Don't Let Wireless Carriers Abuse the Term 5G

Kevin Fitchard, writing for GigaOM:​

4G became a meaningless term, and we tech journalists reinforced its meaninglessness by swallowing the terminology carriers fed us. If carriers get their hooks into the acronym 5G, you can bet the exact same thing will happen. Once one carrier succumbs, others will race to redefine their perfectly serviceable 4G networks as 5G networks. An the next operator to gain the slightest technical edge will start bandying about the term 6G.

This is one of those situations where journalists need to take a stand. Don't let marketers misuse a term, because doing so perpetuates misleading advertising and ultimately results in consumer confusion.​

Microsoft's Crazy Magazine Advertisement for Office 365

​Jon Fingas, at Engadget:

Americans who've received a special issue of Forbes have flipped past the articles to discover a fully functional (if stripped down) T-Mobile router tucked into a cardboard insert. Once activated, it dishes out 15 days of free WiFi for up to five devices at once, at up to three hours per charge.

I have conflicted thoughts about this move. On the one hand, it's interesting from a technical and marketing standpoint. It certainly does a good job of getting the reader's attention on Office 365 (as well as T-Mobile). The troubling part, as noted by some of the commenters in the article, is the fact that this would look awfully suspicious if someone attempted to take it through an airport's x-ray machine.