE. At this point, we're beginning to think the carrier's cash infusions are the only thing keeping the wireless wholesaler going.
Google plans to sell off stake in Clearwire at a steep loss
It was just under four years ago that Sprint and Clearwire brought together an impressive group of companies as part of a multi-billion dollar partnership to back the WiMAX service provider, but it's safe to say that things haven't quite worked out as planned in the years since. While Clearwire is of course still up and running, its WiMAX-based network has faced an uphill battle against other carriers' LTE-based networks, which even Sprint and Clearwire itself have been switching to. Now one of those partners, Google, has decided to offload its stake in Clearwire at a steep loss. According to an SEC filing, Google will be selling off its shares at a price of $1.60 each, or just over $47 million in all -- that's compared to the $500 million it spent to invest in the company. Not surprisingly, that has caused Clearwire's stock to take a bit of a tumble. As of this writing, shares in the Washington-based company were down almost six percent.
Daily Update for February 23, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
Clear: 350,000 sales in 9 days, iPad and Mac versions coming soon
Clear, the new todo list iPhone app from Realmac software, got a lot of buzz thanks to very impressive demos during Macworld in January. Interest in the app was so high that at least one opportunistic ripoff artist copied Clear wholesale and put a copycat app on the App Store before Clear even debuted. Our own review of Clear found that its simple but intuitive interface definitely lived up to the weeks of hype, and in my own usage I've found Clear an invaluable tool for organizing my day. It turns out Clear has been extremely successful so far, having sold 350,000 copies in just nine days according to The Guardian. Those are extremely impressive numbers for a simple todo app; Clear joins Epic Games' Infinity Blade and its sequel as two of the few apps I've heard of that have gained so many new users so quickly. Widespread press coverage, a low introductory price of US$0.99, and Apple featuring it as App of the Week on the App Store helped propel Clear to the success it's seen thus far. Realmac isn't resting on its success, though; an update to the iPhone version is in the works, and Realmac confirmed to The Guardian that iPad and Mac versions will follow. Realmac is "open to the idea of taking it to other platforms" -- Android and Windows Phone 7, in other words -- but they reiterated that Apple's devices are their first priority. If you haven't checked out Clear yet, I highly recommend it if you're looking for a simple todo/list maker app with a streamlined interface that doesn't get in your way.
Clearwire says it plans on launching TD-LTE network by June 2013
Clearwire's been promising us that speedy LTE network for quite some time now. The good news is, we may have a clearer view of when to expect the waves to start flowing. During yesterday's Q4 earnings call, CEO Erik Prusch said his company plans on rolling out its LTE tides by June of next year, with the help of 5,000 wave sites around the US and a "longer-term" plan of adding about 3,000 more. The 2.5GHz spectrum will take over the WiMAX regime you've grown to love, and while we're still many handsets and slates away from testing it out, it's something all you Now Network users can happily look forward to.
H2O Bolt promises unlimited 4G internet for $50, pretends it's never heard of Clear
It's not everyday that an MVNO decides to offer up unlimited data courtesy of Clearwire's WiMAX network, but H2O's latest entrant known as Bolt makes us wish the practice were far less frequent. The $50 no-contract service essentially replicates Clear's own offering at the very same price point that's been available to customers for years. Furthermore, both companies share Best Buy as their most significant retail channel. Now, for whatever reason, H2O's Bolt Flash (the $100 USB modem) and Bolt Spider (the $150 mobile hotspot) will sit side-by-side Clear's own offerings at the big box retailer, where it'll be up to those in Smurf shirts to explain the difference -- there's none. You'll find the PR after the break, but if you're living in Detroit, Phoenix, Indianapolis, Louisville, New Orleans, Memphis or Albuquerque, none of this even remotely matters. Frustrating, isn't it?
