Sounds like a dream come true, a WiFi cloud that you can carry with you.

As explained in this NYTimes article, "Getting online isn’t impossible, but today’s options are deeply flawed. Most of them involve sitting rooted in one spot — in the coffee shop or library, for example. (Sadly, the days when cities were blanketed by free Wi-Fi signals leaking from people’s apartments are over; they all require passwords these days.)

If you want to get online while you’re on the move, in fact, you’ve had only one option: buy one of those $60-a-month cellular modems from Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile or AT&T. The speed isn’t exactly cable-modem speed, but it’s close enough. You can get a card-slot version, which has a nasty little antenna protuberance, or a U.S.B.-stick version, which cries out to be snapped off by a passing flight attendant’s beverage cart.

A few laptops have this cellular modem built in, which is less awkward but still drains the battery with gusto.

But imagine if you could get online anywhere you liked — in a taxi, on the beach, in a hotel with disgustingly overpriced Wi-Fi — without messing around with cellular modems. 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."


Fantastic stuff, and really brings the always connected world of the cyberpunk one step closer.

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funny enough, i use my phone for this kind of stuff...

anyone familiar with bluetooth?

I don't understand how this differs, really, from a cellular card?

no need to plug it in? just power it up and put it away...

I have a smartphone for my mobile web access needs. It also serves as a modem for my laptop, mp3 player, notepad, reader, etc.

Bluetooth and other technologies are known as PANs or Personal Area Networks. You could defintely see a more useful PAN in the Shadowrun world with your weapons and cyberware linked to your communication devices and such....

Meh, I'm not real impressed with it. It looks like a cellular modem with a bit of wireless router in it. It's only got one antenna, dual-band to be sure, but still just the one. Unless they're doing something really clever that I can't find on the InterTubes, I'll stick to using other people's wireless networks.

i think the supposed clever bit is that it allows multiple devices to share a wwan connection...

I think this is awesome. I don't see why some are poo-pooing this. If I am reading this right, its basically a device that will fit in your pocket, turn it on, you get wi-fi access to the internet...without having to plug it into anything. So, if I am sitting at a park, in the bathroom, at a store, anywhere, and want to hop on the internet, I just turn this device on, put it back in my pocket and use whatever device I have available to connect to the internet.

Whether that is a computer, iTouch, DSi...

I don't know, I think this sounds pretty cool!

or all of them at the same time.

hell, i guess it can even work for that ad-hoc lan party in the park

I prefer to use my smartphone - just one device that lets me surf the web, listen to MP3s, read word documents, read PDFs, make phone calls, e-mail and sms, make pictures and videos, record something, etc. etc. And it can serve as a modem for my laptop.

Just make sure to keep a spare battery, or external battery pack on hand in case you cant find a socket close by...

I think you just described a pocket secretary from sr2