The argument for ubiquitous internet is ubiquitous computing, a field in its infancy. The UX for continuous data usage is simply terrible. Once you change that, you can change the rest.

The N-series tablets are a great step towards it, but the rest of it requires hardware (such as eyetaps) that just aren't available yet. I could rant for awhile, as this was one of the foci of my MSCS.

To sum up, don't think in terms of the way you access information right now. Do think about the informational transports you use --- this is especially hard in the US, where WAN standards are quite crippled and deployment/pricing is terrible --- and imagine them replaced with one ubiquitous, high-speed, network.

Ford Sync, actually, is a great example of what I'm talking about, although it of course doesn't have any network access.

I think that you miss the point. The point is not about technology, the technology already exists. The point is about people.

Most people do not see the point of ubiquitous internet / computing. They don't want it, even for free, because they feel that they have no use for it. Case in point: Vodafone has been trying to sell UMTS in Germany for the past 2 years. You can use their portal for free (with an UMTS contract which you get with most subsidized smartphones anyway), and they offer you TV channels, some news sites, weather forecasts, basically a decent selection of what people are likely to use on the move (the idea being to hook you up for premium access, of course).

I have yet to see someone who uses it. You see people phoning or using sms everywhere (say public transport or restaurants). You never see anyone using anything else.

People don't want it. It's that simple. You can try as hard as you want, people won't buy it. And eyetaps won't change it: most people would not want to be seen wearing something like that anyway. It clashes with their designer eyewear. It does not look cool. It is the equivalent of wearing a big sign saying "I am a stupid geek and I have no life".

People want to wear designer clothes with brands who will make their friends jealous, not geek devices who will make their friends ashamed of being seen with them. Eyetaps... Jesus!

Of course, some people, i.e. geeks, would want it and that may skew your perception. If I go to the local computing university, I will find plenty of people who want ubiquitous network access. The problem is that they are not a profitable market: you can get flatrate UMTS today for 50€ a month here, but geeks are not prepared to pay that much. You can't build a business model on geeks. But I dare you to go in the street and ask 10 people how much they would pay for mobile internet access, most people will respond that they don't need it, they already have internet at home. And those are the people who already spend 100€ a month on their mobile phone bill.

On one side of the street, hundreds of geeks who want ubiquitous computing but find 50€ a month too much money. On the other side, hundred of millions of people who are not prepared to pay a cent for it, yet already pay 100€ a month for their phone bill. Do you understand? It is about people, not technology.


And no, no amount of technology will ever change that. Ever. Socially speaking, people still do the same things that they have been doing in stone age: talking with their friends, and trying to gain status. Technology never changed that, and it won't today.

wimax will be good because it allows you to bypass your cell provider and just use a direct sip client instead and not pay minute charges any longer and bypass text message limits/cost

as to the original post, Maemoplazer would be a good start.. integrate that with a gps device and have it automatically map out wireless access

...and when will WiMax be available in the U.S.?
(actually, how many countries is it actually available in now)

Or more specifically, when will it be available to use with Internet Tablets?

at most a few years.. for a lot of the cities around me it's being rolled out now - an SD wimax card would be awesome for existing devices

I've installed and tried Boingo with poor results so far:

-in one allegedly Boingo-friendly location, DFW airport, I could not connect despite repeated tries. My user info was rejected (I did verify what I entered was correct).

-supposedly Boingo works with T-Mobile hotspots, which are in Starbucks, but the brand-new Starbucks by me has no wifi hotspot to test. grr.

I will keep trying...

So true. I plead guilty. I am a geek and proud of it.

Since i work in a telco, my voice and data usage locally is free. Back in Singapore, I have a postpaid line with unlimited data subscribed. I use far more MB than minutes, and the only thing limiting my use of data is battery life on my mobile devices. Once I get Mr Fusion working on my N800 and my E51, I shall be unstoppable.

At least in the UAE and in Singapore.

My opinion on ubiquitous internet is that it needs to find an application that is invisible. That is, where you don't actually think that you are using it. One example is internet radio. Imagine getting in your car, and instead of satellite radio, you have an internet radio in your car. The way it could work now is to automatically link up via bluetooth on your phone, all you would have to do is turn the dial to your faviorate station.

Add traffic info feeding to your car's on-board gps to this, and you can see at a glance if it is worth it to take the express way to work this morning, or take the secondary roads. But it has to be available for a low monthly flat rate.

Maybe I should have posted this here.

@Jerome, what your are saying might be right, but I think techonlogy also changes the way people behave. I'm 19 and I grew up with computers, but I grew up with them in a differnet way young people do today. Let me give some examples, why people will have very much the need for Internet everywhere. All younger people I know, especially the girls, use social community websites like Facebook (or SchuelerVZ in Germany), and they use them a lot. Even the people at my age do, when our class is in the computer room of our school with no particular job to do, they will play flash games, surf social community sites, write email, watch youtube videos and all this stuff, though they all could also be only talking to each other. What people will do is watch the videos with their friends and have a big laugh or chatter away about the newest photos on the social community website.
And all of them will use IM much more often then they use their telephones.
The Internet is not the place of Information it once was, it's THE place for entertainment and communication. Just imagene how hard it is to plan a party for the evening and inviting say 20 people if you had to phone them and even if you did, you would easily miss someone. it's much easier to jst write an anuncment on your profile.
And if people are using these services, they want to use them on the go aswell.

The point why all these new techniques aren't going anywhere is their bad design. Absolutely no one wants to download a blockbuster movie on the go or buy music while on the road. People don't want those fixed services, what they want is the Internet and only the Internet.
Getting the true Internet mobile however is at the moment only possible with either Nokia N8x00 or an iPhone. One of them is geeky, the other one is expensive the second part being the biggest problem, at the moment mobile data is way to expensive and is always kept in the guided routel of the carrier.