Wi-Fi Everywhere

We like Wi-Fi. We use Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi lets us blog at various locations, thus bringing you, our faithful readers, quality(?) entries throughout the day.

But it looks like Wi-Fi is about to step into the annoying sphere. Backpacks with Wi-Fi capabilities will transform every public place into a potential hot spot. You carry the backpack to the park and, wham, you surf from the bench. You carry it to church and, wham, you surf from the pew. Maybe in the near future, we'll see laptops everywhere--on the streets and sidewalks and in the cars--just as we see those little iPod white wires. Link.

Its secret ingredient: the Junxion Box. Plug a cellular-network card into the book-size open-source-based device, and voilà –instant Wi-Fi hotspot, with speeds averaging around 700 kilobits per second. To power the box, I wired it to a 1.2-amp-hour battery and dropped both into the Voltaic Systems backpack, which has a built-in solar charger. Now I can surf for as long as three hours without being tethered to anything but a cell signal. The project isn't cheap, but prices for the components and service are sure to come down in the next year or so. In the meantime, you can find me in the hills around Southern California. I'll be the one surrounded by PSP-packing hikers.