Ian Grayson07 February 2008, 1:52 PM
It's hard to believe no-one has thought of this before. A new (free) mobile app turns your Nokia Series 60 phone a WiFi modem/router, removing the need for finnicky Bluetooth or clunky USB cable connections to laptops.
It's hard to believe no-one has thought of this before. A new mobile app turns your Nokia Series 60 phone a WiFi modem/router, removing the need for finnicky Bluetooth or clunky USB cable connections to laptops.
Finnish software development company Joikusoft has released a free software application that lets Symbian Series 60 mobile phone users turn their handsets into Wi-Fi hot spots.
Called JoikuSpot, the software allows the phone's 3G mobile connection to be shared via its inbuilt Wi-Fi antenna. As well as doing away with the need for a cable or BlueTooth connection, it also means a single 3G handset can provide high-speed internet access to groups of people.
 It's your own portable Wi-Fi hotspot |
It conjures up images of groups sharing wireless data access in coffee shops or families happily connecting multiple PCs to a mobile data service.
Naturally this will not be a great idea unless you also have a large mobile data allowance, as the traffic generated by multiple users could land you all too quickly in the bankruptcy courts.
When the application is running on the handset, other Wi-Fi enabled devices can discover it in the same way as any conventional hot spot.
As well as notebook PCs, it could be used by anything from cameras to other smartphones. Even Apple iPod touch users could get around their device's lack of phone capability by piggy backing on a Series 60 device.
The developers believe the application will be appealing because a wireless LAN connection is many times faster than BlueTooth, meaning any devices connecting via JoikuSpot will enjoy faster data speeds.
"Internet should be easily and cost-efficiently accessible everywhere, and Joikusoft aims to enable that with the JoikuSpot innovation," said Joikusoft founder and CEO Lasse Maki at this week's launch of the software.
Series 60 handsets include Nokia's N and E series models as well as offerings from companies such as LG and Samsung.
JoikuSpot can be downloaded from http://www.joiku.com/