Comment Just a luddist rant... (Score 1) 283
As a lifelong reader of IT mags, I have an experience of reviewers downplaying the role of new technologies. I may bring up uncountable examples: the CD-ROM, the Internet, flash memories, digital cameras and so on. Every time they test a starting technology here's the comment: "it's not a revolution". Sure. No technology is a revolution from the start, because no technology grows from nothing. There's always a previous technology and a following evolution. That's how mobile internet slowly evolved from GSM 9.600baud unstable and almost unusable connections to the current state of the art of 3G, HSPA+, which is a 3.5G technology to say the least.
Also, the reviewer manage to look dumb when he says the only obvious improvements of 4G is latency at an ADSL line level. Geez.. that's what we were ACTUALLY AND BADLY IN NEED since the whole mobile internet began to take off! Latencies today make you want to die: what use can you make of a 7.2Mbps HSDPA line when it takes forever just for your mobile browser to begin transfers? And no way for a whole set of applications to ever appear on mobiles before this lag issue is worked out, on line multiplayer for example, which doesn't allow a mobile connection to be elegible as a replacement of ADSL lines.
So, 4G really and by far improves what actually needed to be improved, it isn't just a fancy double digit transfer rate to stick on a mobile device. And we should wait 3 to 5 years, dying on our 3G laggy connections before adopting it?? Geeeez...
And besides all this, the reviewer here takes for granted what 4G carriers will be advertising is WiMax. This is perhaps true in the United States, but here in Europe there's almost no plan for WiMax and all carriers are about to start upgrading from 3G directly to LTE.
LTE is a more recent technology and is better than WiMax. If you really want to compare some 4G labeled technology to the most advanced blend of 3G you have to take LTE for a test.