With all the hype and news, I feel drawn to a post relating to the new iPhone 3GS. Unfortunately my current mobile service provider is claiming I agreed to a 24-month contract about 14 months ago and without a way to prove it I’m stuck with them until next April. Whilst I mull over getting a second ‘phone, I’ve been looking for opportunities to make my iPod Touch more mobile.
Here’s the solution I found – it’s called Joikuspot and it allows me to turn my current N95 into a Wi-Fi Access Point using the 3G Internet functionality of the ‘phone. Once the software has started, it appears as a Wi-Fi device to my iPod Touch. I can control access to the virtual Wi-Fi AP using WEP with a standard protection key. The software runs in the background, so I can fire JoikuSpot up and put the ‘phone back in my pocket. To see how much data I’m using, I can simply check the status page and see the send/receive byte count.
I managed to use this new tethering solution to great effect, travelling back on the train from London earlier in the week. There are however a couple of drawbacks; (1) the devices get *hot*. This isn’t really surprising as I’m both sending and receiving data over 3G and Wi-Fi at the same time on the N95. The iPod Touch get’s warmer than I’d expect, presumably because the Wi-Fi connection has no power management in place and is blasting out a full signal continuously. (2) battery life on the N95 is signficantly affected. This is also no surprise; the heat generated means the battery is getting pretty seriously drained.
OK, it’s not a perfect solution but it’s a good workaround until I decide how to move forward with a dedicated iPhone. It’s also a great cost saver – I’ve got the 500MB/month in my price plan and the software was only €15,00.
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