Mildly impressed by MiFi

David Pogue at the New York Times can barely contain his excitement over the Novatel MiFi 2200. He proposes a hypothetical Wi-Fi bubble that follows you everywhere you go. Then he says, “Incredibly, there is such a thing. It’s the Novatel MiFi 2200, available from Verizon…. It’s a little wisp of a thing, like a triple-thick credit card. It has one power button, one status light, and a swappable battery…. When you turn on your MiFi and wait 30 seconds, it provides a personal, portable, powerful, password-protected wireless hot spot.”

He recounts how he was able to amaze his seatmate by surfing the Web while stuck in an airplane on a runway for a couple of hours.

I’m a bit less than amazed. In a similar situation, I could just connect my phone to my laptop using a USB cable, launch the Internet-sharing application on my phone, and surf away. And MiFi will do you no good once you are in flight. Despite frequent delays, I still spend more time in flight than on the tarmac. (See “Broadband-ready passenger planes to near 800” for more on in-flight WiFi.)

I ran my comments by Brian’s Brain, and Brian did point out some advantages to the MiFi. It lets you share a connection, which of course my USB-cabled approach won’t. (Being selfish, I didn’t think of that.) Plus, Brain says it could be a good way to get sharable broadband into remote locations not served by cable or DSL service.

MiFi doesn’t address an immediate need that I have (other than it’s always nice to get rid of cables), and I don’t—as Pogue does—consider it a “jaw-dropper.” But it’s worth a look if you frequently have a need to share a cellular data connection. Who knows? I’m not betting on it, but MiFi may be the next iPhone. I’ll be checking for long lines outside Verizon’s stores.