Want a 4G tablet? If you want built-in 4G, you’ll have to go Android. (The iPad can get 4G only with a MiFi device.) There are about half a dozen 4G Android tablets in various sizes and price points available from the four major carriers. Most of these tablets have the latest Android 3.0 (aka Honeycomb) operating system.

AT&T sells two 4G tablets: the Acer Iconic Tab A501 ($330 with 2 year contract) and the HTC Jetstream ($700 with 2 year contract). Both have 10.1-inch, 1280 by 800 screens, dual-core processors, front-facing cameras for video chat and can accept memory cards up to 32 GB. There are a few differences between the two tablets, but whether they’re worth the $370 price difference is up for debate. While both tablets have Android’s Honeycomb software, the Acer Tab has version 3.0, and the Jetstream has the slightly upgraded version 3.1. The HTC Jetstream has the most recent Bluetooth standard (3.0), Wi-Fi, an 8-megapixel camera and a 32 GB drive. The Acer Iconic Tab has Bluetooth 2.1, a 5-megapixel camera, a 16 GB hard drive and no Wi-Fi.

There are also two 4G tablets available from Verizon. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 comes in two hard drive sizes: 16 GB ($530 with 2 year contract) and 32 GB ($630 with 2 year contract). The Motorola Xoom ($500 with 2-year contract) has a 10.1-inch screen, but a 7-inch model is expected to hit store shelves soon. The 10.1-inch Xoom can accept memory cards up to 64 GB; the Galaxy Tab does not
accept memory cards. All of these tablets have front-facing cameras and Android 3.1. The Xoom has a 5-megapixel camera that can capture 720p video; the Galaxy Tab has a 3-megapixel camera.

T-Mobile has just one 4G tablet available, the 32 GB LG G-Slate ($400 with 2-year contract), though two more models, the Galaxy Tab and the SpringBoard, are due out soon. The G-Slate has an 8.9-inch screen, a front-facing camera and a 5-megapixel camera that can capture 3D images and 1080p HD video. Video playback is limited to 720p.

Compared to the other 4G tablets, Sprint’s offering is rather modest. While the other three carriers all offer at least one 10.1-inch tablet, Sprint only offers a 7-inch tablet, the HTC Evo View ($400 with 2 year contract). It’s also has an older Android OS: version 2.3. The View has a front facing camera for video chats and a 5-megapixel camera for taking photos and video – its memory slot can accept cards up to 32 GB. One feature that sets it apart is HTC’s Scribe Technology, which, when used with a compatible pen accessory, enables you to take handwritten notes on the tablet and upload them to Evernote software. Weighing less than a pound, the HTC Evo View is the lightest of this bunch.

Today, Tim Cook, Apple’s new CEO, finally made the long-awaited announcement about the new iPhone. Apple fans and iPhone addicts were expecting the iPhone 5 with a new design, 4G technology and great technical improvements. However, much to our disappointment, the iPhone 4S, introduced by Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of worldwide product marketing at Apple, only features the latter.

The new iPhone 4 S features the new A5 chip, a dual core processor & graphics allowing for two times faster CPU and seven times faster graphics.  Apple’s smartphone now has an 8 Mega pixel camera (3264 x 2448 pixels) and a generally improved lens and color caption system, that enables HD videos and great picture quality on the same levels as commercial point and shoot cameras.
One of the main issues that the iPhone 4S had to overcome was the battery life and how those new capabilities would affect it. Phil Schiller bragged about the “fantastic battery life”: eight hours of 3G talk time, 6 hours in 3 G browsing, 8 hours when using WiFi, ten hours of video and 40 hours of music.

In terms of connectivity, the iPhone-4 S now supports both GSM and CDMA networks (the iPhone 4 only supported either one at a time). 4G was never mentioned, neither LTE nor WiMAX considered advanced enough for Apple to implement in their brainchild.

Also presented was “Siri”, the new voice recognition system that allows you to set alarms, check the weather and more by simply talking to your phone in an almost conversational way. Asking “How do I get home?” would prompt the GPS system to guide you home and when inquiring about who Siri is, the answer comes out as “I am a humble personal assistant.”

