AnchorFree’s Hotspot Shield has to be one of the most popular Free VPN services in the world right now, so much so that country-specific web services like Hulu & BBC iPlayer ensure to block Hotspot Shield’s IPs from their network. Yet, it is still one of the most widely used free VPN on desktops, and now, it is available for iOS devices too. Ironically, it’s not a free app! Hotspot Shield was always available on iPhones, but users had to manually set it up. But now, AnchorFree has launched a native app which offers safe and private browsing and comes with a unique data compression feature which can potentially halve a user’s data consumption. Hotspot Shield for iPhone & iPad is particularly useful when you are using a public WiFi or any other unsecured network as it provides you with a protected gateway, keeping your passwords and private data secure. Hotspot Shield provides people with a temporary IP address and encrypts their data so they can browse safely, away from prying eyes. In this age, security threats to mobile phones are increasing multi-folds and services like Hotspot Shield should come as a great help. The data compression service can greatly reduce the mobile bill at the end of the month. Hotspot Shield compresses all text and images through its servers but doesn’t address video yet. Users can choose between high, medium and low settings to set how much compression is applied, which affects image quality. Hotspot Shield app for iOS isn’t free as such, but users can try it out for a week, and then subscribe to service for 99 cents a month or $9.99 a year, with one subscription for all their iOS devices. AnchorFree is also providing two hours worth of free Skype calls for users who subscribe. An Android version is expected later this year. Download Hotspot Shield VPN for iOS [via Gigaom]
