Image by Old Shoe Woman via Flickr

A few weeks ago I ordered the Verizon MiFi—a wireless hotspot that allows 5 users to connect to it—for my iPad and other computers. I’ve been meaning to report on my experiences with it but am just getting around to it.

First off—my reasoning for choosing the MiFi rather than the 3G iPad, Sprint’s similar service or jail breaking my iPhone and using it to tether the iPhone’s 3G signal to my iPad.

I expected that I’d be using my iPad in 2 situations where I wouldn’t have wifi access: 1) while traveling and at conferences and 2) in my house in places where out wireless signal doesn’t reach.

First, traveling and conferences. I’ve noticed at conferences, many of which seem to be held larger metro areas in basements of large hotel chains like the Hilton, that iPhone users like myself have difficulty getting a signal while Blackberry users have no problem getting a Verizon signal. This is likely due to AT&T’s notorious problem of having network issues in larger cities. In larger metropolitan areas, I frequently experience weak signals and dropped calls, while in Rochester, that rarely happens. Accordingly, this is an issue that I only experience with my iPhone when traveling and access to Verizon’s network would solve this problem.

Second, the wireless signal in our house emanates from the basement. We have a 3 story home, including the finished basement, and wireless signals rarely travel well through floors. Thus, I have problems getting a signal on the top floor of our house.

Rather than reconfigure the wireless network in our house and having to shell out money to the cable company to install new cable access points, I figured it made more sense to buy a Verizon MiFi, since that would solve both my home wireless issue and my travel 3G access issue.

A 3G iPad wouldn’t work since I’d be still be stuck with AT&T’s wireless network, Sprint’s network is not nearly as reliable as Verizon’s, and jail breaking wasn’t something I wanted to do at this point—and I’d still be stuck with AT&T’s network, in any event.

So, when I learned (and blogged) that the Verizon MiFi was just 1 cent at Amazon with a 2 year contract (vs. the normal online price of ~$60) I jumped at the chance to buy it.

It was delivered quickly and was much smaller than I’d expected. I did, however, encounter some issues activating it. I was able to install the activation software on my Macbook, but when I attempted to connect the MiFi to the Internet to activate it, I was unsuccessful and kept encountering the same error message.

After doing some online research, I noticed that a lot of people using Macbooks, Macbook Pros and Macbook Airs had similar issues. So, I decided to use my iMac instead, and it activated without a hitch. Once activated, there’s no need to use the computer again, since you can simply access it using its wifi signal.

Now that’s it’s activated, it works great. The only downside to not being able to access it via a wired connection is that I can’t check my usage information to ensure that I’m not going over my monthly limit. I figure if I think I’m close, I can always walk a few extra hundred feet and connect it to my iMac or just call Verizon.

My only tip is to make sure that both the power light and the wireless signal light are both illuminated when activating it and when trying to use it once activated. The manual isn’t very clear on the locations of both lights (or that two different lights exist), and for a while, I was trying to activate it when it was powered up, but wasn’t emitting a wireless signal.

If you’d like to comment on this post, you can do so on at the Legal iPad Facebook page.

Image by William Hook via Flickr

Since upgrading to the iPhone 4S, I’ve encountered a number of problems with the messaging functions of the phone. And, I’m not the only one. A number of my friends have encountered similar issues, as have many others, judging from the results of a Google search for “iPhone 4S texting issues” or “iMessage issues.”

I thought I’d post about the issues I was having and let you now what I did to address the issue, simply for posterity’s sake, if nothing else, since it seems the issue is memorialized primarily in online forums versus blogs or other mainstream sites.

The main problem that I encountered was that I simply wasn’t receiving texts that were being sent to me. After much research and confusion, I determined that it only occurred when receiving texts from other iPhone users and appeared to have something to do with the new iMessage feature.

If you’re not already aware, iMessage is the new messaging system rolled out with the new iPhone operating system IOS 5.  iMessage allows IOS 5 users to send messages to other IOS 5 users across all devices,  including iPods, iPhones, and iPads. Unfortunately, it’s a bit buggy at this point.

Some people, like me, have had issues receiving messages. Other have had issues with the group messaging function.  I’m still unsure whether the issue is related to the IOS 5 operating system, my carrier (AT&T), or is limited to iPhone 4S users. In any event, thus far, the only solution for me is to simply turn iMessage off. Since I pay for unlimited texting and am grandfathered in to the unlimited data plan, the fact that I can’t use iMessage isn’t an issue for me.

But for others, iMessage offers a way to get around the text limit caps and data limit caps when sending multimedia messages via text. Unfortunately, that benefit is lost if iMessage can’t be used due to its inherent unreliability. Hopefully Apple fixes this annoying issue soon. Let me know over at the Legal iPad Facebook page if you’ve had similar issues and if so, if and how you fixed them.

Nicole Black is a Rochester, New York attorney and GigaOM Pro Analyst. She co-authors the ABA book Social Media for Lawyers: the Next Frontier, co-authors Criminal Law in New York, a West-Thomson treatise, and is currently writing a book about cloud computing for lawyers that will be published by the ABA in late 2011. She is the founder of lawtechTalk.com and speaks regularly at conferences regarding the intersection of law and technology. She publishes four legal blogs and can be reached at nblack@nicoleblackesq.com.