Macbook Air Internal EVDO Broadband Card Mod

Sastira writes "Jordan Bunnell has successfully modded his Macbook Air to use an internal EVDO Broadband card. In order to make everything fit, he had to sacrifice the WiFi and bluetooth cards, but considering the portable nature of the laptop, it is a small price to pay for being truly wireless." (You'll need to scroll down past the sketchy-looking top section of that page.) Sastira also links to this InsanelyMac forum thread on the mod.

My external EVD0 card is portable, too.

Uh, my EVD0 USB dongle from Sprint is about 2.5 inches long, and weighs 2.01 ounces. I carry my MacBook around all of the time with it attached and in use. I sure wouldn't give up WiFi and Bluetooth to put it inside.

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Pardon me for being an ignorant T-Mobile user... can't you just tether to your phone with Bluetooth? I find it unlikely that someone with an Air would lack a cell phone with Bluetooth...

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I would imagine that MBA owners would be somewhat likely to own an iPhone.

iPhone, for some inexcusable reason, can't tether via bluetooth.

nore would you want to live with the dialup speed the current iphone gets..

without 3g support the net connection on the iphone is pointless

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Yeah but you can use wifi to setup a network between your iPhone and computer, and get on the internet on your computer using EDGE.

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Two problems with that theory:

1. You can hack the iPhone to tether. If you are willing to crack the Air open and jury rig it for EVDO, you are probably willing to hack your iPhone.
2. iPhone is AT&T (or hacked for T-Mobile) and won't work with EVDO. If

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my EVD0 USB dongle from Sprint is about 2.5 inches long, and weighs 2.01 ounces

You should peel off the sticker and get it down to two ounces even! :-)

Drop WiFi?

In order to make everything fit, he had to sacrifice the WiFi and bluetooth cards, but considering the portable nature of the laptop, it is a small price to pay for being truly wireless

Losing bluetooth is OK perhaps, but losing Wireless is far too big of a price to pay. Even the best connection via Verizon is slow, relative to wireless. Too bad

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The summary suggests that he removed two cards, but Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are on the same card in a MacBook Air. It's all or nothing.

Bluetooth tethered phone?

I have a Macbook Air and I solved this problem by tethering my Palm 700wx via bluetooth to my MBA. No hacking, no sacrifices (WiFi and Bluetooth still intact).

Apart from the fun of moding - why would anyone else do this?

-ted

Why?

Q: Why would you pay a premium for something with limited functionality, then risk destroying it to swap in a different feature, when you could have had all those features for less money?

You're not worthy

If apple wanted you to have verizon access... they would have built it in. If it's not there, you don't need it.

Besides, if you want a computer that you can modify then you don't deserve to own a Macintosh.

Nothing to see here. Go back to your boring gray PC please.

Nice.

Sacrifice wi-fi? Isn't it already missing an ethernet port? Nice way to make it worthless in an office, or even a home LAN for that matter.

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So buy a replacement battery online, unscrew the 6 screws in the bottom of the laptop, and pull out the old battery, and plug in the new one.

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So when the internal, non user-replaceable battery dies on this laptop, which it will, I get the feeling Apple might not be too happy about replacing it...

Yyyyyeah. If you're okay with killing your bluetooth and wifi in order to get internal EVDO, I have a feeling you're going to be okay replacing the battery yourself [slashdot.org].

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I wouldn't worry about the battery so much. This person clearly has the chops for opening up the case and replacing the battery, a task that only takes a screwdriver [appleinsider.com] and a few minutes' time [appleinsider.com], since the battery isn't soldered in. Even if it was soldered,

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Lets call it truly wireless when no cords, including power cords, come in the box, or are required, ever.

I also look forward to the day that batteries charge themselves through magic.

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Clearly the OP wants some sort of nuclear powered laptop.

Of all of the laptops on the market, the Air is really the closest to his vision. The only cord you need is a power cord.

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I'm sorry but how is that different from my laptop which only needs a power cord? I have wifi and bluetooth built in. How is the Air closer to "truly wireless?"

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induction.. they are already starting to do it in japan for cell phones and ipods.. without much effort they could do it with laptops

it isn't magic it is science

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No magic required...

they're working on it. [geek.com]

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I also look forward to the day that batteries charge themselves through magic.

Someone hasn't been paying to recent technological developments...

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-01/electricity-air [popsci.com]

The key to wireless power is resonance. Think of a

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Someone hasn't been paying to recent technological developments...

Nope, I was just being a sarcastic asshole.

Re:I didn't catch anything about the antenna tunin

Yeah, at the end of the article he talked about how the performance wasn't as good as what he was getting with the card normally, especially with uploads.

IMHO, the loss of 802.11 was too much. The Air is built around the 802.11 support.

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Guess he should've got the Sprint plan instead.

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No. No MiniPCI nor PCI-X. No room for the cards either. His USB EDVO was smaller than a PCI-X card, and he used a dremel to saw open more space.