Next-Gen MiFis Stream Videos and Music to iPhone and iPod Touch

Officially, the big news from Novatel today was a new cloud-based storage service for its MiFi mobile hotspots called NovaDrive. Powered by NomaDesk, for $50 per year customers turn their MiFi into a personal file server with unlimited capacity. But the coolest thing we saw from Novatel was a sneak peek of media streaming capability coming soon to the latest MiFi models, like the GSM-enabled 2372 (unlocked only for now) and whatever comes next.

Using an app like PlugPlayer available in the iTunes App Store, you can stream content from the device to an iPod touch or iPhone over Wi-Fi, thanks to DLNA technology. As you’ll see in the video, the interface is crude but the streaming part works pretty well. Now imagine a carrier rolling out a content parter as a way to deliver movies and other goodies to your laptop, smart phone or other device–no iTunes walled garden required. Pretty intriguing possibilities here.