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So you have finally decided (after much thought) to get yourself a MacBook Air, well its really nice, thin and though it might break it is really nice.
Now you know it doesn’t come with integrated 3G, but that doesn’t matter as you’ve got a 3G USB modem.
Ah.
Well.
There’s a slight hitch, you see there’s a good chance that your USB modem won’t fit.
More on Engadget.
I have been thinking for a while about getting a 3G USB Modem.
My preference is to use a Bluetooth connection to my phone and use that as a modem, however this is very heavy on battery life for both the phone and the laptop and I am thinking that a USB modem will have less impact on the laptop and (obviously) no impact on the phone’s battery life.
I don’t want a card solution as I use different computers, some have CF slots, come have PC Card slots and another uses ExpressCard, so a card solution will be too limiting.
I am not overly happy with having a dongle hanging off my computer, but it is better than no internet connection.
So which one do I go for?
My initial choice was “3” which has the cheapest solution at £10 per month, however they do have a 1GB limit and will charge if you go over that limit. £15 gives you a 3GB allowance.
Speeds are suppose to be in the 2.8Mbps range, but that’s not the case across the whole country.
Having used Vodafone before and get very annoyed with their content control and the complexity of having to pay to turn it off, I am not keen on using Vodafone. Also at £25+VAT per month they are the most expensive. However at 7.2Mbps they are the fastest. Though that speed is not available around me, so is less inticing.
I am coming around to T-Mobile which is around £20 per month now. However it does appear to be the slowest of the lot. It has one advantage that the service also includes free access to T-Mobile wifi hotspots.
Still thinking.
What no 3G?
Though you may think I am talking about the lack of a second generation iPhone with 3G, no I am talking about the lack of 3G on the MacBook Air.
Yes it has 802.11n, but how many 802.11n wifi hotspots have you seen on your travels? Also from an internet perspective, 802.11n is a bit of overkill for a typical internet connection. Not everywhere has wifi hotspots, they never seem to be available when I am out and about or they fall over a lot from too many clients.
So there you are with this beautifully thin MacBook Air and either you need to use a Bluetooth to a 3G phone, which kills the battery both on the MacBook Air and the phone, and a lot of mobile phone providers in the UK now no longer allow you to use your 3G phone as a modem (or they charge you a fortune) they all now seem to want you to use a USB dongle.
Now an USB dongle though has less of an impact on battery life on your laptop (and no impact on your phone’s battery life) is a dongle and it dangles from the beautifully styled and thin laptop you just bought!
All of this could have been avoided if Apple had provided 3G functionality with their beautifully thin MacBook Air.
I’m not the only one thinking like this, as you can see here and here.
I think Apple missed the boat on this one, though maybe they didn’t want to get into bed with another phone provider!
Well I now have an iPod touch, and though I have touched one before, to actually use one for quite a bit of time, is a different kettle of fish. I am very impressed still with the device. Apple have done an excellent job.
The touch interface is very impressive and compared to the typical Table PC or Archos touch interface, the iPod touch interface is more fluid and responsive, and though I don’t like the fingerprints all over the device, the use of the finger is very intuitive.
The screen quality is excellent and images and video look excellent.
Syncing took a bit of time, it’s just an 8GB device, but I did put over five hundred photographs on the device as well as 4Gb of music and podcasts.
The browser is probably the best I have seen on any mobile device, the way you can intelligently zoom in and out makes browsing webpages really nice and you don’t feel you are losing out with the small screen (well it’s a lot smaller than my 20″ iMac).
Overall I do like the iPod touch, do I like it enough to get an iPhone, well if the phone functions work as well as the iPod then it’s a distinct possibility, though I will probably wait until we see a next generation iPhone, you know one with 3G capabilities.
iPod touch, me touch, me like!
A guide on how to connect a Mac to enable it to use 3G Nokia N73 as a Bluetooth modem.
Connecting a Mac to the internet via Vodafone 3G and Bluetooth enabled Nokia N73 Update: link no longer works
This guide takes you through the process on a Mac (running Tiger 10.4) and on a Nokia N73 phone and enables you to connect via a Bluetooth connection to the Nokia N73 and use the phone’s 3G data connection for internet access.
This guide may also be useful to people with other phones and 3G accounts with other providers.