network

Walkie talkies have been around since before cell phones, but until now they weren't easily accessible on the same device. Sometimes when you need to send out a quick message, making a phone call can be time-consuming (especially if you don't have the time to chat), and sending out a text message can be a hassle. Typing out those longs strings of letters and hitting 'send' is a huge pain when you're juggling five things at once. That's where these apps come in. Voice messaging finds a happy middle ground between the solemn phone call and … Read more

At a street price of around $50 for a kit of two units, the Actiontec 500 Mbps Powerline Network Adapter Kit is a bargain. And that's not the only good thing about it.

The kit, retail model number PWR511K01, comes with two identical adapters, currently the smallest of their type, that offered very good performance in my testing.

The only real complaint I have is that these adapters don't support Gigabit Ethernet, hence offering the limited data rate of the regular Ethernet standard at most. However, the affordable price and the supercompact design still make the kit an … Read more

Facebook has invited media to its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters next week to unveil something new -- exactly what, though, is unclear.

The social networking giant sent out invitations to the media this afternoon for an event on January 15 at 10 a.m. PT. The only clue as to what's to come are the words, "Come and see what we're building."

At a similar event a year-and-a-half ago, Facebook unveiled a partnership with Skype, rolling out video chat for the service.

LAS VEGAS--Buffalo upgraded its cloud-based service for NAS servers today, introducing the new LinkStation 400 Series. This is the first NAS server to come equipped with the company's updated BuffaloLink cloud storage system.

In a nutshell, the cloud-based service is intended to offer users an easy and secure way to access their digital content remotely via the Internet. Prior to this Buffalo has been offering Pogoplug-style cloud-based features via its CloudStor line of NAS servers, but that hasn't been much of a success.

The company says BuffaloLink was redesigned from the ground up and is hosted on … Read more

LAS VEGAS--You have to hand it Dish Network -- the company knows how to impress.

CEO Joe Clayton didn't just walk onto stage -- he hustled up and danced in the style of "Blues Brothers" alongside kangaroo mascot Hopper, and then rapped about his digital video recorder. Few executives at the Consumer Electronics Show would ever attempt such an entrance.

And for the second year in a row, the satellite TV provider is at CES in a big way. Last year's Hopper whole-home HD DVR made a splash with a pretty nifty box that included commercial-skipping … Read more

Los Alamos National Laboratory is reportedly removing network switches made by a partnership that once included controversial Chinese telecommunication gear maker Huawei because of national security concerns.

But Huawei, which was rebuked last fall by the House Intelligence Committee for posing a national threat because of potential ties to the Chinese government, hasn't been part of H3C Technologies, the partnership that makes the switches, since 2006, Reuters reported.

Huawei created H3C as a joint venture with 3Com in 2003. Three years later, 3Com bought Huawei's stake in the venture. And in 2010, Hewlett-Packard bought 3Com.

All of which … Read more

Iran's government is developing "intelligent software" designed to give citizens controlled and restricted access to banned social-networking sites, the chief of Iran's national police tells the local media.

"Smart control of social networks will not only avoid their disadvantages, but will also allow people to benefit from their useful aspects," Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghadam said, according to a 7Sobh report cited by AFP. "The designing of intelligent software to control social networking Web sites" is under way.

"Smart control of social networks is better than filtering them completely," he said.

Access … Read more

The Wi-Fi Alliance and the Wireless Gigabit Alliance, aka WiGig, announced today their agreement to consolidate WiGig's certification and development under Wi-Fi Alliance. This is the result of longterm collaboration between the two organizations, since they reached an agreement on the standard of multigigabit wireless networking in May 2011.

While the Wi-Fi Alliance is a popular organization that tests and certifies Wi-Fi devices to guarantee their interoperability, WiGig is a lesser-known entity that develops the 60GHz-based WiGig technology specifications. The Wi-Fi Alliance, however, initiated the work to develop an interoperability certification for 60GHz products.

The WiGig standard, also known … Read more

Snapchat and Poke videos shared with other people are supposed to go poof after a few seconds, but their vanishing act isn't working exactly as advertised.

Snapchat and Facebook's Poke apps are designed for folks who want to share photos and videos with their socially networked friends -- though only briefly. The appeal of both apps is that the photos and videos vanish after up to 10 seconds. That's supposed to mean you can send someone a potentially embarrassing or "sexty" clip of yourself, firm in the belief that it won't stick around for … Read more