T-Mobile Sonic 2.0 Mobile Hotspot LTE

Pros T-Mobile's only LTE hotspot. Good battery life. Solid speeds and range.

Cons Unstable firmware drops connections. Data monitor is inaccurate. Doesn't work abroad. Bottom Line T-Mobile's first LTE hotspot can go all day, but it needs a firmware update to reach its true potential.

By Sascha Segan

It's tough to choose when you have no choice. T-Mobile's only LTE hotspot is … T-Mobile's only LTE hotspot. It has some things going for it: It's relatively inexpensive and has terrific battery life. It supports up to 8 Wi-Fi devices, and it works as a USB modem for both PCs and Macs. But I found it unreliable in testing and especially prone to losing connections when downshifting from LTE to HSPA+. So while this is the T-Mobile hotspot to buy, we can't give it Editor's Choice.

The painfully awkwardly named T-Mobile Sonic 2.0 Mobile Hotspot LTE is made by ZTE, and it's a chubby little device at 3.87 by 2.25 by .7" (HWD) and 4.2 oz. Most of that space is taken up by a large 3000mAh battery, which gave the hotspot solid battery life: 6 hours, 11 minutes of streaming audio from an LTE network onto an Android smartphone.

The hotspot has a prominent, raised power button on the front along with a washed-out 1.77", 160-by-128 LCD display. There are four control buttons under the display, which isn't a touch screen. You can use the display to check your network name and password, see how much data you've transferred in this session, and see which devices are connected to the hotspot.

On the side of the hotspot there's a USB port for charging, along with a microSD card slot. If you pop in a microSD card, the hotspot shares it out over DLNA, which is a lost opportunity as no human knows how to use DLNA.

Performance and Interface
The Sonic 2.0 supports T-Mobile's HSPA+ and LTE networks, but almost nobody else's. It can't roam internationally. T-Mobile doesn't have any decent international roaming plans—its only affordable data roaming option is restricted to business customers—but it would have been nice for the hotspot to work with SIM cards purchased abroad.

T-Mobile's data prices are reasonable: $30/month for 2GB, plus $10 for each additional 2GB, with no contract. Sprint matches those prices, but requires a two-year contract; Verizon and AT&T tend to be more expensive. Only carriers that use Clearwire's old WiMAX network offer better deals, with Virgin coming in at $35/month for 10GB and Clear offering the only truly unlimited hotspot plan for $50.

I took the hotspot to eight locations in Manhattan and Queens and compared speeds on a Samsung Galaxy S4 sitting next to the hotspot with a Samsung Galaxy Note II. On average, speeds were comparable, which is impressive considering you typically bleed off up to 20 percent of your speed when converting from 4G to Wi-Fi. I saw, on average, 8Mbps down and 7.6Mbps up with 40ms ping times on both devices.

The hotspot also handled distance well. I didn't see much degradation even with the Galaxy S4 up to 125 feet away, as long as it wasn't on the other side of a wall.

I ran into several stability problems with the hotspot, though. When it dropped from LTE to HSPA, the connection completely broke and the hotspot had to be rebooted. In an area with a weak LTE connection, that happened too frequently. The hotspot would latch on to a very weak LTE link, lose it, and freeze.

I didn't see the stability problems in places with a consistent, strong connection. For instance, at home (with a strong LTE connection testing at 10-16Mbps down) I was able to stream audio for almost 20 hours without a break. The hotspot's Web-based interface lets you kick it into an HSPA+ only mode, which could improve stability.

The Sonic 2.0 has a Web-based administrator interface that lets you see which devices are connected to the hotspot and change settings. The hotspot supports WPA2 encryption along with 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, but only on the 2.4GHz band. There's a basic firewall with MAC filtering and port forwarding, and you can set data usage limits for individual devices connected to the hotspot. But the Web portal's data counter was wrong when I was using it, which was disappointing. Oddly, if I drilled down, it would show me how much data was used by each individual connected device, but not the right total for the hotspot as a whole.

The Sonic 2.0 also works as a USB modem for Windows, Mac OS and Linux PCs; plug in the cable and drivers will appear. It still functions as a hotspot when in USB mode.

Conclusions
T-Mobile has growing national LTE coverage. That might make it a good carrier to check out for your hotspot needs, except that I'm concerned over the stability of this hotspot's software. Since hotspot users are typically data hogs, an accurate data counter is also a must, and T-Mobile needs to get with the program and offer international-capable devices.

The T-Mobile Sonic 2.0 Mobile Hotspot LTE has some attractive features, but it isn't the perfect hotspot for T-Mobile. A firmware update might help make it so. For now, obviously, this is the hotspot to get on T-Mobile—you want LTE, and it's your only option. But I'd like to see the carrier come out with an even better choice.

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Consumer shift to mobile devices boosts Google's revenue

IDG News Service - Google's second-quarter revenue increased by 19% to about $14 billion, aided by consumers' shift to mobile devices, the company said Thursday.