Ripoff of upcoming Clear app appears in App Store (Updated)
Days before the launch of Realmac Software's Clear to-do manager, developer Reejo Samuel, who is not on the Real Mac team, has ripped off the software and released it on the App Store. Clear has gotten quite a bit of buzz, and we got a sneak peek at it during Macworld | iWorld 2012. With the interface that is intuitive and simple to use, it's bound to be a hit for the Real Mac folks when it comes out. Samuel's app appears to copy everything about Clear. It's a Xerox from the logo and basic functionality right down to the color scheme, but it doesn't appear to have some of the more intricate functions of the app. It's not the first ripoff to appear in the App Store, by far, and it won't be the last. But for readers thinking Samuel's app is the real deal, it's not. We hope Apple takes notice and bans him as quickly as they approved the app, which went live today. As for the real Clear app, it'll be released Wednesday. We'll have a full hands-on review of it then as well. Update: The knockoff app has been pulled from the App Store. The developer's only other app remains available.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me share my iPhone data to my iPad
Dear Aunt TUAW, I find myself in an interesting position. I am going to be traveling for several weeks within the US. I have my iPhone on a grandfathered unlimited data plan and a wifi iPad 2. I would like to be able to use my iPad while away not only for FaceTime but also general use and even using my slingbox. I would rather keep my unlimited data plan, have thought about using an airport express but that might be cost prohibitive given hotel charges. Is there anything I have missed? If you post this to the blog I would prefer to remain anonymous. Thanks for the help and the great website! Your loving nephew, Anonymous Dear Anonymous, It's pretty easy to share a connection between a non-jailbroken iPhone and a Mac using any of the iProxy-style SOCKS proxy solutions. You can Google up web pages galore about these solutions -- and a new proxy client seems to appear weekly on App Store before it gets pulled a few hours later. At the same time, it's rather hard to share between an iPhone and an iPad without jaibreaking. That's because you need some sort of shared Wi-Fi network and the iPhone cannot create an ad hoc connection without being jailbroken. There are various solutions around but most of them rely on you having a laptop along as well as the two devices, to create that ad hoc network. That makes things even clumsier and harder to set up. In general, you'll do best either by jailbreaking and using MyWi or by buying or renting a third party Wi-Fi hotspot (like Clear or MiFi). Unfortunately, if you do enable iPhone tethering through AT&T, you will give up your unlimited plan. Some TUAW folk have done exactly that -- freeing themselves from feeling they must hold onto the unlimited plan for dear life. Hugs, Auntie T.
Clearwire unveils $99 Clear Hub Express and $129 Clear Spot Voyager hotspots
Clearwire's impending LTE rollout isn't going to happen overnight, so why not continue to milk the proverbial cow that is their existing WiMax network? That's exactly what the wireless provider is doing today, with a fresh duo of hotspots. The first, the Clear Hub Express, is a $99 WiFi router-mobile hotspot combo which is destined for home or office duty. The second is the Clear Spot Voyager, which for $124 will hawk WiMax to eight devices for up to six hours of continuous use off its internal rechargeable battery. Those are identical specs to last year's model, the Clear Spot 4G Apollo, albeit sans-screen and in a thinner package. They're available today from Clearwire, and either can be kitted with "unlimited 4G" plans that start at $35 a month. Get acquainted with them in the PR after the break.
Justice Department antitrust division probing Verizon cable spectrum deals
Looks like AT&T isn't the only major carrier having issues with the guv'ment lately. Remember that 20MHz AWS spectrum that Verizon got from Cox Communications for a cool $315 million this month? How's about that juicy spectrum Big Red scored from Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House for $3.6 billion? Well, it turns out those deals are raising an eyebrow or two over at the Justice Department, which just launched an investigation into the matter. A spokesperson for the department confirmed the probe with Bloomberg News but declined to provide further details. A source familiar with the investigation, however, says the antitrust division is involved. Apparently, there's concern that the deal puts too much control of the airwaves in the hands of Verizon. For its part, Verizon declined to comment, saying it has yet to receive information about the investigation.
Verizon scores new spectrum from Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House for $3.6 billion (update)
Verizon has a pretty serious head start in the LTE race. To make sure it stays at the front of the pack, Big Red has entered an agreement with SpectrumCo (a joint venture between Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House) that sees 122 AWS spectrum licenses transferred to the carrier for $3.6 billion and some commercial agreements. The deal will allow the companies to become authorized retailers for each others products, eventually giving the cable companies the ability to offer Verizon Wireless service as wholesalers. For its part, the House that Droid Built scores a boat load of new spectrum that may become crucial in expanding its network and ensuring that speeds don't drop off significantly as more customers transition to 4G. Check out the full PR after the break. Update: Wondering how this impending love affair affects Comcast and Time Warner's existing deals reselling Clear's mobile broadband? Per CNET, not great, as the duo will gradually shift those using the WiMax provider to alternatives in the next six months.
