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They probably thought, we can't put 3G in a MacBook before we but 3G in the iPhone! Plus, Jobs would never approve that antenna.

Now this is becoming less and less relevant with WiFi hotspots on phones.

Only problem is another $20 a month. These service charges begin to add up. As Everett Dirkson once said: "A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there - pretty soon you're talking real money"

Yeah, but I'm guessing back in 2007, Apple could have made it internal.
Or did internal antennas not exist in 2007? :rolleyes:

Don't need internal or external antenna. My first internet connection was a Verizon 3G (and later 4G LTE) modem. The modem key has it's own antenna. Unfortunately, the 4G LTE modem hook-up was so crappy I dumped it.

(Don't ask why I had the modems instead of a fast and reliable wireless router, as I have now. It was my first computer, I was even more ignorant than I am now, and I got suckered :eek: )
 
I suspect this was never released because a laptop generally requires faster than 3G speed. The benefit to the user wasn't strong enough. I'm willing to bet you'll see this across the laptop line when 4G LTE is more widespread.
 
I suspect this was never released because a laptop generally requires faster than 3G speed. The benefit to the user wasn't strong enough. I'm willing to bet you'll see this across the laptop line when 4G LTE is more widespread.

Perhaps in 2007, but now, 3G is "good enough" for using on a laptop depending on your location.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A5288d)

blackpond said:
I suspect this was never released because a laptop generally requires faster than 3G speed. The benefit to the user wasn't strong enough. I'm willing to bet you'll see this across the laptop line when 4G LTE is more widespread.

Requires faster than 3G? I can get 6Mbps on 3G, how much faster do your need?? My home dsl is only half that.
 
they decided the get rid of this 2007 prototype in favor of another prototype antenna that involved wrapping a strip of metal around the edge of the device.

;)
 
I'm guessing Steve Jobs took one look at that prototype, laughed at its appearance, and put an end to it. I don't think we'll ever see a Mac notebook with a SIM slot.
 
A big antenna is the only thing justifying integrating 3G.

It still should have ExpressCard.
 
Already been superseded by smartphone tethering.

A lot of folks around these parts seem to be missing this little factoid. Why would I want to shell out extra for a 2nd data plan and shell out extra for hardware I don't even need ? Everywhere I go that I might need "3G on the MBA", well, there is my trusty iPhone in my pocket to set it up for me.

I've had 3G on my Macs since I've had my iPhone 3GS.
 
Only problem is another $20 a month. These service charges begin to add up.
A lot of carriers do not charge extra for tethering (though a significant number of carriers do charge). But that is rather irrelevant since the SIM card in your MBP would also need a data plan. The question is thus whether two data plans for the same total amount of data cost less than one data plan + a tethering charge. And I don't think that question is a straightforward one to answer.
 
A lot of folks around these parts seem to be missing this little factoid. Why would I want to shell out extra for a 2nd data plan and shell out extra for hardware I don't even need ? Everywhere I go that I might need "3G on the MBA", well, there is my trusty iPhone in my pocket to set it up for me.

I've had 3G on my Macs since I've had my iPhone 3GS.

This. Although I'll wager that a lot of average users don't know about or understand tethering.
 
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