Personal Computing: No iPhone 3GS For Me (Yet)

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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