Unfinished Windows 7 feature turns laptops into Wi-Fi hotspots

A Philadelphia developer has rooted out an unfinished feature of Windows 7 that turns any laptop into a wireless access point, allowing other Wi-Fi-enabled devices to share the connection without special software. Nomadio, which specializes in military network consulting and development, used the new "Virtual Wi-Fi" feature in Windows 7 to create Connectify, a free application that it released as a beta last Friday. Virtual Wi-Fi was crafted in Microsoft's research group as a way to "virtualize" one wireless card as several separate adapters. The project was discontinued in 2006, but the work made its way into Windows 7 as "Native 802.11 Virtual Wireless Fidelity (Virtual Wi-Fi) object identifiers (OIDs)". "A year ago, Microsoft talked a lot about this as a big feature in Windows 7," said Alex Gizis, the CEO of Nomadio. "But driver support didn't get finished. The low-level code is in there, but the driver-level stuff isn't. And there's no app or setting in Windows to turn it on." Explaining that the feature was "half there" in Windows 7, Gizis said his company realized "we have the rest of the software here, in our networking work."

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9140133/Unfinished_Windows_7_feature_turns_laptops_into_Wi_Fi_hotspots?source=rss_news

Google drives into new market with Maps Navigation beta for Android

If you're an Android user, Google is hoping to help you get where you're going. The company today unveiled the beta version of Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 devices. Basically, Google is trying its hand at a GPS system -- and another lucrative business market. "This new feature comes with everything you'd expect to find in a GPS navigation system, like 3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance and automatic rerouting," wrote Keith Ito, a Google software engineer, on a blog post today. "But unlike most navigation systems, Google Maps Navigation was built from the ground up to take advantage of your phone's Internet connection."Ito noted that the new beta release is designed for voice search so users don't have to type on their phones in a vehicle. It will also offer live traffic data, satellite imagery, the ability to find businesses along your route, and a street view. For Google, the company is not only offering a new feature for the Android, but it's also diving headlong into a new market. And that, according to Dan Olds, principal analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group, is a good idea. "With this product, Google injects itself into a new market and has the potential to cause serious pain for the existing players, like Garmin and TomTom, while giving potential customers one more solid reason to switch to a Google-powered phone," Olds said. "It's a lot easier to justify the switch to a new device if it takes the place of two devices, like a phone and a navigation device, and if it does the job better."

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9140055/Google_drives_into_new_market_with_Maps_Navigation_beta_for_Android?taxonomyId=77