It’s been a busy few weeks here at Devicescape and we haven’t had the chance to write until now.  On October 20th we announced our own hotspot network called, simply, the Easy WiFi Network. We launched a brand new web portal at easywifi.com to eventually replace my.devicescape.com and released a new version of the iPhone OS app via Apple’s App Store.  This week we followed up with upgraded apps for Nokia devices via Ovi, and a brand new platform - Android - on the Android Marketplace.  And, we produced new versions of the PC app for Windows 7 and a new version of the Mac app for Snow Leopard.  Whew!

This new version is a HUGE change for Devicescape.  For the last two years we’ve built a loyal following of users who use Easy WiFi to connect to their hotspot accounts.  We now support over 1200 different hotspot providers, ranging from commercial providers like AT&T to university campuses (go AirBears!)  Right now we’re managing around 400,000 connections per day with our little utility.  Pretty cool.  But, of course, we’re always thinking of ways to improve our products, so we decided to take it to the next level by going beyond connecting to helping people find WiFi and give them a hotspot network to connect to!

The Easy WiFi Network is the culmination of this planning.  On easywifi.com you can see a map of our network (the pins in blue are locations you can access)  and you can search around to see the coverage.  The downloadable apps do the same thing while you’re mobile, plus they will connect you automatically (semi-automatically on iPhone) when you’re in range of one of the Easy WiFi Network locations.  And if you have an additional hotspot provider, their locations will show up on the map and you will be connected automatically there too.

We’ve really turned Easy WiFi on its head.  Before, it was only useful if you had a hotspot provider.  Now, we give users free access to a large hotspot network, and if you have an additional provider we extend your coverage.  It’s completely personalized, just the way WiFi should be.

We’ll be blogging a lot more about the  Network now that we have some time to regroup.  It’s going to get very large: right now it’s at 160,000 locations worldwide and growing fast.  Read more about it at easywifi.com.

The Easy Wi-Fi multi network application (white icon) is temporarily unavailable in the Apple App Store.    It will be restored on or around October 20th.

So, why is it unavailable?  Well, we’re working on a big new release, version 4.  Due to the odd behavior of the App Store we can’t have the old version available while we also have a newer version with restricted availability.  We’re not quite ready for prime time on the new app so we want to get it out to our partners and friends who will check it out and give us great suggestions.  This forces us to halt broad availability and control access via Apple’s “promo codes.”

Sorry for the delay.  Meantime you could use another version of Easy Wi-Fi (they’re all extensible to any hotspot provider).

What does version 4 contain?  Well, it’s a secret!  But we’re quite excited as it adds a revolutionary capability that many of you have asked for.  Here’s a graphic from the app to tickle your imagination.  Can you guess?

Want to be among the select reviewers of the new app?  Send us an email request.  We have 10 promo codes available and we’ll allocate them based on the inventiveness of your guess on what’s in version 4 and the sincerity of your plea

We’re happy to announce that Easy Wi-Fi works fine in the latest 3.1 firmware for the iPhone and iPod touch.  Yay!  Thanks to our friends at Apple for helping accommodate us.

Having got that out the way, there are a couple of things you might need to know.  First of all, Apple’s special support only applies to the original Easy Wi-Fi multi-network application (the one with the white icon).  If you’re using any of the other Easy Wi-Fi apps, like the AT&T or T-Mobile version, you’ll need to install the original version too.  It’s free in the AppStore.  You don’t need to use it: just the act of installing it has the effect of telling the iPhone OS not to do “smart” stuff with your Wi-Fi connection in hotspots.

Finally, if you’re one of the many iPod touch users who never upgraded from 2.x firmware, ignore all of this.  You’re fine.  The issue only occurs with iPhone OS 3.0, and if you upgrade you’ll be jumping past that version from now on.

We’re relieved to be back working better on the iPhone and iPod, although it’s clear that Apple hotspot support is still a work in progress.  They did a great job by automating the operator’s Wi-Fi so that sign-in on AT&T (in the US) is seamless.   But their support for other hotspots is really poor and we’re glad that we can help a little with an automated solution.

Devicescape is currently hiring for two new positions.  The first is a manager of mobile products engineering.  This is a key position which owns our client apps, so you need to meld great leadership with a passion for consumer centric mobile products.   A track record which shows you’re way better than any of us will be expected!  You’ll have a small but very talented team to help and a strong partnership with our server people.

The second position is for a build and test engineer, to help ensure our products work well and can be produced efficiently.  You’ll need a good grasp of technology, but also a strong sense for how users perceive usability issues with products.

More information on these can be found on our careers page.  Come make Devicescape and Easy Wi-Fi better!

In my post a few weeks back I announced that we intended to begin charging for our Nokia S60 application.  On further reflection we’ve decided to revisit this decision and instead make all of our consumer clients free.  Part of this decision was based on our challenge with iPhone OS 3.0, documented by John in the posts below, and leading us to make Easy Wi-Fi free in Apple’s AppStore.  I also have to admit that Ovi seems like a much less effective vehicle for paid application distribution than we hoped, so the benefits of frictionless (ie free) distribution outweighed any consumer revenues.

So, effective immediately, all our apps on the various platforms are free of charge, with the notable exception of those distributed via Nokia Download which will still get the $4.99 “try-before-you-buy” version.

Thanks for all your support in the past and we hope you continue to enjoy using Easy Wi-Fi.

We’re finding out a little more now, especially the reason why some people are not seeing any problem running the Easy Wi-Fi apps under iPhone OS 3.0. [Check out the MacWorld article about the new login capabilities of iPhone OS 3.0.]

