A WiFi Hotspot in Your Pocket

Verizon’s newest wireless gadget, the MiFi—a portable WiFi hotspot—has a big fan in David Pogue of the New York Times. The MiFi is a combination of a cellular modem without the “nasty little antenna protuberance” and a wireless router. Anywhere on Verizon’s 3G network, one touch of a button a device the size of a credit card allows up to five people to surf at broadband speeds.

The MiFi also has a rechargeable battery, and a standby mode that can get the average person through a whole day of intermittent surfing. It works just like a regular router and is totally configurable, yet fits in a pocket. Pogue was stuck on a runway happily surfing away when his stunned seatmate asked how he had a signal. “He was floored,” Pogue writes, “when I pulled the MiFi from my pocket, its power light glowing evilly.” (More Verizon stories.)