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Devicescape – WiFi Management Tool

By The Guru on October 16, 2007

Devicescape
I’ll confess, I’m really late to this party, and it’s entirely my fault. At the Nokia Unlocked party in L.A., a few readers spoke with me about Devicescape, and I’ve had it on the back of my mind ever since. I didn’t realize it was so cool, or that I would be able to use it personally.

Devicescape is basically an application designed to help you manage your WiFi access. Only recently I discovered that through my home internet service, I also get access to AT&T’s WiFi Hotspots around the world (I didn’t even know AT&T *had* a Hotspot network!). With most WiFi Hotspots for some reason, you’re supposed to check-in through their website before you get access to the rest of the internet. Sometimes this website is mobile-friendly, but most of the time it’s not. Even the N800 has issues sometimes, annoyingly. Thus, you’re often locked out of a Hotspot merely because you’re not using a full PC.Enter Devicescape…..

Devicescape Download

It’s real easy to get setup. Go to devicescape.com on your PC (it’s
also available on the N95′s Download! application, and on the N800/770
through the Tableteer site) and setup your account. Once you’ve
registered, you can go in and setup all the WiFi hotspots you have
access to. This can be personal ones like you and your buddies’, or it
can include commercial Hotspot networks such as T-Mobile or AT&T’s.
You put in your username and password for that Hotspot network, and
wa-la. Devicescape manages that for you, and when you get in range of
said Hotspot, it automatically signs in for you, making it easy and
seamless to connect.

I haven’t actually tried this yet, but I will in the next few days
and will report back on this post. I have my AT&T settings plugged
in, and Devicescape is installed on both my N95 and N800, so I
shouldn’t have any issues. I would like to make some feature requests,
though. First and foremost, I want for Devicescape to incorporate my
cellular data access points, as well, so that when I pull up the
browser, it’ll first search for an available Wi-Fi network, and then
fall back on the cellular network if necessary.

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The Guru

The Guru, aka Ricky Cadden, started Symbian-Guru.com in November 2006, out of his excitement for the S60 3rd Edition version of Symella. The Guru has used Symbian devices since the Nokia 6620, and is known for his perspective as a power user. You can follow The Guru on Twitter at @Rcadden

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  • http://profile.typekey.com/Taomyn/ Ferd

    Oh, yes, I’ll give a website my passwords for getting onto my access points. While I’m at it, do you think they want my on-line bank details as well. I don’t care what their privacy policy is – I caught one of my users with this on their company phone, they’d be frog-marched out of the office for breach of security.

    Sorry, but no thanks. I actually think the access point manager works well on the N95 so what’s the point of this service?

  • http://profile.typekey.com/Taomyn/ Ferd

    Oh, yes, I’ll give a website my passwords for getting onto my access points. While I’m at it, do you think they want my on-line bank details as well. I don’t care what their privacy policy is – I caught one of my users with this on their company phone, they’d be frog-marched out of the office for breach of security.

    Sorry, but no thanks. I actually think the access point manager works well on the N95 so what’s the point of this service?

  • http://profile.typekey.com/symbianguru/ Ricky Cadden

    I can see your point, for corporate access points. However, this is more useful for public pay hotspots such as T-Mobile’s and AT&T’s. Some of these require the user to login through a webform before access is granted, and some mobile devices are unable to view that page due to design. With Devicescape, you don’t have to pull up a page to sign in on. The application signs you in automatically.

  • http://profile.typekey.com/symbianguru/ Ricky Cadden

    I can see your point, for corporate access points. However, this is more useful for public pay hotspots such as T-Mobile’s and AT&T’s. Some of these require the user to login through a webform before access is granted, and some mobile devices are unable to view that page due to design. With Devicescape, you don’t have to pull up a page to sign in on. The application signs you in automatically.

  • http://mymobilesite.net Jukka Eklund

    Your point about fallback to GPRS was exactly my thought also (or second..). With S60 3rd Ed, FP2 there are IAP “groups” that could include GPRS and Wifi IAPs, and OS will swap between those automatically. Or that is how I understood it. I guess one of the IAPs could be Devicescape’s “virtual” IAP, and there you have it!

  • http://technoblabber.abhishta.net/ Abhishta Paranjpe

    @Jukka,
    afaik, the newer e-series phones like the E65 already use AP groups, but only for some select apps. Is this trend continuing to FP2 or will we see AP groups enabled for any app needing to access the internet?

  • http://technoblabber.abhishta.net Abhishta Paranjpe

    @Jukka,
    afaik, the newer e-series phones like the E65 already use AP groups, but only for some select apps. Is this trend continuing to FP2 or will we see AP groups enabled for any app needing to access the internet?

  • http://www.ericbrodeur.com/ Eric Brodeur

    I’ve been using Devcescape for awhile now on my E61 and MacBook Pro. It’s worked great with some occassional issues as they work out the bugs. There tech support is very responsive to issues if you send them e-mail directly.

    Here’s what’s useful about using this on a Nokia device: you don’t need to mess with your Access Point Groups. Think about the day you apply the latest firmware or decide to hard reset your device…all those carefully typed Access Points vanish.

    With Devicescape you have a permanent copy of those access points available to you, from any device (mobile, laptop, etc.). As well, you can share your access points with Buddies. This would resolve the issue of your father-in-law coming to visit and reconfiguring his wi-fi to access your LAN. It’s done automatically for him.

    Do you NEED Devicescape with S60′s Access Point Groups? No, but the same could be said about other software add-ons.

  • http://www.ericbrodeur.com Eric Brodeur

    I’ve been using Devcescape for awhile now on my E61 and MacBook Pro. It’s worked great with some occassional issues as they work out the bugs. There tech support is very responsive to issues if you send them e-mail directly.

    Here’s what’s useful about using this on a Nokia device: you don’t need to mess with your Access Point Groups. Think about the day you apply the latest firmware or decide to hard reset your device…all those carefully typed Access Points vanish.

    With Devicescape you have a permanent copy of those access points available to you, from any device (mobile, laptop, etc.). As well, you can share your access points with Buddies. This would resolve the issue of your father-in-law coming to visit and reconfiguring his wi-fi to access your LAN. It’s done automatically for him.

    Do you NEED Devicescape with S60′s Access Point Groups? No, but the same could be said about other software add-ons.

  • http://mymobilesite.net/ Jukka Eklund

    Your point about fallback to GPRS was exactly my thought also (or second..). With S60 3rd Ed, FP2 there are IAP “groups” that could include GPRS and Wifi IAPs, and OS will swap between those automatically. Or that is how I understood it. I guess one of the IAPs could be Devicescape's “virtual” IAP, and there you have it!

  • http://mymobilesite.net/ Jukka Eklund

    Your point about fallback to GPRS was exactly my thought also (or second..). With S60 3rd Ed, FP2 there are IAP “groups” that could include GPRS and Wifi IAPs, and OS will swap between those automatically. Or that is how I understood it. I guess one of the IAPs could be Devicescape's “virtual” IAP, and there you have it!

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