Hi -
I've got "joikuspot" installed on my phone (Symbian) ... battery is drained within 2 hours...
this is the crux of current WiFi interfaces in mobile phones. WiFi consumes way to much power - especially if a phone forwards traffic for other devices. It is possible - but the mobile handset will need to have the size and weight of a mobile phone 8 years ago, simply to provide the battery capacity. Batman-Experimental has an option to disable routing traffic for other phones (--asocial-device : mobile device mode reluctant to help others). An "asocial" device will just make itself known to the existing mesh infrastructure and use the closest Batman node as a gateway. It will only reply to Originator messages originated by the chosen gateway. Together with a slow OGM interval you can roam within an existing mesh infrastructure without wearing your batteries out quickly.
I've heard wmfhotspot for windows mobile is just thesame... and best of all the HTC brand consumes more energy than it's charger so even with a powerplug you have no chance :-)
That sounds like a miserable design.
Cheers,
elektra