For the last couple of weeks, I've been testing the Verizon MiFi portable WiFi hotspot. After writing about the MiFi, a few months back, I was placed on a waiting list to receive a test unit. Could the MiFi enhance the iPod touch experience to bring it into the realm of the iPhone? A unit finally came free and I finally got my hands-on experience to discover whether my assumptions would be proved right or wrong.

The MiFi, which is a portable EV-DO router, provides a 3G connection through an absolutely tiny unit. All plastic, it's about as thick as an iPhone and about two-thirds as large as its front face. The MiFi's entire user interface is its single button (seen at the bottom right of the image here). When pressed, the button switches on and glows green. Pressed again and held, the unit turns off and the green glow disappears. Sprint offers a near-identical unit, except it's finished in brushed metal instead of black.

Read on to discover how my MiFi testing went...

In a shot across the iPhone's bow, Palm is launching its new Palm Pre smartphone the weekend before Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference. This means any iPhone announcements at WWDC will be undoubtedly compared to Palm's new platform.

The Pre handset will cost $200 after a $100 mail-in rebate, and if you sign up for a two-year contract with Sprint. The monthly service costs roughly the same as AT&T's iPhone plan but offers unlimited text messaging -- a $20 option with Ma Bell.

Electronista points out that the Pre has some small technical advantages over the iPhone as well: a three megapixel camera, an optional inductive charger, and EVDO networking. Depending on the area, EVDO can be faster than both EDGE and GPRS, but not faster than HSDPA (the latter of which AT&T is rolling out across the U.S.). In any case, AT&T is already preparing its sales staff for the looming battle.

Also, Sprint claims that having a Pre will cost $1,430 less over the two-year contract period compared to owning an iPhone for the same period.

Meanwhile, for those of us on Verizon, we'll just have to make do with calculators connected by string. Which reminds me -- you all got the notice Verizon was upgrading us to nylon cord this week, right?

[Via IGM]

Don't get me wrong, I love my iPod touch. As a matter of fact, I'm writing this post with it on the beach as my girlfriend goes surfing. But with Apple's new product announcement on Tuesday, it makes me wonder what changes could be in store for our favorite supercharged music player.

I think the single greatest thing Apple could do for the iPod touch is take a page from the Amazon Kindle and offer free "Whispernet" service for every iPod touch sold. (Or, say, roll it in with a Mobile Me subscription.) Amazon bought access to a chunk of Sprint's EVDO network, which means every Kindle has network access wherever it goes.

Apple could make such a deal with AT&T -- and its various partners worldwide -- to provide the necessary bandwidth. Who knows -- perhaps they have already. Allow tethering with software like NetShare, and you've got Internet access for your Mac, too. Instant-on, and always there. Brilliant.

Another simple addition would be GPS functionality, bringing the iPod touch in line with its newer sibling. Suddenly, the need for both a GPS and an iPod in your car is obviated, and it opens up interesting opportunities with the car manufacturers who already offer iPod integration in their vehicles.

Third, and this could apply to new iPhones too, would be to allow access to the dock connector for Apps. This opens up all kinds of options for iPhone and iPod touch owners to use voice recorders and cameras, as well as potentially control a wide range of equipment from industrial automation tools to backyard telescopes.

Who knows what Apple has up their sleeve? Certainly not me. But with this wish list fulfilled, you can be sure a new iPod touch is in my immediate future.

A brave MacBook Air owner (capitalizing on the Air's internal USB onnections we posted on previously) has embraced the wireless promise of Apple's ultra-thin notebook by installing a USB727 Verizon Aircard inside the Air. The hack involved disassembling both the Air and the USB EVDO modem and soldering it to one of the Air's internal USB connections.

Unfortunately, the hack also required removing the internal Airport and Bluetooth card (both to get the space and to use the Airport antennas), so I doubt most Air owners would be interested. Nonetheless, the end result is quite impressive and looks great. He has also started a forum thread to discuss the hack.

Thanks Amy!

Update: The hacker who put the EVDO card into the Air is not the same as the one who previously discovered the USB connections.

As I've often said right here at TUAW, I have a need for speed. I want my computers, my phones, and especially my Internet access to be as fast as possible. When I'm at home, secure in the knowledge that my Time Warner Business Cable connection is the fastest I can get (until FIOS comes to my hood), things are going well for me and looking good.

