See, there are at least three different devices teased here: a bigger tabletish thing, a smaller smartphoneish thing, and a wide wristwatchish thing. Problem is this: all three are blacked out into oblivion. So what are they? If we had to take a guess, it’s a webOS tablet, a new webOS smartphone, and that internet-sharing wristwatch HP’s talked about before (the watch provides the web connection and shares with your devices, ala Mobile Hotspot). But are these mere concept prototypes, or is McKinney playing with actual devices we’ll see in the near future. While we are hoping and praying that these are actual working devices we’ll be using soon, we wouldn’t count on it. McKinney’s presentation is on computing five to ten years from now, not six months to a year.

Enough of our jabbering and speculation - what do you see hidden behind the black boxes? If you really want to find out, you’ll head to SXSW’s panels page and vote for McKinney’s panel (registration required).

Source: MarkatHP on Twitter, SXSW; Via: Gizmodo; Hat tip to Andrew

AT&T is launching a pretty drastic overhaul of their consumer cellular data plans, and its both good and bad. There’s plenty to cover, so let’s just get to it, shall we?

The current $30/month unlimited data plan is no more. It has been replaced by two new plans, DataPlus and DataPro. DataPlus amounts to 200MB for $15, while DataPro is 2GB for $25. AT&T claims that for 98% of their subscribers, 2GB is more than enough.

If that limit frightens you, this is where the good news comes in. AT&T has also overhauled their data overage structure, giving DataPlus subscribers and additional 200MB as needed for $15, while DataPro users get extra data at $10 a gigabyte. Simple and straightforward, no? Even better, if it turns out you’re either over-using or under-using your plan, AT&T’s going to be extremely flexible about letting switch back and forth between DataPlus and DataPro. You can call and have your plan changed at the next billing cycle, have it prorated immediately, or - hold on to your seats - have the plan retroactively applied to the entire current billing cycle. And just to make sure you’re able to keep tabs of how much of your plan you’re using, AT&T will send you text message alerts at 65%, 90%, and 100% usage.

There’s more good to be had. Tethering is coming to AT&T subscribers as well, in the form a $20 add-on charge for the privilege of sharing your smartphone data plan with your computer and other devices. No word on whether or not this means Mobile Hotspot is headed to webOS devices on AT&T. Considering that’s the only sanctioned way to tether with webOS (and really, why would you want anything other than a Wi-Fi hotspot?), we would be surprised if Mobile Hotspot didn’t come to AT&T in short order.

Current subscribers, as usual, get to keep their old plans if they so desire. The new DataPlus and DataPro plans will be enacted on June 7th.

Via: Engadget Mobile
Source: AT&T

The Palm mobile hotspot app has mysteriously appeared in the App Catalog for Sprint and AT&T Pre users, and guessing by the universal experience of "install failed" error messages folks get when they attempt to download the program combined with the lack of any tethering packages for the Pre through either carrier, this is likely nothing more than a mistake on Palm's part.  Since all of the reviews are in German, this is probably the mobile hotspot app destined for O2 Germany that somehow got published in the wrong catalog(s).

However, by employing the workaround that enabled users to download apps during the App Catalog's most recent outage (turning network time off and rolling the month back to April), users are reporting that they're actually able to install the app and launch it.  Once installed, however, users are greeted with a message stating that their carrier doesn't support data sharing, and the application fails to allow connected devices to access the internet. 

Folks interested in downloading this should be aware that using this or any tethering app without the proper tethering plan violates carrier policy, and by using it, you may very well incur their wrath (or: proceed at your own risk using this as a starting point for tethering).

Update: The hotspot app has been removed from the Catalogs it doesn't belong in.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Over at sister site TiPb (The iPhone + iPod + iPad Blog), they've published a full review of the Apple iPad and the gist for Pre owners is this: it's a perfectly reasonable decision to wait and see where it's going with iPhone 4.0. Don't think of it as competition to the Pre, it's not a phone. Still, comparing multitasking on the iPad to multitasking on webOS is surreal: the one that feels more like a computer is a staccato singletasking experience and the one which is a phone feels like it has an operating system from the future. 

So far we've only seen the WiFi-only version of the iPad but since I'm a Verizon owner and Mobile Hotspot is completely free, the lack of cellular data hasn't bothered me at all. It's fast and easy to just toggle Mobile Hotspot on the Pre and get to 3G browsing on Verizon's fast and reliable network with the iPad.

I've tried to make the case that free Mobile Hotspot means that business users should give webOS a second look. The ability to tether the iPad at no extra cost means that for dedicated Verizon users, the Palm Pre might be the best phone to go with this 'mobile companion' known as the iPad (yes, I went there).

