Although I disdain employing the curse word "sucks" that is now so favored by the lower orders and the tech community, it is the appropriate term to characterize the quality of WiFi at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
It's up, it's down, it's slow, it's fast usable. For a journalist or blogger who wants to or must file articles right now, using WiFi is an exercise in frustration. Perhaps I shouldn't complain because at least there is WiFi -- that's free -- when the prices for European WiFi are often so high that it would be laughable, if it weren't pathetic.
But I am complaining because wireless data isn't a "nice thing to have"; it's a necessity. If the electricity, heating or air conditioning worked with the consistency of WiFi at the conference, attendees and exhibitors would be rioting. Access to the Internet makes me smarter and more useful -- both conditions that I sorely need.
Journalists and bloggers can use the reliable (although not always speedy) Ethernet connections in the huge, multi-room press center (see below; just one small section). Also, the WiFi in the press center seems to be more reliable than around most of the exhibit halls.
A good cellular data solution
But there are eight buildings with 1,300 exhibitors at 1,500 booths, plus the panel discussions, and I want to visit a significant percentage of those exhibits. I need to write on-the-go, and not be tied to the press center.
The solution is to use multiple devices and multiple methods of communications. One of the best is buying a prepaid SIM from Yoigo, the fourth Spanish cellular operator that's also a Mobile Virtual Network Operator on Vodafone.
The prepaid SIM is 10 euros ($14.57) and that includes a daily rate of, I think, 1.2 euros ($1.74) for unlimited data over EDGE. In other words, for the time I'm at the Mobile World Congress, I am paying less then $20 for all the data I can use.
The SIM also includes voice, but I don't need that. (MAXRoam is one of the less expensive services for international cellular voice roaming.)
I need a keyboard!
Using Yoigo for checking e-mail on my phone, often using Gmail, and surfing the Web is a pretty good experience from a data speed standpoint. Although Yoigo is only 2.53G, it's pretty fast, even downloading Web pages.
(I'm using a Nokia N95 five megapixel camera phone. I really like this phone. Yes, I get it for free from Nokia, that is paying for my trip to Barcelona. But I'd tell you if I didn't like any Nokia handset. No strings attached.)
But the N95 has a keypad only, not a keyboard, and I hate using keypads for even short SMS (primitive communications method), let alone writing paragraphs or pages of text. Some of the other bloggers invited to Barcelona by Nokia, and I, are connecting a Nokia phone (the N95, in several versions, seems to be the favorite) via Bluetooth to a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet (see below).
The N810 has a large, relatively high resolution touch screen and WiFi connectivity. It incorporates a slide-out keyboard as well as an on screen keyboard. When connected to a cellular phone -- an easy Bluetooth procedure -- it's a cinch to use Yoigo for Internet access.
Check out how Alec Saunders, one of the bloggers invited by Nokia, used this combination for podcasting.
Not perfect
I could use the N810's WiFi capabilities to connect to the Internet. But not only is the WiFi connection generally awful but the N810 isn't always good finding and connecting to weaker WiFi signals. My laptop computer has been able to find and connect to WiFi at the Mobile World Congress while the N810 sometimes couldn't find a signal or connect. (At home the N810 finds my WiFi router very quickly and stays connected.)
In addition, the N810's keyboard isn't especially good for typing lots of text. It's fine for typing URLs or a few sentences.
But there's no space between the keys, the key travel is short and, for me, it takes a bit more effort than I'd like to press the keys. I prefer keys that respond to a light touch.
One hand, other hand
On the one hand, the N810 isn't designed for heavy (or moderate) text entry. It's designed primarily as a portable Internet browsing and multimedia device. It's good for Internet browsing as well as watching videos, listening to music, accessing FM radio and Internet radio stations and reading weblogs.
On the other hand, the slide-out keyboard is better -- but not that much better -- than the on-screen keyboard that has large (albeit virtual) keys. If a manufacturer is going to incorporate a physical keyboard, I'd certainly like it to be much more usable.
It's a complex design problem -- creating a device that looks classy and sleek and is extremely portable while at the same time providing excellent keyboard functionality. Matt Miller, who writes the excellent ZDNet weblog, "The Mobile Gadgeteer," and is also one of the invited bloggers, mentioned that Nokia could have put some of the navigation keys on the bezel surrounding the screen to create a wider keyboard.
Large isn't always the answer
The problem is a bigger keyboard isn't necessarily a better keyboard. I can enter text much faster on the smaller BlackBerry Curve's keyboard, as an example, than on the N810 and many other cellular phones that have clamshell QWERTY keyboards.
I'm still looking for the take-everywhere wireless typing device that's small enough to fit in a large pocket. A tremendous amount of effort is going into designing small, powerful mobile devices, such as the so-called MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) that I discussed in my weekly "Thinkernet" wireless column on CMP's "Internet Evolution" Web site.
Sony Ericsson just introduced a new QWERTY keyboard on a powerful multimedia cellular phone, as I wrote, but the keyboard seems worse than the N810's.
So, I'm still looking.
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