Turn your backpack into a wireless hotspot

The big idea is to build a portable, solar-powered Wi-Fi hotspot, and share a high-speed connection anywhere.

This site said that Wi-Fi is useless without a hotspot and while thousands are available, few are free. He found that coverage is also a bit of a problem if you like hiking.

Using Outmesguine's backpack will set you back more than $1,000 and it marries the short-range power of Wi-Fi with the huge coverage areas of high-speed cellular services such as EV-DO to create a portable hotspot.

The design is wired to a 1.2-amp-hour battery and a Voltaic Systems backpack, which has a built-in solar charger.

He says it will give him three hours surfing when he is hiking in the hills around Southern California. If he carried it around Inner London, people would think he was from New Zealand or Australia who for some reason always carry their packs on the tube. µ