By November 23, 2009

Boingo WiFi app for iPhone – review

You know what, let me tell you something: if whole life you are just commuting to work and you travel only once a year for holidays then don’t read this review – because then you have absolutely no idea.

However if you are traveling regularly, come on, you can’t miss this review:

So what is Boingo? It’s a service where you pay very low monthly free in return for unlimited access to thousands of WiFi hotspots all over the world.

Firstly, if you switch WiFi on and you connect to the network that is not partner of Boingo, then this appears:

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However if given network is Boingo’s partner, then the message is different:

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Basically this app has a hotspot directory that is being updated periodically so that it can check if given WiFi network is Boingo’s partner or not.

On the other side of the app you can enter your user name and password that you entered where subscribing the Boingo service (for iPhone it’s called “Boingo Mobile” and is cheaper than the one for notebooks). Once you tap on login button, this app is actually logging you in into the WiFi network automatically:

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Some tips and observations:

— it might be worthwhile to check at Boingo’s website to check out in advance which WiFi network is partner of Boing in given area. Rationale: sometimes there are 7-10 WiFi networks in given area and connecting to each of them might be cumbersome.

— this Boingo WiFi app and service might be useful for catching up on news, downloading fresh podcast (50 MB on WiFi is nothing compared to 3G), downloading new apps, etc. The reality is that even if you have flat rate 3G still the 3G coverage is not perfect everywhere. So such super cheap WiFi access might be very useful for travellers.

— while we recommend this app and service mainly for travellers the reality is that in some cities all over the world there is so many hotspots, that this app might be useful for you also if you don’t travel beyond your city

— it is quite striking that WiFi still is much much faster than 3G, so having WiFi is beneficial

— while 3G is in most cases limited to given country, particularly in Europe where there are many countries in small area, Boingo WiFi app is very useful as you can connect to Internet to upload stuff (photos to Twitpic? Tweets? emails? Videos to YouTube? etc) also internationally.

Conclusion: all in all this is a fantastic app and the only disadvantage that we see is lack of built-in map with list of hotspots in given city – to get this one must go with notebook or PC to the full website of Boingo. However if you are either willing to try out all WiFi networks in given area one by one or simply you can check in advance – then this app is extremely useful. And there are also places, like our most favourite airport in Europe – Zurich – where all WiFi networks are Boingo-compatible!

Get it here (price: free, low monthly fee applies separately = 7.95 USD/5.95 EURO/3.95 GBP/9.95 CDN):

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Apart from iPhone, you might be interested also in Windows Mobile phones!



Posted in: Phones

About the Author:

Seasoned tech blogger. Host of the Tech Addicts podcast.
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