fontastic.org - FON and free WiFi blog » 2007

iPhone look-alike (sort of) June 25, 2007

iRiver announced a cell and VoIP phone that looks a bit like the iPhone (or a white version of it). It also features a portable music player of course. Some other extras comprise a FM radio and a positioning system based on WiFi not GPS. It seems that regardless of the success of the iPhone Apple defined a new design and set of functionalities for the cell phone 2.0 market.

via electronista.com

A new social network basedon WiFi recently launched. WeFi requires you to download a WiFi manager (replacing your Windows wireless network manager) which automatically finds and connects to free Wifi. The WeFi map shows those free access points and also shows other WeFi users who are connected thus encouraging them to get in touch. It looks pretty neat and given the success of Twitter this might be a great concept as it adds more social features to free WiFi than the current Fon hotspot website users can customize. Obviously, WeFi relies on the availability of free WiFi and would even win if they collaborated with Fon. Let's see what happens.

Free calls, Skype and SIP on an iPhone

Apple iPhone - a good WiFi phone? June 11, 2007

Now it's coming - only a few days left until the Apple iPhone hits the shelves on June 29th. It looks like the iPhone focusses a lot on web browsing and internet capabilities (amongst other things like trying to be an iPod). With it's WiFi option, big screen, virtual QWERTY keyboard, automatic switching between landscape and portrait view and a new kind of rendering of websites it might be the ideal portable web tablet in the sub-UMPC class. We asked our readers and it seems that the Cingular/ AT&T brothership might be contraproductive, though.

Go away! Never ever. (38%)
Yep, but w/o Cingular. (24%)
Yeah, at any price. (23%)
Not sure yet. (14%)

FON needs beta testers June 4, 2007

FON is adding on more web applications and is asking you, the FON community to apply to the beta tester program. You need to

be over 18 years old
be an English speaker (communication related to this program will be sent in English only)
have a registered FON user name that has been active for over 6 months
have a La Fonera installed and registered for over 4 months
live in one of the following countries:Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, USA, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Japan

Send an email to beta@fon.com until June 10th and you will receive notification whether you have been chosen shortly.