The Internet company generated sales of $14.11 billion for the quarter, which ended June 30. The revenue excludes the commissions and fees that Google pays to other sites that run its ads. Taking those into account, the company's second-quarter revenue was $11.1 billion.

The company's second-quarter rise in revenue constitutes a moderate slowdown in revenue gains of 31% that Google reported in April, but is up 19% compared to the year-ago quarter.

Google also posted net income of $3.23 billion, or $9.54 a share, up roughly 16% from $2.79 billion, or $8.42 a share, in the second quarter of 2012. But net income dipped slightly from the $3.35 billion reported in the first quarter of this fiscal year.

Still, it was "a great quarter," Google CEO Larry Page said in the company's earnings announcement. "The shift from one screen to multiple screens and mobility creates tremendous opportunity for Google," he said.

"With more devices, more information, and more activity online than ever, the potential to improve people's lives even more is immense," he added.

Google saw more mixed results within its advertising business. Paid clicks, or the clicks on search ads that advertisers pay for, increased approximately 23% over 2012's second quarter.

However, the cost of paid clicks, or the money Google charges when someone clicks on an ad, fell by 6% compared to the same period last year.

Google-owned sites generated 68% of the company's total revenue in the quarter, at $8.87 billion, Google reported, representing an 18% increase over 2012's second quarter. Partner sites contributed revenue of $3.19 billion, or 24% of total company sales. "Other" revenue from Google was $1.05 billion, representing a 138% increase, the company said. It did not provide information about sources for that revenue.

Meanwhile, Google's Motorola mobile revenue, which includes hardware, was $998 million, representing 7% of consolidated revenue for the quarter, the company reported, up from $843 million in the year-ago period.

Google bought Motorola Mobility last year for more than $12 billion; the closely watched Moto X smartphone is expected to launch this summer.

Zach Miners covers social networking, search and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow Zach on Twitter at @zachminers. Zach's e-mail address is zach_miners@idg.com

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

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Yahoo buys Admovate to ramp up its mobile advertising

IDG News Service - Yahoo has bought ad tech startup Admovate to grow its mobile advertising sales and provide a stronger channel for personalized display advertising.

Terms of the deal, yet another in a major buying spree for Yahoo this year, were not disclosed.

Four employees at Admovate, which has been headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., will be joining Yahoo's display advertising team at Yahoo's headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., a Yahoo spokeswoman said in an email.

Through its technology, Admovate claims to enable advertisers to create and deliver personalized, hyper-local targeted offers through the mobile channel.

"This is especially important for mobile ad experiences that engage consumers on smaller screens," said Scott Burke, senior VP of display advertising and advertising technology at Yahoo, in a Wednesday blog post.

Admovate's services would provide a much-needed boost to Yahoo's display ad revenue, which fell by 11% for the quarter ended June 30, Yahoo reported Tuesday.

Following Marissa Mayer's appointment last July as CEO of Yahoo, the company has gobbled up more than a dozen small tech startups, but Admovate stands out as an advertising purchase, and one that is not focused on consumer products.

Yahoo, which has struggled to compete against Google and Facebook's mammoth advertising operations in recent years, introduced two new ad formats in April: stream ads, a form of sponsored advertising incorporated into the company's newly launched news stream; and the Yahoo.com Billboard, providing richer content like movie trailers that let users buy tickets from within the ad.

In February, Yahoo reached a global advertising deal with Google to place more ads across its Web properties like Yahoo Sports and Yahoo News.

The company also operates its Right Media Exchange, an ad-buying platform for digital advertising companies, which includes differentiated ad networks, direct advertisers, data providers and global agencies.

The acquisition is part of the company's efforts to invest further in these types of ad tech platforms, Yahoo said, to "make buying easier for advertisers and agencies." The deal could yield new ad products for Yahoo's global advertisers and partners in the coming months, the company said.

"We are investing more deeply in programmatic buying and mobile advertising," Yahoo's Burke said, adding, "Admovate's personalization technology accelerates our capabilities in mobile advertising, and we gain an exceptionally talented technical team."

Yahoo's smaller acquisitions this year, which also include Xobni, GoPollGo and Astrid, may indeed be geared more toward acquiring talent than the products themselves, Mayer and CFO Ken Goldman signaled Tuesday during the company's second-quarter earnings call.

"In lieu of hiring, we've acquired these companies ... for talent and expertise," Goldman said. And, "We're going to continue the pace of doing these smaller deals," Mayer said, which she referred to as tuck-in acquisitions.

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

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Verizon Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MHS291L

Pros Stunning battery life. Real-time data usage reporting on screen. Interactive status indicator and lots of router options.

Cons Bulky. Verizon no longer has the fastest LTE. Pricey data rates. Bottom Line The Jetpack 4G LTE MHS291L is the longest-lasting hotspot we've ever tested, and your best bet to get online while on-the-go with Verizon Wireless.