At the end of the technical presentation of the new iPhone 4-S, commercial information was also delivered. The iPhone 4S will be available in black and white versions with prices depending on the internal memory — 16GB: $199, 32GB for $299, 64GB for $399, while distribution will depend on carrier agreements with Apple. Verizon, AT&T and Sprint will offer the new iPhone 4s on the US market.

This ended the presentation and left all iPhone enthusiasts with more expectations about the arrival of the iPhone 5, supporting 4G.

Dish Network has expressed an interest in either partnering with a wireless carrier like Sprint or Clearwire or buying them outright, Forbes reported. Dish purchased satellite operators Terrestar and DBSD North America, saving them from bankruptcy earlier this year, and is now looking to make use of the wireless spectrum acquired as a result.

“We’ll look at partnerships, acquisitions, all of the above,” said Dish CEO Joseph Clayton, according to Bloomberg.

Upon this announcement, Sprint’s stocks jumped, as a deal like this is predicted to significantly aid in correcting Sprint’s and Clearwire’s current 4G woes. Concerns that such a merger would result in a legal deadlock after the AT&T/T-Mobile model have been assuaged – AT&T has been accused of decreasing competition while Dish would serve to provide a new player to the market. AT&T is currently fending off multiple anti-trust suits from the Department of Justice, Sprint Co., and regional carrier Cellular South.

A deal like this would help Clearwire get the $150-$300 million in funding it so badly needs to implement spectrum maintenance as well as the additional $600 million required to launch its LTE network. Furthermore, Clearwire could afford to abandon talks with wireless carriers to sell its excess spectrum – holdings that are considered the WiMAX operator’s most valuable asset. Clearwire has been negotiating to this end with the likes of Verizon, AT&T, and Metro PCS, the 1st, 2nd, and 6th largest national carriers, respectively.

There are several missing pieces,” Clayton said. “Wireless infrastructure, additional technology capabilities and even distribution are pieces that we’re still working on. Stay tuned.”

Anyone with half an eye to the wireless mobile industry is aware of the lawsuit filed in the DOJ against AT&T last month. But in case you have been asleep, the facts are as follows: Mobile giant AT&T made a bid last Spring to purchase the nation’s 4th-largest wireless service provider, T Mobile, for a whopping $39 billion. This ambitious move greatly disturbed competitor Sprint Nextel (whose own bid fell short of AT&T’s offer), as the merger would relegate the WiMAX operator to a distant 3rd place in the national mobile market as well as, as Sprint credibly claimed, would kill their business. Thus, Sprint hastily filed a lawsuit with the Department of Justice which stated that the acquisition was in direct violation of the Clayton Anti-trust Act. The DOJ followed that up in August with a suit of their own. Experts give the deal a 25% chance of going through.

Now AT&T has made the dubious claim that a merger would actually serve to increase competition in the global mobile market. As informationweek.com reported, AT&T recently released a statement which included the following claim: “Rather than substantially reducing competition, the combined firm will usher in more intense competition to an already vibrantly competitive market.”

I smell a rat here. More intense competition for who exactly? Certainly not AT&T. Furthermore, it is asking a lot of the DOJ to believe that AT&T is actively seeking increased competition. If the Justice Department is to be swayed, it won’t be with this argument. The full statement from AT&T can be found on FierceWireless.

As the Sprint vs. AT&T drama heightens, the nation’s 3rd largest wireless services provider may be adding insult to the injury of yet another law suit filed against AT&T with the DOJ this week. The Wall Street Journal has reported that service for the much-anticipated iPhone 5 will be provided by Sprint, who will also get the rights to the iPhone 4.

Sprint, the largest carrier of the WiMAX 4G network, has been mounting a protracted battle against AT&T since the mobile industry giant announced their plans for a takeover bid of T Mobile for a reported $39 billion. Sprint has made the claim that such a move would cripple their business and relegate them to a distant third place in the US cell phone market. Sprint also maintains that the merger is in direct violation of the Clayton antitrust act.

