Our Connected World - 405 Magazine

Our Connected World

A new mobile hotspot that makes staying connected easier than ever, and a fully loaded smart phone designed to withstand a bit of abuse – together the AT&T Unite and the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active are good news for tech lovers on the go.

I Don’t Know How True This Holds For You, but I live in a connected world. My day job as an IT manager means 24/7 connections and response time. Our customers are guaranteed 99.9 percent up time for their websites, and I’m the one who makes that happen. Since I also like having something of a life, and I travel in the Southwest region, carrying my Internet connection with me is important.

AT&T has released the new Unite Mobile Hotspot, and it’s worth taking a good look at it. With up to 10 hours of uptime on an internal battery, a new touch screen and no software to install, it looks good to me.

The new touch screen gives you all the major features on the screen with on-screen directions to help you set up and manage the hotspot. The display is easy to read, and I like not having to log into it from my phone or laptop to make configuration changes.

Of course, it’s 4G LTE, and you can attach up to 10 devices to the unit at once. That means in those hotels where they want $10 a day or more for Internet, I can connect my phone, laptop and iPad at the same time and avoid extra charges and slow hotel speeds.

Along with the Unite, we have the new Samsung Galaxy S4 Active … and by active we mean it! Dust and water are no longer the enemy of your smart phone. Drop your phone in the toilet? Had a child throw it into the trash for you? Now you have a phone that can stand up to life’s unfortunate occurrences. The Galaxy S4 Active has an IP67 rating and can withstand up to 30 minutes in water up to a meter deep.

The Unite Mobile Hotspot

New software for the phone allows you to use it as a remote for most TVs, along with watching, listening to and reading your favorites directly on your phone. A new software feature called multi window allows you to open two apps side-by-side on your screen, and new for this model are the active features: Air View, Air Gesture, Smart Pause and Smart Rotation.

Hover your fingers over photos, files, links and text for an instant preview with Air View. Skip to the next song, check notifications and more by waving your hand over your Samsung with Air Gesture. Never lose your place while watching a video with Smart Pause. View content in either landscape or portrait – your screen is always rotated the right way, no matter which way you turn, with Smart Rotation. The new Samsung Galaxy S4 Active is 4G LTE with all the speed you have come to expect from a 4th generation phone.