Laptops Arena

Laptop wireless Internet access is one of those great innovations of the last years that has two sides. On the bright one, there's the ability to go online virtually everywhere, and get the job done, but this is also a dark side, at least as I see it - I happen to know a lot of people who can't have a nice vacation because they are obsessed going online and checking something. That "something" could be their email, shares, site traffic, it doesn't really matter what. I think that a world without Internet for a week would allow a lot of people to finally get some rest, while others will surely kill themselves...

Anyway, let's leave such evil ideas aside, because I can't imagine a week in the office withou Internet, either, but I surely enjoy taking some time off far from any piece of technology. Anyway, we're not going to talk about mountain trips here, because a new laptop wireless Internet access card has been released by Sierra Wireless, and it looks pretty good in theory, from what I can tell.

The official description says "The AirCard® 402 is a sleek and innovative solution that supports PC and Mac notebook computers with EV-DO Rev." Great, no reason for another Mac vs PC fight here! Even more, "Designed to work with both ExpressCard and PC Card slots, the AirCard 402 includes a locking 2-in-1 adapter to go from PC Card to ExpressCard slots with ease."

The AirCard 402 weighs 2.08 oz, featuring a Qualcomm® QSC 6085 chipset and a built-in antenna, while its dimensions are 5.11” x 2.13” x 0.42”. Fully compatible with Vista, XP, Windows 2000, Mac OS X and Linux, it supports CDMA 1900 and 800 MHz, as well as EV-DO 1xRTT, Rev. 0 and Rev. A when available.

The only system requirement you should be careful of is the free Express Card or PCMCIA Type II Card slot, because I am sure absolutely all those in need of laptop wireless Internet access have more than a Pentium 150MHz processor, 23 MB of disk space and 64 MB of memory...

At last, you should be glad that the AirCard 402 comes for $99.99, after $180 instant savings, as well as a $50 mail-in rebate...or not, depends on your budget, but I am sure you don't need to change your mobile broadband card too often.