AT&T recently lost their 5-year monopoly of iPhone service when Verizon (currently the largest network in the US) was allowed to release their own CDMA iPhone 4. Come October, it appears a 3rd carrier will be added to the mix. Apple hopes that this move will help it earn back the market share it has lost to Google’s increasingly popular Android Operating System, currently the leading operator.

“Android has benefited greatly from being available in multiple devices across all carriers,” said Alex Spektor, a wireless expert at Strategy Analytics. “Broader iOS availability certainly could be beneficial for iPhone volumes, as higher shelf-share could translate into more visibility with consumers.”

The new iPhone will reportedly sport a larger screen and slimmer design than its predecessor.

Mobile phone carriers worldwide will be rolling out 4G smartphones by the end of this summer and BlackBerry lovers on the T-Mobile and AT&T networks will definitely have much to look forward to. Research in Motion has unleashed two smartphones, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 to be offered by T-Mobile and the BlackBerry Torch 9810 which has been nabbed by AT&T.

T-Mobile will be selling the 4G Bold for $299.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and two-year data plan. The smartphone will be made available to everyone on August 31. This particular handset is the most expensive of BlackBerry’s mobile releases. It runs on the BlackBerry OS7 which is the best operating system currently available for BlackBerry phones. By early next year, RIM is expected to release phones running on the more advanced QNX platform used by the BlackBerry Playbook tablet.

The BlackBerry Torch 9810 provided by AT&T will be priced at $49.99 with a two-year contract. AT&T has fallen behind rivals Sprint and Verizon when it comes to LTE deployment but they are expected to roll out 4G LTE services later this year and cover about 70 million Americans by the end of 2011. They are also expected to offer a total of 20 4G devices by the end of this year including several other smartphones. The BlackBerry Torch 9810 is the first RIM smartphone to be offered by AT&T and it will certainly not be the last. AT&T is also expected to offer RIM’s BlackBerry Torch 9860 later this year.

Although they seem to be making choice selections about which BlackBerry smartphones to offer on their respective networks, both T-Mobile and AT&T are snatching up devices that expand their involvement with 4G. By catering to BlackBerry fans and loyal customers, both mobile carriers are aiming to provide the best of the best when it comes to 4G service.

Last week Clearwire announced that they intend to adopt LTE in addition to their WiMAX network. The plan is for a new 4G-LTE network to be rolled out in areas of high demand to supplement their WiMax network. Clearwire acknowledged that they will need $600 million to fund their ambitious expansion in addition to the funding they need to build up their other networks.

Clearwire entered the mobile broadband market when they began offering 4G-WiMAX in 2008, long before anyone even heard of LTE. Since then they have expanded their customer base to more than seven million customers under their brand and those of their partners. Even with a rapid growth of 1.5 million customers in the last quarter, they are still burdened by a $4 billion debt. To raise capital to fund their $600 million expansion and maintain their other networks Clear could auction off portions of their spectrum licenses worth approximately $4.3 billion, only the licenses drew little interest when they were put up for sale in the beginning of the year. Even if Clearwire can obtain financial backers for the LTE project, it would take approximately a year for them to build up sufficient infrastructure to begin offering LTE service.

It would seem that Clearwire is shifting away from WiMAX towards the more popular LTE. The question is, what will happen to their WiMAX network once the LTE network is up and running? According to Monica Paolini, an analyst for Senza Fili Consulting,”The best option for (Clearwire) probably is to keep both of them for some years” and even if Clearwire eventually stops offering WiMAX, the transition for customers could be seamless with multi-mode devices. Multi-mode devices would feature a chipset that supports both WiMAX and LTE, enabling them to operate on both networks.

The competition for LTE is fierce as a number of networks are looking to offer service on their own LTE network and not act as a reseller. Sprint, a major shareholder and reseller of Clear’s service, announced a 15 year partnership agreement with Lightsquared to develop an LTE network. If Sprint can get their hands on their own 4G network, Clearwire could be left without a major wireless provider as a partner, severely compromising their position. A glimmer of hope is for the merger between AT&T and T-Mobile to fail. This would leave T-Mobile without a viable 4G network, leaving room for them to potentially partner with Clear.

