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If you're lucky enough to own an iPhone or iPod Touch, you'll soon be able to obtain free Internet access, courtesy of JiWire Wi-Fi Ad Network sponsors, at select Wi-Fi hotspots located in airports, hotels, cafes, and other desirable locations around the world. To start, the service will be available at major airports like La Guardia and JFK in New York, Atlanta-Hartsfield, and Chicago O'Hare. Users will only have to view one advertisement in return for the free access.
iPhone and iPod Touch owners can also make use of JiWire's special iPhone hotspot search portal, optimized for the iPhone touchscreen. There's nothing to download or install, and no additional charge. Just visit www.jiwire.com from your iPhone's browser and it will automatically be detected and presented with the option to view the customized JiWire Wi-Fi Finder. You can preview our iPhone hotspot search experience in a standard Safari or Firefox browser at iphone.jiwire.com.
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Sony's original Mylo Communicator, a handheld Wi-Fi instant messaging, Web browsing, email and audio/video-playing device with a compact slide-out keyboard, got a lukewarm reception from customers and reviewers alike, with relatively few seeming to "get" the need for it. But Sony often sticks with new product categories until they catch on, and the new Mylo Com-2 is very close to the gadget we wish it had been all along. It has been upgraded to 802.11g Wi-Fi, screen resolution has been quadrupled to a very readable 800-by-480, a 1.3MP camera has been added, and the keyboard is now backlit. Even better, the price has been reduced $50 to $299 and Sony has worked out a great deal for free Wi-Fi access at participating McDonald's until December 31, 2010.
All reasons enough to seriously consider the Mylo 2 as a subscription-free messaging device, for yourself or the teenagers in your life. It's a surprisingly strong competitor to the Apple iPod Touch, another Wi-Fi-enabled music/video/Web/email gadget, which lacks the camera, messaging, VoIP, memory card slot, keyboard, and Flash support of the new Mylo. But the changes under the hood are equally compelling. The software has been revamped with an RSS news reader, support for widgets, YouTube and Facebook, and the ability to play Flash games and videos from the Web -- something the iPhone and iPod Touch can't do. AIM, Google Talk, Skype and Yahoo IM clients are supported, although it still lacks MSN. (MSN contacts can be reached through Yahoo, however.) Media-wise, it can handle Windows WMA DRM, MP3, unprotected AAC, ATRAC and MPEG-4 video files. And like the first Mylo, the Mylo 2 includes a customizable JiWire hotspot database, so you can locate nearby hotspots while offline.
Ask JiWire: While I like that Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt, what I really need is a 802.11n keychain detector like the two you reviewed in your shootout. Are any 802.11n Wi-Fi finders out there yet?
Answer: Ask and ye shall receive. The maker of our favorite 802.11g detector, Canary Wireless, is just about to ship a new version that can detect all 2.4GHz b, g and n networks. The Digital Hotspotter HS20 is a pager-size device with an LCD display that shows all available network SSIDs, along with their signal strength, speed (b, g or n), and encryption type (WEP, WPA, or WPA2). It's the first 802.11n detector we know of. You can sign up to be notified as soon as it is available.
Now you'll be able to find the seat with the best signal at hotspots without looking like a dork walking around with an open laptop. Wi-Fi detectors are also great tools for hotspot owners, who can use them to keep an eye out for rogue access points that may pop up in their airspace. Hit the link for a demo video from Glenn Fleishman of WiFiNetNews.
Learn more at WiFiNetNews.com »
Got a wireless dilemma you'd like answered here? Just fill out our newsletter feedback form. We'll select the most interesting questions for this space.
The long-awaited Eye-Fi combination Wi-Fi adapter/2GB SD card is finally shipping, and has been making quite a splash -- garnering best-of-show awards at both the Consumer Electronics Show and Macworld Expo last month. Pop the Eye-Fi into most any digicam with an SD card slot, and you can send your photos directly to your PC or Mac over Wi-Fi -- no worrying about packing a card reader or USB cable. But the real power of the Eye-Fi is not just as a cable replacement, but its ability to upload photos directly to online picture sharing and social networking sites like Flickr, Facebook, Photobucket, Webshots, Snapfish, Windows Live, TypePad and more. No computer is necessary to send photos to the Web. All you need is a Wi-Fi network, at your home, work or friends' house. Wi-Fi encryption passwords are supported, although sadly it won't work at hotspots that require a browser login to get online.
Eye-Fi's Web uploading works in one of two ways. If your computer is on, it will send photos to the Eye-Fi Manager software on your PC or Mac, which will then relay it to the appropriate site. If your computer is not available, it will connect to the Web-based Eye-Fi Service, which then delivers images to your photo-sharing site. By leveraging your computer if it's available, the Eye-Fi will conserve battery life and finish file transfers faster so you can go back to taking pictures.
As you would expect with any Wi-Fi card, the Eye-Fi will use a fair amount of power, so you'll want to keep some spares batteries around, but the ability to send your latest vacation pics directly to sharing sites, without a computer, more than compensates for the inconvenience. Imagine being at a party or family gathering, and just clicking a button to send your photos straight to Flickr or FaceBook. Camera vendors are taking notice. Nikon just announced real-time streaming support for the Eye-Fi in its new top-of-the-line D60 DLSR. And Kodak will market its own branded version of the card. At Macworld, Eye-Fi also announced integration with Apple's iPhoto software, so you can upload pictures right to your library.
-- Becky Waring, Executive Editor
Top 10 Countries
Country |
Hotspots |
| United States | 66,490 |
| United Kingdom | 31,442 |
| France | 23,739 |
| Germany | 21,542 |
| South Korea | 15,634 |
| Japan | 8,390 |
| Spain | 5,830 |
| Italy | 5,182 |
| Taiwan | 4,389 |
| Switzerland | 3,137 |
Top 10 Location Types
Location Type |
Hotspots |
| Hotel/Resort | 46,902 |
| Restaurant | 32,798 |
| FON Spot | 27,868 |
| Cafe | 25,871 |
| Other | 25,457 |
| Store/Mall | 20,137 |
| Pub | 8,199 |
| Office Building | 5,293 |
| Bar | 4,018 |
| Library | 2,700 |
