How To: Install a 3G USB modem on EeePC
I’ve spent the last 3 days hacking around on my Asus EeePC 701 trying to find information on how to install my USB 3G modem, Vodafone 3G to be precise, on it. I was directed to a number of different websites prompting me to download a load of different drivers and all sorts of other stuff the the EeePC.
As it turns out it is really simple, and takes about a minute.
Here’s how (it’d be useful for you to turn on your Asus EeePC now);
- On the ‘Internet’ tab open up the ‘Network’ icon, this will take you to Network Connections
- Click on ‘Create’ to start a new connection
- Select the type of connection, for the 3G USB modem select GSM / 3G (UMTS) / HSDPA, click ‘Next’
- Select Hardware, huawei E-220 /dev/ttyUSB0 and plug the modem into the first (closest to front) USB slot and click ‘Next’
- Network Registration, click on ‘Search’ to find the modem and 3G service. Once you get the list select your provider by clicking on their name and click ‘Next’
- Login Data, select the operator location you’re in, ie. Australia - Vodafone, then click ‘Next’
- Name your connection, ie. Vodafone 3G, and click ‘Next’
- You can now choose for this connection to start at system start, and also when you finish the wizard. It’s up to you but I prefer to start mine manually. Click ‘Finish’ and you’re done
In your Network Connections list you should now have your new 3G USB Modem connection, right click on it and select Connect and after a short period of connection time you will have yourself a 3G USB Modem connection. Go browse the internet, download some emails, chat, etc.
Hopefully your install goes as smoothly as mine did.
iPhone 2.0, my take on it all
Well Steve Jobs’ famous WWDC keynote address is all over and done with for another year, you can watch it here, and the new big product launched from it is the iPhone 2.0. I’m not going to bore you with all the details of the iPhone itself, by now I’m sure you know enough about it, but I will talk a little about the changes that have been made to the way it works and why I think Apple have made those changes.
There have been rumblings around the internet ever since Steve’s announcement of the new features / changes made to the iPhone, some of these whines have been about the lack of a video camera, the lack of MMS messaging, and still only having a 2mp camera. wah wah wah.
Is it a mixup in the Apple development team that these things haven’t been implemented, or has it in fact been deliberate?
In my opinion I think Apple has deliberately left those things out in order to focus wholly and solely on making the iPhone 2.0 an actual Blackberry killer. Why would they want to compete, it’s simple, so they can get a larger presence in the 9-5 business world and expose more and more IT departments to Apple products to show them that the Apple is actually capable of being a business product.
There’s an awful lot of Windows machines being sold every day of the week, cant say I blame Apple for wanting to get in on that action.
So what will make the iPhone competitive against the Blackberry.
- Push Email - Blackberry has had it for years, and it just plain and simple works. No one wants to waste time connecting their handset to the internet and then having to read their emails online via crappy webmail, you want your email sent to you as if you were sitting in front of your computers email app. The Applie iPhone 2.0 now has this.
- Push Contacts - If you’ve been a Blackberry user in the corporate world chances are your company has an exchange server and connects to your Blackberry and sends through updates and changes to your contacts, if you’re like me and have a Blackberry that isn’t connected to an exchange server you have to do this yourself, it’s a pain! The Apple iPhone, along with the new MobileMe web service (mac.com replacement), has this and to go one step further you can sync it all across multiple Macs as well, ie. home, office, iPhone
- Push Calendar - Basically the same as the Push Contacts, but with a calendar. If Cath and I both have iPhones we don’t have to muck around syncing calendars with each other, it’ll just get done through our MobileMe account.
A quote from Steve Jobs himself, “Think of MobileMe as ‘Exchange for the rest of us,’” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Now users who are not part of an enterprise that runs Exchange can get the same push email, push calendars and push contacts that the big guys get.”
These couple of advancements make the iPhone a hell of a lot more competitive in the corporate world, there is a lot of money to be made in the corporate world and it wont surprise me to see a lot more Apple Macs being sold into this world.
Meanwhile I just pre-ordered mine from Optus, I believe Vodaphone are about to start taking pre-orders as well…….rumour has it Telstra will be making an announcement in the coming days.
Apple WWDC Rumours
Here’s my 2 cents on the rumours that are floating all round the web at the moment, chances are I’m going to be so far away from what actually gets announced by Steve Jobs on the Monday 9th, Tuesday 10th Australian time, but hey I’ll take a stab in the dark anyway.
Mac Tablet (iTablet or iTouch) - Apple have already proved that they have an extremely solid and stable operating system in OSX, and they have one of the best touch screens on the market in the iPhone, what happens when you combine the two. Mac Tablet. Mac Tablet is the sort of product you would have around your house, build it into appliances like your fridge, stick a TV tuner in it and mount it to a wall wherever you want a computer and a TV, the possibilities are actually endless.
iTunes TV (Australia) - We’re about to see the first Apple store open in Australia, in Sydney to be precise, and I think this might coincide with a number of big things for Apple lovers in Australia. Apart from the obvious, aka. the iPhone, I think we’ll see the expansion of the services available to us via the iTunes store.
Currently available only in the US, Canada and UK, Apple you can buy / rent movies and television shows from the iTunes store. This service has been missing in Australia and I think we might just be ready for this with the imminent launch of the iPhone and the potential content service sales that will come from that.
..and last but not least, and probably a foregone conclusion..
iPhone 2.0 - Yep, we’re going to see a new iPhone, and yep it’s going to be available in Australia via Optus and Vodaphone, and yep we will see it some time in the month of June. Spec wise I think it will be very similar to the current version, except for 3 big differences;
- 3G network capability
- Built in GPS
- Push Email (same as Blackberry)
What are your thoughts, am I way off track?
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