Whenever I get cabin fever from working too much inside my house I would often bring my laptop, go to coffee shop and work from there. Free hotspots have really helped in making me more productive. Of course, productivity can only happen when there is an existing hotspot near you.

I discovered this limitation when I decided to accompany my wife in one of her errands as a magazine editor. She needed to visit a number of commercial shops and look for items that can be featured in her magazine. Hoping that this would be a great way to spend some time with her while at the same time catch up with work, I decided to join her. The plan was for her to walk around these establishments while I go look for a coffee shop where I can work. Good idea, right?

It wasn’t. The commercial area we went too didn’t have a hotspot and the one area that did have Wi-Fi was restricted to subscribers of a Wi-Fi service. I was well and truly screwed. This incident really drove home the convenience of having a ready internet connection wherever you go. Subscriptions to a Wi-Fi service is really not a good idea because it is still dependent on an available hotspot. This made me really see the value of HSDPA based internet connections. With just a small gadget plugged to your lappie, you can access the internet literally wherever you are — in the car, in the middle of a mall, even on the beach! As long as the area is within range of a mobile network you’ve got internet.

With the level of mobility that my work requires from me especially in the near future HSDPA will give me the productivity edge that I need.

I love playing games using a gaming laptop. A laptop frees you and allows you to move anywhere in your house (or ANYWHERE, for that matter) to play your favorite games. Heck, I’ve even tried playing games while in the toilet! A gaming laptop transforms your whole house into an instant gaming room. Of course, if you are the type who loves playing games online then a gaming laptop will not be enough. You will also need a reliable WiFi and WLAN connection, one that has practically no lag and stable connections. These requirements have resulted in the development of a family of products called gaming routers that are optimized for the demanding conditions that gamers need.

D-Link recently released a new gaming router that offers a number of really cool features. The D-Link Xtreme N Gaming Router can operate at the draft 802.11n standard (which makes it somewhat futureproof) and also possesses GameFuel technology as well as a nifty little OLED screen.

The new router boasts of having a quality-of-service technology. This means that the router will automatically give priority to gaming related traffic. It is also optimized for the gaming requirements not only for PC games but also for the Xbox and PlayStation gaming consoles. The OLED screen is quite useful because it gives users a quick view of network statistics, the devices that are connected to the router as well as other important information.

The  D-Link Xtreme N Gaming Router (model number DGL-4500) will sell for a $239.99.

With WiFi proving to be a wonderful business investment for many companies, business entities all over the world are more than happy to provide WiFi service to a very receptive market.

Alltel Wireless, just last week, launched its own WiFi service that caters to customers in North and South America. The new WiFi service will be powered by Boingo Wireless.

The Arkansas based company now ooffers WiFi and EVDO Wireless Internet package that offers both unlimited WiFi access from any of its hotspot. The price starts at just $9.99 a month, which is on top of the customer’s wireless internet plan. There is also a prepaid service in the form of prepaid WiFi cards that are available in Alltel Wireless stores. The values available is $19.99 a week or $9.99 a day.

Alltel officials said the new product offering is in line with its goal to provide customers various ways of connecting to the internet. The decision of Alltel to come out with a WiFi product came just a few weeks from Nokia’s own announcement that it will be offering a new phone that has built in WiFi capabilities. The Nokia 6301 will use UMA technology that will give users the ability to use either a GSM network or a wireless LAN.

Samsung recently released a revamped version of its Q1 ultraportable computer. This iteration did not sit well with consumers mainly because of its high selling price and the lack of a keyboard. The failure of this initial stab at the ultraportable market was such a dud that some manufacturers even looked at it as a sign that there is no business to be had in this sector and decided to just walk away from servicing this segment.

But Samsung has been steadfast in their commitment and they have now released the Q1 Ultra — which is a vast improvement over the previous model. It sports an 800 mhz Intel processor, Windows Vista, and connectivity to cellular networks. It also has a webcam. All these features have been squeezed into a form factor that only weighs 1.5 pounds. Of course, Samsung addressed the biggest gripe about the Q1 by adding a keyboard to the Ultra. Oh, and there is also the standard bluetooth and WiFi connectivity as well as a nifty 1.3 megapixel camera at the back.

Overall, the Q1 Ultra is a great device to own if you are the type who loves to surf and type out small emails to friends or even make mobile phone calls. It basically serves as specific set of functions — and it does them well. It will not, however, replace your notebook computer in terms of features and usability.

Laptops can be such an addictive machine. I remember when I had my first laptop — I just had to bring it with me wherever I went. Lugging around my computer made me feel so much more productive because I can squeeze in more work. Entertaining myself when I’m bored was also answered by having my laptop with me. With the advent of WiFi, bringing a laptop became so much more fun. You can now chat with friends, surf your favorite sites or even play online. Unfortunately, there are some areas where you can only wish that you can use the internet with your laptop. Long airplane trips are one of those situations where having an internet access would have made a great difference. Fortunately, American Airlines sees the world the same way I do.

The airline company has recently announced that it will begin tests for the deployment of inflight broadband internet access by 2008. The tests will initially be conducted on American Airlines’ transcontinental routes. The service is going to be fee based and will also block video conferencing and VOIP services so that these internet tasks will not disrupt ground to air communications. Also, this particular service will only be available in US flights because of the nature of the technology being used.