Wireless carriers have been offering 3G mobile broadband plans for laptops for a few years, but typically if you want to get a cheap or free USB modem you need to sign up for a 2 year contract. Or you could pay full price for a USB modem, which can easily run $150 or more.

Now Telava is offering a USB modem called the Broadband Bullet that’s available for free with no contract required. But here’s the catch: If you pay for a month of service for $50 to $60 and then decide to cancel, you have to send the modem back.

Actually that doesn’t sound too bad as far as catches go. If you know that you’re going to need 3G access while you’re traveling for a week or two, you can sign up, get the mdoem, and return it when you get home.

If you don’t want to deal with that kind of hassle, you can just buy the modem outright for $200 and activate it or deactivate as you see fit. If you go with the use it and return it model, you’ll have to pay a $100 security deposit to receive the modem.

Telava’s $50/month plan has a 5GB monthly data cap, while the $60/month plan offers unlimited data transfer. All in all, it sounds like a much cheaper solution than RovAir, a short term 3G rental service I tested last year.

via SlashGear

AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint have all begun selling netbooks over the past year or two. Typically you can pick up a netbook with a 3G modem at a subsidized price from one of these carriers when you sign up for a long term service plan. Wireless carrier T-Mobile offers a range of 3G capable smartphones and USB modems for laptops, but right now you can’t actually buy a netbook from the company. But TmoNews reports that may soon change.

According to TmoNews, T-Mobile is preparing to offer the latest version of the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook. This model has a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 CPU, 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. It’s not clear whether the T-Mobile version will ship with a 3 or 6 cell battery, but if the rumor’s true, this model will likely also come with a 3G plan.

T-Mobile currently offers a webConnect 5GB/month Data plan for $59.99 for customers that pick up a T-Mobile webConnect USB Laptop Stick. There’s also a cheaper, $29.99/month plan, but you only get 200MB of data transfer for that price.

There are a few ways to get mobile broadband access on a portable computer. You can pick up a laptop, tablet, or other device with an integrated 3G modem. You can purchase a 3G or 4G USB stick that you can plug into your computer to connect to a network. Or you can get a portable WiFi hotspot like a MiFi that lets you connect multiple devices to a mobile broadband network.

Now it looks like there’s a new option… sort of. Connect One has unveiled a device called the Wi-Reach Classic. Basically it’s a portable WiFi hotspot that’s designed to work with any 3G USB modem. Just insert your modem in the USB port and the $99 Wi-Reach classic will let you share your connection over WiFi. Up to 10 computers at a time can connect to the hot spot (although I suspect you’ll take a serious speed hit if you try to hook up more than 2 or 3 computers).

You can also download software that adds support for 4G WiMax and LTE networks. Connect One says the mobile hotspot should get about 5 hours of battery life.

via SlashGear

Verizon Wireless

In the market for a cheap netbook? Then the HP Mini 110 might be for you — depending on your definition of the word cheap. Verizon Wireless is offering the Mini 110 for just $29.99. But there’s a catch: You have to sign up for a 2 year service contract at $60/month to get that price.

In other words, over the course of the contract, the netbook will run you $1470. If you’re in the market for a 3G enabled netbook that can connect to Verizon’s wireless broadband network from virtually anywhere, that’s not a bad deal. But if you just want a WiFi capable netbook you can certainly do a lot better.

via VentureBeat

Been holding out on picking up a Lenovo ThinkPad x100e thin and light laptop until you could get one with 3G and GPS capabilities? It looks like the wait is over. Lenovo is selling a version of the X100e with a Gobi 2000 card which supports 3G and GPS for $649. That’s about $100 more than the exact same computer without the Gobi card.

The basic specs remain unchanged. The 11.6 inch laptop has an AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 single core CPU, ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics, 2GB of RAM, a 250Gb hard drive, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and a 6 cell battery. A cheaper model with 1GB of RAM and a 160GB and no mobile broadband sells for $449.

Lenovo’s also expected to offer a dual core version of this laptop in the coming months. But there’s no word on the pricing for that model yet.

via Netbooked

The HP Mini 5102 is the latest business-oriented laptop from Hewlett Packard. It has some killer features including a 7200RPM hard drive, an accelerometer to shut down the hard drive in the event of a fall, a 2MB webcam, and a choice of options including a touchscreen, an attached handle, HD display, extra RAM, or alternate operating systems.

When HP first introduced the Mini 5102, the company promised that it would have a starting price of $399. But when it first showed up on the HP web site this week, the lowest price was $749. So what gives?

Long story short, the Mini 5102 is sold through HP’s business division. That means that generally you get a handful of “Smart Buy” configurations at low prices. And while the lowest price available today is $599, that’s about to change. I just got a note from HP letting me know that starting February 1st, there would be three new Smart Buy options, priced at $399, $525, and $649 respectively.

