Here at TUAW central, we fell into a debate last night about the merits and tradeoffs of MiFi and the iPhone. If you haven't heard of MiFi, it's a portable EV-DO router from Verizon. For $149 for the equipment (there's a $50 rebate), and for $60/month, you get up to 5GB of WiFi based data that you can tether and share.

The MiFi has a fairly limited WiFi range (about 20-40 feet max) and supports only 802.11b and g. Battery life seems limited to about 4 hours of active use. So why the attraction, and why the debate? After yesterday's slightly disappointing iPhone updates, namely the hefty hardware prices for in-contract customers and lack of AT&T announcements on tethering, I felt that the MiFi might provide a cost effective tethering solution for iPhone, iPods, and laptops.

The reasoning works like this. If you can bear to stick another gadget in your pocket or backpack, both iPods and iPhones can use MiFi's data plan. You can Skype to your heart's content (or, realistically, up to the 5GB monthly limit). This helps especially if your EDGE or 3G coverage is already awful when compared to Verizon's EV-DO network. MiFi gives you the opportunity to dump your entire iPhone plan and replace it with possibly better data. And with no US tethering yet announced for the iPhone, MiFi offers laptop as well as iPhone data; its WiFi connection appears to be platform agnostic.

So are you ready to dump your iPhone data plan? If so, you'll want to consider a phone number for your iPhone. If you've already got an AT&T plan on another phone, just pop in the SIM. If not, consider Pay As You Go. For $100, you can buy a one year credit that charges at either $0.25 a minute or $0.10 a minute with a $1/day minimum. This gives you a phone number for incoming calls, allows you to use Skype for outgoing calls, and should you have problems with MiFi or just aren't carrying it along, you can use those minutes to place normal calls. Obviously normal AT&T plans have better per-minute and SMS rates.

There are drawbacks. Along with convenience (now carrying two gadgets around? Plus your laptop?), you give up Visual Voicemail. It's one of the iPhone's nicer features. Pay As You Go, for example, gives you regular voicemail but it's not quite the same. Plus, the $60/month price? It's okay for what they give you but it's no huge bargain. Here's a quick summary of some of the the pros and cons of this approach.

Pros

• Tethering. Above-board and sharable with a couple of nearby friends.
• Works with iPod touch.
• For that matter, works with iPhone in a laptop-free way that an Express Card does not
• Skype becomes a reasonable communication option

Cons

• Two gadgets to charge, two gadgets to carry
• No Visual Voicemail
• Skype is what it is, lagged audio and all
• For a data-only plan with tethering, pricing is not great but it's pretty much in-line with other plans out there
• Bulkier than express card

Thank you to the TUAW reader who sent us the MiFi tip!

The ExpressBox1 from Magma is a cool accessory for MacBook Pro owners that allows you to add a standard desktop PCIe card to your notebook via the ExpressCard/34 slot. It consists of a powered external enclosure for a PCIe card (either half or full length) together with a cable to an ExpressCard module that fits into the MacBook Pro. The "no latency" bandwidth is 2000Mpbs allowing you to run variety of external cards, even PCIe graphics cards (provided the drivers are available).

All this coolness comes at a price, however; the ExpressBox1 is $729 for the half-length and $749 for the full-length enclosure.

[via Macworld]

At Macworld, Nova Media (which we previously mentioned for expanding phone support in iSync) demonstrated their launch2net, a new piece of software that might be very handy for the globe-trotting MacBook (Pro) user. It's a connection manager that allows you to get online with a variety of GSM ExpressCard and USB devices. It automatically handles "all necessary network settings" to get online with, according to them at least, a single click. This could be very useful for using ExpressCard devices that don't have built-in OS X drivers.

It's a bit pricey at €75 (~$97), but a demo is available.

[Via Macsimum News]

There are others like it, but this one is from one of our favorite vendors: Griffin has released an ExpressCard/34 reader for SD, Memory Stick/MSP, MultiMediaCard, xD, and also (assuming you haven't lost your card adapter) Memory Stick Duo/Micro, miniSD, microSD, and the other MMC flavors. Naturally tangy and faster than your average USB bear; pick one up for your favorite MacBook Pro-toting photographer. $30 direct from the big G.

