You don’t actually need an Expresscard/34

There’s a great review over at Barefeats.com of Verizon’s new mobile broadband card (you know — the one that actually fits in the Macbook Pro’s Expresscard/34 slot). But the more interesting bit is that using a USB cable and a Motorola Razr phone, they were able to achieve the same broadband performance. You still need a special $60 a month broadband account from Verizon Wireless, you just don’t need the card:

“The broadband cell phone scenario works on any Mac, old or new, that runs OS X. It was the flexibility of the RAZR phone that convinced me to return the ExpressCard and transfer to the broadband account to the phone. I like the versatility of being able to use it on any Mac. And, by the way, there was no dowload/upload speed difference between using the RAZR phone versus the ExpressCard. Both achieved virtually identical download and upload speeds.

I’m not saying the ExpressCard is a bad idea or bad product. If your only goal is to have your MacBook Pro “surf the net from anywhere in my city” solution, it’s a sweet setup. Ditto for the CardBus wireless broadband card for the PowerBook.”

Good to know.