The $399 model will get you a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display. 1G of RAM, 160GB, 00RPM hard drive, 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, a 4 cell, 29Whr battery and Windows 7 Starter Edition.

For $525 you’re upgraded to 2GB of RAM and a choice of Windows 7 Professional or Windows XP Professional.

The $649 model will pack a 6 cell, 66Whr battery, 2GB of RAM, Windows 7 or XP Pro, and a Gobi mobile broadband module.

If you want to pick and choose from the less common options such as the HD display, touchscreen, or handle, you’re probably not going to find a Smart Buy option. That means you’ll either have to configure your laptop for a premium price at HP.com or contact the sales folks at HP Business to see if you can work out a deal on pricing.

While it’s a shame that the base model comes with a 4 cell battery, $399 is a pretty reasonable price. Sure, it’s more expensive than a number of other mini-laptops with Atom N450 processors. But most of those models lack the magnesium alloy case, 7200RPM hard drive, and other features that make the Mini 5102 stand out.

We’ve been seeing the Mobinnova Beam smartbook show up at trade shows for months. Now it looks like you’re finally going to get a chance to purchase one soon. Mobinnova has teamed up with AT&T to offer the 3G-enabled smartbook powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 platform. There’s no word on a launch date or pricing yet.

Tegra 2 combines a low power 1GHz ARM Cortex A9-based processor with high performance graphics capable of playing 1080p HD video. The smartbook can handle local and internet video thanks to Flash 10.1 hardware acceleration.

The Mobinnova Beam has an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display and weighs just 1.84 pounds. it measures 9.2″ a x 7.3″ x 0.8″. The device supports 802.11b/g WiFi and has a 3G modem for connecting to AT&T’s mobile broadband service when you sign up for a contract.

The smartbook has 512MB of RAM and 512MB of flash storage for the operating system plus a solid state disk with 8GB to 64GB of storage space. You can also use the SD card to add up to 64GB of storage.

While the demo unit I saw at CES was running Windows CE, the Mobinnova press release says the smartbook will be available with Google Android (which doesn’t yet support Adobe Flash).

Mobinnova press release (PDF Link)

Netgear introduced its new DGN2200M wireless router today, and while I don’t normally spend a lot of time covering, or even thinking about wireless routers, this one has a unique feature that makes it pretty interesting. In addition to acting as an 802.11n WiFi router, this little box also works with an optional 3G or 4G wireless broadband dongle. So you can pack up your router and take it with you to use from the road. If your home broadband goes down, you can also use your mobile broadband dongle as a backup.

Oh yeah, the DGN2200M also packs a built in DSL modem.

The router will be available in April for $179.99. There’s also a cheaper version called the MBRN3000 which will go for $149.99. The difference is that it lacks the integrated DSL modem. For $129.99 the DGN2200 is a DSL modem/router, but lacks the mobile broadband option.

via SlashGear

I just got a chance to catch up with the folks at Datawind, and while they’re a bit behind schedule, they do still plan to bring the Ubisurfer netbook to the US. The latest target date is Q2, 2010, (as opposed to October, 2009). If Datawind actually manages to launch the Ubisurfer soon, it could poke a hole in the smartbook industry that’s still in its pre-infancy.

Here’s why: The Ubisurfer costs $199 up front. And that’s it. That price will buy you a 7 inch netbook plus a data plan good for up to 30 hours per month of downloads over a CDMA/EV-DO connection. There’s no data limit, just an hour limit. If you want more time, you pay $9.99 a month. And after the first year, you just pay $49 per year to keep using the connection.

Compare that with the $40 to $60 per month that mobile wireless operators are expected to charge for data plans to go with smartbooks such as the upcoming Lenovo Skylight.

That said, the Datawind Ubisurfer isn’t much to look at, and it certainly doesn’t offer much in the specs department. It features a 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel display, an ARM-based processor, a tiny keyboard, an awkward touchpad with buttons on the left and right, and a light weight Linux distribution. If you’ve ever tried surfing the web with Firefox using a device like this, you know that the experience can be kind of sluggish and painful. But Datawind has a solution.

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If you want a USB modem that will provide mobile broadband access in the US, you’ll usually have to sign up for a 2 year contract and commit to paying $60 per month for up to 5GB of data transfers. Or, you can sign up for a new DataJack modem which costs about $100 up front and $40 per month thereafter for unlimited data. Oh yeah, and there’s no contract, so you could use the service for a month or two, cancel it, and then sign up again half a year later.

On paper, DataJack has me second guessing my recent decision to pick up a CLEAR WiMAX modem. That’s especially true since while my mobile WiMAX modem works great, the home modem isn’t as fast as the DSL service I was hoping to replace, so I’m thinking of canceling the home service which means I’d end up paying as much as $45/month for WiMAX service that only works in a handful of cities when I could be paying $40/month for 3G service that is available nationwide.

But this time I think I’ll try not to be the early adopter and wait to see how well the service works for others before signing up.

via Chip Chick