Chinue blog

AT&T Announces Mobile Hotspot, Expands Tethering

AT&T is gearing up for a fight with the impending end of its iPhone exclusivity, and the . No longer able to rest idly on the fact that it is the only iPhone game in town, AT&T will have to be more aggressive about competing with rival wireless carriers in other ways. With that in mind, AT&T is embracing the Wi-Fi hotspot concept and expanding its data tethering program.

While there are rumors that the upcoming iOS 4.3 update will add Wi-Fi hotspot functionality to the iPhone, the iPhone is not the smartphone AT&T is introducing the Mobile Hotspot app. According to a , "The feature will first be available February 13, beginning with the in-store launch of the HTC Inspire 4G. Bundled with the AT&T Data Pro plan, customers will benefit from a total of 4GB for $45 per month."

The new Mobile Hotspot feature combines 2GB of data usage for $20 per month, with the 2GB AT&T Data Pro plan for $25 per month for a total of 4GB of data to be shared collectively across all connected devices. An overage fee of $10 per GB will be incurred if users exceed the allotted bandwidth.

Asked about the expected hotspot capabilities of iOS 4.3 and how that fits with the new Mobile Hotspot app, an AT&T spokesperson responded simply, "We are working with Apple to bring it to iPhone."

To keep things fair and add value for its other data-sharing customers, AT&T is also tacking the same 2GB of data consumption onto the existing tethering plan. Currently, AT&T charges $20 per month for the privilege of tethering, but doesn't provide any additional data capacity. As of February 13, users will have 2GB of data on their smartphone, and an additional 2GB for the data tethering.

The moves show that AT&T is willing to compete more aggressively, and might even help ease some frustration by users who feel that AT&T is . However, AT&T's wireless rivals still make a compelling case with their data plans as well.

Verizon will offerfor $30 a month--the same plan which AT&T used to offer, but killed in favor of the tiered data plans it offers now (although some users are apparently still able to get the unlimited data plan back). Verizon will also offer a $20 tethering option for the iPhone 4 which includes an additional 2GB of data usage.

So, Verizon is providing unlimited data plus tethering for $50, while AT&T is offering 4GB of data including tethering for $45. At face value that seems to be a win for Verizon, but there is a key difference. The 4GB of AT&T data is shared across all connected devices, while with Verizon the unlimited data is only on the iPhone and the tethered devices are limited to the 2GB.

I'm still waiting for the wireless providers to pool data bandwidth for group or family plans the way they do with calling minutes or text messaging--and for AT&T to offer "rollover megabytes". I'm tired of having to pay separately for data on each device and manage the usage and data caps of each.

First Person: On World AIDS Day, Recalling the Courtly 'Mr. B'

Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day. Yahoo! News asked members of our Yahoo! Contributor Network to tell us about their experiences dealing with HIV and AIDS. Submissions have been touching, heartfelt, hopeful, encouraging — and most of all, personal.

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Mr. B was two days removed from a possible cardiovascular incident -- still undetermined -- that resulted in a loss of consciousness (more commonly known as "passing out) and a laceration to the scalp from when he fell and hit a coffee table.

The head wound was fixed with 12 stitches, and he'd undergone all necessary tests to rule out any head or brain injury from the fall. His medical history included a three-vessel open-heart surgery from the 1980s, a redo 12 years later, advanced Parkinson's disease, legal blindness from macular degeneration, and almost total deafness.

Mr. B -- himself a courtly, old-fashioned and kindly person -- had a wonderful family situation to be discharged to: a stay-at-home retired nursing assistant daughter supplemented by a granddaughter and a grandson in nursing school. Family dynamics appeared warm and stable. The oddity that set Mr. B apart from other patients on our cardiac step-down unit was his age, 93.

Oh, and he was HIV-positive.

By 2005, when I cared for Mr. B in metropolitan Portland, Ore., we followed all necessary and standard operating procedures, so to speak, for everysingle patient -- not just those with HIV-positive or AIDS diagnoses. This included: blood and body fluid-borne pathogen biohazard precautions, "needle-less" intravenous systems, gloves for almost any skin-so-skin contact, eye splash guards, and double-gloving.

Certainly, the diagnosis reminded one to be just a little bit more careful, but we nurses entered and exited Mr. B's room blithely, unlike like how we donned gowns, masks, hats and gloves in a separate biohazard foyer before entering the room of a MRSA-resistant patient. ( "MRSA" or "methcillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureas," refers to infections caused by staph bacterial that are highly resistant to some antibiotics.)

Mr. B was a very elderly heterosexual man who had contracted the HIV virus during blood transfusions required during his early 1980s cardiac bypass surgery. He had been "lucky," he related, learning quickly of his status and having the insurance and financial resources to treat his status with the newest and state-of-the-art treatment protocols. In fact, his viral load remained minimal and his T-cell, or CD4+ count -- a measure of his immune strength -- had never dropped to levels that would indicate even a slide toward the development of an active AIDS infection.

