Rohdesign Weblog: Wi-Fi

Here you'll find all posts file under the Wi-Fi category.

November 28, 2008

iPod Touch: My New PDA: 1 Year Later

I've had my iPod Touch (16GB 1st generation) for a little over a year now and love it! Because I have WiFI at the house, at work and at most places I use my touch, the device works well for me.

Besides carrying my music, I really appreciate having access to the web via Safari, my email, Twitter, and RSS feeds, and many other native iPhone/iPod Touch apps available at the App Store.

Will an iPod Touch Fit Your Life?

It's important to know a few things about the iPod Touch, to see if it will work into your work/lifestyle:

WiFi Access Required — The iPod Touch depends on WiFi for network access, so you need to think about where you'll use the device. Do you have a WiFi network at home, work and most of the places you plan on using the Touch? If so, the Touch could work well for you (it does for me).

Web Surfing — One of the killer features of the iPod touch is mobile Safari, providing access to nearly any website on the net. I've even been able to do online banking securely in a pinch, using Safari. You should note that Flash is not supported in mobile Safari, though most sites I access, flash isn't even a critical consideration.

Outlook/Exchange Support — The latest 2.x version of OS on the Touch includes Microsoft Exchange support for calendars and email. If you're an Outlook user, the iPod Touch can be a nice tool for keeping track of your inbox and calendar.

RSS Reading — I'm a NetNewsWire user and love the native application for the iPod touch. It grabs my RSS feed when I launch it with WiFi access, allowing me to read my feeds wherever I am, whether I have WiFi access or not.

Twitter — If you use Twitter, the Touch is a great device for following and posting to your Twitter stream. You can do this with mobile Safari, or native applications like Twitterriffic, TwitterFon, Twinkle, Tweetsville and more in the Apple App Store.

Video On The Go — The iPod touch has a very nice wide screen for carrying videos along wherever you are. I have a young son, and it's invaluable to have a few cartoons and films on hand for him to watch on long car rides.

Google Maps — The Google Maps application for the Touch is another useful tool. Because I often don't have WiFi access on the road, I'll normally load up my map information ahead of time, so I can use the cached version of the map as I travel.

Music Streaming — I enjoy the various native apps for streaming music to the Touch, including Pandora, Last.fm and AOL Radio. With a WiFi connection, I have access to a wide variety of music. Be aware that this does drain the Touch's battery more quickly.

Those are just a few of the uses I've discovered for my iPod Touch. I'm sure for each person, there are uses and applications that suit them best.

Limitations & Downsides

I need to share the few limitations and downsides that an iPod Touch has, to offer a fair and balanced view of the device for good decision-making.

No Speaker (1st Generation) — This is only an issue on the 1st generation Touch devices. While I thought it would be a bigger deal, it hasn't been for me. In the car I have a tape player adapter to get sound, at work I have an iPod music system, I've picked up a mini speaker system or carry a pair of headphones. From time to time though, I have wished for a speaker to watch a video or play a tune.

No Hard Controls (1st Generation) — This is mostly a 1st generation issue as well, as the 2nd generation Touch devices have volume control buttons. Mainly this has been an issue for me in the car, where I wish for hard controls to jump between songs. What I've found is, I've adapted to this lack of hard controls by setting up my audio ahead of my drives/walks so changing isn't so necessary.

Dependent on WiFi — Having WiFI access to the net is wonderful, but when you don't have it, you notice. Generally I'm in WiFi range, but there have been a few occasions where I wished for 3G network access. Having constant network access might be one reason to go to an iPhone if that's critical for your use pattern.

Resources

You can check out articles I've written on why I chose the iPod touch as my new PDA, a Two-Week Update on the iPod touch, and reviews of several iPod Touch cases from Piel Frama and OtterBox for more information.

If you're in the market for a thin, useful web/mail/music/video tool, check out the 1st generation 16GB iPod Touch.

June 20, 2005

The Ubiquity of WiFi

WiFi This past weekend in Green Bay, Wisconsin, I became certain that WiFi is moving toward ubiquity in the US. Let me share my experiences and the reasons I see this coming.

My family and I were away from home Friday night and Saturday, attending a "Day Out with Thomas the Tank Engine" in Green Bay. We'd reserved a hotel room months prior so we could get to the event early and surprise our son Nathan with a day full hangin' with of his favorite train, Thomas.

In an effort to travel light, I opted to leave the Powerbook at home and instead took along the Dana Wireless, a Palm OS device with a built-in full size keyboard and a WiFi (802.11b) transceiver card. I wasn't sure what kind of WiFi reception I might find, but that was part of the adventure (at least for me).

We arrived and checked into the Excel Inn at "hotel row" near the Green Bay airport. This hotel surprised me. Why was I surprised? Well, because our circa 1978 hotel room, complete with late 70s decor, a non-functioning toilet, and uncomfortable bed — had free WiFi!

I was able to surf the web, check email and log into an IRC channel with the Dana, which was odd while sitting in such an unassuming, average room. Our toilet didn't work (though I managed to fix it later) but I had free WiFi. There was something odd, shocking and wonderful about that realization.

So we slept the night, woke, dressed and packed the van, then walked over to the Denny's restaurant just a few yards from our hotel. While enjoying our breakfast, I overheard a middle-aged man and his wife in the booth ahead of us, casually mentioning WiFi in their conversation. I'd have never paid any attention to their chatter, except for the frequent mentions of "WiFi" floating to my ears from their booth.

It was then I felt sure that WiFi would eventually become ubiquitous in the US.

Just the weekend before I signed up for T-Mobile WiFi service at a Starbucks in Madison, and used free WiFi at the Dunn Bros Coffee shop up the street from Starbucks — both of which were not out of place for a hip town like Madison. You'd expect WiFi all over in a college town, right?

But to receive free WiFi at a low-end hotel in Green Bay (where the toilet didn't work), and to hear a middle-aged couple casually discussing WiFi at breakfast — that seemed a little more unusual and encouraging. When something starts to pop up in average places, that to me is a huge signal it's moving toward the mainstream.

I'm not sure where the trend will lead; already many establishments are enabling WiFi as a value-added service. I can find WiFi at Panera Bread, Caribou Coffee, Starbucks, Stone Creek Coffee and also at McDonalds, Excel Inn and the local public library. It seems the pressure will continue to make WiFi more common and expected. Eventually I suspect it'll become so common as to be a free, rather than paid service.

As I continue to experience WiFi appearing in regular daily life, I'll note it and provide a follow-up report here on the blog. If you have unusual experiences with WiFi in regular, everyday circumstances or places, I'd love to read about them in the comments.

By the way, Nathan loved hangin' with Thomas. :-)

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March 23, 2004

JiWire for WiFi Info

Came across this handy website for WiFi users two weeks ago: JiWire. You can research all of the registered WiFi hotspots in your area or an area you might be going to. Enter the location in the search tool and you'll get a list — each listing has details on cost and a map of the location. There's even an AvantGo channel and WAP channel.

Hopefully this site will come in handy for WiFi travelers out there. :-)

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August 25, 2003

Monday WiFi Tidbits

Friday at lunch, I decided to meet my good friend (and unix admin) Jon for lunch, to see if we could access the City of Milwaukee's WiFi network in Pere Marquette park (mentioned in earlier posts: Milwaukee: Brats, Beer, Harleys and Wi-Fi Hotspots and Weekend Wi-Fi Tidbits) with a Palm Tungsten C.

Using NetChaser (a utility that scans for WiFi networks), we were successful finding the network itself. The network called 'MILWIFI' had a strong signal, accessible on the bridge just East of the park. We found a picnic table and enjoyed our lunches while trying to log into the WiFi access point. Using Handspring's Blazer, I had no success; I kept getting blank pages. When I switched back to the Tungsten C's built-in Web application the login page for the network came right up. Apparently this welcome page relied on JavaScript, which Blazer doesn't do.

However, after repeated attempts to click the 'accept' button, I kept getting a bad password error on the page. Not quite sure what the deal was, but I suspect the Tungsten C's web browser must have just not supported the right specs for the page. I'd guess the login page was designed with laptops, not handhelds in mind. At least not the Tungsten C. So, while we were successful in proving that the network was active, we couldn't make any use of it. Bummer!

My second tidbit comes from Lorenz Szabo, who forwarded a link to the eye-opening article Dispelling the Myth of Wireless Security by Rob Flickenger (author of the soon to be released Wireless Hacks). Seems that Rob was able to hack into an AirPort Extreme base station within 1.5 hours using a few WiFi utilities -- yes, that includes faking MAC addressing and cracking WEP encryption. Kinda wakes you up to how insecure stock WiFi equipment is. The upshot: don't rely on built in security, but rather, rely on application level security (PGP Mail encryption, Secure FTP, etc.) to protect sensitive information transfers.

Lastly, I should comment on all of the open WiFi networks I've encountered while driving or walking around with the Tungsten C and NetChaser. Craig Froehle has already commented on this at GearBits, listing some of the more interesting access point network names. The most common WiFi network name I've seen is 'linksys' followed closely by 'default'.

While the Rob Flickenger tidbit (above) clearly shows WiFi networks can be hacked relatively easily by high-level users, using MAC address filtering or WEP encryption will at least keep out casual the casual passer-by with a WiFi equipped device. That is unless you don't mind sharing your cable or DSL connection with the world. :-)

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August 14, 2003

WiFi Network for Under $50!

D-Link Wi-Fi Router Craig Froehle of Gearbits directed me to this little gem at eCost.com: a refurbished D-Link Wi-Fi Wireless Cable/DSL Router with 4 ethernet ports and firewall features for only $9.99 affter $50 in rebates (good through 8/31). Combine that with an $18 Adaptec Wi-Fi PC card for the PC and you've got a nice little wireless network goin' on for under $50! Schweeeet! :-)

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June 13, 2003

Weekend Wi-Fi Tidbits

Pere Marquette Park I thought I'd wrap up this week's postings with several Wi-Fi related tidbits I've been collecting here. These vary all over the map but do have the general theme of Wi-Fi.

First, my good friend and fellow Palm OS User Council Cohort, Michael Ashby recounts his frantic and mostly unsuccessful search for Wi-Fi hot pots at coffee houses in Nashville.

"With my day shot and my temper at the boiling point, I packed up and headed over to Bongo Java for one last test. I pulled up in front of their building and fired up my laptop and BOOM connected with no problem. ARGH! I finally had a connection and no time to use it. I had beaten my head against an invisible wall of Wi-Fi all afternoon and had nothing to show for it."

I was laughing out loud on this one because I could just see old "Mashby" getting steamier as the day wore on. I'd have loved to be trailing Mike with a video camera! The funniest sidenote is that Mashby found himself a great place today, so all is well in hi-tech Mashby-land. :-)

I too had a somewhat disappointing Wi-Fi experience at lunch today. A friend and I tried to locate the Wi-Fi access point at one of the downtown Milwaukee parks I'd mentioned on Tuesday. We first had bag lunches at Rainbow Summer (a great music series that runs at lunchtime all summer long) and then ventured to the park across the river to check on signal. From two spots in the park I found nothing, so I suspect that the Wi-Fi must not be installed or activated just yet. Bummer! Looks like I need to wait a while and try again later.

Lorenz Szabo alerted me to an excellent post on the web by Jeffery Belk on 3G Wireless vs. Wi-Fi. I just found a related article with rebuttal on Glenn Fleishman's website this evening (Glenn is a big Wi-Fi advocate). I need to scoop these both up with iSilo and read them tonight, but at first glance it looks quite good.

And to wrap it up for the evening, I came across some good primer articles if you're wondering what in the world this Wi-Fi or 3G stuff is all about. First is ZDNet Australia's Tech Guide: Wireless demystified. This one covers the basics of wireless technology and terminology in plain English. The second article is Computer World's Protecting Organizations From Prying Wi-Fi Crackers, detailing how businesses and individuals can protect their wireless networks. Good stuff.

Hey, have a great weekend everyone! :-)

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June 10, 2003

Milwaukee: Brats, Beer, Harleys and Wi-Fi Hotspots

How interesting! I just came across a little tidbit in our local Journal-Sentinel newspaper that the City of Milwaukee is planning to test out hosting two free Wi-Fi hotspots in two popular downtown parks. A great quote from the article:

"If you want to attract attention, and you want to be looked at by outsiders as a hip, happening place, then you need to put in some city-backed Wi-Fi,"

Pretty cool that the City of Milwaukee is applying technology access to help increase the many uses of the parks, especially by downtown workers who want to do a little surfing at lunchtime. However, there is some question as to leaving the networks up come the winter snows and cold. Further, this is only a test-run that lasts but a year. Finally, the speeds are limited to 128k, but still, for email or basic surfing that's pretty decent and limiting bandwidth is probably a wise move on the part of the City.

Looks like I'll have to do a little lunch run with the Powerbook one of these nice, warm summer days. :-)

If it works well, there's even a possibility that other Milwaukee County Parks will get Wi-Fi hotspots. Now that would be interesting. In case you didn't know, Milwaukee has an excellent county park system, established back in the 1940s and 50s. I'm always so grateful for forward thinking city planners who notched out many parks right in the city. Now, even though Milwaukee is a bustling city, it's still just only a few minutes from anywhere to a neighborhood park. I think that's something to be proud of as a Milwaukeean.

Note: If you've never heard of a Brat or Bratwurst, it's a sausage made with finely chopped, seasoned fresh pork. It is a mildly seasoned sausage, in which a person can taste more of a pork flavor. (courtesy of Johnsonville a popular Wisconsin Bratwurst maker).

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June 2, 2003

iPAQ h5450: Wi-Fi Use Causes 'Regular' Resets?

HP iPAQ h5450 I saw this review of the new iPAQ h5450 by Hahn Choi on TechTV's site (via Gizmodo) on Friday, and being interested in Wi-Fi technology and handhelds, I had a look. The HP iPAQ 5450 is a groundbreaking Pocket PC device (or Palm OS device for that matter) in that it's the the first with both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth both built-in.

While reading along, I came across a quote that nearly caused me to snort the coffee I was enjoying, out of my nose:

Having both wireless technologies, while fun, also presents some issues. With Wi-Fi, an insufficient driver memory error occurred on a regular basis. I was regularly performing soft resets in order to access the Wi-Fi capabilities. The h5450 clearly comes with memory management issues even with the latest ROM update.

Yikes! "I was regularly performing soft resets" doesn't sound like loads of fun to me! And the reviewer doesn't mention how often these resets occurred. Were they every 5 minutes? 15 minutes? 30 minutes? It seems odd that their regularity in terms of minutes or hours is not mentioned, which could either mean crashes maybe weren't that regular (every hour or two) or worse yet, it was really regular to the point of uselessness.

But think about this further -- the iPAQ doesn't have the longest battery life of the PDAs currently on the market, so I'd suspect a Wi-Fi session was maybe 2-4 hours, right? In that context, regularly in a 2-4 span to me means resets may have occurred every 15-30 minutes. Of course this is speculation, but it does make me wonder. What does regular really mean in this context?

Here are a few relevant definitions of regular from Dictionary.com:

Customary, usual, or normal: the train's regular schedule.
Occurring at fixed intervals; periodic: regular payments.
Occurring with normal or healthy frequency.
Not varying; constant.

How often resets occurred aside, the fact that regular resets are common makes the iPAQ h5450 pretty unattractive as a Wi-Fi device, especially if that's supposed to be one of the two or three biggest selling points of this $700 PDA. If I were considering this device for my own Wi-Fi use, I'd be packing it up for a return pretty quickly if I had to deal with regular resets.

Okay, so Palm made two big boo-boos with the mono headset jack and lack of Bluetooth support on the Tungsten C, but at least the device works without 'regular' crashes and lasts up to 8 hours on a single charge. That's my idea of a useable handheld with Wi-Fi built in. :-)

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April 29, 2003

Tungsten C Reviews Surface

The Pam Tungsten C has gained two very good in-depth reviews online.

First, we have a great in-depth review from Kenneth Rhee, a long time Sony Cli� user and contributor to his own Palm Corner column at MemoWare. Ken seems to really like the T|C, giving it a 4.8 of 5, with a 0.2% off mainly because of the mono headset jack and lack of built-in microphone.

The other review of note is by Judie Hughes at The Gadgeteer, an always a trusted source for hard-core, well-informed and unbiased reviews. Judie likes the T|C as well, calling the screen one of the best she's seen on a PDA. She also mentions the mono headset, lack of built-in mic and lacking support for Mac users.

I'm really quite excited about the Tungsten C and hope to check one out in person next week, as I travel out to the Palm Developer's Conference in San Francisco, CA. If I'm able to wrangle one and test it out, I'll be sure to post some kind of commentary or review of it here.

