This rather radical notion is the philosophy of the Karma wifi hotspot that launched in December.
FORBES: How To Get Free Internet When A Stranger Uses Your Wi-fi
This time around, the Japanese carrier has revealed 10 new smartphones, two tablets and a mobile WiFi hotspot.
Boingo Wireless shares are trading sharply lower in late trading Thursday after the WiFi hotspot operator posted disappointing Q4 financial results.
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Using the handset as a WiFi hotspot is a very convenient feature.
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Like the Junxion Box, the D-Link DI-725 and Kyocera's KR1 let you roll your own WiFi hotspot via a PC EV-DO card.
Plug your iPhone into the Nexaira BC2 Router and you can instantly create a secure WiFi hotspot using the 3G connection from your phone.
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Motorola Photon 4G: Sprint sent out a small update to the Photon 4G this week that enables 1080p video capture and brings WiFi hotspot enhancements.
That connectivity then shows up to anyone in the car (or nearby) as a WiFi hotspot that can be configured with whatever settings you like.
Much like a 4G version of FON, subscribers to the Clearwire-rooted network are required to share their Internet link-ups with the public as a WiFi hotspot.
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But a significantly cheaper version should appeal to shutterbugs already comfortable with the Android OS. Bonus points for those of you who can simply use your smartphone as a WiFi hotspot.
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Above those is a sliding row of quick toggles (albeit in a slightly different order than last time): WiFi, Mobile Data, Smart Saving, Instant Dictionary (which is new), WiFi Hotspot, Bluetooth, GPS, Vibrate and Auto-rotate Screen.
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You can actually see this demonstrated in our video after the break, where we streamed an episode from NBC's Saturday Night Live website through a WiFi network (but the Plair can also create its own hotspot for direct WiFi connection, which is handy for avoiding slow hotel networks).
This gives you close to instant access to options you'll likely want to use quite often, such as toggling the WiFi, GPS, or mobile hotspot functions on and off.
The BMW Car Hotspot LTE is essentially a purpose-built WiFi router that houses an LTE SIM (it also supports 3G and EDGE).
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Were Dash's cellular network support faster, one opportunity would be leveraging its WiFi and wide-area connectivity to create an in-vehicle hotspot.
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Unlike its predecessor, the WB150F becomes a WiFi access point instead of relying on the app to create a hotspot -- something that's generally limited to phones that allow tethering.
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Gaal assured that the Karma hotspot uses the same type of Internet safeguards found in any open wifi at cafes and airports.
FORBES: How To Get Free Internet When A Stranger Uses Your Wi-fi
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