Not sure if I got the pun accross effectively; the title’s supposed to be like “Wowowee!” (better to be safe and explain – than to risk looking like an idiot)

Anyways, while pretty late in the game, I finally succumbed to the temptation of buying myself a MiFi. As Manu Sandejas told me once while shopping for bike parts;

The best way to get rid of temptation is to give in. Then you wouldn’t be tempted anymore; problem solved 😉

Kidding aside, the reason I was considering getting a MiFi despite having unlimited internet with my iPad 3G – was because there would be times that the iPad would run out of juice, and I would’ve wanted to continue whatever I was doing on the iPhone. There were even times that I wanted to get online specifically with the iPhone ¹ like IMing, or simply checking Facebook through the mobile app – which is much faster than accessing the full webpage as the iPad was too cumbersome to pull out.

And of course, the more “internet-enabled” devices you have, it will make more and more sense to be able to share a single connection between them. Much like why most households now have routers. ² When was the last time you saw a person subscribe to two DSL lines because he wanted two computers connected? Probably never, because it’s absurd.

What’s a MyFi?

Honestly, I’m not sure if the term MiFi/MyFi is property of a certain brand (Novatel?), or if the term was just randomly conceived and eventually caught on. Perhaps it’s because it provides Mobile WiFi access, or could stand for “My (personal) WiFi“

Whatever the case may be, when you say “MiFi”, you’re talking about a portable wireless modem.

Wireless broadband isn’t new, ever since the cellular industry was able to channel considerable bandwidth over the air it was only a matter of time telcos would start offering those broadband USB dongles which plug into your computer and give it internet access without the wires.

My-Fis are essentially the same, only instead of a USB stick, they went right ahead and incorporated a wireless gateway into the device. And what you end up with is your very own portable wireless router which can provide internet connections to multiple devices.

Huawei E583C

From what I’ve found from the web, Globe’s MiFi offering is a rebranded Huawei E5830 or E585. The one I got was a E583C

The only thing you need to know is that the E5830 is a generation old – superseded by the E585 But the 585 used to be a UK-only product. The E583C is the newest model out – has basically the same exact features as the 585, but is for asian release. ³ Don’t ask me why, but redundant/convoluted retailing strategies such as this are quite common in the telecommunications industry If ever there’s a difference in the technology between the 585 and 583C, it’s probably because the 583C comes from a newer production line – so who knows, maybe the 583C has a better signal because of its newer components.

But for the most part, you’re really paying 2k more just for a cosmetic upgrade – but seeing how it looks, I think it’s worth it. ⁴ The only annoyance I have was its dorky brand name and girly logo, but other than that, the design is a cut above the rest.

Inspecting the Merchandise

Nothing fancy in the packaging – just a picture of the unit in all it’s sexyness. Though I was a bit concerned when the box stated the was color brown. Thankfully, what they consider to be “brown” was more like gunmetal as far as I was concerned – which works for me 😉

The unit seems to be larger than the 5830/585 but I think we can all agree that the aesthetics more than makes up for it. It is much thinner though, and still small overall compared to most portable devices.

To insert the sim, you pop the unit open like most standard cell phones (where you slide the back to open). It uses a regular SIM, which would’ve been a problem after I took a cutter to my broadband SIM and knifed the fucker down to size. Luckily, I was able to source a micro-SIM -> regular SIM adaptor from TipidPC

Setting up the unit is pretty braindead-simple; all you need is to stick the SIM in, and turn the unit on.

It does require autheniticaion to keep people from jumping into your personal network, but apart from that, it publicly announces its SSID – which makes for easy detection (and ultimately, connection) using any WiFi enabled device – as demonstrated in the picture below.

Conclusion

The only thing to really evaluate with gadgets like these is how powerful/reliable their antennae and WiFi beacons are. So I’ll be using this unit quite a bit and compare it to how my broadband account would perform when stuck directly into the iPad.

But assuming the thing actually does what its advertised to do, even if it doesn’t do it spectacularly, I really can’t find any reason why it wouldn’t be a worthwhile investment for anyone who wants connectivity on the go.