

MiFi: Wi-Fi to Go, No Cafe Needed - gasull
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/technology/personaltech/07pogue.html?_r=1&em

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tdavis
_(250 megabytes of data transfer, 10 cents a megabyte above that)_

Some day we'll tell our kids we paid 10¢/MB for a ubiquitous Internet
connection and they'll commit suicide.

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ph0rque
My wife and I were just discussing this... it started out with the fact that
we're part of the 20% of US households that don't have a land (phone) line;
just cell phones.

After discussion, we concluded that we'd ditch our land internet connection
once we could get an all-you-can-eat data connection, such as the one
mentioned in the article, for $50/person, and not have our data connectivity
costs go up.

Looks like this will become a reality once the price drops by 50% (and this
becomes integrated into an iPhone/android-based phone).

~~~
Readmore
Your last line got me thinking: aka Rabid speculation time.

What if the Apple 'Media Tablet' that is supposed to launch with Verizon
service had this same feature? It's got an internal 3G connection but it can
also broadcast a Wifi hotspot with Bonjour!

That would be an amazing gadget.

~~~
thwarted
It's not so much a matter of capability as it is a matter of carrier
restrictions. The carrier restrictions keep an app that does this for the
T-Mobile G1 from being easily distributed (and I think it requires rooting
your phone, last I checked). So the amazing gadget already exists, it's the
contractual agreements that need to be made amazing.

~~~
ph0rque
_...it's the contractual agreements that need to be made amazing._

I hope Google still has secret plans for entering the wireless space, or
buying a company in the space.

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Readmore
This RRW article about the Mifi hardware says it runs linux and is capable of
hosting applications.

Very cool:
[http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/watch_out_wifi_here_com...](http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/watch_out_wifi_here_comes_mifi.php)

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anigbrowl
Cool, but one of the weaknesses of Wi-fi has turne dout to be the security. Of
course you want your connection secure. And of course you _don't_ want some
creepy guy surfing kidde porn from your IP.

But as implemented, in a lot of places there's extensive wi-fi connectivity
and unused internet bandwidth but it's all private. How great would it be if
every router gave 90% of the bandwidth to the owner and leaked 10%, with some
sort of packet-tagger to say 'mobile origin'.

We nearly had public Wi-fi in San Francisco but one group of citizens wanted
it publicly owned or nothing, and wouldn't tolerate a private service
subsidized by ad frames or similar. Classic case of perfect as enemy of the
good. Community peer wifi has been tried but I signed up 18 months ago and
heard nothing since.

~~~
sjf
> But as implemented, in a lot of places there's extensive wi-fi connectivity
> and unused internet bandwidth but it's all private. How great would it be if
> every router gave 90% of the bandwidth to the owner and leaked 10%, with
> some sort of packet-tagger to say 'mobile origin'.

This already exists: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON>

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oldgregg
Great, one more device to carry around... Why is this not just a software
addition to existing 3G/wifi phones?

~~~
J_McQuade
<http://www.joikuspot.com/aboutJoikuSpot.php>

And a very handy piece of software it is too! Murders the battery life on my
N96, though, as if it wasn't pitiful enough. Still, a couple of spare
batteries beat the MiFi hands down for price.

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kalvin
I've been doing exactly this for almost six months using my jailbroken iPhone
and the PDAnet app. It turns my iPhone into a personal wireless router which I
can connect to with my laptop. Works great (in the SF Bay Area, anyway).

PDAnet: <http://www.junefabrics.com/iphone/index.php>

~~~
hboon
Doesn't it suck juice like crazy?

It was the only reason I jailbroken my iPhone a year back. Tried it, the phone
was hot after half an hour and the drain incredible. I'd never jailbreak ever
since.

~~~
kalvin
About 30% per hour. I only use it an hour at a time.

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jnorthrop
I read about this yesterday just as we were mulling over an $8k internet
connectivity bill for a conference we hosted. It got me thinking that a tool
like that would pay for itself within 1/2 day of use if we could get 3G
connectivity in an exhibit hall -- which admittedly may be sketchy.

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navyrain
My beef with current wireless options is not the hardware, but the stifling
bandwidth limits and obscene overage costs.

I would carry around a cerealbox-sized modem if it meant unlimited broadband
everywhere for a reasonable flat price.

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Xichekolas
_"If you type 192.168.1.1 into your Web browser’s address bar - a trick well
known to network gurus - the MiFi’s settings pages magically appear."_

Yes... it's entirely magical and meant to be a secret. Surely this thing
defines a hostname like 'mifi' that you can type in instead of the IP.

Cool device, but four hour battery life is kinda slim. Wonder if you could
dial down the power on the Wifi transmitter so it only worked within about 8
feet and extend the battery life a little.

You could also slap this on the back of an iphone with skype and _poof_ ,
iPhone on the Verizon network, if you really dislike AT&T.

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andymoe
I have a ctr500 from Cradlepoint.
([http://www.cradlepoint.com/products/ctr500-mobile-
broadband-...](http://www.cradlepoint.com/products/ctr500-mobile-broadband-
router)) + a sprint express slot EVDO card for about $68/month. It works
really well and is very small. The cool thing about this is it has a NIC built
in so you can light up a network if you really need to. Of course the hardware
subsidy from the phone companies is pretty attractive. The cradlepoint was
about 200 bucks and the card was probably 300 when I got it about a year ago.

~~~
bmj
These are interesting devices. I've been working on utilizing them as a data
transfer option for non-cellular handhelds used for data collection in
clinical drug trials. The device has an API for managing the ExpressCard
connectivity.

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ynniv
This would be a simple iPhone app, if Apple and AT&T would allow it. You can
do this by jailbreaking your phone, but it's a complicated ordeal.

~~~
lionheart
But what would the battery life be?

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joeyo
So plug the iPhone into the wall when you're sharing internet over wifi.
Anyway, the article claims that the device gets only four hours of continuous
use. I imagine this is better than an iPhone using wifi constantly, but is it
really _that_ much better?

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kineticac
it's funny: "a U.S.B.-stick version, which cries out to be snapped off by a
passing flight attendant’s beverage cart."

since when could you use satellite wifi on a plane?

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silentOpen
It's not from a satellite, it's through the cell network.

As for the flight attendant thing, lots of people leave their dongles attached
to their notebooks. Also, the author discusses using the MiFi while waiting on
the runway for take-off.

Given all that, the plane use case does seem pretty weak, though.

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trekker7
marginal value-add over 3G modem

~~~
roc
That margin makes all the difference for people who move around a lot.

