Mobile on a Mac?

[Nords]

Here's a hardware/ISP connectivity question for you Mac experts.

A friend of mine has been living in Japan for the last 15 years and he's finally returning to California & Hawaii full-time. For the next 6-12 months he'll probably be packing a suitcase among various hotels & monthly rental condos before he chooses his spot. He's a retired Navy aviator (Vietnam F-4 RIO) and he's been a military contractor for a while so he's familiar with using technology-- but not so familiar with buying it. As a single guy with no work-compatibility issues he's chosen to go Mac. He'll never go back to Windows or IE but he's flexible (blissfully ignorant) about everything else.

While he's vagabonding about in CA & HI, he's also helping out a friend with his publicity/communications work via computer and the Internet. So now he needs to stay connected an hour or two each day during his travels. I guess worst case would involve getting a cell phone call on the road and having to pull over in the middle of the desert to download e-mail, surf the Web, and upload a short-notice response.

He knows that he wants to get a MacBook laptop. He'll probably find a cell phone provider that covers both states. What else should he buy to be able to go online via cell phone, hotspot, or Internet cafés?

[audreyh1]

When I am not around free WiFi I use my Kyocera KPC650 Aircard with Verizon high speed internet cell service. Has native powerbook support. This is a very nice mobile internet solution with good coverage over most of the country. This card requires a PC slot, so it does affect which type of Mac you need. They should be coming out some smaller aircards that fit this configuration before too long.

Also, supposedly Kyocera makes some type of standalone router that accepts an aircard and then provides a WiFi signal. People say this works.

The cell phones that connect to a Mac via a wire aren't supported very well (and in some cases are prevented from working) and are sloooooow.

The newer powerbooks have a smaller card slot than the standard and supposedly some aircard type solution is coming out for them.

The site www.evdoinfo.com has some information about support for internet cell aircards for Macs.

Audrey

[yakers]

I would check using a bluetooth phone as essentially a modem for the mac. My wife has the new Macbook and its fabulous. Just worked from the first time she clicked it. We use wireless connections in hotels, libraries & coffee shops, that has been all we need. I have even parked outside closed coffee shops for a connection.

[audreyh1]

Verizon has worked hard to disable internet capability of bluetooth cell phones. It stinks to high heaven, but there it is. Plus the connection is slow.

Audrey