Communication, particularly such potentially soul-bearing ones with so many privacy issues, were difficult with Mr. B. You had to speak very loudly, slowly and very closely to his face, yet in his peripheral vision to allow him to speech-read as much as possible. He was more embarrassed, he admitted, to the difficulties inherent in holding a conversation with him than in actually discussing the details of his diagnosis. But his family shared freely about his history and the grace with which he greeted his diagnosis back in the day when HIV patients were shunned, avoided or even reviled.

His daughter, Nina, related how her mother, who was still living then, and her father greeted the news of his diagnosis. They were both shocked, she admitted, and spoke at length with their priest for many weeks. Both of her parents learned as much as they could of the condition, the disease, the difference between the two, and then began to slowly share the news of her father's diagnosis with family and close friends. At some point, Nina continued, Mr. B even spoke at his employer's conferences of the disease and the phobia surrounding it. Even though he was a higher-level manager near retirement, he was still taking a risk in revealing this information back in the day when Ryan White was ostracized from attending school with his peers. Her father's diagnosis led her to become a nursing assistant and both of her children to go into nursing school. Unknown to me, I was nursing a hero.

I'll never forget Mr. B. Not because of his diagnosis. Because of his courtly, old-fashioned manners, the gratitude he expressed over the smallest of courtesies and the patience he demonstrated in sharing his history with me. Oh, and the kiss on my cheek he gave me upon his discharge home.

Boone's late 3 lifts Bucknell past Boston U 52-49

LEWISBURG, Pa. – G.W. Boone hit a 3-pointer with 1:32 left and Bucknell held on to beat Boston University 52-49 on Saturday night in a poor shooting game for both teams.

Both teams struggled from the floor in the second half, shooting less than 24 percent. But the Bison (4-6), who trailed most of the half, managed to take a 47-45 advantage on Cameron Ayers' jumper with 4:53 left.

The Terriers (4-5) tied the game at 47-47 after Darryl Partin and John Holland each made free throws. But Boone, who finished with nine points and eight rebounds, hit a 3 to put Bucknell ahead for good.

Bryan Cohen and Mike Muscala finished with 10 points apiece for the Bison, who shot 31 percent (18-for-58) from the floor for the game.

Jake O'Brien scored 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds for Boston University, which made 33.3 percent (20-for-60) of its field goal attempts.

Dodgers cut ties with 2 former All-Stars

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers have decided not to offer contracts for next season to a pair of former All-Stars: catcher Russell Martin and reliever George Sherrill.

The team announced the moves shortly after Thursday's midnight EST deadline. Both players became free agents.

Martin appeared to be a rising star in 2007, when he batted .293 with 19 homers and 87 RBIs. He won a Gold Glove, a Silver Slugger award and made the first of two consecutive All-Star appearances.

But his production has dropped off the past two seasons and he hit only .248 with five homers and 26 RBIs in 97 games this year, when his salary was $5.05 million. A hip injury ended his season Aug. 3.

Sherrill, an AL All-Star in 2008, was acquired from Baltimore in July 2009. The left-hander made $4.5 million last season, when he was 2-2 with a 6.69 ERA in 65 appearances.

The Dodgers also declined to offer a 2011 contract to outfielder Trent Oeltjen.

McCain's Hypocrisy: Arizona Senator Won't Budge on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) continued to rail against the proposition that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" should be repealed today in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. He cited reports claiming that nearly half of the surveyed troops do not support the repeal of DADT and that the young men and women of the armed services were "mature enough to fight and die," so they should be mature enough to choose with whom they fight.

Sen. McCain's logic in that statement seems woefully flawed. The claim that our troops are mature enough to fight and die may very well be a valid one. After all, our government has decided upon the age of 18 as a minimum to enlist for a reason. We must believe they are mature enough to fight and die.

However, shouldn't that maturity extend to their treatment of their fellow soldiers? If McCain is claiming they are mature enough to die, which is a very grave reality that most of us do not face very often, why are they not mature enough to be around gay men and women?

McCain claims that we are doubting their maturity by forcing them to fight alongside gays. Is this really the case? Did the legality of blacks enlisting mean that our government did not think its white soldiers were mature? In fact, it is quite the opposite. The Pentagon officials are assuming American soldiers are mature enough to deal with gay service members, just as they were assuming they could when desegregation of the armed forces occurred.

This is not a case of our government seeing Americans soldiers as too childlike or immature to choose with whom they wish to go into the field of battle. It is a case of our government seeing the maturity and dignity of our troops and believing that these qualities will lead to acceptance of gays serving openly in the military.McCain is doing our soldiers a disservice by claiming what he does, especially in the fact of Pentagon reports that show approximately 70% of service members surveyed said a repeal with have little impact on their ability to fight, .

Elisabeth Bumiller. "McCain Questions Pentagon on Repealing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'" The New York Times. Dec. 2, 2010.