Web Worker Daily

Last year, I wrote about the Eye-Fi card,  which has gone on to win numerous technology awards. It’s an SD card that has Wi-Fi integrated, so that you can wirelessly send photos you take directly to your PC or Mac, and they’re even automatically saved to a folder that you pre-define. I’ve been using it for over a year now, and it’s a great hassle-saver for all the types of work that I do with photos online. Recently, I upgraded to a better version of the card, the Eye-Fi Explore Video. In addition to wirelessly uploading photos in a completely hassle-free way, it does wireless video uploads to a PC or Mac, and geotags photos, showing where they were taken. Here are more details on why this is an essential card to have if you work with photos and videos.

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Have you ever had the frustrating experience of buying a device or computer that you’ve really had your eyes on, only to find out that a much improved alternative is available only days later? If so, you’re not alone. It’s a common complaint that I’ve heard from both savvy web workers and casual users. If you’re in the market for any type of Bluetooth-enabled device — and Bluetooth is a key component in many types of hardware — this may be a good week to delay your purchase for a few days in anticipation of next week’s announcement of Bluetooth 3.0.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has confirmed that it will announce the arrival of and specifications for Bluetooth 3.0 next Tuesday, April 21st. It’s expected to be a major improvement over existing Bluetooth technology.

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Only the FON-ely...FON-liness Of The Long Distance Runner. Yes, I had a whole bank of puns to title this post. They’ll all aptly tragic in telling the tale of a promising piece of web worker infrastructure that has in essence become a network of very lonely and isolated hotspots…

I first came across FON at O’Reilly’s Emerging Telephony 2006 conference, as then company evangelist Ejovi Nuwere outlined a vision of a global wifi network built from the grassroots, owned and operated by its users. Ejovi explained that users installing a FON hotspot would be able to earn revenue from its use or, if they agreed to charge no access fee, use every other FON hotspot at no cost when travelling away from home.

A few months later I recieved a complimentary La Fonera router, becoming the 4089th ‘Fonero’ (currently there are 671′363 users). A few days ago, I switched off my La Fonera, packaging it for an eBay bidder that paid just $17. Now the thing is, none of those 671′362 other Fonero’s hotspots were in places I where I needed connectivity…

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We’ve all been tempted to do it.  Here’s the familiar situation: having a few spare minutes, you open up your laptop to do some work, then you’d like to get online.  So you look at the list of available Wi-Fi hotspots and you see an open one think, “I wonder if I could just quickly send this email off?”

Using other’s Wi-Fi is a common occurrence, according to the Register.  Some Internet enthusiasts feel you’re doing humanity a favor by leaving your home wireless connection open for passers-by to use.  However security experts and opponents of this practice warn against subjecting yourself to legal troubles if a stranger uses your Internet connection for illicit activity.  In some instances, people have been arrested for utilizing Wi-Fi that wasn’t theirs.

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