For months now, Mac users have clamored for a Sprint PCMCIA EVDO Card that would work with their trusty PowerBooks. We helped them along by coming up with a hack that allowed more technically-savvy users to get the Merlin S720 card working. It wasn't pretty, we couldn't support it, but it worked and thats all that mattered to the Mac community who have come to count on us for Mac + EVDO Expertise.Sprint recently rolled out their new Rev-A networks in select cities across the nation, and with it came a new firmware revision that made our hack no longer functional with the S720 card. Panic among the Sprint/Mac faithful ensued. What will we do now? Can a new hack still save us? Sadly, no.
Alas, it seems one good side effect of the Rev-A firmware upgrades is that the wonderfully priced (free) Pantech PX-500 is now compatible with PowerBook 15 and 17 inch laptops that sport a PCMCIA slot. Yay! and without a hack! Sweet! and quite possibly, Rev-A Speeds! SUH-WEEET!
There's more to this report though. PX-500 users will not be able to see any sort of signal strength, nor can the card be activated in a mac, nor can you do any future firmware or PRL updates on a mac. All that still has to happen on a PC. For those ordering from us, we will gladly pre-activate, update to the needed Rev A firmware before shipping it to you.
Fine. Its not perfect. But it is much better than we've had from the Sprint folks, in a long time.
Just how fast is it when used on a Mac? that, we can show you:
There are still some unanswered questions that linger:
Will it truly provide Rev-A speeds when used in Rev-A networks?
Will it work on older Mac Laptops with PCMCIA slots? (Wallstreet/Pismo?)
Important Links:
Order a PX-500 from Us (includes Pre-Activation and Mac Setup Guide)
Discuss PX-500 Mac Compatibility on EVDOforums
