Wi-Fi

CES: The anticable, no wires movement

The open assault on cables and wires was on particular display at CES. Apparently, wires clutter your life and cause you misery, or some vendors would have you think. Whether it's faster and faster Wi-Fi from Intel, streaming video from Slingbox, in-home HD distribution, Bluetooth home theater audio from Samsung at different parts of the radio spectrum, the trend is moving away from physical media and physical connections.

That said, I wondered how a leading wire cable company, Monster, would make themselves relevant in this anticable movement. Apart from having a sold-out Mary J. Blige concert, Monster has made … Read more

Wi-Fi laptop bag finds its own hot spots

The idea of Wi-Fi locators built into laptops always struck us as a somewhat Catch-22 solution: You have to pull out the computer, wait for it to boot up, and say a Hail Mary or two before finding out if you're even remotely near a hot spot. That's why we appreciate something so disarmingly logical as a locator technology that's embedded directly into the laptop bag.

Despite its awkward name, the "Wiffinder" series from Spain-based Soyntec would seem to make a lot of sense, letting you hunt for a wireless connection "SideShow"-style … Read more

Philips' Rhapsody-enhanced Internet radio

Aiming squarely at devices such as the Logitech Squeezebox and Roku Soundbridge, the recently announced Philips Streamium NP1100 might not break the mold on features, but it will be offered at a great price of just $149. The Philips Streamium NP1100 offers three basic functions: an Internet radio tuner; a PC-link for streaming audio from a local computer; and a dedicated Rhapsody subscription music feature. The Streamium NP1100 uses a built-in Wi-Fi connection (or hardwired Ethernet), to pull down streaming music from the Internet or your networked PC library.

On the back of the Philips Streamium NP1100 you'll find … Read more

Instant hot spot: Cradlepoint PHS300 morphs EVDO into Wi-Fi

An odd little device made me a hero tonight. We were in the middle of a what turned out to be a 13-hour blackout in my San Francisco neighborhood, and my wife was getting antsy since she couldn't get her laptop online to work. She had some battery power left, but no connection. (My computer has cellular, but I'd rather let my wife drive my car than use my laptop.)

But I had brought home a demo unit of the Cradlepoint PHS300, a battery-powered cellular-to-WiiFi router. With a Verizon USB EVDO modem plugged into it, it turned my … Read more

Meraki, the cheap Wi-Fi guys, get $20 million

Meraki, a start-up that hopes to bring cheap Wi-Fi to the emerging world, has raised $20 million in a second round of funding.

The company, which grew out of a Ph.D. thesis at MIT, has created inexpensive routers and a back-end networking service that balances available bandwidth between the routers and users. The end result is that the available bandwidth is used more efficiently, according to Sanjit Biswas, Meraki's CEO and co-founder.

"There are a small number of Internet connections, but they are repeated by a large number of radios" in networks based on the company'… Read more

Archos unveils TV+, Wi-Fi DVR

Looks like Archos has finally let the cat out of the bag on their first set-top DVR, the Archos TV+. Offered in 80GB ($249) and 250GB ($349) versions, the Archos TV+ looks to do about everything the Apple TV failed to deliver, including: an onscreen recording guide; 640x480 video recording quality; a QWERTY remote control; an infrared emitter for controlling your cable box or TV; a built-in Wi-Fi and Ethernet that can be used for on-demand video downloads from CinemaNow; a fully-functional Opera web browser with Flash video support (YouTube, DailyMotion, CNET TV, etc.); optional Flash video game downloads; and it even includes cables (gasp!).… Read more

Unboxing OLPC's XO-1 laptop

I'm a little late to the party with this unboxing of my new OLPC XO-1 laptop, but the machine arrived while I was out of town visiting my family for Christmas. In fact, there's a story there.

Before I left, I started hearing that people were receiving their XO-1's, and I realized that if mine didn't show up before I left, it would almost certainly arrive while I was gone. The OLPC people sent out no shipment notifications and didn't reply to several emails, so I had no way to delay the shipment or contact … Read more

Episode 622: Do robots sweat like electric sheep?

BetaBlue: It's one small step for in-flight Wi-Fi

The biggest problem with JetBlue's inaugural "BetaBlue" flight, equipped with Yahoo and BlackBerry e-mail and instant messaging, was the fact that there aren't power outlets on board the aircraft.

Sure, there are those little 110-volt things in each bathroom. But if you hog the airplane toilet so that you can give your laptop some juice, you're going to be the second most unpopular person on that flight. (The screaming kid in seat 15D still beats you.)

All joking aside, if in-flight Wi-Fi is going to take off, airplanes are going to need power outlets. Virgin … Read more

Some turbulence for JetBlue's in-flight e-mail

Special thanks to my editors for posting this. I've filed it in-flight via e-mail.

I'm typing this somewhere over Louisville, Ky. (or so the "live map" on my seat monitor tells me), on board JetBlue flight 641, a "BetaBlue" New York-to-San Francisco plane equipped with Yahoo and BlackBerry e-mail and instant-messaging access. And, yes, I've found a hack already--as it turns out, you have access to some of Yahoo's mobile site as well, enabling you to look up news headlines, finance information, weather, and a handful of other light mobile apps.

Once … Read more