I am looking for a reliable cell PCMIA card for a Aluminum Powerbook. I had an acount with Sprint, but my Merlin Card burned out and their new system does not support Mac : ( . I went with T-Mobile, but you need this flacky software from Nova Media to get it to work.
Looking for a simple reliable soulution. It really sucks with the millions of Powerbooks out there, nobidy wants to provide a service for.
ALL ADVICE AND COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!
Frank

[pkatzman]

As it sounds like you're willing to switch carriers, I'd suggest getting a Cingular account and one of their new HSDPA/UMTS cards. IIRC, they work with Macs, although the software Cingular provides is Windows-only (you don't need it if you download some modem scripts, search for them on Google.) This may also be the case with the newer Sprint card, or any other carriers' for that matter.

The one I know definitely works is the SonyEricsson GC83 card. If you buy one that's unlocked, you can use it with Cingular or Tmobile.

[Dave]

Or you might be able to use your cell phone as a modem if you have your carrier's unlimited data plan.

[pkatzman]

Originally Posted by Dave Or you might be able to use your cell phone as a modem if you have your carrier's unlimited data plan.

Assuming it has Bluetooth, or you have a USB cable and the proper drivers. Also, a card will give you the fewest possible bottlenecks, resulting in the greatest speed. USB cable is the next best, followed by Bluetooth (BT 2.0+EDR improves this somewhat if both your phone and laptop have it.)

[Wickers]

Actually this reminds me of the city fido plan I had while living in downtown Toronto.

Fido (microcell) offered a plan for unlimited local calling for $45 CDN a month, period.

It was awesome, but it got even better.

Data plans were going for $100, to $200 a month (usually in addition to your normal cell bill) for very limited bandwidth at the time. But with the city fido plan, plus a $10 a month dial-up account with a local ISP (hint: local number) and an unlocked GSM phone that accepted modem AT commands (most did at one point) you had an unlimited data setup at 56k speeds anywhere you had a cell phone signal. All for around $60 a month, unlimited bandwidth (you could be connected 24/7)... vs >$100 for under 200Megs of bandwidth a month (at the time). Pure craziness!

Then two things happened that made it all go wrong.

Rogers bought out microcell/fido and axed the city fido plan for a more, neutered, version with a cap on minutes. And less expensive data plans came out (as treos/blackberrys/convergence devices were becoming more popular) that had much better transfer rates.

Oh well...