Alternate Data
Sources
plus SD Card Access for
iPhone, iTouch and iPad
(not to mention
other wifi devices)
(and no "jailbreak"
required)
© Beverly
Howard, Austin, Tx, 2010
This Page Formatted for
Viewing with PocketPC
but, ironically, apple requires horizontal scrolling to read plain text
It's been an interesting process for me, a former Windows Mobile MVP,
to support my wife's use of, first, an apple nano, then, over a year
ago, an ipod touch, and finally, for her birthday last month, a wifi
only ipad.
Both Rebecca and I feel a bit like outsiders in today's youth based
mobile
tech arena. (Neither Rebecca nor I are typical cell phone
users. Our cell phones are not our primary phones and used
minimally) We both have had "pay as you go" accounts that work
out to $8.34/month per phone for a number of years and our minute pool
balances still increase each year since we use them so seldom.
Wifi at home and when "where
you are" happens to include free wifi is extremely nice, but prior
trips expose the fact that wifi can be sparse when away from home.
As I searched for what we would consider "reasonable" data access
options, the wall I kept running into was there were almost no options
to buy only mobile
data access at reasonable rates with reasonable conditions.
Several years ago, there were a few options for cellular data,
but in my recent research, every data option I found required a voice
plan to be in place before advertised data plans could be purchased but
they had evaporated since my last need for mobile data access.

Then, quite by accident I ran across a Clear
internet access ad that featured using the "ClearSpot 4G+"
receiver/router".
This shirt pocket sized receiver distributes
Clear's 4g network as a wifi router to up to 5 wifi devices. In
addition this specific device offers 3G "fallback" connections to the
sprint 3G network when the Clear network is not available. fwiw,
the price for the service and device lease (Austin, Texas) at this
writing (Aug, 2010) was $56/month with no "startup fees." Note...
there are currently two different Clear routers available, but the less
expensive one does not offer "3G fallback," something that is critical
if the service is going to be used when mobile outside of the limited
4G coverage areas.
While Clear 4G data access is fast and unlimited, Clear locations are
only currently available in most, but not all, major USA metropolitan
areas, so the 3G fallback option is essential in the case of any travel
plans that include data access.
As of this writing, Clear is not available outside of the USA, which
means that I will be back on the search trail the next time Rebecca has
an international trip planned.
The sprint 3G "fallback" data is capped at 5GB per month. Clear's
site has maps showing
coverage on their site and a quick look showed that sprint 3G coverage
is available in all areas we are interested in at the moment. In
fact, a trip Rebecca has planned for the Oregon coast was the clincher
for signing on the dotted line... (gonna
be interesting to see if those 3G coverage maps are valid... stay tuned)
While the router can be powered from ac or cigarette lighter, it also
has a three hour battery... means that it can provide cellular data
access via wifi sitting cordless on a resturant table.
Alternatively, leave it in your car in the parking lot, and you can
probably access it as you shop, eat, rest, etc...
The router has a standard wifi ssid, etc setup with multiple wifi
encryption options... Our's is now set up to the same ssid and wep as
our main wifi which means you can turn it on as you leave, put it on
the dash and hit the road with a connected touch or wifi ipad and
continue any web session uninterrupted.
A Few $$$ Thoughts
One disclaimer... the price of the clear option makes $$$
sense if you need significant data access for most months during the
service
contract and the cost of clear is inversely proportional to
how much data you use. That said, the traditional mobile
providers
embed so many hidden costs and requirements into any of their plans
that the simplicity factor of the Clear service had significant value
to me in the end.
During months of searching for cost effective data solutions base on
our needs over the last year, the best option I uncovered was goPhone's
$20/100MB which evaporates in 30 days but would have probably been
workable for our needs. By comparison, when considering the cost
per MB issue, the goPhone data option is 20 cents a megabyte even
compared to using only the 3G fallback option which is 1 cent a MB or
twenty times less expensive.
In addition, going that route would have required sim shuffling plus an
additional $200 for an unlocked USB modem and USB modem capable
router. A couple of prepurchase tech calls to providers pursuing
the USB modem option turned out to be pretty discouraging as well.
Finally, if you live alone, the clearspot can easily serve as your only
broadband provider... put a power supply near the door, and grab the
router as you leave home, then plug it back in when you return.
microSD Memory Card Access for Apple
iOS
devices
The ClearSpot4G+ router also has a very valuable option for "idevices"
such as the
iphone/itouch/ipad which
have no way to easily access local files when
mobile especially image files from the memory card of your digital
camera. This router sports a microSD slot that offers these
locked
down apple pdas microSD memory card access without the need for a
computer to first read the card and then transfer the files. The
ClearSpot router provides network
access to any microSD as a "windows shared drive."
Accessing the router's microSD slot was no problem for the windows
computers on my network, but, as mentioned, apple's iOS devices such as
the ipad have no "native access" to any files anywhere. After
significant research where most of the available solutions required
"jailbreaking" the iOS device, I found the apple approved app Netportal
which appeared to be an ideal solution to allow access to the router's
SD card. The first attempts to get either the itouch or the ipad
connected to an SD card in the router were frustratingly unsuccessful.
So, I contacted NetPortal's tech support about my unsuccessful attempts
to connect to the router's SD slot including as much technical info as
possible observed during my connection attempts and immediately
received a comprehensive answer from NetPortal along with the news that
a update was due in the near future. That NetPortal update
appeared that evening... installed it and had instant access to all
files on the microSD card inserted into the ClearPoint's SD slot!
Hot
Tip! Use the configuration utility to turn off login and
password for SD card access. Assuming you have WEP enabled, the
SD
card is already behind a locked door.
Hot
Tip! Leave out the "\\" marks when setting up microSD card
access within NetPortal... the "computer name" entry in the connection
setup should contain only clearspot
microSD Flexibliity
The majority of digital
cameras, mobile phones and other devices "in the wild" use
"standard SD memory card slots." Hence, you might need to shift
gears to switch over to the use of microSD memory cards. It's not
hard to do so, since most microSDs sold at this time contain microSD to
"standard" SD card format adapters in the package with the memory card.
Slip a microSD card into one of these adapters and insert it into any
device that uses standard SD memory cards and the device won't know the
difference. The image shows the assortment that I normally cary
with me including the adapters and SD readers that covers almost any
computer, pda or other device where I need to use an SD card.
If you have sharp eyes, you may have noticed that the card capacity of
the cards in the image are 2Gig rather than the newer SDHC capacity
cards that go up to 8Gig for the micro's and 16Gig or larger for the
standard SD card formats. Therein waits a "gotcha!"
Since SDHC is a new format, older cameras, phones, computers, readers
and other devices can't read SDHC format cards. So, unless you
have specific needs to exceed 2Gig per card, using those or smaller
capacity cards will inprove your flexibility as you move between
diverse devices. In this case, the Clear router specs indicate
that the SD slot on the router is SDHC compatible.
To
Return to Bev and Rebecca's Home Page, Click
Here.
>> shirt
pocket sized... <<
One safety note... Since this device is a multiple frequencey RF
transmitter, the transmitter emissions make carrying it in any pocket
while the unit is in operation unwise. In fact, the manual
advises;
"RF Exposure – The Device is authorized
for use solely in a mobile application. At least 20
cm (i.e., 8 inches) of distance separating the Device from the user's
body must be
maintained at all times. "