RSSFirst look at Novatel's MiFi wireless hotspot
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published January 6, 2009, 10:57 PM
At the CES Unveiled press event tonight, Novatel Wireless gave a first look at MiFi, a pocket-sized WiFi hotspot for connecting up to five users in a local area to the Internet over a cellular connection.
Novatel actually introduced Mi-Fi on December 9. "But this is the first time MiFi has ever been shown outside of a lab," said a rep in the Novatel Booth.
Novatel is targeting the miniature hotspot at mobile workgroups in addition to consumers. The rep outlined a couple of consumer scenarios for BetaNews, including a college dorm room and parents wanting to be able to connect every family member to the Internet while on vacation.
MiFi comes in two cellular flavors: GSM and CDMA. Over the next couple of months, Novatel will announce carrier relationships for the wireless hotspot, BetaNews was told.
Cradlepoint had a similar product at CTIA last April which has been available for at least 6 months(maybe longer since I don't know exactly when it was released.). The only thing that I have found that is novel about Novatel's implementation is the small size of this router. The question I have about this product is what the real world battery life is going to be. Given the small size I would be concerned that the battery would die too quickly for this to really be a practical product for most people.
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Regarding battery life, this site [http://jkontherun.com/2008/12/09/novatel-mifi-c/] quotes "Novatel states it gets over 40 hours on standby and up to four hours of active usage".
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HotSpot?
I think its commonly called a (small) router.
"parents wanting to be able to connect every family member to the Internet while on vacation."
Now THERE is a vacation in Hell!
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