Is there a brand of smart phone that can do this?...
 

Okay so you're sitting in a hotel bar and want to check something online. But for some reason your cell reception isn't allowing it. So you switch over to "laptop mode" and connect to the internet via the hotels' free wi-fi, just as any laptop user would do, and you surf the net that way.

Possible?

I know very little about mobile devices, admittedly, but I was with a few people last night who were in this very predicament with their phones and I got to wondering why this wasn't possible. Or is it?

Just about every smart phone nowadays has wifi.

My iphone has wi-fi, but I can't answer your question.

.

Don't you just mean a fone that has wifi ? Which most do nowadays...

Ah, I guess I do mean that. Gnarly.

I'm going to have to school that person from last night on how to work her phone properly I guess.

She has the crackberry.

I was going to say it would be hard to find one that cannot do that. :thumbsup

A little late for April fools... :winkwink: The first iPhone came with Wi-Fi connectivity to allow for the mass consumption of content without having to suffer the high costs of data. As said above pretty much all smartphones are now Wi-Fi enabled. The number of people connecting to Wi-Fi with their mobile's to surf the internet in the majority of countries has to be well over 60%! :2 cents:

any smart phone should do this

Okay, so I take it the overall consencus is that any smart phone can do this?

Just making sure. Maybe 15 more posts of people saying it will reasure me. :D

If it's got wi-fi then yes.

:) Android will do that by default. With the Sanity app you can do so much more like "connect to wi-fi" when I'm at home or between the hours of 9-5, but not during lunch time".

If you want a more robust version of that sort of app, check out Tasker. You seem like a guy who would lose more than a few hours playing with it. I know I have. :thumbsup

Someone doesn't own a smart phone. All phones can do this.

However, I've never had the need and don't even know how. I have Verzion and not once have I ever not had reception. I was in Phoenix with two friends in a nice restaurant and they didn't have reception where I did. I was surprised.

all newer blackberry's can do this not sure about the older ones.

I had an older blackberry that couldn't do it. I believe it was the last model they released before every model they produced had it standard. This was maybe 3 to 4 years old.

Can't remember the model number.

Guilty as charged.

I'll try and find out how old her blackberry is. IT looked pretty new to me but as we all now know I'm no authority on these devices.

My old Blackberry Curve 8330 did not have wifi but all of my HTC phones (4G, 3D and Arrive) have wifi. I don't think there are many smartphones out now that do not have wifi.

"laptop mode"

I think they should call it that. :D

Laptops are what wi-fi was originally intended for in restaurants and hotels. That much I know.

any smartphone these days has "WiFi" just like a laptop. I do this with my iphone all the time, in my house, any hotspot i can find.

they usually say wifi right on the front, or go into connection settings and if you see wifi there it has it.,

Still trying to reach her. Perhaps her reception is bad right now. :D

Sometimes I too have had meetings with people who have needed to check the internet to check bill payments or to confirm emails or perhaps calendar shipping dates have also had "wifi" failure. Then afterwards they too have been unluckily only the 8th person since the internet was invented that an email "didnt arrive"