Portable Wi-fi Base Stations now available

At last, you can now get a wi-fi base station in your pocket.

If you're out-and-about and need mobile Internet, there have been three options open to you: Use a mobile phone, get a USB mode for you laptop, or hope you're in range of a wi-fi hotspot.

Now, there's a fourth option - a portable wi-fi access point. UK Network Operator 3 has now launched "MiFi", a mobile Wi-fi service. The modem, a Huawei E5830 pictured to the right, is a 3G modem that gets a mobile broadband connection from the 3 network, then turns it into a wi-fi signal that any wi-fi device can find and use for Internet connection.

The modem costs a one-off £70, and £15 a month will get you 5Gigs of download allowance. There's no long-term contract - it's a rolling monthly contract.

More details on our new Mobile Wi-fi page, or at 3's MiFi website

Podcast Update - iPhones, Sat Nav and Mergers

Our podcast boys have just released a quick audio update, as there are a couple of news stories that we wanted to pass on to you as soon a possible.

In this show, we look at the plans for Orange and T-Mobile to merge, Apple's new product lineup, an update on the Sat Nav apps for iPhone, plus news on Freeview, BT Vision and Sky.

You can download the show or listen online at www.frequencycast.co.uk/update.html

We'd also like to remind our regulars that you may want to check out our full-length podcast that came out at the start of the month. In Show 43, we get hands-on with some new GPS gadgets. We hope you like what you here. Catch the show at www.frequencycast.co.uk/cast43.html

Please tell your chums!

CoPilot for iPhone now with safety cameras

The battle to be the best sat nav app for the iPhone continues with a new update to CoPilot Live from ALK Technologies. They've released a free update to their sat nav application, adding support for safety cameras, and fixing that rather nasty bug where routes were lost when the application exits.

CoPilot Live continues to get our 5 out of 5 - See our iphone Sat Nav comparison table to see why we feel it beats TomTom and MobileNavigator for the best of breed iPhone app.

CoPilot is also the smallest app, as well as being the cheapest on offer.

More: iPhone Sat Nav Apps compared

T-Mobile and Orange to form super-network

Mobile Phone firms T-Mobile and Orange are set to merge, it's just been announced.

Due to the complexities of such a merger, the super-network won't come into being until 2011 at the earliest, and is still subject to regulator approval.

Assuming the deal goes ahead, the new company would control around 37% of the UK mobile phone business, making them the largest UK operator by a long way with around 28 million customer. (Current number 1 o2 is said to have 20 million subscribers).

Merging the two networks will also mean changes to the network - some duplicated cellbases will be removed, and the combined network will see an increase in coverage.

There will doubtless be other changes - to high street shops, duplicated call centres and back-end departments, and of course a new name, which won't be announced for about a year or so.

Podcast: FrequencyCast 43 out now

Show 43 of FrequencyCast, our UK's TV and Tech podcast, is online now.

In FrequencyCast Show 43, Carl and Pete look at GPS Watches, Mobile Phone watches and GPS gadgets. We also compare the new iPhone Sat Nav apps from TomTom, CoPilot and Navigon, plus run down the latest TV and Tech headlines.

If you've not tried our podcast yet - it's free, and you can listen online or download shows to your mobile phone or media player

You can download Show 43 direct to your MP3 player or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html.

You can also get us via iTunes.

Garmin 405 - Top GPS Sports Watch

We've just added a page looking at what you can do with a GPS-enabled wristwatch.

Our top watch is the Garmin Forerunner 405, which has onboard GPS, can track your heartrate using a chest strap, and wirelessly sends your excercise and location data to your PC.

The Garmin 405CX was also rated #1 Sports Watch in this week's Gadget Show on Five.

Full details of the Garmin 405 GPS Watch, at www.filesaveas.com/gpswatches.html