I’ve been using my iPod touch (upgraded to the 2.0 firmware) at a number of hotspots during the past week. I’ve also been carrying a variety of Windows Mobile WiFi enabled devices. One of the things that has become very clear to me is that the iPod touch acquires access points much much faster than any WiMo device I’ve tried. I’d say that that the iPod touch is generally ready to roll in under 10 seconds. WiMo devices seem to take 30 to 60 seconds just to acquire an access point and then be ready to use (browse, email, etc.). That, of course, is when a WiMo device acquires any signal at all. I’ve run into several public access points where the WiMo Pocket PC (Professional Edition) could not even lock into the WAP. The iPod touch, on the other hand, was working within seconds.
Since the Safari web-browser on the iPod touch is so much better than Internet Explorer on the Pocket PC or Smartphone, it is a no-brainer decision to use the iPod touch when wandering about hot spot areas.
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5 responses to “Why is Windows Mobile WiFi so Sucky?”
I have an unlocked HTC Wizard, with t-Mobile branded Windows Mobile o/s. (t-Mobile’s designation of the PDA is MDA)
Windows Mobile has wiFi and net work card built in, but I am now finding out that I cannot access public WiFi sites, unless I pay t-mobile a fee. I believe they have modified the program registry to force WiFi through a proxy server controlled by t-mobile.
I don’t have to pay a fee to access the public sites with my laptop. Anyone know of a windows software mobile software patch that will resolve this condition?
I am typing this from my ATT Tilt WinMo 6 on wifi using the new Opera 9.# beta. It may take a few extra seconds to connect to hotspot but have very little problems.
Have not had the pleasure of using ipod or iphone wifi.
I know that Windows desktop machines take longer to connect to other devices because they run several checks on what is available as far as networking is concerned. This may be carried over to their mobile devices as well. It may be the fact that the OS is trying to build a network of all the computers it can find even if you don’t want it to. The wait is the OS listen for all the computers that could possibly be out there. This is great if you are trying to network computers, even if you blow it 254 local machines can connect by default, but this adds a delay while the computer listen for network traffic.
Frank: You might want to check if Linksys has router firmware upgrade that might help with your touch.
I have had problems with my Touch and DHCP on my Linksys router, so I have had to switch to a static address on the Touch to get reliable connectivity. I have found that I don’t do WiFi on my Windows Mobile devices much any more.