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Editors' note: This week's edition of Apple Talk Weekly is not the usual roundup of top news from the week. For that, you can read all about Apple's iPhone 4S event on Tuesday, and our coverage of the life and legacy of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who passed away Wednesday.

commentary Long before I ever thought I'd be writing about Apple, I had a deep fascination with its products. That journey started as I imagine it did for most people my age: an iPod, followed shortly thereafter by one the company's computers, then later, one of … Read more

Sprint Nextel and LightSquared today confirmed a long-anticipated network-sharing deal designed to spur the creation of a 4G network.

Under the terms of the 15-year deal, LightSquared will pay Sprint $9 billion in cash and an estimated $4.5 billion in credits for LTE and satellite equipment. In exchange, Sprint will host LightSquared's spectrum and provide network services, while LightSquared will have roaming access to Sprint's 3G network.

The agreement allows to LightSquared to get a jump-start on building a network without actually incurring the cost of paying for much of the equipment. The company says the agreement … Read more

Of all 4G mobile Internet access devices, the Clear 4G+ modem is arguably the best deal. It's neither the fastest nor the cheapest, but it offers consistent performance (as tested around California) and, most importantly, comes with affordable unlimited data plans.

Unfortunately, as a modem, it provides Internet access only to the single computer it's plugged into. Now that's about to change. Clear announced today the Clear 4G-Apollo, a mobile router that offers similar 4G Internet access to up to eight Wi-Fi clients.

Like all mobile hot-spot routers, the Apollo connects to a cellular wireless network by … Read more

Intel's Sandy Bridge processors aren't just for Apple MacBooks and elite Windows laptops anymore. The latest and greatest Intel chip technology is now landing in sub-$400 lappies from Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba.

To wit, behold HP's $349 Pavilion g4-1104dx. In addition to goodies like a 14-inch LED display, 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 320GB hard disk drive, a multiformat optical drive, a Webcam, and integrated Ethernet, you get a Pentium processor B940 with integrated Intel graphics silicon.

No, that's not the Pentium processor of yore. The new Pentium is a bona fide Sandy Bridge processor, which … Read more

LightSquared Chief Executive Sanjiv Ahuja is trying to have his cake and eat it too. Literally.

Ahuja and his management team will celebrate his upstart company's first anniversary on Thursday with cake and ice cream--a tradition from his days running France Telecom's wireless giant Orange.

The milestone comes as LightSquared has quelled some doubts about the validity of its planned 4G network through a few customer wins and a round of financing. But it continues to face resistance from the traditional telecommunications giants, as well as the GPS industry, which has loudly expressed its concern that LightSquared's … Read more

Sprint Nextel will confirm its network-sharing agreement with LightSquared in conjunction with its earnings announcement on July 28, according to people familiar with the situation.

The agreement, in which Sprint's network will be used as the infrastructure backbone to LightSquared's upcoming 4G Long-Term Evolution network, will shed some light on where Sprint wants to head with its own 4G ambitions. The company was supposed to have provided an update on plans for its next-generation network by the middle of the year, but has pushed back its announcement.

While Sprint came on to the 4G scene early with partner … Read more

Verizon Wireless will hit the century mark with its 4G LTE next week, covering 100 markets with its speedy next-generation network.

Tulsa, Okla., will be the 100th market covered by Verizon's new network, which will officially be announced on July 21. The carrier will have hit the milestone after only eight months of network rollouts, compared with the 25 months it took to cover 100 markets with its 3G network.

The speed of the deployment and contrast with the slower 3G rollout is indicative of the surging demand by consumers on wireless data services. Consumers are increasingly gravitating towards … Read more

Verizon Wireless is expected to end up as the carrier with the most momentum in the second quarter when the dust settles after earnings reports, which will begin in earnest in two weeks.

An impressive quarter for Verizon's version of the iPhone 4, along with strong interest in the company's speedier 4G wireless network, helped it add an estimated 1 million customers. Best of all, they're the kind of customers willing to sign up for long-term contracts. A recent study by Localytics showed that Verizon already accounts for a third of all U.S. iPhone 4s, an impressive statistic considering the phone's February debut.

Certainly, Verizon can thank the iPhone for its expected strong showing. But there's another factor: an established, speedy 4G network. Sprint Nextel saw similar benefits from its 4G network in past quarters and, no surprise, AT&T has moved up its timetable for deploying its own next-generation network, which uses a technology called Long-Term Evolution.

Verizon's shiny new wireless network unsurprisingly drew in a lot of curious consumers. By comparison, Verizon's rival carriers saw only modest customer growth, while a few lost customers in the period. Sprint, which also has a 4G network--that doesn't look quite so superior anymore with Verizon in the game--is expected to lose contract customers.

Regardless of whatever losses Sprint might experience, 4G networks remain crucial to the carriers' efforts to lure customers, particularly customers who are willing to sign up for long-term contracts. Such customers are highly coveted because they're less likely to leave the carrier and more willing to spend additional money each month for the best smartphones and service plans. Prepaid customers, on the other hand, aren't bound by contracts and can leave anytime, and they're more likely to look for the best price regardless of carrier. … Read more

If you've ever wanted to expand your Mac's capabilities, you probably wondered what--and how much--your machine could handle. This free utility eliminates the guesswork, providing current, comprehensive, and accurate technical specifications on every Mac known to man, from Cupertino's latest right on down to the vintage Macintosh 128K, along with technical information on servers, other Apple devices, and OS software stretching back to System 2.0.1.

Mactracker maintains data on everything from maximum RAM and processor speed to performance benchmarks, expansion slots, firmware, built-in hardware, and more--all in a clean, newly redesigned interface that provides strong … Read more