Tablet and Mobile

Archive for the ‘fon’ Category

They’re kidding, right? The forthcoming Galaxy Tab Android Tablet is a little 7” thing and they’re going to charge £600 ??? Ok it has a camera – but then unless they get a deal with SKYPE to get SKYPE video on there – it’s not going to be any use to anyone. Their AD CLAIMS video calls – but unless it’s SKYPE – who’re you going to call? Ghostbusters??   I have a 7” Android unit here and believe me it is TINY compared to the iPAD – I was hoping for something nearer £300. The basic iPad is only £420 and as we now have WIFI just about everywhere (especially if you’re a BT user and sign up to the free FON network which gives you free access to other FON user’s WIFI) – is the 3G really that big a deal (especially now that unlimited use is now history).

Meanwhile it turns out that 30 of the most popular Android Apps are sharing data with third parties without making it clear to users!

I think they’ve some way to go yet…

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of BT…. but we’re just putting together a holiday rental place in Bellingham and one of the things I needed to organise was broadband. It turns out that TalkTalk, my first option can’t handle that part of town – something to do with exchange – so I turned to BT.  The package turned up today and one of the things you can do if you have BT Total Broadband is share a little of it securely with the outside world – something called BT FON. Fon were around on their own years ago but the team-up of BT and FON means that now countless thousands of people share their WIFI for free – in return for getting to use everyone elses!

Now…

Having done that (you have to go to the BT Fon site and actually sign up – if you have BT Broadband and one of their routers, PLEASE DO)… I now have access to thousands if not hundreds of thousands of BT FON and BT OPENZONE WIFI sites… and in case you’re wondering – if you don’t have BT, go to the FON SITE and buy one of their routers and you get the same deal – share a little, GET A LOT!!!  How much of your WIFI do you share – no more than 512K and it’s completely isolated from your own so it’s a win-win situation.

Did it work? Well, I walked down the road in my little village where my iPhone is normally USELESS due to no Orange signal – and noted one of the signals – put in my name and password – and VOILA I was browsing the BBC website in no time.

This really DOES look like the liberation of WIFI and you should take a look! APPARENTLY there are sites abroad you can use, too!!!

More on this as I learn more but take a look at the BT FON site.. and if you’re not on BT – the FONERA site… I’ve done my bit by liberating my WIFI for others – now if several million others would do the same…..

This makes my WIFI-only iPAD a LOT more useful out on the road!!!!  Not to mention the phone (SKYPE).

Pete.