[rantfoil]

For a hacker I cannot imagine a more amazing gift to oneself than the gift of ever-present Internet access via Sprint/Verizon/Whatever via USB dongle or expresscard.

It's ~$50/month -- but I would definitely give up lattes and buy black coffee for it.

[moultano]

Or, any Android phone running 2.2 on a carrier other than AT&T. Instant wifi hotspot.

[benmccann]

One of the best things about my Nexus One, which comes with free tethering and can act as a WiFi access point.

[Todd]

Verizon also has a MiFi card.

[ora600]

Which in my experience is horribly broken.

[cpr]

Yes, google "Mifi disconnect" and you'll find endless stories of Mifi problems with the wifi mode (it works perfectly in dongle mode), across carriers: Verizon, Spring, Virgin Mobile.

Bottom line (sad to say, since I own two): the Mifi doesn't work in wifi mode reliably. It drops offline every few minutes, breaking your ssh connections and any downloads in progress. It does reconnect within 5-10 seconds, so it sorta looks like it's working to your average undemanding browser user.

[baguasquirrel]

Every Peets manager in South Bay hates you now.

[zackattack]

I personally recommend CLEAR, which works great and has 4G coverage in places that the website doesn't even say!

[philwelch]

I had CLEAR back when they were called Clearwire. Many corporate name changes are designed to escape a poor reputation, and I have no doubt this is one of them. If you have CLEAR and you move to a part of town with poor reception, you drop packets. And, thanks to how TCP works, dropping packets == sabotaging your connection speed forever. And canceling my service with them was pure stress because they operate on a contract/termination fee structure.

Maybe they've improved since then, and maybe it's worthwhile if you just want a mobile solution and can pay for a home internet connection on top of it, but I remain skeptical.

[wallflower]

CLEAR is great except you cannot stream Netflix

[pmorici]

I have Clear and stream Netflix.

[wallflower]

Argh. I guess I need to edit the post to say if you are in a good coverage area (I'm not) - you can stream Netflix with no latency issues.

[pmorici]

Ya, it's no FIOS but With 4 bars on my modem's signal indicator Netflix usually works well. It's a little dodgy when it rains. Try moving your modem around your house and setting it at different angles. I initially had it in a position where it got three bars I moved it across the room and set it at a slightly different angle, now I get 4 bars and it's nearly twice as fast.