Huawei announces i-Mo 3G modem with WiFi
By Laura June 
posted February 13th 2009 11:08AM
posted February 13th 2009 11:08AM
Here's a peek at a tiny modem making its debut at MWC next week. The Huawei i-Mo HSPA modem is, indeed very small -- the company says about the size of a key chain -- and it boasts both an HSDPA / HSUPA USB modem as well as WiFi, plus it's got a MicroSD slot for storage. We don't know about pricing or availability for this little guy yet, but it will probably be offered through carriers, and should show up sometime in the fourth quarter of 2009. Hooray!
No Jason in this? Slacking...
i think he's in the reflection of that thing.
I don't know... if that is a mask... it's pretty smudged out.
I dont get products like this, my cell phone does the exact same thing from my pocket with the exception that it uses bluetooth instead of Wifi. I still get immediate wireless access to my 3G connection from my phone.
How do you get on about connecting your iPod touch or wifi only other devices to your 3G modem? How do you share this 3G connection with other people in your house? How do you use your bluetooth connection from 100 feet away?
some people have iPhones
You clearly are not living in Europe or the rest of the world. For €9 at the moment in Austria, for example, you can get 20GB monthly download limit with one carrier. Others they average in Austria about €15-20 for 10GB or more.
They are a cheap at-home internet solution for those that only do basic Internet surfing and don't need the bandwidth of a cable or DSL modem (and more expense to it). For instance, I have a cable connection at my apartment here in Vienna, but I am pretty much always out and about during the day. Therefore, I have my EEE PC to stay connected and the E220 modem from Huawei (what most carriers give you if you don't get one of the USB stick models). So I have a nice and simple cell phone contract without the extra data charges, and then a 3G modem contract for less than the cost of having a phone with a data plan and having a lot more available download allotment. Now, I personally only use about 2GB a month, but I have friends who just surf and do YouTube and stuff and they use their contracts to the full extent some months.
Another plus: because the modem plugs in through USB, you don't have to drain the battery of your cell phone using Bluetooth. My EEE 900 also doesn't have a built-in BT adapter (I have a USB one, though). Plus, I don't need to worry about the BT signal being interrupted for whatever reason. So I can sit in the underground trains zipping around the city and post here on Engadget if I want and not worry about fiddling with two devices when I just plug one into the other and VOILA!, I have Internetz.
Do you get it now?
@oliver: I guess thats my point, I wouldn't want more than one person on my slow 3g connection wasting my monthly allotted BW, and besides that, jailbroken iphones share over BT just fine.
@David: I never argued against having mobile internet, but you seem to think I did. =/
I guess you have a point about battery life, I always feel that way about multipurpose devices. Zune80 for music, phone for talking, laptop for internet, convergence devices like the iphone don't appeal to me.
HSDPA over bluetooth is painful, as bluetooth is slothfully slow, using it by USB means that the connection isn't limited by the bluetooth. Yes, phones can use USB as well, but in their wisdom Nokia decided that the N95 couldn't be charged over USB.
I am also wondering where Jason is. If I tilt my monitor until the colors go negative, I pretend I can see his mask in the reflective metal on that thingy.
He's standing behind you!
Haha, you have a TN panel.
And I don't see it:
http://i40.tinypic.com/19wf7o.jpg
Wait...He really is behind m-
F**K YOU!
Does it auto-switch to wifi if using 3g and a wifi network becomes available? That would be useful.
@fieldcar. In the UK certain networks (3 I'm looking at you) disable the built in modem in certain handsets (This was the case in my old LG U990), forcing you to either get your phone unlocked and pay a hefty premium for their dataplan... or just buy one of these! Its a rip-off as you have to buy the modem, but we're used to being ripped off here. Add to that most people don't even realise their handset is already capable of doing what their new USB 3G modem does!
what would majority of people do with this?
There's this great invention that just came out. It's called the Internet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet You can read about it there.
im pretending i see him
This would actually eliminate my need for a more expensive iPhone data plan.