Nova media has unveiled the iCON 461, a new 3G surfstick for Mac OS X made by the Belgium company, Option. The modem sports GPS support.

The iCON 461 is neither SIM locked nor netlocked and can be used in most 2G and 3G networks around the globe out of the box. It features a MicroSD card slot compatible to SDHC cards with up to 32GB memory. The retractable USB connector makes for convenient storage and use and is placed off centered to allow access to other USB ports, say jan Fuellemann, PR spokesperson at nova media.

The iCON 461 comes with launch2net Premium, a 3G connection manager for Mac OS X. The software features a SMS text message manager, statistics, a GPS control panel and the ability to share a 3G connection with other Macs and devices.

Launch2net Premium includes connection settings for most mobile network providers worldwide to avoid a cumbersome manual configuration, says Fuellemann. For cross-platform usage, the iCON 461 comes with a connection manager for Windows operating systems already stored on the device.

On the technical side the iCON 461 is working in the 850/900/1900/2100 MHz frequency ranges and supports HSPA with download speeds up to 7.2 Mbit/second and upload speeds up to 5.76 Mbit/second. 2G EDGE and GPRS connections are supported in the 850/900/1800/1900 MHz frequency ranges with up to 220 kbit/s download speeds and up to 120 kbit/s upload speeds. Antenna diversity is supported on all bands.

The iCON 461 is available today from nova media (http://www.novamedia.de) for approximately US$256 (including sales tax). It requires an Intel Mac running Mac OS X 10.5.8 or higher.