My wife had a MiFi for her Macbook, until she went to visit her family in Canada for a weekend. As far as we can tell, the Macbook decided to update itself in the hotel while she was out and had left the MiFi on. With the indicator light design on the MiFi it's not simple to tell the difference between "I'm charging" and "I'm eating up all of your allowed bandwidth at roaming rates". The result was an almost $900 bill for data roaming charges. I don't think we even exceeded her 2GB/month allowance, at least not by much.<p>Apparently, in Verizon's view, Canada is such a technologically backward nation that it costs an order of magnitude more to send data over their maple-syrup-soaked drunken-beaver-operated telecommunications system than it does here in the US.<p>There was no recourse; Verizon doesn't care why the bandwidth was used, even if it was unintentional. We canceled the contract.<p>EDIT: Contrasting point: for my Android, Verizon gives me unlimited data for $45/month. I use at least 1GB/month, and that's without watching videos or doing any other data-intensive stuff that I'd probably want to do on an iPad. (I don't pay the extra $20/month they want for tethering. I've found the Android is sufficient for my mobile computing needs.)
1GB per month for $20? What is this, 2001?<p>Of course, you just know all the Dogberts at Verizon are wagging their tails over collecting those <i>juicy</i> overage fees.
You can get the same MiFi 2200 device from Virgin Mobile (my local BestBuy carries them) which uses Sprint's 3G network for $40/month unlimited bandwidth and no contract. I bought one last month for a road trip and love it.
So they're tacking on $130 to the price of the iPad to cover the device? I like my setup much better ...<p>I have the iPad WiFi coupled with Virgin's MiFi which is $150 + $40/mo for <i>unlimited</i> bandwidth (on Sprint's network). No worries about overages, works great everywhere I've been and you don't even pay for months you don't use it.<p>Most Best Buy stores have them.
<a href="http://www.virginmobileusa.com/mobile-broadband/mifi-2200.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.virginmobileusa.com/mobile-broadband/mifi-2200.ht...</a>
The bundle is costing about $130 more than the iPad, plus whatever sliver of profit they get on the iPad wholesale. No risk taken by Verizon, no need for a contract.
I have an iPad and a MiFi from 3 and it's a good combination for occasional 3G access (most of the locations I use my iPad at have WiFi).<p>The MiFi with 8GB PAYG was about £70 whereas a 3G capable iPad is £100 more than the WiFi models here in the UK - also means I can have other devices (laptops/ipod) on the MiFi when required.<p>[Edit: I would never get a MiFi on contract - PAYG works fine with no risk of silly bills]
".. MiFi 2200 is small enough to fit in a pocket and allows customers to create a personal <i>Wi-Fi cloud</i> capable of sharing the high-speed Internet .. "<p>Wait, what?