Novatel Ovation U720 USB720 Rev A and Mac OS X Compatibility

Michael · Last edited by Michael on Mon Sep 03, 2007 2:04 pm; edited 9 times in total

This thread will discuss if the Novatel Merlin U720 EVDO Rev A USB Modem is compatible with Macs on Sprint.

We should be getting one as soon as they are shipping and we will do testing and report to this thread.

The big question if Mac OS X 10.4.7 will recognize the S720 (or 10.4.8, that was just released)

Keep in mind, the U720 is a USB device and will work with and PowerBook, MacBook, MacBook Pro, G4, G5, Desktop, iMac, iBook, and any Mac.

We will have to see if Sprint, Apple, or Novatel will provide software to make this work.

Update -Don't want to read all the messages in this thread. Quick Answer.... Yes, they do work. When ordering via 3Gstore.com, just select 'Mac Pre-Activate' and your U720 will come ready to use along with a CD with software and FREE telephone support.

Read our U720 Review on EVDOinfo.com
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Feefer · EVDO User Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 71

And a comment on compatibility with the Kyocera KR1 would be nice, too... Wink

Chris

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 1969

Hmm... Novatel had a press release today about 3 products and no mention of the u720. Could it be delayed? Well delayed may not be right term as there was never an announced date, just rumblings of Oct 1.

http://investor.novatelwireless.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=212948

christof · EVDO Newbie Joined: 29 Oct 2006 Posts: 1

Michael · Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 9:23 am Post subject:

During our initial testing of the Novatel U720 and Macs, we had great success, it actually worked, not all the bells and whistles, but it worked.

One of our tech guys was helping a Sprint employee getting his U720 to work and he couldn't get it to work. We tried 2 different MacBook Pros here in the office and it worked (with minimal setup/configuration). After spending a lot of time, and NOT getting it to work for the Sprint employee, we reformatted our hard drives and tried again.

After formatting our hard drives, the Novatel U720 was no longer recognized in the MacBook, nothing we could do would get it to work.

Then one of our tech guys had a theory. Since, we support both Verizon and Sprint, he guessed that Verizon's VZAccess (which does support Macs), was some how allowing the Sprint U720 to work. Sure enough, after installing VZAccess on our MacBook Pro, then the sure enough, the U720 was recognized in System Preferences -> Network and we were able to manually configure and connect to Sprint Mobile Broadband. BUT, if we didn't install Verizon VZAccess, it wouldn't work.

We are working very hard to try to get the U720 working with Macs, but since Sprint doesn't offer a Sprint Connection Manager for Macs and currently 10.4.8 doesn' offer native support - it isn't going to work.

Since Apple does support some older Sprint cards in 10.4.7-10.4.8, we are hoping that Apple will come through and add support for the U720 natively to Mac.

If you placed an order for a U720 through us and you are planning on using it strictly on a Mac, we can either hold your order for a few days (to see if we can get things working), OR cancel your order, just let us know. Our tech guys are working on a few avenues to try to get it working.

As soon as more information on this topic is available, we will post it to this thread.
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jameschho · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 13

Could we look at what drivers the OS is using when the U720 is inserted on a MBP with VZAccess installed and then go extract those drivers from the VZAccess software and install them manually? Shouldn't be too hard just extract the correct kernel extensions and add them to the non-verizon MBP.

I downloaded a copy of VZAccess for the mac and opened the pkg in pacifist. It installs the SMSIWirelessUSB.kext extension package into /System/Library/Extentions which should be the divers for wireless cards. Can someone who actually has a U720 verify this or try extracting the kernel extension, manually installing and testing?

Michael · Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 8:35 pm Post subject:

I can confirm that installing that driver is indeed the "missing link" and it allows the U720 to be recognized as a network port and the ability to configure and dial out on it.
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Michael · Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 8:59 pm Post subject:

We received the following email from a customer:

jpete20024 · EVDO Newbie Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Posts: 3

Can someone confirm or deny that the U720 will work with Boot Camp on a MacBook Pro.

Michael · Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 9:15 pm Post subject:

Confirmed, I have tried on the first rev MacBook Pro and the latest ones and they work fine.

A Sprint Ovation U720 works great under BootCamp on a MacBook Pro, because Sprint supplies Windows XP drivers.

Since there are currently no drivers for the U720 for Mac from Sprint, I was able to use Parallels, install the Windows U720 drivers and use the U720 under Parallels. However as soon as the Verizon drivers were installed, it would grab the U720 and then Parallels wouldn't be able to access the U720, because it was busy.
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jameschho · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 13

To download the VZAccess software all you need is a valid verizon wireless phone number and download from this location:

http://vzw.smithmicro.com/download/

I'm thinking most of us know at least one person in our phonebooks who has verizon. Wink

Piggy · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 22 Oct 2006 Posts: 22

Piggy · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 22 Oct 2006 Posts: 22

opg4759 · EVDO User Joined: 06 Dec 2006 Posts: 36

I also downloaded 3.0.1 and I haven't been able to get it to update to 3.1.2

Piggy · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 22 Oct 2006 Posts: 22

Glad (?) it's not just me. I don't have a WWAN device. Do you?