This is really big news. All those people who have WiFi iPads and sometimes lust for anywhere 3G but don’t want to be tied to a long contract? This is the solution.
Virgin Mobile MiFi Outed by Best Buy, Coming Next Week
Since this is Virgin Mobile, this MiFi will be entirely prepaid – $149 for the device, and then anywhere from $10 for 100 MB to $60 for 5 GB.
That’s more or less a wash.
Instead of $130 more to Apple for built-in 3G, it’s $20 more ($149, which we all round to $150) for a MiFi that can be used with any device — iPad, laptop, netbook, iPod Touch.
The 5GB limit of AT&T (and Sprint and Verizon) is there too, but for the whopping price of $60/month. On the other hand, there’s no contract, as there would be with Sprint or Verizon — for their whopping $60/month.
I’ve read stories of how less convenient it is, using a MiFi vs. an iPad’s built-in 3G, but the MiFi can be used with anything, while the iPad’s 3G is just for the iPad. I’ll take that trade-off and the benefit of using the MiFi with anything else I want to connect.
Mike Cane's iPad Test 