Sprint in alleged talks to acquire Clearwire, cablers huddle 'round for some LTE pie
'Tis the season for patent disputes and wireless industry takeovers, or so a recent glut of moves would indicate. Shedding a little light on Clearwire's recently announced allegiance to LTE, Bloomberg is reporting that the company's currently in talks to sell its business to Sprint, and perhaps secure the funding it so desperately needs for a network build out. According to several insider sources, the third place wireless carrier's considering a joint investment (amongst other options) with Comcast, Cablevision and Cox, that would give the cablers a bundled high-speed, wireless broadband competitive advantage, and Sprint an LTE boost in its battle against AT&T and Verizon's rival 4G networks. None of the players in this rumored takeover have yet to comment on the purported transaction, although the business gossip has had quite an uplifting effect on Clearwire's shares. While we can't speculate as to the veracity of the claim, we know one thing for sure -- that LTE network's not gonna build itself.
Clearwire adding 120Mbps 'LTE Advanced-ready' technology to its holdings, restates commitment to WiMAX
Is it really fall? We can't say for certain that this is what Dan Hesse was referring to when he told us face-to-face that something spectacular would be coming our way a bit later in the year, but Clearwire definitely just announced its intent to add "LTE Advanced-ready" technology to its 4G network. In what'll likely go down as the most shocking mobile news this side of the proposed T-Mobile / AT&T merger, America's biggest WiMAX fan has finally caved to the realities of the next-gen wireless war: LTE's winning, and it's picking up all sorts of steam. Verizon Wireless has been building out LTE at a breakneck pace, and soon enough, Ma Bell (and presumably, T-Mob) will be following suit. According to the bizarrely worded release, Clearwire will be leveraging "deep spectrum resources and an all-IP network to meet long-term mobile broadband demands." Translation? An "unmatched LTE network" capable of serving current and future wholesale / retail customers. We're told that the initial LTE rollout will target "high-demand areas of current 4G markets," taking advantage of existing 4G infrastructure in order to reduce expenditures. For those curious about transmission rates, you can look forward to download speeds exceeding 120Mbps (or so it says). In a telling quote, Dr. John Saw, Clearwire's Chief Technology Officer, confesses: "This is the future of mobile broadband. Our extensive trial has clearly shown that our 'LTE Advanced-ready' network design, which leverages our deep spectrum with wide channels, can achieve far greater speeds and capacity than any other network that exists today. Clearwire is the only carrier with the unencumbered spectrum portfolio required to achieve this level of speed and capacity in the United States. In addition, the 2.5GHz spectrum band in which we operate is widely allocated worldwide for 4G deployments, enabling a potentially robust, cost effective and global ecosystem that could serve billions of devices. And, since we currently support millions of customers in the 2.5 GHz band, we know that our LTE network won't present harmful interference issues with GPS or other sensitive spectrum bands." No doubt, that closer there is a direct shot at the dilemmas faced by LightSquared -- a company that Sprint curiously just inked a partnership deal with. It's hard to envision how this unholy love triangle's going to play out, but the company's making it quite clear that its LTE network will be "LTE-Advanced-ready," enabling it to have a leg-up on the laggards here in the States. The dirty little secret in all of this is that Clearwire's still waiting on "additional funding" to fully implement its LTE desires, which involve the use of multicarrier, or multichannel, wideband radios that will be carrier aggregation capable. As you'd likely expect, the company closed with a restatement of its support to the existing WiMAX network, but it's practically a guarantee that you've seen the last expansion effort on that one. In case you've been looking the other way, Clearwire hasn't produced plans for a new WiMAX market in all of 2011. Now you know why.
Clearwire announces $99 Clear Spot 4G Apollo hotspot
We just spotted it at the FCC earlier this month, and Clear customers will now soon be able to get their hands on the company's new Clear Spot 4G Apollo mobile hotspot. Clearwire announced today that the device will be available for $99 (or leased for $6 a month) in "late July," which should mean any day now unless our calendars are off. Built by Gemtek, the hotspot allows for up to eight simultaneous connections, and promises up to six hours of continuous use from its built-in rechargeable battery -- plans to go along with it start $35 a month, with unlimited mobile data running you $45/month (with no long-term contract, of course). Press release is after the break.