Anybody else in webOS-land pick up an iPad? I know more than a few of us are dreaming of the possibilities of webOS on a screen this large.

(Full disclosure: I contributed to the hardware section of TiPb's iPad Review. And yes, I'm standing by that line about the teddy bear.)

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The webOS 1.4.1 news is flying fast as furious. As Arne Hess notes over at the:unwired and as we noted a little over a week ago, Mobile Hotspot doesn't look to be exclusive to Verizon any longer. O2 Germany customers who update to webOS 1.4.1 should be able to download the Mobile Hotspot application from the Palm App Catalog and use it to tether their Pre phones much more easily than what was previously available.

Update: scoutcamper writes in to let us know it's now appearing in O2 UK's App Catalog.

More on webOS 1.4.1: webOS 1.4.1 release notes, webOS 1.4.1 arrives for O2 and Movistar customers in Europe.

Have a Palm Pre on O2, but find yourself envious of your American compatriots on Verizon running Mobile Hotspot left and right? Fret not, for your quandary will soon be quashed. In a tweet on one of O2 Germany’s official Twitter feeds, the following (translated into English) was posted.

Coming soon: the Palm Mobile Hotspot App. Thus the Pre becomes a UMTS Wi-Fi router with WPA or WEP encryption - ideal for iPods & iPads.

Zing! Especially considering that at launch won’t be able to get a 3G iPad in Europe at all. This is the first official word we have of the Mobile Hotspot app making the leap to another carrier. Because the Pre on O2 is a GSM phone, users will be able to still place and receive phone calls while running Mobile Hotspot, something their Verizon brethren can’t do. No word on pricing, though we expect the app to be free, and O2 Germany currently runs a tethering plan starting at €25 a month. Correction: Tethering is offered free-of-charge for O2 subscribers, but watch your usage to avoid going over your plan's usage cap.

Thanks to Ruben for the tip!

Recently, we're not sure of the specific date, all of Bell Mobility's smartphone plans changed. Now, every smartphone data plan has tethering added. For example, the $50 plan now says,

"500 MB of data for personal email, Internet browsing, instant messaging, and tethering"

Pricing goes up from there, with the largest plan at $100 offering a 3GB monthly allotment.  However, as it says, the data amount is shared, so tethering Canadians will need to be aware of bandwith used.

With that in mind, it's worth reminding fellow Canadians that the homebrew app Netstat is amazing for keeping track of bandwidth used. As for tethering apps, the most convenient one is the paid app MyTether, and lately we've been hearing successful stories of Bell users using the free Mobile Hotspot.

Since legality is becoming less of an issue for tethering, it's not surprising there are rumblings others may be creating competing tethering apps as well.

Last week a story made its way around the blogosphere that Steve Jobs answered an email. Our pals at TiPb covered the iPad tethering question, originally from 9to5Mac:

First, the question from Jezper Söderlund:

Will the wifi-only version [of the iPad] somehow support tethering thru my iPhone?

And the answer?

No.

Sent from my iPhone

We thought it might be appropriate to send another email:

Dear Steve:

Will the wifi-only version [of the iPad] somehow support tethering through Mobile Hotspot on the Palm Pre Plus? Wait, don't answer that, we already know that it will.

Love, PreCentral

...of course, we'll be paying $40 per month for the privilege, but hey, it's there. While we're on the subject, we'll note that webOS 1.4 seems to have busted up the hack to get the Verizon-only Mobile Hotspot app working on Sprint - the hackery required now is epic, to say the least. Win some, lose some - but for Verizon Palm Pre Plus owners thinking about the iPad, we'll chalk it up as a win.

Over at jkOnTheRun, James Kendrick has posted up results comparing the Mobile Hotspot feature on his Palm Pre Plus to the MiFi Mobile Hotspot device. His results are pretty disheartening: speeds on the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus are noticeably slower than on the dedicated MiFi hotspot. I don't have a Verizon MiFi to test against, but I have gotten faster download speeds than James did, however my upload speeds are lackluster to say the least. At right, the results of both of our tests, averaged over multiple attempts at Speakeasy (2 for James, 3 for me).

Update: I just realized that I had the "Unthrottle Download Manager" patch installed. I just removed that and ran another battery of tests and am getting slightly slower speeds, but not enough for me to think that this patch affects data speed - 3G is often wildly different from test to test, even from the exact same location.

After the break we've posted two polls that we're asking only Verizon users to fill out: if you're using Mobile Hotspot, what kind of data download and upload speeds are you getting? People using Mobile Hotspot on Sprint via 'nefarious' methods and people using other methods of tethering webOS, please sit this poll out and instead post your results in the comments.

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