Not a day's passed after we caught word of Sprint's launch of
Novatel's S720 PC Card do we hear that Sierra Wireless has a proverbial one-two punch of WWAN modems up its sleeve, this time of the USB variety. First up in Q4 of this year will be the 595U, an EV-DO Revision A device topping out at a purely-theoretical 3.1Mbps downstream, followed by the quad-band GSM, tri-band HSDPA 875U humming along at 3.6Mbps in Q1 2007. Both USB modems look to be coming in sleek little packages with internal antennas and matching cradles, support location-based services, and have upgradeable firmware. If these things really look as slick as the press shots make them out to be, we may not be whining for a Rev A ExpressCard after all -- if the ship dates hold up, that is.
[Via
Macworld]
posted Aug 30th 2006 2:19PM
What would be REALLY nice is if they made these with rechargeable batteries similar to like the iPod Shuffle. That way when you are in the office and plugged into a power outlet you could charge this little hummer and then when you get out on the road it can run off of it's own internal power supply rather then the laptops battery. That would be a feature / beenfit that I would definetly like to see.
There are companies, other than Sierra and Novatel, who are currently manufacturing Rev-A products. Many people are waiting for the express card yet need the convinience of USB. The Swift card by Albahith Technologies offer both. It comes in two parts: an express card and USB box. The express card ca slide into the box which acts as a protective casing, and can be used as a USB modem. The Swift card will also be available in Q1, 2007.
Sammy Tuffaha