The Misery that's the 'Free Hotel Wi-Fi'

I'm back from my weekend trip to LA and it was a very picturesque drive back and forth. I had my MacBook Air, iPad and iPhone 4 with me along the way. The Virgin Mobile Mi-Fi gave me internet connectivity on the wi-fi only iPad. It was the first time I've really used the Mi-Fi since getting it last week and I was pleasantly surprised. In most instances it worked better and had faster speeds than the 'Free wi-fi' in the hotels I stayed at. Which brings me to the main point of this post.

Virgin Mobile Broadband MiFi: Initial Thoughts

The last time I went on a road trip was in August this year. Through Northern California and up the Oregon Coast to Washington State. It was a fun 10-day trip. Before setting out I had contemplated getting a MiFi device to be able to connect to the internet on my Wi-Fi only iPad while on the road. The thought of activating AT&T's iPhone 4 Tethering service had also crossed my mind but the fact that I would lose my unlimited data plan for doing so had crushed those plans. Back in August I decided to wait till the holiday season to get a mobile broadband device and to be honest it was a pretty good decision because the road trip was fun as there was lots to see along the way and the motels/hotels we stayed at had decent internet services. So I hardly missed being able to get online at the time.

Now, this coming weekend I have a trip planned to Los Angeles