Business Bytes
Renee Oricchio

Cellphone As Wireless Router

 

I'm dating myself to even call them cell phones anymore. I think smartphone is even kind of dumb. Is there anything you can't do with a mobile device anymore?

My colleague and friend, Beswick Channer, is much geekier than me (that's a compliment, Beswick). So special thanks for sharing your favorite "stupid smartphone trick".

Beswick has a new HTC Touch Pro2 smartphone with Windows Mobile 6.5 and is using it as a wireless router. Beswick is his own mobile hotspot. Thanks to a little wireless router app, he can connect at least five devices to the Internet.

We played around with it at work today. I was on board within a minute. The 3G connection was plenty fast and the range was about 75 to 100 feet.

Handy!

This is not really new. People have been doing the same with their iPhones and Palm Pre's, etc. for sometime now. But, it is worth sharing because though the app may not be new; it is likely new to a lot of people who didn't know the technology existed before.

If you want to find a wireless router app for your "smartphone"; just Google the make and model of your device with the words "wireless router app" and see what pops up.

 

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio