WiFi has become a commodity, something we expect to be able to find, but marketers are slowly waking up to its potential to get the message out—by renaming the service. But is it such a good idea? A Dutch company, according to Adrants, has started changing the name of its WiFi service continually—both to promote … Read more
I’ve lately been looking for a way to listen to Internet radio away from my computer. This looks like a good, albeit somewhat expensive, answer: the WiFi Radio from Acoustic Energy (about S$600, that’s $415ish). The WiFi Radio connects to your router and stores more than 5,000 radio stations by country, updated each time … Read more
This week’s column in the WSJ is about finding cheap data roaming connections on the road. I’ll be the first to admit I wasn’t very successful, and hope readers may have better luck than I. But here in the meantime are some suggestions: Free WiFi connections: AnchorFree offers free WiFi hotspots via partners, in return … Read more
I’ve never had a really good experience with hotel Wi-Fi. The connections are slow, inconsistent and quite often just not there. Seems like I’m not the only one. Why is this? And why do hotels persist with offering only wireless when most of them are fully equipped with cable outlets too? How can you tell … Read more
I tend to think of the Nokia Communicator (aka The Brick) as a somewhat retrograde device, popular to folk who haven’t quite caught up with the shape of things to come (aka The Smartphone). But Indonesians and Germans don’t agree (link to a podcast I did on the subject for the BBC), using the Communicator … Read more