First, Let me say that I hate being stuck with the phone I buy for 2 years.  But I’m cheap, so that is what I usually do.  Then I “upgrade” to another device with the same carrier. Now European, Asian, and others continents get to buy they phone they want and use it on whatever carrier they want. Only the dumb cattle here in the U.S. put up with the antiquated style of marketing that only big U.S. companies can provide. I can’t wait for domestic carriers to catch on to this trend. Right now they make too much money off of us suckers.

Second, I really hate Apple. I love their products. But I hate the walled garden that they put around their hardware (and software).   Imagine only being able to wear that fly Tommy Hilfiger oxford inside the Sak’s where you bought it.  Stupid, right?

But I digress.  Last Christmas, I received a 3rd gen 32 GB iTouch as a gift.  I really do like the device for its capacity to store and keep updated the volumes of podcasts and plethora of bohemian music that I regularly consume.  Love it!  Plenty of nice apps, and I can use Skype.  Hmmmm….

So I dumped my Palm Treo 650 (purchased in 2005, don’t laugh) with its pathetically slow data speed, and “upgraded” to the Novatel Mifi 2200 device .  It’s the same as the Verizon branded one.  The device is sleek and did the job very well.

Novatel Wireless MiFi 2200

Not bad.  I can surf the web while I’m driving along in my car.  AND… since I got Skype on the iPod,  I have a phone, too! Well this was working out pretty good for me, but I got greedy.  First, there were a couple of dead spots driving around town, and occasionally Skype would just die on me.  Secondly, I had to pay extra for any exorbitant amount of data I was using (2 GB) limit.

So I “upgraded” to Sprint’s Overdrive 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot device instead.

Overdrive 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot

Nice!  So I get 4G speed if I can, and I can download the whole internet over 4G and not have to pay for it.  But alas, the Sierra device spends more time switching from 4G to 3G and then looking again for 4G that it’s almost worthless unless you’re standing still.

I’ve had a some other problems with this device, too.  If the device is plugged in, it just wants to charge.  No connecting to the web, just charge. Also, if the device is too hot, it won’t charge.  And occasionally, it just won’t shut down.  I spend quite a bit of time popping the battery out just to turn it off.

Both devices get red hot if you’re moving a lot of data, so you don’t want to go sticking these things in your breast pocket.   But if you’ve got a place to sit down and get comfortable, I highly recommend either one of them.