Tonight in Los Angeles, I co-hosted a get-together for [unwired],
a listserv and community of people who work in (or cover news about) wireless
technology. A couple dozen entrepreneurs,
technologists,
journalists, and others
gathered for drinks, hot geeky gossip, and live demos of new wireless technologies
at a little bar at the Omni Hotel downtown — the only hotel in the
entire L.A. metropolitan area that offers 100% free WiFi to guests, patrons, and
anybody who just happens
to be stopping through. The hotel's Director of Operations claims that occupancy
rates have soared since the free wireless service was introduced, and told
us, "Our
guests who use WiFi would rather wait for an hour to have an overflowing toilet
fixed than wait an hour for an out-of-service WiFi connection to be fixed." Four
wireless points, installed in the maids' closets and in the elevator
shafts, power the 802.11b network that permeates the building and
surrounding grounds at killer speeds.
After a few rounds of mojitos and manhattans, everyone huddles around Brad
Zutaut, founder of Xingtone, for a
live demo of his company's technology. Read about it, and about the [unwired]
gathering tonight, in this
Reuters story published just a couple of hours ago. Join us at the event
by
listening to the audblog post phoned in from my mobile. Here, Brad is demoing
Xingtones live and answering questions from
the crowd.
audblog audio post, pics, Reuters news article, Discuss
