Smartphone with mobile hotspot

[IRstuff]

Just trying a Samsung smartphone with built-in mobile hotspot. Seems to be mostly an iffy proposition, particularly on Interstate 5 in California's central valley.

Anyone have any better suggestions?

TTFN

FAQ731-376
Chinese prisoner wins Nobel Peace Prize

 

[VEBill]

We used mobile Internet service (HSPA and similar) as our primary household Internet access for several years before wired DSL finally arrived in the neighborhood. Our hardware was the usual 3G USB modem stick plugged into a CTR-350 Mobile Router (a wifi router with a USB slot to accept the modem stick). This was back when these services were just becoming widely available.

It was perfectly reliable from a service stability point of view.

Modern smartphones should be able to provide the same function. My iPhone 3GS doesn't offer the WiFi hotspot option, but my laptops can still connect via Bluetooth with the phone in my pocket. Magic. Newer iPhone 4 can offer the wifi hotspot version.

More than a few years ago, I rigged up the CTR-350 in my car and streamed BBC World Service to my laptop. An FM modulator finished the circuit to the car radio. I confirmed it was dead reliable over a 25 km route, but not very far outside the city. I also confirmed the link stability at the specified max ground speed ;-).

(Gee - These days one just presses the BBC preset on the Sirius car radio. Some things are getting better...)

If you have a weak 3G signal, then perhaps you could use an external antenna. Problem is that "Ext Ant" have become very rare in the past few years.

If you're trying to use it on the move, then perhaps the connection is being handed off in a haphazard manner by the network. I'm not a networking expert, but I know enough to know that the network operators can make a right royal mess of things.

 

[MintJulep]

I've used my Samsung Galaxy as a hotspot successfully.

Right now, as I'm typing this I am sitting in the roof garden of a department store in Japan using a dedicated "Pocket Wifi" hot-spot that operates over the mobile network at 42 Mbps. 42. No decimal point between the 4 and the 2.

http://emobile.jp/pocketwifi/

My laptop has a built-in Verizon aircard for use in the US. It operates as 3.2 Mbps. There is a decimal between the 3 and the 2.

The US really needs to get into the game with mobile technology.

 

[IRstuff]

Too bad my Japanese is rusty (actually almost nonexistent); looks like a sweet setup.

The Samsung Droid Charge works tolerably well where 4G is really and truly available. I get about 8 mbps on the CNET bandwidth meter, while my home usually runs around 3 mbps.

The problem was the 7 hours of dead time driving between SF and LA. According to V's coverage map, there's supposed to be 3G all along I-5.

Clear's coverage map along the same route isn't nearly as generous, and they supposedly piggyback on V's network.

TTFN

FAQ731-376
Chinese prisoner wins Nobel Peace Prize

 

[MintJulep]

I spent a few days last week driving around Shikoku and Okayama in Japan using the Pocket Wifi in the car as the source of a data connection via wifi to my Samsung Galexy then using the Galexy's GPS and Google Maps and navigation to get where we wanted to go.

Worked perfectly with only a few losses of coverage in some pretty mountainous areas.

I did notice that Google Navigation can't speak Japanese. In the US it would speak directions such as "Take the next exit towards Smithville". In Japan however it said "Take the next exit towards [silence]".

In theory I could have used the phone's own data connection to NTT DoCoMo, but I was afraid to turn on data services because of the exorbitant international data roaming charges.

 

[ozmosis]

Hey Mint, I'd get off the roof with that typhoon blowing around!

 

[vpl]

Speaking of smart phones -- has anybody ever used those "QR codes" for smart phones? They're something like a bar code that will supposedly take you to a web page ...

What's your opinion of them?

Patricia Lougheed

******

Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of the Eng-Tips Forums.

 

[Eltron]

I've used them before out of boredom. They seem gimmicky and unnecessary. Who knows what other data they gather.

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

Dan's Blog

 

[IRstuff]

It's just a way to create a "clickthough" in a brick and mortar setting. Seems to work; there are more of them every day. I don't have a smart enough phone to even run the app.

TTFN

FAQ731-376
Chinese prisoner wins Nobel Peace Prize

 

[MintJulep]

QR codes are just another format of bar code.

They were developed by Toyota for inventory control. The advantages over other bar codes is the speed of reading (QR is for Quick Reading), error correction and tolerance for dirt and smudges.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code

As commonly now used in advertising all they do is provide a quick and convenient way to enter the URL of the advertisers web site - no different from manually typing in the URL.

I rarely scan them on advertising because I'm generally not interested in advertising.

Occasionally you'll see them on business cards now too, where they encode all the usual business card information.

There are also smartphone apps that can encode whatever and display a QR code on the screen for another smartphone to read.