When I left for CES I wasn’t exactly organized/prepared. Being the (self proclaimed) Queen of Procrastination I found myself waiting until the last minute to prepare. I left my laptop home, but luckily my tablet was already in my purse so I did have that. I would have went crazy without some connection to the World Wide Web especially at a tech conference where EVERYONE is tweeting, blogging or vlogging. No way I would survive 6 days with no internet – the thought alone made me shudder.

Once I arrived in my hotel room I was more than ready to plug into the net – no way was I paying for internet on the plane. I pulled my tablet out, had my charger ready and went to connect to the complimentary hotel internet. (Insert ominous music here) The complimentary internet turned out to be wired internet. There was NO WiFi in the hotel – OMG WHAT??? Have you ever tried to connect your tablet to an ethernet cable? I have – no matter where you try to stick it it doesn’t work. I was tempted to go to the lobby and tell them where they could stick their “complimentary internet.”

Coming to Terms with Reality

Once I came to terms with the lack of WiFi in the hotel I assured myself that once I got to a conference or to the convention center there would be WiFi available for me to get my fix. Have you tried to connect to WiFi in an area where tens of thousands of other people are connected to it? It had about the same effect as me trying to stick the ethernet cable into my tablet; except instead of not being able to connect it teased me with that bar only to present me with sluggishly (putting it lightly) slow speed.

I was convinced my life was over. What the heck was happening to the world that no matter where I went I was disconnected from the world (wide web that is.) What kind of evil, heartlessly sinister entity would allow this to happen? Whyyyyyy????! Now you get the picture of how I was reacting while at CES!

Have you ever been in a situation like this? Finding yourself unable to connect with the “real world” (yea, that’s what it’s become for me!) because there’s no WiFi? It’s awful, right? Some people would say it’s a relief, but when your business/livelihood depends on you being able to connect to the internet at various intervals during the day it’s not so relieving.

Simple Solution

Had I not had the initial problems I did when arriving in Las Vegas I would have had the answer to my prayers. I was invited to test drive the TruConnect MiFi device while at CES but I was unable to pick it up. However, once I got home I was sent a unit to review and I’m kicking myself hard. I can’t even tell you how much turmoil this little gadget would have saved me from enduring had I had it. I would have been one happy mama while in Vegas instead of the grumpy thing I was, let me tell ya!  Enough of the regrets, you live you learn, right? Right. Now that I’ve found this I know I wont be leaving home without it.

Um. What is MiFi

I’m glad  you asked. MiFi (registered trademark of Novatel Wireless, Inc.) stands for My Wi-Fi and  is a collection of compact wireless devices by  Novatel Wireless that act as wireless hotspots. Think Starbucks. You buy a cheap cup of coffee just to sit in there and connect your laptop to their wireless internet. That internet connection is a hotspot and is open to anyone (generally; some places may implement passwords for customers to access the WiFi.) I know people who don’t have internet at home and sit outside of various businesses in hopes of picking up a hotspot long enough to get their Facebook fixes. The thing with these hotspots is, like I said, they’re generally open to everyone. This could lead to security issues as well as a poor connection. It’s no fun waiting an hour to update your Facebook status or send a tweet.

MiFi is your own personal internet that’s only accessible to you and anyone you give your security key to. If I had had this unit while at CES I would have had that awesome 3g blazing fast speed while others were competing with dial up and under speeds. Oh, if only.

Why You Want It

You may be wondering why this would benefit you. Why do you need something like this when you can go sit in a parking lot and mooch of someones wireless internet? Well, besides the fact you can stop being a mooch (lol, just kidding!) this device works in many areas – check the coverage map here.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in the car and really wanted to get online. With this I can! What if you’re on a really long road trip and the kids are in the backseat screaming, fighting and just plain getting on your nerves? Sure you could fight with them to calm down, or  you could let the driver deal with them and you pull out the laptop and have fun! With the TruConnect MiFi you can do just that. You can connect while  you’re out of town, on the road or at the grocery store.

The best part is you don’t have to deal with the lag from a shared connection. If you are feeling generous you can share your connection with up to 4 others (5 connections total.) Another reason, it’s easy! It’s so simple to set it up that by the time you’ve found a hotspot to mooch off of you could have already replied to all your friends on Twitter, written a blog post, updated your status on Facebook and changed a dirty diaper!

Okay, So How Much Does It Cost

This is the beautiful part. The device itself is $99.00 (completely worth it, even if I were just using it once!) From that point you only pay for what you use (3.9 cents/MB) + $4.99 per month. Very affordable and well worth it to bypass the stress of not having access to WiFi. You prepay for service, so there’s no surprises. Once you’ve used it for a day or so you can analyze your usage and determine how much you spend and how much to add the next time you need to reload.

You can get your own MiFi from the TruConnect store.

Tell Me More

Want to know more about it? Check out the info below.

Features

The goodies.

• High-speed mobile internet – up to 3.1 Mbps
• Connect up to 5 WiFi-enabled wireless devices simultaneously
• Connects laptops, tablets, music players, gaming devices and more
• Secure personal WiFi network
• Easy installation and setup
• Portable and convenient – Smaller than a deck of cards
• Rechargeable lithium battery
• Up to 4 hours of wireless use and 40 hours of Standby
• Micro USB port for charging and tethered use
• One year limited warranty

Specifications

The technical details.

• Model: Novatel Wireless MiFi® 2200
• Dimensions: 2.32” x 3.5” x 0.35″
• Weight: 2.08 oz
• WiFi Network: 802.11b/g 2.4 GHz
• Mobile Network: CDMA 1xEVDO Rev. A/0; 1xRTT
• Interface: MicroUSB port
• Compatibility: any WiFi enabled laptop, tablet or other device

In The Box

Your TruConnect MiFi comes with the following:

• TruConnect MiFi
• Travel Charger
• USB Cable
• Quick Start Guide

Disclaimer: I received the device mentioned above for the purpose of this review. All thoughts are my own.