We’ve also found a case where the app can still be useful even without that workaround, so several of the Easy Wi-Fi apps will be returning to the store today as free apps!

We’ll try to keep this blog updated with what we learn, as we learn it (within the limitations of any non-disclosure agreements).

Re-authentication

On the AT&T network we have noticed that depending on what you do once connected, you can be pretty quickly timed-out. In that case, when you try to access the web you’ll get the regular login form, and, of course, other apps like email just fail. You can make the built-in authentication work again by turning Wi-Fi off and back on, but you can also just launch Easy Wi-Fi to handle the re-authentication for you.

We’re assuming that this will also be true on other networks where the access controller times out the client devices when they’re idle without actually forcing them to disconnect from the Wi-Fi layer. Please let us know your experiences.

The Good News

Today’s release of the iPhone OS 3.0 has added what is really two new features that will benefit public Wi-Fi users:

1. Automated login to any carrier provided Wi-Fi networks (e.g. all of AT&T’s Wi-Fi locations here in the US);
2. An integrated mechanism for logging in to other public Wi-Fi networks via a web form.

Obviously, iPod touch users don’t benefit from the carrier network feature (they don’t have a carrier!), but they do get the integrated web form login mechanism.

The Bad News

As with the good news above, there are two bits of bad news here too:

1. The integrated mechanism, at least for me, does not remember what I entered, forcing me to retype the information each time. The new autofill button is always unavailable even though I have the feature turned on in the Safari settings.
2. When this form fails, or when you tap cancel to skip it, rather than leaving you connected the OS disconnects from the Wi-Fi network. That prevents you from using a third party smart-client like Devicescape’s Easy Wi-Fi.

Disappointed

Given that our apps are unable to serve their purpose in this new version of the OS, we took the difficult decision to remove them from sale in the App Store last night. That’s very disappointing for us as we’ve been ardent supporters of the iPhone platform since the beginning. We had a version of our app for jailbroken phones long before the SDK was ever announced. We even demoed that version to the iPhone management team at Apple to illustrate how important we felt public Wi-Fi access would become for the iPhone and iPod touch devices.

While we are obviously disappointed that our apps have been disabled by this new release, we’re also hopeful that the message about the importance of public Wi-Fi has been understood at Apple. Hotspot login clients are not as simple to write as one might think at first glance, especially not ones that must support thousands of different networks. It has taken us several years to get to the point where we can connect to that many networks, and even now there are still some networks that surprise us with a new trick.

The Future

For Devicescape, the fact that we don’t have an opportunity to help our valued users connect to their preferred hotspots effortlessly is frustrating. But, we’re not giving up on the iPhone platform! Far from it in fact. We have been working very hard since we discovered the problem to find out how we can re-enable our apps, and as soon as we can make them valuable again they will come back onto the store. We also have new features in the works, ironically enabled by the 3.0 version of the OS, that will make them even better.

In closing, we’d like to thank our iPhone and iPod touch users for their support to date, and ask you to hang on to your apps while we sort out what we can and cannot do in this new 3.0 world. We have big plans for our applications on all our platforms, and while we’re temporarily out of the App Store, we will be back. We’d also love to hear from you about your experiences with the Wi-Fi in the new OS, either via the comments here on the blog or through our forum.

Those of you who are Nokia phone users will likely notice a new version of Easy Wi-Fi making its way out to you.   There’s already a new version - 3.0.70 - available on the Devicescape download page, and we’d expect that the Nokia Download! folder will get updated pretty soon.

The biggest change for this new release is that it heralds that start of us charging new users for the Nokia application.  Windows, Mac, and Nokia webtablet versions remain free, for now, but the S60 will move to a paid model to match the Apple iPhone and iPod applications available at the Apple App Store.  We’ve set pricing at $4.99, which is on the low side for Symbian applications but seems to be a reasonable balance.

Nokia Download! has no e-commerce capability, so purchases take place via Devicescape’s website using Google Checkout.  As Nokia introduces their Ovi Store, we’ll migrate to use that too.

To be clear, it’s only new users who will have to pay.  The download is actually a 7-day, fully functional trial for them and needs to be purchased  to continue operation.  If you’re an existing Easy Wi-Fi user you’ll be able to enter your account information to immediately “unlock” the trial at no cost.   3.x versions at the very least will be free of charge (we haven’t decided about future upgrades).

Here at Devicescape HQ, we’re hard at work preparing our next software release for S60 handsets.  We’re not quite ready to share it with the whole world yet, but we’d like to show it to some of our more technical users to get their feedback and suggestions.  If you’re interested in helping us design new features and make our product better, leave us a comment and we’ll email you back with setup instructions.

Devicescape is proud to announce that we’re now offering technical support contracts for any developers working with the open source wpa_supplicant software. As a developer, you know that there are times in a project when it is too late to switch from open source to a commercial product, but you are facing problems you just cannot resolve. The open source community is a great resource, and there are a lot of people out there who are very willing to help when they can, but sometimes you want a guaranteed response (or you don’t want to let your competitors know you’re working on a Wi-Fi device).

Or maybe you just don’t need any of our advanced features (Wi-Fi Protected Setup, Cisco Compatible Extensions or remote management) in your current project, but would prefer the security of knowing that you had a place to turn for technical support should you hit a problem integrating the open source supplicant with your system.

That’s where our WPA Supplicant Support comes in!

Read the rest of this entry »