Mobile Wi-Fi Hot Spot 202
bsharma writes to let us know about a little goodie that we will be able to buy starting May 17: a battery-powered, rechargeable, cellular, Wi-Fi hot spot that you can put in your pocket. "What if you had a personal Wi-Fi bubble, a private hot spot, that followed you everywhere you go? Incredibly, there is such a thing. It's the Novatel MiFi 2200, available from Verizon starting in mid-May ($100 with two-year contract, after rebate). It's a little wisp of a thing, like a triple-thick credit card. It has one power button, one status light and a swappable battery that looks like the one in a cellphone. When you turn on your MiFi and wait 30 seconds, it provides a personal, portable, powerful, password-protected wireless hot spot. ... If you just want to do e-mail and the Web, you pay $40 a month for the service (250 megabytes of data transfer, 10 cents a megabyte above that). If you watch videos and shuttle a lot of big files, opt for the $60 plan (5 gigabytes). And if you don't travel incessantly, the best deal may be the one-day pass: $15 for 24 hours, only when you need it. In that case, the MiFi itself costs $270." The device has its Wi-Fi password printed on the bottom, so you can invite someone to join your network simply by showing it to them.
"simply by showing it to them" (Score:5, Insightful)
And what do you do when you no longer want to let them have access?
Enable VOIP! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Rooted G1 with WiFi Tether (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"simply by showing it to them" (Score:2, Insightful)
It's not a stupid question, more of a snide remark. The password is printed on the device. This "feature" supposedly enables the user to share the password with other people "simply by showing it to them". If you change the password, you break that feature. So really, that can't be the point of printing the password onto the device. Some marketing guy dreamed up another bullet point. In reality it's just a way of making sure that the default password doesn't get lost, without making it the same for all devices.
Re:I already have one, its called an iPhone ... (Score:5, Insightful)
So, how well does your iPhone share out that connection to a real computer (you know, what the whole point of this little device is)? Oh wait, Apple doesn't allow tethering apps? Hmm, sorry, I think you don't quite get it. There are LOTS of Internet-capable handheld devices out there (some much more-so than the iPhone, thanks to having Flash and the option to install your own browser/mail client/whatever). The iPhone is a neat device, but until you can link it with a PC and share the wide-area connection (without jailbreaking, that is), it won't do what people buy these things for.
Re:I already have one, its called an iPhone ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Good point - and I too "have one and it's called an iPhone".
What I think this really means is that Apple can do what it's done repeatedly this decade: Create something versatile and potentially disruptive, but hold off on the disruption as long as is profitable.
F'rinstance: Everyone else sold MP3-based music players with no DRM. Apple made an iPod that could play DRM-free music - but, instead, they turned around and partnered with every major music label to provide a locked-down but fully-stocked catalog. Gah! Where's my free music?
In retrospect, it was pretty damned smart. Guess what they could do just as soon as "pent-up consumer demand profit" became greater than "become best buds with the RIAA profit"? Remove all the DRM.
They did it again with the iPhone App store. Every other smartphone allowed independent development, but Apple told us we'd get nothing but WebKit-based apps, and we'd like it. Meanwhile, that let them ship the first iPhone without worrying about the public API - and create visible, vocal demand from the development community. By the following year, programmers everywhere were screaming: "Please! Let us write programs for your platform!" And what do you know... the App Store appeared, and Apple gets a cut.
I don't know if it was truly planned this way, but it does seem to be a pattern, doesn't it? Most companies either court the rebellious-hacker base with an open API (early TiVo, some Google, Twitter), hoping to Be The Platform, or build a fortress (late TiVo, Facebook), hoping to Be The Gatekeeper. Apple seems to have a knack for being the gatekeeper as long as it possibly can - and then amazing us with the new power of the platform.
The jailbroken apps, as well as the 3.0 betas, prove that Apple could offer iPhone tethering next week - or next year. But they'd have to annoy AT&T to do it, and probably renegotiate. Why do that before they have to?
My hope: The MeFi will be a huge success, and there will be clamoring for Apple to offer something nearly as good. And then, one day, they'll send out a firmware update... and behold: the iPhone tethers. "It's amazing. I'm really proud of this capability, which is the first in a capacitive-touchscreen smartphone." etc.
Hmmmm (Score:2, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
But only with insane contract terms... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Someone forgot about the Cradlepoint! (Score:1, Insightful)
Not necessarily. I think it's far more likely that cradlepoint isn't mentioned because the entire thing is an ad. An ad for something that /. readership outside the US probably can't use, and /. readership within the US who know what they are doing wouldn't bother using.
Thanks kdawson, your amazing editorial skills astound me once again.
Insulting (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Clearwire already has a similar product and fas (Score:2, Insightful)
Did you RTFA? The article says it's similar to a triple-thick credit card. Or are you comparing the device your company makes to some heretofore unmentioned piece of hardware?
That's no small downside. The article you linked to says, "One big constraint, of course, is that WiMax from Sprint/Clearwire is currently limited to Baltimore and Portland, OR, but is growing this year and next to many cities." Two markets is hardly worth mentioning.
great... (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know if anyone else read the article, but my favorite quote was:
Last week, I was stuck on a runway for two hours. As I merrily worked away online, complete with YouTube videos and file downloads, I became aware that my seatmate was sneaking glances.
I am sure he was "working" on Youtube because he is a reporter. He was probably "researching" on Wikipedia too.
Anyway, I like how they keep emphasizing how easy it is to put that thing in your pocket. Cause I need another microwave source to irradiate my testicles...
Re:Better reception with this unit (Score:3, Insightful)
For me, the biggest hinderance is the cost of service. I don't travel a lot, but $15/day is exactly what I had to pay for my last hotel's internet service, and cellular internet is generally not as good as hotel WiFi, so I don't see the point in this device. Find some way that I can get device rental + service for $10/day or less, then maybe I'm interested.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I see two points (Score:1, Insightful)
Under some plans, tethering is a TOS violation. Under this plan, it's the entire point.
Note that $0.10 per Mb = $100/Gb. Assuming you got 1.0Mb/sec DL speeds, that's $6 a minute. It's cheaper to make a call from a plane... in 1980.
Re:Not to burst your bubble... (Score:3, Insightful)
Just wait until they figure out you are tethering.
your "plan" will jump to $99.00 a month.
Yes they are aggressively looking to find who is tethering, and charging them big fees.
Re:WMWifiRouter, JoikuSpot, PDANet... etc? (Score:1, Insightful)
Whenever you ask yourself this kind of question, you know there's money involved. Plain and simple.
Slashdot isn't about cool gadgets anymore, it's about who blows the "editors'" cock best, so that said "editors" will hawk the latest bullshit for some shitty dollars.
ALL HAIL THE CORPORATION!