For six years now, I’ve used a mobile device for my video and film watching life. I love watching movies to death, and I’ll spend a great deal of time with my iPad in café or restaurant, streaming video to no end. But my main problem has always been the weak reception of my 3G; it’s clear that 3G isn’t your best option for playing smooth, high quality video. Therefore I went after personal Wi-Fi devices. My first few tries ended up with failure—some units I tried weren’t much better than my iPad’s 3G. My next test came when a friend suggested the Verizon hotspot device, the MiFi. The moment I used the Mi-Fi hotspot, a miracle happened! I managed to watch Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest without any glitches or interruptions on Netflix. Then I launched Hulu to watch Masculin Féminin from Jean-Luc Godard. That evening, I ended of having three sandwiches, six cups of coffee, and watching four movies!
Soon, I came up with a brilliant idea! I gave away my iPad 3G as a gift to my girlfriend and I got myself an iPad 2, with Wi-Fi, of course. Though it wasn’t a personal special occasion, I decided to have a belated birthday celebration for John Landis, a favorite filmmaker of mine. So, I threw a party and invited my tablet-owning friends and we all went, iPads and Android tablets in-tow, to my favorite restaurant (its walls are decorated with all sorts of great, old movie posters, including nostalgic images like James Dean in Giant). We ordered coffee and cakes, and we put Verizon’s MiFi on the table. Once all of our tablets were connected, I queued up Coming to America and Trading Places.
The stars of the night of were Eddie Murphy and MiFi. I can throw specifications and numbers at you, but my experience can be summed up in a more direct manner. My friends and I made terrific use of Verizon’s MiFi, and the proof is definitely in the pudding! The performance of the MiFi is leaps and bounds ahead of many of the other units I’ve had experience with. To challenge Verizon’s MiFi further, I took the device with me on numerous travels. I tested MiFi in places where reception was sub-par, but I was still able to play a movie on my iPad without any hiccups. I even got my online-multiplayer gaming going on occasion; another task the MiFi performed handily.
Verizon’s MiFi is a very small device that can be charged overnight, and its battery will get you over four hours of continuous use before you will need to plug it in (and with both USB and A/C charging options, it shouldn’t be hard to find juice for the MiFi). Also, up to five devices can be connected at once!
If you are a movie fan and you want to use your tablet or smartphone to watch videos and films online, Verizon‘s MiFi offers the best solution currently on the market.
