New utility promises painless hotspot connectivity

All too often even the power user has problems establishing WiFi connections on their laptop, and connecting many portable devices can be a nightmare. A new utility from Devicescape promises to provide transparent, seamless WiFi connections on a wide array of devices:

Company head Dave Fraser said in an interview yesterday, “Without registering or going to our Web site or anything, as soon as you install the client, or power on a device with the client in it, you get immediate access to any hotspot we can get you into.” Fraser noted that’s any of the tens of thousands of free hotspots that are part of their system now, including Google in Mountain View or McCarran Airport in Las Vegas. Fraser said, “There’s lots and lots of them in our database now. We’ll automate those. You don’t have to plan in advance, and register, and populate My Wi-Fi,” the part of a My Devicescape account in which you list networks you’re a member of.

Devicescape currently has software available for Mac OS X and Windows, as well as certain Nokia phones and tablets, Windows Mobile, and jailbroken iPhones and iPod touches (iPods touch?). Prior to its current incarnation, the company focused exclusively on providing Wi-Fi and networking software for mobile devices, and that’s still a big chunk of their business; this means we can expect to see a host of devices with Devicescape software built in, ready to go. The company had no announcements about built-in device support today, however. (from Wifi Net News)

A great many who would make use of WiFi simply give up on the idea when they discover how tedious making a new connection can be. If it does all it promises, Devicescape could bring WiFi to the masses. It also could introduce a whole new class of users to security risks, but that’s another subject for discussion.