Make Wi-Fi connections easier

The iPhone’s Wi-Fi feature is great for getting a high-speed connection whenever you’re in range of a wireless network. However, if that network is secure (closed), it’s a bit of a hassle to type usernames, passwords, and/or authentication keys using the iPhone’s onscreen keyboard. According to a TidBITS scoop by Macworld contributor Glenn Fleishman, making such connections just got easier.

Devicescape is a new service that combines a Web-based account with a real iPhone application. First you install that application, Connect, on your iPhone using Nullriver’s Installer. You then create an account on the Devicescape Web site and enter—using your computer or your iPhone—the information and passwords/keys for frequently-used wireless networks and hot-spot services (Devicescape supports such services as T-Mobile HotSpot, AT&T WiFi, Fon, Boingo, and iPass).

From then on, whenever you want to connect to one of your favorite Wi-Fi networks or a wireless hot spot that’s part of a service, you just tap the Connect app on your iPhone and then tap Login. (Yes, it should be Log In, but I digress.) Devicescape automatically logs you in to the network. According to Glenn, the system even knows which button to “click” for the Web-based login pages used by free wireless networks.

Check out Glenn’s article for all the details. I haven’t tried the service yet, but I just installed Connect on my iPhone and signed up for an account on the Devicescape Web site. If it works as advertised, Connect will be a handy addition to my iPhone’s illicit-application list.

Category: Software, Wi-Fi

Posted by Dan Frakes on Sep 16 2007, 12:11 PM ET

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