Most iPhone users tend to be loyal about their phone, and dare I say, with just a slight air of superiority. But there is one feature on Android phones that Apple people are jealous about. Many Android phones come with software that allows the phones to become a WiFi hotspot. Not only is the feature built-in, but the carriers gladly support it. It is even advertised heavily in “Droid Does” commercials.
But iPhone? (continue reading…)
Long ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, computers went on-net – whether “on net” was “the Internet”, CompuServe, or (for the old-timers) something like FIDOnet – with a device called a “modem”. (Modems got their name because they MOdulated and DEModulated analog telephone signals to transmit binary data.)
In these days of digital high-speed broadband and FIOS, a genuine “mo-dem” is somewhat of an ancient relic in the vernacular. However, if you have a smartphone, it can act as an analog (no pun intended) of an old-school telephony modem for getting your laptop onto the Internet when there is no other access available.
RIM is rumored to be working on a tablet device to compete with the Apple iPad. But the interesting, or should I say, puzzling decision is to make it a tethered device that still requires a BlackBerry for communications.
I think Apple addressed my “do I really want to pay data fees for yet another device?” concerns by providing an OnDemand no-contract activation. So is the fact that a BB tablet must be tethered to a BB phone a clever solution, or a major inconvenience? I favor compact & self-contained, so I tend toward the latter…
