AT&T MiFi update allows media streaming without 3G

If you have a Novatel 2372 MiFi from AT&T, you just got a pretty big feature boost with the latest maintenance release for your device. Once you’ve downloaded and installed it, your MiFi will support DLNA, which allows you to stream media from the MiFi to another compatible device. This means streaming video to your television, or audio from your computer to your media player is easy, even if you don’t have AT&T service at the moment.

DLNA is something of the dark horse of streaming services. Most smartphones, HDTVs, and even receivers and stereo systems support DLNA, but in order to make use of it, you have to have devices that know how to stream media over it. The latest firmware update for the Novatel 2372 brings DLNA server capabilities to the device, so now you can stream media on its SD card to any DLNA-compatible device.

All of this really means that AT&T’s latest update for the 2372 gives the device some media serving features. You can pop in an SD card populated with video or music, and you can stream that media to your HDTV, your desktop or laptop, your mobile phone, or any other DLNA-enabled device on the same network as the MiFi, and you don’t need 3G to do it. The 2372 will continue to serve as a router even if 3G service isn’t available, and as long as devices are connected to it, it’ll stream your media across the network.

This can be specifically useful if you have an SD card with photos on it and a laptop that doesn’t have an SD slot, for example. Alternatively, you can use this to get music from an SD card that’s on your friend’s phone to your phone easily. The update also includes a new MiFi OS web interface which makes it easy to manage the device’s features and get started with DLNA without having to read up on the topic first.