Lilbits (4-24-2013): The webOS phone that never was, FreedomPop expands its network

FreedomPop has an unusual business model. You can buy one of the company’s devices and use it to access the internet for no additional charge. FreedomPop offers up to 500MB of data on the Clearwire 4G WiMAX network for free.

But WiMAX isn’t available everywhere, so now the company is branching out into 3G. The new FreedomPop OverDrive Pro 3G/4G hotspot is available for just $40 and lets you use whatever network is available.

Interestingly only 4G is free. You’ll need to pay $4 per month for 3G access (although the first month is free), with additional data running 2 cents per megabyte. Or you can get 2GB of data on either network for $20 per month.

FreedomPop also plans to add support for Sprint’s 4G LTE network later this year.

Here’s a roundup of some of the day’s tech news from around the web.

• FreedomPop offers nationwide 3G/4G hotspot for $40
  Up until now FreedomPop has been providing users with 500MB of free data over WiMAX networks only. Now they have a hotspot that also works with Sprint’s 3G networks. You can pay if you need more data. [CNET]
• This is the webOS 3.0 touchscreen-only smartphone that was never released
  When HP decided to shut its webOS hardware division, there were a few unreleased products in the works that were killed before they ever had a chance to live. One was a 7 inch HP TouchPad tablet. Another was a phone without a keyboard designed to run the same webOS 3.0 sotware as the TouchPad. It was called the WindsorNot, and this is its story, with pictures. It actually looks pretty great… except for the limited selection of webOS apps. [webOS Nation]
• Fedora 19 Alpha released
  After numerous delays, the first alpha build of Fedora 19 “Schrodinger’s Cat” has been released. GNOME, KDE, and MATE versions are available. [Fedora Project]
• Lenovo LePhone A706 passes through the FCC
  Lenovo’s smartphones don’t usually come to the United States, but this 4.5 inch quad-core phone showed up at the FCC website, so it looks like Lenovo may be thinking about changing that… or at least hedging its bets in case it does decide to sell a phone in the US. [FCC]
• Microsoft throws a free T-Mobile hotspot into Forbes Magazine special edition
  Sure, it’s only good for 14 days of free internet access. But you can score a mobile hotspot for the price of a magazine purchase (if you know where to find one). I wonder if there’s a way to hack it to work as a normal hotspot if you want to pay for additional access? [Engadget]
• Huawei withdraws plans to push phones in the US (after US regulators made Huawei feel unwelcome)
  Chinese phone maker Huawei wanted to get into the US market. US lawmakers and regulators expressed concerns that the company couldn’t be trusted. Huawei said that’s cool, and took its ball and went to another field to play.[Financial Times]
• MetroPCS shareholders approve merger with T-Mobile
  So that whole AT&T and T-Mobile merger thing didn’t go through… but it looks like T-Mobile and MetroPCS are on track to become one. [Bloomberg]
• BlackBerry 10.1 adds HDR camera mode, BlackBerry Q10 support
  BlackBerry released a new phone with a keyboard called the BlackBerry Q10, along with an update to its BB10 operating system to support the new hardware. While the company was at it, they brought along improvements for the touchscreen BlackBerry Z10 phone. [mobiputing]

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