Finally, something to do with the ExpressCard slot on your MBP. Storage and digital photo accessory supplier Delkin Devices today announced their eFilm ExpressCard 34 is available for pre-orders. To be officially unveiled at Photokina and shipping Oct. 16th, the EC-34 is the first Compact Falsh-to- ExpressCard converter. It is plug-and-play on both Macs and PCs in both 34mm and 54mm EC slots, and will allow photographers and others to transfer photos and other data directly between their CF cards and computers at 20MB/s without the need for external USB readers. All I can say is: Delkin, where were you when I came back from vacation this Summer?

From the press images, it looks like there is also an eFilm EC-34/8GB CF Card combo pack in the works, but it's not listed in the store yet.

Apple has released a software update for at least the 15-inch MacBook Pro, and possibly the 17-inch as well (I just have a 15-inch). ExpressCard Update 1.0 "resolves an issue that prevented the system from sleeping when some cards are inserted in the ExpressCard/34 slot." Have at it boys and girls.

Also, do not adjust your display - the funky color scheme you see in my screenshot is the work of ShapeShifter, Unsanity's GUI theming utility.

[UPDATE: At least one commenter has confirmed that this update appears for the 17-inch MacBook Pro as well.]

Thanks Guy!

Ben Drawbaugh from HD Beat dropped us a line on the first Serial ATA ExpressCard adapter shipping from FirmTek. If you've been lamenting the 15" MacBook Pro's lack of a FireWire 800 port and/or haven't heard of these external Serial ATA adapters, check this out: these ExpressCard adapter bus speeds make FW800 look like a Parallel port. The Serial ATA standard in these adapters can reach transfer speeds of 1.5 Gbps (SATA-I) and 3.0 Gbps (SATA-II). Perfect for video and audio editing professionals, and reasonably priced: this adapter has a street price of around $119.95, which isn't much more than the FW800 ExpressCard adapters I've seen going for around $100. The price of the drive enclosure, however, is the only part of this setup that might sting a little: a bundle of the card and a drive enclosure is $309.95. Still a small price to pay for making mince meat out of FireWire 800.

[via MacMegasite]

"Where's the zapper?!"

A time old phrase uttered countless times in countless living rooms across the world, usually accompanied by an expletive or two. Now that Apple has standardized Front Row and bundled a remote with nearly its whole range, Mac mini, MacBook and MacBook Pro owners are also screaming out for their lost "thingy", "zapper" and "remote control". iMac owners are in the clear: they've got a nice little magnetic section on the side of their machine that the Apple remote will elegantly stick to. Mac mini, MacBook and MacBook Pro owners aren't so fortunate. Apple's forgot to give us non-iMac owners a place to stash our remote! The MacBook, with its magnetic lid, offers a semi-viable solution. The remote will happily stick to the left and right corners at the top of the screen where the lid magnets are. It looks pretty stupid though.

One solution that Apple could use, for the MacBook Pro at least, is to adapt the Apple remote so that it will fit inside the laptop's ExpressCard slot. That would allow users to store the remote out of the way while the machine was closed (our less than elegant solution shown above doesn't tackle that problem). Have any TUAW readers come up with a way to keep the Apple remote with their Mac when they're not using it? Guides for Velcro mods, tractor beam construction manuals and levitation how-tos are welcome!

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."

As the dust settles a bit around MacWorld, it seems a few details about the new MacBook Pro's are becoming clearer. First on many PowerBook users' minds: will my EVDO card work without PCMCIA?

It turns out a little naming confusion is the key to this mystery. On the "What's Inside" page for the MacBook Pro, under the Expansion category, you may notice this entry:

• ExpressCard/34 slot

It turns out that ExpressCard is just another name for the ever-confusing standard known as PCMCIA. The good news is, yes, Virginia, there is a Stevie Claus, you will be able to have your EVDO card. The bad news is that this ExpressCard is a 34 millimeter slot. So, if you are rocking the usual 54 millimeter PCMCIA cards, you're going to have to buy some new gear (think Hammerfall PCMCIA for you audiophiles, wifi cards for you wardriving mac geeks, and EVDO cards for the roaming journos). One card that will fit in the MacBook Pro's slot is this 4-in-1 media card reader.

[more info about EVDO usb dongles and other ungainly hardware patches for existing PCMCIA cards on the MacBook Pro]