The future of Cleawire is not so clear. With cash running low, some investors fear that Clearwire may default on their debts, as they are not generating enough money. According to Susan Johnston, a spokeswoman for Clearwire, “We have sufficient liquidity to fund our current WiMAX operations for at least the next 12 months…We expect our operations to begin generating positive EBITDA in Q1 of 2012.”

A deal between Sprint and LightSquared has recently been made that will establish a hybrid LTE-WiMAX network. LightSquared has been building out an LTE network and has overcome hindrances from the GPS industries. These complaints from the GPS industries were in regards to potential interferences to critical GPS systems caused by the new network build out. Now LightSquared plans on using Sprint as the backbone to its service offering. This is advantageous for both companies because LightSquared now has the assurance of Sprint’s network stability and Sprint has a response to Verizon and AT&T’s recent LTE ramp-up.

Initially, Clearwire and Sprint teamed up to offer WiMAX and to get the jump on the 4G market, but innovation and exponential expansion is the nature of business and technology so Sprint needed a new weapon, so to speak. Sprint plans on using multiple wireless technologies, and this resolves some mystery around its network vision. One issue that comes to mind, however, is the question of how the two technologies, WiMAX and LTE, will hand off between one another, and how will 3G play into the mix?

It has been revealed that the latest WiMAX-equipped Android Smartphone from Motorola, The Photon 4G, has gone to through to be filed by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), proving itself to be on schedule for a later summer release.

The FCC documents have named this handset as model P56MD1. The Photon is similar to the Motorola Atrix, which is available on AT&T.  Revealed last month, the Photon will certainly prove stiff competition for other 4G models around at the moment.  The device features a dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, Android 2.3, 4.3-inch qHD display (a similar resolution to that of the Atrix model), 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal memory, a front VGA and rear 8MPcamera, and a kickstand.

An approximate price or date of release is yet to be disclosed

I have called Sprint the king of 4G for many reasons. They make tomorrow look good for us all. Now I am going to reveal how easy it will be for Sprint to enter the LTE space and how they can change technology mid stream.  Beceem is now shipping their BCS500 chips which are Wimax and LTE, along with about six or more radios, including CDMA, EV-DO, WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS. These chips will hand off seamlessly between Wimax and LTE.

This is the easiest and most logical path for Sprint to take toward the LTE path. It is much easier to start seeding the device market with devices embedded with this BCS500 chip than any other solution they might have. Once they have the device side in check, deploying LTE is a snap.

This is also where 4G is supposed to be taking us. With this chip, consumers will start to get more choices. As these chips will be embedded in all the carrier devices, consumers will be able to buy a device, and go with what ever carrier they choose including Sprint, AT&T and Verizon–the companies that offer LTE. Of course Sprint needs this more than any other carrier, because they have more wireless technology than all the carriers combined. Sprint will have two 4G technologies, and they need this more than any other carrier to move forward and compete.

And this is why I think we will be hearing from Sprint very soon on their 4G plans. They sometimes don’t like to reveal to much, but the carriers know what is happening with devices. This should also change the direction of Clear, as they are the largest wholesaler for Sprint, and they need to have their devices embedded with this BCS500 chip as well to stay competitive. So a win win scenario is in the making, and Sprint again comes out the winner. I have often said Sprint is the driving force behind 4G, and they are certainly in the drivers seat.

Sprint really just needs to let technology catch up to their way of thinking. This could not be any better news for Sprint, or Clear. However this is not good news for the other carriers as this will put Sprint in the lead with 4GX2 space and 6X the spectrum. No matter what the press thinks, Sprint has this 4G thing on the right road. And the winners will be you: the consumer.

Remember that 4G is not just about speed, it’s about new ways of thinking and concepts that are still being developed to take us in new directions. Most of all, 4G is about giving us choices as to how we choose to use this technology, and to take the monopoly out of the game.