ipodtouch: any views, esp on wi-fi service

[jkklpu]

I'm thinking of getting an itouch so that I can browse on the go. I live in London and imagine that there's enough free wi-fi around to make this worthwhile, but am interested in others' views on this, as well as how worthwhile they are in other places.

For locating and connecting to WiFi hotspots, I would recommend an app called "WiFiFoFum" (£1.79). The built in WiFi finder in the settings menu is OK, but that one is very good and shows much more information, plus it finds hidden networks and can connect at a much lower signal strength.

If you are on a poor WiFi connection (one wifi bar, -70 or lower RSSI) you wil find the battery life gets eaten pretty quickly - full to empty is a couple of hours listening to a internet radio stream at -80.

Oh the Wifi antennas polarised, so you get a much better reception holding the IPod upright than flat horizontal.

For browsing, not had a particular problem with the small screen. Although the built in safari browser doesn't support flash.

I use mine as essentially a pda with a few toys on it (DOOM, FreeCell, etc).

Thanks very much - really helpful, liamsdaddy.

To be honest my experience is that there's not that many free WiFi hotspots around. The times that I have thought to check (stations, pubs and restaurants in the main) I usually turn up a blank.

I certainly wouldn't want to give the impression that you can drift around London and browse the net as if you've got an iPhone.

Maybe I'm just rubbish though....

Try a peek at londonist.com/2007/05/free_wifi_in_lo.php for a reasonable list and location guide to free wifi.

Or www.jiwire.com/ - although that websites a bit buggy (or maybe it doesn't like Firefox 3.7!)

To be honest, I haven't tried my iPod on WiFi in London just yet, but I suspect (and that web site certainly suggest) that most of the hotspots are gathered towards the centre.

Free public WiFi in the UK does seem a little pants. Going to other countries seems so much better (or is that the grass is greener...?).