SmartPhones

Even those of us not lucky enough to put our lives on hold to travel to Beijing or sit glued to our TVs can still keep up with all the latest goings-on at this year's Olympics with their smartphones.

Thanks to Google (of course) anyone with an internet-enabled smartphone can visit Google's summergames page for mobile devices and get all the updated information they could possibly want on almost 40 Olympic events. Among the information listed there is the full schedule of each event and the winners (once known). Best of all, the mobile site is available in more than 60 countries and in 36 languages.

Video coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics is also available for people on a BlackBerry or a Palm OS or Windows Mobile device, through MobiTV.

Alternatively, sports fans can also hook themselves up with a SlingMedia Slingbox and redirect any program coming through their television to their smartphone device - including NBC's coverage of the Olympics.
The Slingbox, however, is the only option with an extra up front cost (for both the box and the mobile software), and is available on Windows Mobile, Symbian S60, and Palm OS devices.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: 2008 Olympics, 2008 Summer Olympics, Blackberry, Google, MobiTV, NBC, Olympics, Palm, Palm OS, Slingbox, SlingMedia, Symbian S60, Windows Mobile

The days of searching for the nearest Wi-Fi HotSpot are at an end. Now, thanks to a North Carolina company TapRoot Systems, you can turn your WiFi-enabled smartphone into a WiFi HotSpot capable of granting broadband internet access to any nearby WiFi-capable PC and laptop, as well as the iPod touch and other MP3 players.

The application, called WalkingHotSpot, currently supports 3G smartphones running the Symbian S60 or Windows Mobile operating systems, but that’s just the beginning. TapRoot promises support for other OS’s are on the way.

Currently, WalkingHotSpot is being marketted strictly to wireless carriers, but plans are in effect to market the software to consumers any day now.

The technology, promoted as being energy-efficient, user-friendly, and – above all – secure, is also poised to allow smartphone users to have WiFi service activated and make and receive voice phone calls simultaneously, though at the moment only devices on the AT&T HSDPA/UMTS service can do so.

At the WalkingHotSpot website, smartphone owners interested in the service can sign up to be notified as soon as a demo download is available for their system.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: 3G, AT&T, HotSpot, HSDPA/UMTS, iPod, iPod Touch, MP3 player, North Carolina, OS, router, Symbian, Symbian S60, TapRoot Systems, WalkingHotSpot, Wi-Fi, Wifi