While we may have to wait until the next iPhone to get native 4G speeds, users of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S may soon be able to access faster speeds with the help of a special sleeve. FreedomPop has announced that it is taking pre-orders for this hardware add-on which will allow the two previous iPhone models to connect to the faster WiMax network provided by FreedomPop's partner Clearwire.
The sleeve costs $99 and, as you can see in the above video, the demo of the FreedomPop hardware seems to show a much faster speed that what is normally available for the iPhone. TUAW reports that FreedomPop also plans to offer 500 MB of free data a month for owners of the sleeve, although the company's pre-order page still says it will have up to 1 GB of free data.
News.com later got word that users of the FreedomPop sleeve can indeed get up to 1 GB of free data "in various ways on site." There's also no long term contracts to sign. The company claims that the add-on will even allow the iPhone's battery life to be extended up to six hours. It can also be used as a WiFi hotspot for up to eight devices.
Of course, Clearwire's network isn't available everywhere in the US so you might want to see if your city or town is covered by the WiMax network. There's also no word on when these devices will actually ship to pre-orders.
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