More people than ever are carrying around smart phones these days. That includes our students here at NUS too. The IT service desk here is seeing a marked increase in the number of students, as well as some staff too of course, seeking help to get their Nokia phones or whatever other Windows Mobile smart phones/PDAs setup to connect to the NUS campus wireless network.
Previously, help sought on wireless configuration would typically be limited to notebooks. There would be a PDA or two very now and then. But quite significantly of late is the onslaught of smart phone owners.
The nice thing is that in NUS, there is quite pervasive wireless coverage. This is what Wireless@SG really should have been. So it is no wonder that everyone is eager to get their smart phones and PDAs setup to tap on the “free” wireless network. My well-referenced NUS wireless configuration guide for the Nokia N95 has served quite well for just about all modern Symbian based phones (N97, 5800 XpressMusic, etc), and even provided the essential information to setup other non-Symbian phones.
Everyone nowadays wants to be always-connected, always-online. For a period of time, I was always on Facebook, simply because of the Facebook widget on my N97. (Even prior to that, I was like almost always on Facebook too, because the instant messaging client on my MacBook could login to Facebook.) But nowadays the Facebook always-on fad has passed for me. It makes my N97 grab on to 802.11 networks and drains the battery faster.
But more and more phones are being touted with such features as always-on Windows Messenger, Facebook, and Twitter. The phone is not a just a phone. It is as online connection. The Internet is what connects people. (That’s how the technology is evolving anyway. In the 4G network, IP will be the carrier for voice, data and multimedia applications.)
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