Clearwire boosts NYC WiMAX coverage by 21 percent, 91,363 people rejoice uncontrollably
Consider yourself a New Yorker? If so, you could find yourself underneath Sprint / TWC / Clearwire's 4G umbrella, as the trio has announced a 21 percent coverage expansion in the greater New York City area. Folks in Alpine, Bayonne, Elizabeth, Fair Lawn, Newark, Paramus, Secaucus, Union, NJ; and Hartsdale, New Rochelle, New York, Rockville Centre, Yonkers, NY will now be covered in the regional Clear network, and as of last count, that amounts to an extra 91,363 people. 'Course, a few newcomers will be born every minute, so maybe we've breached 91,369 by now. Or maybe more. Talk about confusing.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: Onyx
Cleaning up a Mac is something many users never do, but if you want to squeeze all the performance and disk space you can out of your Mac, you need a tool like Onyx. A free multi-purpose utility, Onyx lets you run a myriad of system tasks such as disk maintenance, cache clean-up and index rebuilding. You can use Onyx to clear away the cobwebs that collect in things like the browser cache, font caches, boot, kernel and extension caches, as well as logs from crash reporters, system diagnostics and Software Update. If that wasn't enough, you can also get Onyx to delete previous iTunes libraries, the QuickTime Content Guide, recent items lists and even Mail downloads. OK, you can do most of these things yourself manually, but Onyx makes it fast and easy to do it all from one place. Cleaning isn't the only talent Onyx has -- it's able to do quite a few maintenance and repair tasks such as verifying your startup disk, which it will do on it's first run automatically. By rebuilding the Spotlight Index or LaunchServices, you can often cure small corruption issues with your Mac. You can check the S.M.A.R.T. status of your internal disks, verify file structure and fix disk permissions without having to open Disk Utility. Onyx will also let you change some hidden preferences in Finder and other Apple programs such as iTunes and Mail, allowing you to tweak a few things here and there. Onyx is a great free system utility that we've covered many times in the past and which allows you to perform a load of different tasks all from one application. If you're interested in cleaning out OS X, download Onyx today. By the way, Onyx also works well with OS X Lion.
Clear Spot 4G sails through the FCC, heading to WiMAX territories soon
Remember that Clear Spot 4G that was unveiled a fortnight or so ago? Hello, again! The so-called WIXFMM-122 has just made its way into the FCC's blossoming database, boasting 4G-only hotspot functionality (here we're talking WiMAX, not LTE), a minuscule display for showcasing signal strength and battery life, and support for up to eight simultaneous connections. Per usual, there's no information regarding a solid price or release, but given the inability to switch over to a 3G network if necessary, we're guessing it'll go for a song.
Clearwire ditches plans to produce phones, satisfied Sony Ericsson drops logo lawsuit
We thought Clearwire might have had a chance at legal victory against Sony Ericsson, but the wireless carrier has apparently dropped out of the ring. Clearwire told a federal court it no longer plans to produce a smartphone -- which basically nullified Sony Ericsson's worry that upcoming Clearwire handsets would oh-so-similar swirling orb logo. As a result, Sony Ericsson's reporting today that it's dropped the trademark infringement lawsuit, which sounds good for all involved, except it leaves Clearwire not producing much of anything now.
Clearwire posts Q1 loss amid record subscribers, decides not to sell spectrum after all
You know you're having a wacky quarter when it involves a resigning CEO, lawsuits, and rumors that one of your wholesale partners is courting your potential replacement. But can you still come out on top? Clearwire answered this question during yesterday's Q1 2011 earnings report to investors, and the answer is just as intriguing as the quarter itself. Though it posted a substantial revenue of $242 million, the company was also inflicted with a net loss of $227 million. Don't worry, it gets crazier -- Clearwire experienced record subscriber growth, seeing an increase of 533 percent year-over-year from Q1 2010. Sounds like a contradiction, right? A few factors led to the loss, such as higher costs from network expansion and writing off the "abandonment of projects that no longer fit within management's strategic network plans." A loss is a loss, but at least the future looks brighter; Clearwire predicts it will end the year with nearly a million more subs than originally forecasted (9.5 million, up from 8.8). Saving the best news for last, CEO John Stanton announced his company is no longer feeling the pressure to sell off some of its spectrum, primarily due to its recent $1 billion deal with Sprint. The deal will add enough cash flow to sustain network operations for the next year, so Clearwire just needs to make sure it uses some of the extra cash to buy us all something pretty. The full press release can be found after the break.
Clearwire ditches Rover pre-paid WiMAX service
It's been less than a year since it went live, but Clearwire has now officially dropped its Rover pre-paid WiMAX service, saying that it was simply a way to "test some new pay-as-you-go pricing options and was offered on a limited retail basis in a couple markets." As you may recall, the brand offered just two products -- the Rover Puck WiFi hotspot and a USB stick -- and it gave customers the ability to purchase 4G WiMAX service on a daily, weekly or monthly basis starting at just $5 a day. As a Clearwire spokesperson explains to FierceWireless, however, the company is not giving up on pre-paid options altogether, and says that it's own new no-contract plans "should meet the needs of most of the Rover customer base."