WeFi, the company that maps hotspots around the world using its community, announced today that it raised more funds for R&D and marketing purposes.
WeFi’s product supports Nokia and WinMo devices and newly version for the Andorid devices.

We understand the rising need for mobile Wi-Fi, more devices support Wi-Fi, Skype and other services assist users to use their devices more and better using this connectivity method, and there is a viable business model even in “tracking” what hotspots users connect to and what they do with it.

We still miss the benefit to the end-user. In most cases native Wi-Fi connection wizards are pretty easy to use, and the users do not get any special advantage or feature when using the client. Getting information recorded by other users on hotspots is virtually irrelevant, there is no real problem finding good hotspots for the first time when available.

Another element is that in order to retrieve the information from the servers, a connection must be established to get the data and because the Wi-Fi connection is still inactive, it forces the user to use another data connection in order to get to the point the user can connect to the hotspot.

The question here is how Wefi’s management use the funds raised. Will the R&D funds be directed to extend their device support or will it be used to add the killer feature that will make Wefi’s service something the users actually need and use.

Wefi, the “Hotspot” based social network is now available to download  through the S60  download catalog.
Wefi mobile client (that we have reviewed) ranks hotspots based on the  users that have previous logged on a specific hotspot giving it a higher rank.
Once a Wefi user is searching for a hotspot, the client will try to connect the “high ranked” hotspot first.
As I wrote before the client is easy to use, just chose the Wefi access point and you are done.
By the way I hope they took in to account my remarks about the potential of the client to serve as a mobile social network specially, when LBS and mobile social networks are prospering.
There are two issues that disturbs me with the client, the first is that it runs on background, but that can be partly solved by opening Wefi before every search for a wi-fi spot.
The second is that the client is powered by users and for a better experience more hotspots need to be found by users.
That is why Wefi are working on enlarging their user base, recently they added a Fring add-on, run a campaign with ROK, and now they will be available through the S60 download.
It seems that like any mobile client it is all about distribution channels, and as for Wefi they are on the right track.

Gather few mobile freaks and supply them with a hotspot, it will not be long and they will interact with one another.
Now think about that, you have no need to gather them together, “Automatic – WeFi” Will do it for you.
Mobile social network is another mobile phone “Hotspot” therefore the future of it is currently unclear.
WeFi is a new (mobile) player that use Wi-Fi to connect people together.
WeFi, launched back in 2007, helps people find hotspots using their laptop. The software has about 4 million users, helping each other to find hotspots.
The new version for Windows mobile and Nokia S60 phones is more “WE” than “FI”.
Connecting my Nokia E61 on a regular basis to a Wi-Fi connection is a simple task.
The E61 connects automatically to known access points and searching for new ones is also not too complicated.
The new Automatic – WeFi will improve a bit your Wi-fing skill, just a bit.
I have to say that the S60 connection manager is fairly nice and it achieved some degree of improvement to the simplicity of the interface. There is always a place for improvement, but I do not think that “Automatic – WeFi” is the answer because the interface is already trivial enough to enable users to connect.
The important factor is the content or the application that run over the network and in this case a social network / proximity based service are the services that will do the impact using the technology.
I think that most mobile Wi-Fi users are tech-savvy or just using iPhone-E&N Nokia series and windows mobile devices.
Building a mobile social network using Wi-Fi will certainly bring people together.