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Software Turns Mobiles Into Wi-Fi Hotspots

Here’s a cool use for a phone that has both cellular broadband and Wi-Fi: Turn it into a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot so your friends can surf the Internet on their laptops.

A couple startups have created and made available software like this in the last year. But a more established software maker said Wednesday that it has created a package for carriers to offer their customers.

TapRoot Systems Inc. of Research Triangle Park, N.C., said it was talking with carriers about providing their customers with the software, which would let up to five Wi-Fi users connect to a phone.

A possible free trial version would let only one Wi-Fi user connect to the phone at a time.

The software works on phones with Windows Mobile or Symbian S60 software. Windows phones are common in the U.S., while Symbian is championed by Nokia Corp. and more common in Europe. There already is an independent program called WMWifirouter that turns Windows phones into hotspots, and there’s one called JoikuSpot for Nokia phones.

Capacity is limited on third-generation cellular broadband networks, and carriers are somewhat restrictive of the applications they allow, for fear their networks will be overwhelmed.

[via msnbc]

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Posted in Software, Innovative, Smart Phone, Networking, Laptop, Ideas, Research, Mobiles, Gadgets, Trends, Internet, Nokia, Computers | 1 Comment »

$100 Laptop Goes Into Production

Mass production of the so-called $100 laptop has begun, five years after the concept was first proposed. The laptop, which was originally promoted as a $100 computer that would change education in the developing world, now costs around $188.

Computer manufacturer Quanta has started building the low-cost laptops at a factory in Changshu, China.

One Laptop per Child (OLPC), the group behind the project, said that children in developing countries would begin receiving machines this month. Last month, OLPC received its first official order for 100,000 machines from the government of Uruguay.

“Today represents an important milestone in the evolution of the One Laptop per Child project,” said Nicholas Negroponte, founder of OLPC. The organisation had reached the critical stage despite “all the naysayers,” he said.

Initially OLPC has said that it required three million orders of the XO to make production viable. Governments were originally offered the machines in lots of 250,000.

So far, however, the organisation’s only confirmed order is from Uruguay. The South American country has ordered 100,000 of the machines with an option to purchase a further 300,000.

Other governments have expressed interest in the machines

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Posted in Ideas, Innovative, Internet, Gadgets, Computers, Technology | 1 Comment »