wi-fi

While Samsung's been updating and expanding its interchangeable lens camera lineup, its enthusiast compact, the TL500, or EX1 depending where you live, hasn't been updated in more than two years. That changes today.

The EX2F looks for the most part the same as its predecessor, measuring 4.4x2.4x1.1 inches and retains a fast ultrawide-angle lens and a swivel 3-inch AMOLED display. However, the lens gets even faster now at f1.4 instead of f1.8. Plus, the 3.3x 24-79mm zoom lens only goes down to f2.7 with it zoomed in.… Read more

Recently I plunked down at a Starbucks with plans to work for a couple hours while my son was up the street at a birthday party. Just one problem: their Wi-Fi was down.

Without Internet, it's downright impossible for me to work. That's why I always pack a mobile hot spot, which I can use in a pinch when there's no Wi-Fi available.

Of course, I don't want to pay $50 per month for two years for a service I use only occasionally. Enter TruConnect, a company that offers no-contract service and pay-as-you-go rates.

The hardware … Read more

The occasional program on the Food Network can be quite frightening.

There's "Outrageous Food", for example, where you can watch people build a 105-pound burger in Clinton, N.J.

However, please place yourself inside the stomach of 18-year-old Stephanie Milan as she sat at home watching the Food Network and was overtaken by a harsh queasiness.

For her door was broken down and in walked a SWAT team, which was not in the mood to make her a burrito.

The Evansville Courier-Press offers that the ingredients of this raid were somewhat confused.

The SWAT team was looking … Read more

New Yorkers can now spend their time on the subway checking e-mail and surfing the Web on a free wireless network. Starting today, Google Offers is sponsoring free Wi-Fi via Boingo Wireless in six MTA subway stations and more than 200 hotspot locations across New York City.

"We're glad our riders will be able to access free Wi-Fi this summer in six subway stations to stay connected while they're underground," MTA director of strategic initiatives Jerome Page said in a statement. "Reliable Wi-Fi is an important benefit for straphangers in New York City subway stations.&… Read more

Did you know there is a Super Secret Settings menu in Tweetbot for both iPhone and iPad? Don't worry, not many people did. While what the settings actually do in the secret screen may not be all that obvious, there is one setting you might want to take a look at changing.

In the aptly titled Super Secret Settings screen you can enable the streaming of your Twitter feed over 3G. Up until the discovery of this setting, streaming in Tweetbot was only allowed over a Wi-Fi connection. Streaming your Twitter feed means you'll see tweets in real … Read more

It's time to live large, change your fate and flip out:

Nintendo just ordered up a supersized version of the 3DS. Going on sale on August 19 for $200, the 3DS XL is 90% larger than the original 3DS. Nintendo could have taken this product in a new direction for gamers by using the extra space to add a second analog stick. But no, the XL has the same design as the 3DS. It's also a bit odd that Nintendo didn't announce this two weeks ago at E3.

So who would want the 3DS XL? Larger screens … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week readers wrote in with questions about Wi-Fi signal transmission through glass, syncing documents between two systems, an external drive no longer mounting on any system, and how one would go about upgrading the video card on a MacBook Pro. We welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, post them in the comments!

Question: Wi-Fi signal transmittance through glass MacFixIt reader David asks:

What do you expect from your iPad case? Simple protection? Maybe a built-in stand for hands-free reading and movie watching?

Pong Research has you covered, and then some. The company's New iPad Case not only protects and props up your tablet, but also increases 3G and Wi-Fi signal strength and reduces radiation exposure.

If that sounds familiar, you might be thinking of the Pong Research iPhone case that debuted last fall. It, too, promised protection against RF energy emissions.

Of course, the debate rages on as to whether those emissions are harmful to humans. But here's the thing: … Read more

Google is facing renewed privacy scrutiny in Britain, as a U.K. regulator reopens its investigation into how the Web giant's Street View program gathered personal data.

The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office announced today that it was motivated to reopen its probe, after information provided in an earlier U.K. investigation appears to have been contradicted by the Federal Communications Commission, which found in April that Google's data collection had not broken the law.

"During the course of our investigation, we were specifically told by Google that it was a simple mistake, and if the … Read more