Chris Dunphy

About Chris Dunphy

Chris has been a full-time technomad since 2006, and currently splitting time exploring North America by boat and RV with his partner Cherie. A lifelong geek, he was one of the founding editors of 'boot Magazine' (still going strong as 'Maximum PC'), and before hitting the road full time he was the Director of Competitive Analysis for mobile technology pioneers Palm & PalmSource. Keeping up on mobile technology is a passion for him. Chris is one part of Technomadia (view their personal Mobile Internet Setup) and co-founder/host of the Mobile Internet Resource Center.

AT&T Launches Extremely Underwhelming Mobile 5G Plan in 12 Cities

The entire mobile industry has been talking incessantly for the past year about how the upcoming fifth generation of cellular technologies will revolutionize connectivity – with some even going so far as saying that 5G will be the “fundamental platform for the fourth industrial revolution”. AT&T in particular has been pushing hard to be the […]

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Two Networks, One Pocket – Carriers Are Finally Starting to Provision Smartphone eSIMs

  • Posted:
  • / By: Chris Dunphy
  • / In: News Analysis
    • / Comments: 4

One of the headline features of this year’s crop of new iPhone models (our story) was support for having two cellular plans active at once – on one device. Apple has enabled this feature by pioneering eSIM (embedded SIM) technology that allows you to use one traditional physical SIM card, and one virtual SIM installed […]

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Carriers Preview Upcoming Mobile 5G Technology & Devices

This week in Hawaii mobile chipmaker Qualcomm is hosting its Snapdragon Technology Summit featuring the first public demonstration of standards-based 5G technology, and the first (almost) hands-on previews of several upcoming 5G devices. Verizon and Inseego have used this event to announce the MiFi 5G NR, Verizon’s first 5G hotspot. And AT&T and Netgear have […]

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Verizon Launches New Flagship Mobile Hotspot Device – The MiFi 8800L

Verizon last released a new flagship high-performance mobile hotspot way back in January 2017, when the MiFi 7730L (our review) first came to market. The 7730L has been an admirable performer, but this nearly two-year-old design has been unable to take advantage of the latest LTE technology advancements. We had begun to wonder if perhaps Verizon […]

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AT&T Teases World’s First Mobile 5G Device – Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot Coming Soon

  • Posted:
  • / By: Chris Dunphy
  • / In: News Analysis
    • / Comments: 6

UPDATE (December 4th): Coming Soon?? Despite announcing back in October that the launch of AT&T’s mobile 5G service would be “in the next few weeks” – AT&T has been running out the clock without sharing any further details. But today, as part of announcing intentions to bring out a 5G compatible Samsung phone sometime in the […]

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Wi-Fi Alliance Eliminating 802.11 Alphabet Soup – “Wi-Fi 6” Coming Next Year

  • Posted:
  • / By: Chris Dunphy
  • / In: News Analysis
    • / Comments: 1

The term “Wi-Fi” is the friendly name for the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11 communication standards for short range wireless networking. It is only by complying with these agreed upon standard that interoperable communications is possible – allowing mixing and matching of wireless gear from various manufacturers without concerns about compatibility. The 802.11 […]

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AT&T Pushes Mobley Firmware Update VM6200V1.0.3 – Removes ‘No Time Out’ Power Save Setting

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  • / By: Chris Dunphy
  • / In: News Analysis
    • / Comments: 10

Bad news, Mobley fans. Yesterday AT&T started to push a mandatory minor firmware update to all Mobley devices. The minor update from VM6200V1.0.1 to VM6200V1.0.3 seems to have only a single change in it – removing the critical ‘No Time Out’ option from the power save settings page. This means that the Mobley will now by default […]

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Looking Ahead: Will 2019 Be The Year of the Smart & Connected RV?

RV manufacturers seem to have at last woken up to the reality that customers are interested in the comforts of home when on the road: Air conditioning, heat, hot water, ample AC power, and yes… perhaps most importantly for many – connectivity! Over the past few weeks we’ve seen an explosion of new RV-centric internet […]

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Apple’s New Flagship iPhone XS Brings Gigabit LTE & Dual-SIM Support

Like clockwork, this time every year Apple announces a new generation of iPhones. And this year there have been some pretty significant jumps when it comes to mobile internet capabilities – with the new models checking off pretty much every item on the cellular connectivity wish list. The flagships iPhone XS & iPhone XS Max in […]

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Verizon Races to be “First On 5G” – Limited Fixed Residential Network Rollout on October 1st

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  • / By: Chris Dunphy
  • / In: News Analysis
    • / Comments: 5

Verizon was one of the first cellular carriers in the world to roll out 4G/LTE technology – and it has been racing to be the undisputed FIRST in the world with 5G as the next era of cellular technology rolls around. It looks like Verizon will indeed win the race – yesterday Verizon announced “5G Is […]

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AT&T and Airstream Rolling Out Unlimited & Unthrottled Mobile Hotspot Plan – With A Catch!

UPDATE (9/20/2018): All Airstreamers Soon Eligible! We have been in touch with Airstream since this article first ran, and indeed there are plans to take this partnership with AT&T well beyond the flagship Airstream Classic. And now AT&T and Airstream have announced that starting later this year “any Airstreamer” will be able to sign up for […]

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CONFIRMED: T-Mobile Eliminating One+ International Plan – The Last Official Unlimited Mobile Hotspot Option!

UPDATE: We have received further confirmation directly from T-Mobile’s Media relations team that the One Plus International add-on is indeed being eliminated, and this is being done to “reduce complexity” based upon customer feedback: The ONE Plus International add-on option will be retired on Friday, Aug 10. Customers who have International will be grandfathered and […]

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DirecTV Now 2.1 Update Fixes HDMI Out – And Now Streams “Data Free” on AT&T

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  • / By: Chris Dunphy
  • / In: Status Alert
    • / Comments: 2

We’ve long recommended using HDMI output from smartphones to allow for big screen streaming using unlimited on device data. This is a clever way to avoid hotspot data usage limits that make using tethered Smart TV devices (Apple TV, Roku, Samsung, Chromecast, etc…) while mobile a recipe for blowing  through your entire monthly hotspot usage […]

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KVH Introduces TracPhone LTE-1 For Improved Offshore Cellular Connectivity

KVH Industries is best known for providing TracVision satellite TV receiver domes for the RV and marine market, as well as for its popular TracPhone global satellite voice and data service that is often found providing connectivity on mega-yachts (with the budgets to match). But now KVH is introducing its first cellular-powered system, for cruisers with […]

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New AT&T Plans Announced: “Unlimited &More” Brings on the Streaming Bundles

UPDATE: The new AT&T plans went live this morning (June 28th) – and we’ve been digging deep into the fine print. A few interesting discoveries: You can only change between the free premium channels (HBO, Showtime, Starz, Cinemax, Pandora, Amazon Music, or VRV) that come with the &More Premium plan once every twelve months. This seems […]

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