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April 24, 2003

Favorable First Impressions for Palm Tungsten C

Well, there have been a few first impressions on the Tungsten C out there -- one at bargainPDA.com and even a pretty decent newsbit and discussion at PocketPCThoughts.com of all places! However, I came across a much more interesting in-depth "preview" of the Tungsten C by Erik Ruggels at ruggels.com. Very nice work Erik!

It's a good sign when the Tungsten C is making very favorable first impressions -- good for both Palm and Wi-Fi lovers! :-)

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April 23, 2003

Palm Tungsten C: Perfect Timing for a Wi-Fi Handheld

Today Palm, Inc. has announced the new Tungsten C and Zire 71. While I think the $300 Zire 71 is a solid handheld with many features that will give the Sony Clie SJ33 a run for its money, I'm even more excited about the $500 Tungsten C because it further emphasizes Wi-Fi networks.

Just imagine a small, handheld device with built-in Wi-Fi -- the Tungsten C has the potential to work as the perfect device for anyone working in a Wi-Fi environment at their business, school or at home. The Tungsten C comes with a proxy-less web browser (for direct web browsing) and the VersaMail email client (though I think SnapperMail is a better choice for email), VPN (Virtual Private Network) capabilities for secure, private connections over the net and even Colligo Meeting for scheduling group meetings over Wi-Fi.

What really amazes me is the battery life of the Tungsten C, considering it's running a 400MHz ARM chip. Palm claims "An internal rechargeable 1500mAh battery provides a full work day of consistent Wi-Fi connectivity, or a full work week of normal handheld use." -- not bad at all! Of course, as real-world users test the C, we'll see if that's an optimistic or realistic estimate.

The one drawback with the Tungsten C is the lack of Bluetooth, which makes the device much less useful for mobile wireless access via a Bluetooth phone when not around a Wi-Fi network (maybe there was no room inside the case). A Bluetooth SD card can be used, but built-in is better -- especially if you need the SD slot for storing data. Hopefully built-in Bluetooth can be added to the next version of the Tungsten C.

I see the Tungsten C as the perfect Wi-Fi device when a laptop is too much to haul around, yet you want to check email, surf the web or performing network operations wirelessly. Hopefully it'll do well and further strengthen Wi-Fi as a mainstream thing.

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April 22, 2003

BusinessWeek's Wi-Fi Special Edition

Just stumbled across an excellent special section on Wi-Fi over at BusinessWeek magazine online, with several very interesting articles on the Wi-Fi revolution as it relates to business.

Articles include an interview with Nicholas Negroponte (former director of MIT's Media Lab) and another article on going wireless called A Year of Living Wirelessly, among others. It's encouraging to see a mainstream publication like BusinessWeek covering Wi-Fi so thoroughly, since to me it further indicates Wi-Fi gaining critical mass and becoming more commonplace in daily life.

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April 17, 2003

Microsoft Smart Display = Apple iScreen?

Smart Screen I've just learned today (thanks to Craig!) that Microsoft has already created a spec for with a Wi-Fi wireless Smart Display very much like the rumored Apple iScreen I mentioned on Tuesday! These Smart Display products are already available from Philips, ViewSonic, Fujitsu, NEC and TG. Smart Screens start at around $1000 and are available in 10" and 15" screen sizes.

So, it should be interesting to see if Apple really does follow through with the iScreen idea or not. If so, they already have competition, though some of the other tidbits I've read at O'Grady's PowerPage and Mac Whispers since Tuesday seem to suggest an iScreen may be more like an iPod with color 8" screen than a larger 15" monitor. We shall see!

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April 16, 2003

Optimistic Wi-Fi Tidbits

Wi-Fi If you've been intrigued by all of the Wi-Fi wireless network related articles I've been posting here of late, I've come across a few more encouraging Wi-Fi related tidbits to share with you.

First, there's a great source of articles on getting unwired over at Wired Magazine. I especially got a kick out of Palm Pulls the Plugs on Palm, Inc's organic shift to internal Wi-Fi networks.

In other news, Kinko's copy shops and Border's bookstores have both announced Wi-Fi access across the US, in conjunction with T-Mobile's HotSpot service.

