Get the Most Out of Your Android Device with Scannify Desktop Widgets

I spent a few minutes poking around Scannify with one of our developers this morning. To those of you just tuning in, Scannify is a new Android app from the Connectify team. The application, which is already available on the Android Market, offers port-scanning, network discovery, launching of services, and a host of other value-added features to any Android device. Simply put, Scannify allows you to see who’s on your Wi-Fi network, share files with connected devices, and even run a variety of programs and services remotely, right from your Android phone or tablet.

Anyhow, while using Scannify to roam around our office Wi-Fi network today, I was reminded of a useful, and often-overlooked feature: you can drop Scannify widgets right onto the Android desktop for one-touch access to frequently used peers and services. Do you find yourself running Scannify to share files with your work PC or to access iTunes on your tablet fairly often? Use the desktop widget functionality, and you can launch these regularly used devices and services right from your Android desktop.

To use Scannify desktop widgets, navigate to the Android desktop and hold your finger down on an empty space to activate the Android desktop menu. Then select ‘Widget’ and choose the Scannify widget from the desktop menu. From here you've got the ability to make custom widgets for any device on your network. For even quicker access, create widgets that directly launch host services like Remote Desktop and Windows file-sharing right from your Android desktop.

Connectify 2.2.0 is Here!

We are pleased to announce the release of Connectify 2.2.0, available now on download.com.

Connectify is a free Windows 7 application that turns your laptop or home computer into a real Wi-Fi hotspot to share the Internet with friends, co-workers, and mobile devices. Connectify allows you to take any available Internet connection and share it wirelessly with no additional hardware, wires, plugs, or chargers.

Download Connectify 2.2.0 today, and enjoy support for more VPN software, updated look-and-feel, better memory and resource handling, and much more!

New features in version 2.2.0.18566 include:
• Updated look-and-feel
• Installer should no longer be incorrectly flagged by Microsoft Security Essentials
• Fixed Windows XP SP3 clients not receiving DNS addresses (caused by a Windows bug)
• Fixed handling of incorrect DNS NXDomain from some name servers
• Support for more VPN software (OpenVPN)
• Better memory and resource handling, especially while using UPnP
• More icons and names for vendors

Extend the Range of your Home or Office Wi-Fi with Connectify!

In the video below, Connectify CEO and all-around tech-guy, Alex Gizis explains how to extend the range of any home or office Wi-Fi network using Connnectify. The best part? It's totally free! Just fire up your Windows 7 PC, and the Connectify software [available here], and you're ready to boost your Wi-Fi signal to reach the elusive guest bedroom or backyard bbq...

iPhone and the Connectify Wi-Fi Personal Area Network

Connectify is great for reverse-tethering your iPhone: connect your iPhone to your Connectify Wi-Fi hotspot, and whenever your laptop is on the Internet, then your data connections (web browsing, Skype, Youtube… pretty much everything but the phone calls and SMS messages) will go through Connectify.

But I’ve been using a couple of other iPhone apps, which really benefit from Connectify, as a Wi-Fi personal area network, whether or not you have an Internet connection:

• iTunes Remote - This free application from Apple allows you to control iTunes on your PC, as long as you’re on the same Wi-Fi network. It makes navigating and controlling your computer’s iTunes collection look and feel nearly identical to doing the same on the iPhone’s music collection. With Connectify, it just works: once you tell your iPhone to use your Connectify Hotspot, any time you start the Remote app on your iPhone, you’re instantly controlling your music collection!
  
• Snatch - This iPhone app turns your iPhone into a wireless trackpad and keyboard for your computer. There’s a free version, SnatchTest, which lets you use it just as a trackpad. It’s especially great for presentations, it lets you take a big step back and still have complete control of your computer.
  

I’m using both of these on a regular basis. But the App Store is a big place… are there other apps out there that also work better with Connectify? How are you using Connectify with your phone (Apple or otherwise)?

Connectify and the Eye-Fi

I recently had a “chocolate and peanut butter” moment about the power of Connectify and the Wi-Fi Personal Area Network.

If you’re not familiar with the Eye-Fi card, it's a SD memory card with a built in Wi-Fi radio.  As you take pictures with your camera, it automatically connects to your WiFi network and uploads the pictures to either your PC or an online photo-sharing site.   Your camera does not need to be aware of the Eye-Fi or network at all: it’s just saving pictures to an SD card, the same as always.

A truly neat device for anyone who is into photography… except that it needs to be bound to your WiFi network. Since it’s just an SD card with no user interface, to change networks when you go from place to place it needs to be connected to your PC to change settings.  Also, because it doesn’t have a browser, it can’t navigate through the splash screens and captive portals of a hotel or coffee shop Wi-Fi network. And of course it can’t use a wireless Internet card from carriers like Verizon, so it’s really only useful in your home.

Connectify fixes that however.  Setup a Connectify network on your laptop, and bind the Eye-Fi to that network.  Now, wherever you go, if the Eye-Fi can reach your laptop, it can transfer the pictures:

 You connect straight to your PC, it can drop pictures right into your Pictures directory with no Internet sharing at all.  Right now I’m snapping shots from my Canon SD1200, and they are simply appearing in my Picasa Photo Collection, seconds later.  No cables, no import, no syncing - I just snap photos and seconds later there it is in my collection.  It’s more than just easy, it’s actually fun.  It’s likely that at my next party, there will be a projector to show photos as they are taken in real-time by a camera passed around the room (which, depending on the party, could be pretty scandalous).

If you’re trying to get them onto the Internet (say Flickr or MobileMe) it can use your laptop’s Internet connection, even if it’s isn’t one that an Eye-Fi normally knows how to use. At a coffee shop,  just navigate through their splash screen on your laptop’s browser, and then it’s done, the Eye-Fi will be on the Internet.  You can even transfer them via a tethered cellphone or a wireless Internet card.

To the Eye-Fi, nothing changed: it’s just getting on the same Wi-Fi hotspot that it was originally bound to, and it doesn’t notice if it moves, or if your connection to the Internet changes, its connection didn’t change at all.

You can take it with you

As you might imagine, I have quite a few Wi-Fi devices and I end up carrying a lot of them on my business trips. I am reliant on Connectify to make them all work on the road.  But what happens when I’m home?  What if my laptop is off?  What if I take it with me and my family wants to use the wireless printer?

I have come up with a solution that works with every device I have:  I set my home Wi-Fi router and my Connectify hotspot to both have the same network name (SSID), security settings (WPA2-Personal), and password (some devices call it a key or passphrase).  You can find these settings in any router’s web application for setting it up, and of course, the Name and Password are in the Connectify application.  Set them to anything you want, just make them the same.

Then when I'm home the Internet I share with Connectify is my home WiFi network.  Since they look exactly the same, all of my other devices connect to whichever one is closest.

So, I can take devices like my Wi-Fi phone, Wireless Printer or Eye-Fi enabled camera from home with me and can work just fine at any hotel or coffee shop, since my laptop is making the network look exactly the same to the devices.  Or I can go home and shut off my laptop and they go through my Linksys router.  Or, if I go home and leave my laptop on, it automatically acts as a wireless repeater to give me better coverage in my house.

It’s my Wi-Fi Personal Area Network, whether I’m at home or on the road.