Sidecut Reports

News is out today about the pricing of Intel’s Echo Peak combined Wi-Fi/WiMax silicon, at $43-$54 per chip, according to Digitimes. Good news if you are building a WiMax device, since prices should only go down from there.

In terms of finding out who might be shipping such devices, it looks like we will now have to wait until the CTIA show in Vegas in a couple weeks until we hear more about WiMax devices and Sprint’s Xohm launch plans. Sprint VP Ben Vos was here at the VON.x show in San Jose this week, but aside from a few statements about how WiMax will be used, all he would say about Xohm is “stay tuned.”

Allow me to add my condolences to the growing list of folks remembering blogger and journalist Russell Shaw, who passed away last week. For those of us who covered the sometimes arcane topics of telecommunications and public policy, Russell could always be counted on to not just stay on top of the news (often linking to other blogs without any ego), but to give his readers the type of analysis that moves the ball forward. Not as easy as it looks.

And while he was clearly on the side of innovation and openness, Russell didn’t pull any punches or stay silent when it came time to knock down silly ideas — here is just one post that shows clarity of thinking in the middle of an issue where it was easy to get lost in emotion. It will be a quieter news room at VON this week, with one less sane voice in the mix.

Unlike some fast-to-the-keyboard types, I was waiting until the press release was official to let everyone know it is true — I am joining VON Magazine as Editor-in-Chief, effective pretty much immediately. Since the VON crew is busy packing things up for next week’s VON.x show in San Jose, I don’t have a VON-flavored email yet but you will be able to read more about what I’ll be doing there at Vonmag.com, going forward. If you want to try to get in touch at the show, shoot me an email here to kaps at sidecutreports.com and I will do my best to find some time to meet.

As for Sidecut, I will continue with the idea of developing long-form reports, and they will be offered here, independent of my work for VON Magazine. As you can see from our snappy new logo (thanks Mark) we aren’t standing still here either. Expect some news soon on our inaugural report on WiMax in the U.S.!