ExpressCard-equipped laptop owners who have been patiently waiting to add cellular broadband to their rigs have finally been rewarded in the form of Dell's Wireless 5700 card, which will reportedly be available by the end of the week. Using Verizon's high-speed EV-DO network, the card -- which is a rebranded version of Novatel's Merlin XV620 -- offers theoretical speeds of up to 2.4Mbps, but in reality you should see somewhere between 500Kbps and 1Mbps -- still fast enough for most of your mobile browsing, gaming, and VoIP needs. Unfortunately for the Apple faithful, while the card will work in any Windows laptop with the proper slot, MacBook Pros won't be able to take advantage of 3G until the proper drivers are released. The Dell Wireless 5700 Mobile Broadband ExpressCard will sell for $179 -- which includes one free month of EV-DO service -- but after you get hooked, you'll have to shell out either $80 per month or $60 if you have a voice plan.

Update: Great news for Macheads. It seems that the just-released 10.4.7 update to OS X includes the necessary drivers to support this device, so start breaking out those credit cards, MacBook Pro owners.

HP is set to release some business laptops later this year with integrated UMTS/HSDPA technology for global wireless internet connectivity. Of course, HP's not the first manufacturer to offer laptops with HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), but it is a further indication that the technology is becoming more mainstream --after all, Ethernet and WiFi were once only available as add-ons.  With the new laptops, users will be able to access networks like Cingular's BroadbandConnect and EDGE in the US as well as UMTS networks overseas. Still no word on actual specs on the laptops otherwise, or an exact release date.