Sprint (Re) Supports Mac with Aircards

Sprint today announced that they were expanding Mac support with official support for the Sierra AirCard 595 on Macintosh computers. The AirCard 595 is Sprint’s first EV-DO Rev A aircard. However, it is a PC Card, and is not compatible with any currently-shipping Mac (MacBook Pro units use ExpressCard). In order to gain official support, users must be using an older PowerBook G4 15-inch or 17-inch laptop.

But, this may be non-news. Apple announced that Mac OS X 10.4.8 included full support for Sprint aircards as a part of an update to its EV-DO (formerly Verizon) Broadband Support. Sierra did announce that its own aircard monitor, Watcher Lite, has been released to augment support.

In between the confusing release of Mac support, largely aimed to gain publicity on the eve of Macworld Expo, users can find solutions for currently-shipping machines. The Novaltel U720 USB aircard does work with both Apple’s EV-DO Support as well as any current Mac. However, Mac users are still left out in the cold for activation. All Sprint EV-DO aircards must be first activated in a PC.

Sierra Wireless – Watcher Lite for Mac

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