Walking Hot Spot

Any idea what the differences are between the "free trial" and the "carrier" versions? " ?While we are releasing a free trial version of the WalkingHotSpot solution, it is important to understand that the feature set we are releasing will not compete with products offered by our carrier partners,?"

I don't know whether my eyes are just getting old and lazy but I can't see anything listed on the web-site.

Paris Hilton comes to mind.

Nah, she's driven.

The product and web site was originally intended to convince handset manufacturers to adopt the product. The parent company, TapRoot Systems:

sells or licenses such designs to handset manufactories. On April 21, the company issued a press release that the software was available as a "free trial". Since I didn't have the required device (my XV6700 runs WM5), I didn't bother to download it. Anyway, the rest of the web site appears to be from before the "free trial" release and is therefore somewhat confusing. The above competition statement implies that if some OEM decides to offer the product during the trial period, the feature mix will be quite different. In other words, the "free trial" versions may have some major limitations. Still, it's an interesting concept.

Here is another one:-

Trouble is battery life. There have been a couple of hacks to do this. Most of what it takes to make it happen is already built into windows mobile.

But even when you get it working you're still going to see battery life drop like an anvil once you start routing. Now, use a car adapter or a wall wart and cradle and it's a bit less useless.

I've seen no tests yet as to throughput.

Oh, and you're also up against the handset's tendency to put itself into standby mode.

Interesting in theory, a bit weak in actual practice.

-Bill Kearney

I'll resist the temptation to rant about what I think of Windoze Mobile 5. Maybe 6 is better, but 5 offers Wi-Fi *OR* 1xRTT/EVDO, but not at the same time. The antennas and radios are totally seperate, but some brilliant marketing type decided that it should be disabled.

How about a big get cell battery, 5V regulator, and a USB power cable? That's what I do to charge or extend my battery life. I can go for perhaps 3 days without a charge if I don't use Wi-Fi. 5-8 hours at best if I run Wi-Fi all day.

WM5 and probably WM6 have some control over this. I can leave it in permanently on, backlighting permanently on, Wi-Fi permanently on, and run the battery down fairly quickly.

The real application is installing it on someone elses cell phone. Why pay for wireless data when you can get someone else to pay the bill? (The surest sign of success is abuse and pollution. I'll wait).