Wi-fi can be a hard thing to figure out for a user on-the-go – all those networks, signal strengths, passwords and WEP encryption keys.
While popularising wi-fi with its Centrino chipsets for laptops, Intel did a pretty poor job with the software, in my opinion, making it impossible for me to log on to some networks from my corporate notebook.
So I’m glad they’ve now handed the job to someone else, in the shape of Devicescape, a Silicon Valley company backed by VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, among others.
Its software is now used in most Intel-based laptops, as well as a host of other devices.
For example, I downloaded its popular Easy Wi-Fi application for the iPod touch and entered my login details for AT&T Wi-fi. Now, when I go into a Starbucks coffee store, I just press a button on the app screen to instantly connect. Before, I had to fire up the Safari browser and re-enter all my details on the AT&T website to get online.
David Fraser, Devicescape’s chief executive, tells me it should be even easier than that. As more smartphones, such as the iPhone, incorporate wi-fi chips, manufacturers are embedding Devicescape’s software to switch seamlessly between 3G and wi-fi, without the user noticing.
“We’ve moved from text messaging to watching YouTube videos on the phone and this explosion of data traffic can cause problems for carriers,” he says.
By shifting users onto wi-fi, where available, operators can ease any congestion. Devicescape’s technology is used in Blackberry, Motorola, Nokia and Palm smartphones. As more categories of devices include wi-fi, the company sees its market expanding – it is in the new Nintendo DS handheld console and sees opportunities in personal navigation devices and digital cameras.
The company maintains a database of thousands of networks, enabling easy connections to hotspots, municipal wi-fi and services such as Meraki and Fon.
The San Bruno start-up, employing 30 people, was known as Instant 802, before Mr Fraser joined four years ago and rebranded the company. It is now at cash flow break-even and is hiring staff, at a time when everyone else in the Valley seems to be cutting back.
