I try to leave the truly geeky tech stuff to the fine folks at BoingBoing and Engadget — you may have noticed them on the blogroll to your right — but this is something I haven’t yet seen on either of them.
Got a laptop and one of them new-fangled WiFi-enabled cell phones? Sick of wandering around looking for an open wireless connection? Well, dig this: A new program called Walking Hot Spot turns your phone into a WiFi router, letting your laptop access its 3G data capability. You can control the level of security, and allow as many as four other users to access the connection.
Pretty clever, huh? (Particularly if said phone has an unlimited data package.) I imagine it’ll suck your battery dry fairly quickly, but presumably you’d just plug your phone into your laptop to charge.
The downside: It’s currently only available for phones running Windows Mobile 6.0 and up, or Symbian 60, whatever that is. I’m sure the iPhone store has a similar app somewhere on its vast virtual shelves … and if not, it’s just a matter of time.