3. The Magnet in Action

AirMagnet really has way too many features to cover and just looking at feature lists doesn't do the product justice. Instead, I'll walk through a couple of examples of the way that I used it. Although these scenarios just scratch the surface of what AirMagnet can do, they'll illustrate the high degree of usability and power designed into the product.

Tip: If you like what you see, or are just curious as to what spending $3000 or so will get you in the way of "wireless integrity management systems", you can download demos of AirMagnet Laptop and Handheld - after giving up a little info at AirMagnet's website - and see them in action for yourself.

But first a note on usability. Because the form-factor is so handy, and I tended to use AirMagnet in mobile situations, I used AirMagnet Handheld much more than Laptop. It was pretty easy to reach into my shoulder bag, pull out my PocketPC and fire up AirMagnet in under 30 seconds. You also are somewhat less conspicuous wandering around an airport staring at a handheld, than doing the same thing with a notebook.

Although I found I still needed two hands when using the PocketPC (the interface doesn't interact in any really useful manner with PocketPC navigation pads), balancing a notebook on one arm and scratching at its touchpad is much harder.

Fortunately, even in these days of Level Orange alerts, I wasn't deemed enough of a threat to attract airport security and was left alone in my wonkiness. (I have to confess that I felt a little like one of the Star Trek crew wandering around with a TriCorder...)