Pocket WiFi Radar Released

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.makayama.com/pocketwifiradar.html' target='_blank'>http://www.makayama.com/pocketwifiradar.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"This software helps you connect to free wireless access points with a single mouseclick. It's WiFi for Dummies. Get your mail and browse the web without being charged. The ideal WiFi-tool for frequent travellers and mobile professionals. Pocket WiFi Radar will connect to open hotspots automatically and shows you exactly what it is doing in a cool animated radar screen"</i><br /><br />If you often hunt for WiFi, and want a new Wifi finding tool that looks cool as a side benefit, check out this new offering by Makayama. It looks interesting, and can be a good thing for those of us hunting for free Wifi wherever we go.

[Golfer]

Is it possible to get a free trial version of this before buying?

[Joelacrane]

Finally! I've been waiting for something like this ever since I got my x51v!

I would also like a trial version. How does the radar screen work if you don't have GPS?

[applejosh]

While I have not tried this (nor really planning to), I doubt the radar screen is functional in terms of direction. It's probably similar in implementation to some freebie I saw a while back. It was cool to see a "blip" on a radar screen, but it wasn't representational of where the AP was actualy located in terms of direction. AFAIK, the wifi chip in most (all) pocketpc's is not able to determine direction, just strength. Again, just guessing.

[Cybrid]

While I have not tried this (nor really planning to), I doubt the radar screen is functional in terms of direction. It's probably similar in implementation to some freebie I saw a while back. It was cool to see a "blip" on a radar screen, but it wasn't representational of where the AP was actualy located in terms of direction. AFAIK, the wifi chip in most (all) pocketpc's is not able to determine direction, just strength. Again, just guessing.Wififofum, and yes omni-directional radios cannot be used to determine location without triangulation.

[Joelacrane]

I decided to plop down $14.95 to see how good the app is. Ordering It was easy enough, but I was suprised to see that it was exactly 7mb, and It was zipped! After 2 1-hour failures with my dial-up connection, I hauled my laptop into town and downloaded it at a friends house while we hung out. Of course with his 728k connection it took less than a minute...

I was releived to see that the program was under 2mb, the zip file just contained the same program several times but for different versions of Windows Mobile. I copied the CAB over to my Axim x51v and installed it.

The first thing I noticed: The program came with a QVGA icon. In my mind, this always shows a complete lack of polish. Its pretty annoying when you open up programs and theres this big ugly pixellated mess sitting there.

The program didn't open up like a normal task. Instead, It places an icon in the notification bar. Of course, it isn't a nice white one to match the other WM icons, but an ugly green and grey one that sticks out like a sore thumb.

The program then notified me that the I didn't have WiFi turned on. Now wait a second, I thought this was supposed to be easy? Any WiFi sniffer should turn WiFi on FOR YOU. Hitchhiker did on my old iPaq may-it-rest-in-peace.

Now this is where things got even more interesting. The program minimized itself, and I couldn't get it to pop back up by clicking on the notification icon. It was also creating more and more notification icons, so my notification bar was starting to look very interesting. Since it doesn't behave like a normal program, I couldn't tell Windows to kill it. I had to soft reset.

After my device rebooted, I turned on WiFi and fired up the program. This time, it showed me the little radar screen, and I guess it worked like it should. The radar screen animates and makes sounds, but it really is just a gimmick. I liked Hitchhiker much better because it was so clean and simple. It connected to a network, but as soon as it did, the windows WiFi/Activesync icon turned back to no connection, and none of my programs could connect to the internet.

This program is useless, a total waste of money. The interface isn't consistent with Windows Mobile 5 at all. The icons are messy. The notification system sucks. The sound effects are annoying. It can't turn on WiFi for you. It can't even succesfully create network connections. Don't waste your money on this one.

Kasuei, I'd gladly pay $30 for a working version of Hitchhiker. It was and still is my absolute all time favorite piece of software.

I could have bought like 2 grande meals at Taco Bell...

[wallaceff]

I decided to plop down $14.95 to see how good the app is. Ordering It was easy enough, but I was suprised to see that it was exactly 7mb, and It was zipped! After 2 1-hour failures with my dial-up connection, I hauled my laptop into town and downloaded it at a friends house while we hung out. Of course with his 728k connection it took less than a minute...

I was releived to see that the program was under 2mb, the zip file just contained the same program several times but for different versions of Windows Mobile. I copied the CAB over to my Axim x51v and installed it.

The first thing I noticed: The program came with a QVGA icon. In my mind, this always shows a complete lack of polish. Its pretty annoying when you open up programs and theres this big ugly pixellated mess sitting there.

The program didn't open up like a normal task. Instead, It places an icon in the notification bar. Of course, it isn't a nice white one to match the other WM icons, but an ugly green and grey one that sticks out like a sore thumb.

The program then notified me that the I didn't have WiFi turned on. Now wait a second, I thought this was supposed to be easy? Any WiFi sniffer should turn WiFi on FOR YOU. Hitchhiker did on my old iPaq may-it-rest-in-peace.

Now this is where things got even more interesting. The program minimized itself, and I couldn't get it to pop back up by clicking on the notification icon. It was also creating more and more notification icons, so my notification bar was starting to look very interesting. Since it doesn't behave like a normal program, I couldn't tell Windows to kill it. I had to soft reset.

After my device rebooted, I turned on WiFi and fired up the program. This time, it showed me the little radar screen, and I guess it worked like it should. The radar screen animates and makes sounds, but it really is just a gimmick. I liked Hitchhiker much better because it was so clean and simple. It connected to a network, but as soon as it did, the windows WiFi/Activesync icon turned back to no connection, and none of my programs could connect to the internet.

This program is useless, a total waste of money. The interface isn't consistent with Windows Mobile 5 at all. The icons are messy. The notification system sucks. The sound effects are annoying. It can't turn on WiFi for you. It can't even succesfully create network connections. Don't waste your money on this one.

Kasuei, I'd gladly pay $30 for a working version of Hitchhiker. It was and still is my absolute all time favorite piece of software.

I could have bought like 2 grande meals at Taco Bell...

Damn. I loved HitchHiker. I never really found out why he stopped developing it... all I read about was some 'new job' and then everything seemed to stop. I was hoping this would be a replacement.
The reviewer on msmobiles.com seemed to say similar problems to what you describe. Especially with there being no trial version... I have to say, I'm going to keep away.

[Joelacrane]

I was told that the leader of Kasuei got a job in the US like he wanted. I'm glad that he did, but it does suck that development of Hitchhiker has stopped.

WiFi Radar left some garbage on my Axim. You know the WiFi bubble? It shows two sets of bars, one says "Easy WiFi Radar Connection" and the other says "Joel's Network" as normal.

Hmmm.