Finally, it seems Apple has already shipped more than 150,000 Airport Extreme base networking products, since its launch in January at MacWorld San Francisco. Airport Extreme is Apple's brand name for Wi-Fi 802.11g, which offers up to 5 times the speed of regular Airport (802.11b) while maintaining backward compatibility with older 802.11b equipment.

It's wonderful to see Wi-Fi increasing in popularity! :-)

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April 15, 2003

Apple iScreen on the Horizon?

iScreen Today I came across a very interesting story from DigiTimes (via MacNN) and at the Register about Apple supposedly working on a 'wireless monitor' (I assume it will use Wi-Fi).

From what I gather, this 'wireless monitor' or iScreen would be about the size of a Tablet PC but will have no processing power other than monitor hardware and a wireless transceiver. It's also purported to come with a detachable keyboard but no battery (now that seems odd). It's unknown whether the iScreen will have handwriting recognition or not -- though I suspect it makes sense to include this feature to better compete with Tablet PCs.

So, this thing would be a wireless terminal in the form of a flat screen monitor. If you're an old-timer like me, you might remember that old mainframes followed this concept of a central computer CPU with multiple 'terminals' with access. It's unknown whether more than one iScreen could use a single Macintosh or not -- I'd guess it's a single iScreen per Mac .

Even though this is all speculation, the idea of an iScreen with optional detachable keyboard intrigues me. Rather than hauling a laptop around the house, I could just take the screen. Since there is no CPU on board, it's possible that battery life might be quite good compared to a laptop or Tablet PC -- assuming there is a built in battery.

Of course, these kinds of rumors about Apple device often lead nowhere, like the long running rumors of a mythical Apple PDA which have never surfaced in real products. This could also be a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth wireless monitor you can hang on a wall or even a well-placed leak by Apple to divert attention. Still, a wireless monitor... that seems more in line with what Steve Jobs might consider a killer consumer device.

Here's to hoping for an iScreen! ;-)

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April 11, 2003

The Amazing Wi-Fi PDA Case!

Wi-Fi PDA Case Now here's a cool idea from a company called Enfora -- a nice leather case with a Palm universal connector and Wi-Fi card built into it. This should make it dead easy to getting a Palm branded handheld on your Wi-Fi network. Even better, the case includes a long-life battery, which keeps the power hungry Wi-Fi transciever from sucking your Palm dry, while providing up to 24 hours of operation. It isn't super cheap at $169, but it's not outrageous and should be easy to use.

Like the coming Wi-Fi SD cards and Memory Sticks, it isn't supposed to appear until June of this year, so we'll have to wait and see how well these accessories for PDAs are accepted. Personally, I think Wi-Fi will have become even more popular by then, so I predict these kinds add-ons will do quite well.

Thanks to bargainPDA.com and Gizmodo for the heads up on this one.

Have a great weekend everyone! :-)

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March 13, 2003

McWireless: Would You Like Wi-Fi with That?

No, seriously! McDonald's is actually planning on offering an hour of free wireless internet access (Wi-Fi) in their restaurants in three US cities, according to this story on Yahoo! News. The free one hour of Wi-Fi deal will come with an extra value meal; additional hours can be had for $3 each.

I think this move by McDonald's is very interesting. If successful, this could turn McDonald's into a place where laptop and PDA users know they can go for a quick fix of Wi-Fi and something to eat. I imagine if the service proves popular, McDonalds may even sell Wi-Fi access sans the food requirement, banking on the scent of freshly cooked french fries wafting past visitor's noses as they surf.

Less than a year ago, I was a kinda skeptical about Wi-Fi. I thought it a frivolous nicety I'd never really use. Surprisingly, I became an enthusiastic Wi-Fi proponent after getting our two Mac PowerBooks wirelessly connected to each other and to the Internet through a Netgear Wi-Fi router. Now I enjoy the freedom of Wi-Fi net access all over our house. Our little Wi-Fi network has proven more useful than I'd imagined. With a new son to spend time with, it's great to access the net or our Mac network wherever Nathan is, rather than being chained to a computer in the basement.

I'm happy to see companies like McDonalds, Starbucks and Schlotzky's Deli all offering Wi-Fi "Hot Spots" in their establishments across the US. Soon, I can imagine a myriad of eateries, bookstores, malls, hotels and airports all offering inexpensive Wi-Fi access to their customers.... that would be cool by me. :-)

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