But what happens if I have to leave the house and go on the road as I frequently do? How can I possibly maintain my connection to the Internet while mobile and still get the speed I need? Fortunately, there a a few solutions to this problem such as using wireless "hotspots" around town or using a cell phone's data connection as a high speed modem for my Mac Book Pro.

However, for true freedom, a hotspot isn't the answer for me as you can't always find one when you need one or they cost too much money. As an iPhone user, the option to use my cell phone as a high speed modem was also out. So, that left one obvious choice for me: EVDO cards. Now that I had decided an EVDO card was the answer to my needs, several more questions immediately came to mind.

Which card should I get and from which provider? Would the cards work with my laptop of choice: the Apple Mac Book Pro? How much would the cards and data plans cost me? And the most important question of all: what kind of speed would I get?

Lo, and the cries of the Mac Blackberry faithful went up, and indeed they were a fractious multitude: "Where is our dial-up networking?" they wailed. "We are paying for data service on these things, and it's EVDO, and everyone else is doing it!" And they saw that those with Intel Macs could tether their Blackberries within Parallels or VMware, and did get online after a fashion, but they said "This is a silly hack, not good." And they saw that Pulse would give them a proxy server and Bluetooth, but they cried "This is slow, and we crave USB!"

And the developers of iMobimac did hear this loud kvetching, and did indeed release upon the multitudes a private beta of a new, USB-based DUN tool. No way to gauge final performance yet, and the beta release notes warn that Safari may not detect the proxy server running on your machine, but it's a start. You may sign up for the beta at the iMobimac site, and may the broadband be with you.

The guys over at EVDOinfo.com have discovered that current Intel Macs already support 3G EVDO cards. Basically what they did is rip the PCI Express Mini Airport wireless card out of a Mac mini and replace it with a previously activated EVDO PCI Express Mini card taken from a Novatel U720 USB EVDO modem. After installing the recent WWAN update (by bypassing the hardware check), the Mac mini recognized the card and established a connection to the Sprint network. They note that this makes the Mac mini an absolutely perfect carputer (except for some antenna issues).

They speculate that this should work on the MacBook (Pro) as well, but obviously nobody wants to lose Airport connectivity to gain WWAN support. However, this does seem to show that there's no technical limitation to adding EVDO connectivity to next generation Mac portables.

[via Digg]

This week's Ask TUAW takes us into questions about Bluetooth File Exchange, 5.1 audio, VNC, getting Adium and Quicksilver working together, EVDO, automated file management based on label color, and more. As always, please leave your own comments, and ask more questions for next week either in the comments to this post or using the tip form. Now let's get to it

Ah, the open road. What's more American than being mobile, drifting along the highways and byways, traveling hither and yon, free as a debt-laden bird? While I try to rein in that derailed train of road metaphor, let's consider the options for Mac users and wireless data. Many of you would love to take your Internet access with you as you travel on family vacation or spring break; for others, terrestrial broadband (cable modem or DSL) is unavailable or prohibitively expensive at your fixed location. Good news for all: the choices on the wireless access front are better than ever before. We'll cover the US domestic options today, and hopefully get to Europe/UK and other international options sometime soon.

More on Mac wireless broadband after the break.

When the MacBook Pros were first announced people were perplexed by the ExpressCard slot. What are we supposed to do with that?!

Luckily, a number of ExpressCards have been released, and more are coming on the market all the time. Amongst the items one can now shove into one's MacBook Pro (without voiding the warranty) is the Verizon Wireless V640 ExpressCard which allows your MacBook Pro to suckle at the wireless broadband teat of Verizon's network.

How well does it work, you wonder? Derek at 5ThirtyOne got his hands on one and took it for a spin. He reports that OS X has all the native drivers built into it, so installation was a snap. Verizon even supports Macs with a utility that runs in OS X, though Derek recommends just using the builtin goodness since the Verizon app isn't all that great.

I happened by Om Malik's blog today and saw, as CTIA winds down, he's caught wind of an EVDO card from Novatel Wireless that's due in May. The best news is, it's going to be an Express card, and it'll work in the MacBook Pro, no Windows partition needed. So what? Well I guess C.K. can finally get back to playing World of Warcraft in Central Park (and freaking out the squares). If you just can't wait until next month, when they are rumored to appear, you can keep an eye on this MacBook Pro page on EVDOinfo.com. Wireless is great, especially if it's everywhere. There is a USB EVDO device from Novatel that'll be out "later this year."