By Alex Colon

Verizon Wireless has a lot more hotspots than USB modems, which makes sense, since hotspots perform comparably and allow you to get multiple devices online at one time. But we haven't seen a great new hotspot on Verizon in well over a year. Luckily, the $49.99 Verizon Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MHS291L breaks the spell. It's got an interactive status indicator that puts a lot of useful information at the tip of your fingers, along with real-time data usage reporting, so you can stay within the limits of your plan. It also has the longest battery life we've ever seen on a hotspot. That makes it our latest Editors' Choice for hotspots on Verizon.

Design
Made by Pantech, the MHS291L is a bulky device. It measures 3.62 by 2.0 by 0.72 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.97 ounces. It may be hefty, but it also a lot more sturdy than the MiFi 5510L, which felt like a restaurant pager. Besides, a lot of that bulk is to make room for the 4,040mAh battery, which lasted for a positively stunning 14 hours and 37 minutes of LTE streaming. So even if you aren't around a power socket all day, you're pretty much guaranteed this thing is going to last.

Design-wise, the MHS291L looks a lot like the MiFi 5510L. It's a smooth, rectangular block of mostly black plastic, with a red ring around the face that illuminates when you turn it on. There are two external antenna ports—one on the bottom, opposite the charging port, and one on the top, across from the Power button. There's no microSD card slot, so you can't use it share data among connected devices, but that isn't a huge deal.

The MHS291L's 1.32-inch black and white OLED status display features 128-by-96-pixel resolution. It's a little bit smaller than the 1.54-inch display on the 5510L, but otherwise extremely similar. The home screen shows battery life, connected devices, and signal strength, as well as links to the main menu and data usage reports. There are three physical control buttons to the right of the display, which I found much easier to use than the finicky touch keys on the 5510L.

On the main menu, you can view the modem's network name and password, see connected devices, and read text messages. You can also toggle between preferred networks and control a host of Wi-Fi settings, like maximum number of connections, band selection, and network mode. Quick access to these settings is convenient, but you can also tap into a wide range of more advanced settings by sending a connected device to the Web-based management console.

And like the 5510L, you can view data usage on the MHS291L's screen. I raved about this feature the first time around, and I can't help but stress what a difference this features makes. When you're spending a lot of money on data, it's important to know how much of it you're using. It'll definitely make you think twice before your next Netflix marathon, which may or may not be a good thing.

Network and Plans
According to our tests for the Fastest Mobile Networks, Verizon no longer leads the nation in 4G LTE speeds—that would be AT&T. But no other carrier can match Verizon for LTE coverage. Just last month, the carrier announced that its nationwide LTE rollout is "substantially complete," with coverage for over 95 percent of the U.S. population. That means that no matter where you go, you'll probably have access to LTE, even if those speeds are only the second fastest.

The MHS291L is backward-compatible with Verizon's 3G network, so you'll have no problem pulling in a 3G signal when you're not in an LTE coverage area. It can also be used for Internet access in many other parts of the world—the MHS291L can access wireless data service in more than 205 countries, including more than 125 that support 3G speeds. It also supports quad-band EDGE and HSPA when LTE isn't available. Just keep a close eye on those pricey roaming agreements.

It costs $20 per month just to use the MHS291L—you'll need to choose a data plan on top of that. You can start at 4GB for $30 per month, and it gets slightly cheaper the further up you go (10GB costs $60 per month, for instance). Prices like those mean you probably can't afford to use the UML295 to replace your current home Internet connection.

Performance and Conclusions
The MHS291L works just like your home Wi-Fi network does. Simply turn it on, wait for it to connect to Verizon's network, then join it as you would any other wireless connection. It will automatically appear in your available wireless connections, and a password (which you can change) is accessible via the Wi-Fi Name/Password option on the hotspot's display. 

I tested the MHS291L on a hazy summer day in New York City, alongside the UML295 USB modem, on a laptop running Windows 8 and an Apple iPhone 4S. I saw speeds top out at 9Mbps down and 2.25 up on both devices, with averages closer to 4Mbps down and 1Mbps up on the MHS291L. Those numbers aren't as strong as we saw on Verizon a year ago, but its LTE network is also a lot more crowded now. Luckily, those are still good numbers, and you can expect faster speeds in less plugged-in areas.

Performance remained steady within about 50 feet of the hotspot. It starts to drop off quickly if you move away much further than that, but this range is about average for mobile hotspots.

So while the data doesn't come cheap, the Jetpack 4G LTE MHS291L is the best hotspot on Verizon, as well as one of the best hotspots around, period. It's got better battery life than the 5510L, along with a better build and global capability. And both the Jetpack 4620LE and the 890L don't show you data usage, making the MHS291L your best choice. The MiFi Liberate on AT&T is our other favorite hotspot, with an innovative, informative touch screen, but AT&T's LTE coverage is not as widespread as Verizon's. All that makes the MHS291L our latest Editors' Choice.

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