Wi-Fi

One of the most useful things the iPhone does is find Wi-Fi networks in the area. This is something any device with Wi-Fi connectivity can do, but finding a Web connection with an iPhone in hand is a bit easier than driving around a neighborhood with a laptop in search of a strong signal.

This also happens to one of the most revealing and amusing features of the iPhone.

Sure, many network names are as mundane as "linksys," 2WIRE252" and "homenetwork." In San Francisco, you find a lot of service set identifiers such as "… Read more

Note to U.S. airlines: Watch what Qantas is doing. The Australian airliner will offer Wi-Fi and electrical outlets on its new A380 and renovated 747-400s next year, according to Engadget. The cost of these perks hasn't been made public, but the carrier will reportedly install power sockets even in some economy cabins.

To which we can't help but respond: Where's the rest of the airline industry on this? For all the hassles and wasted time passenger must endure in the fiasco that passes for air travel these days, the least carriers can do is provide basic … Read more

TEMPE, Ariz.--One of the things I've found on my Road Trip around the Southwest, and on plenty of previous travels, is that motels are a terrific place to get a good, free Wi-Fi signal.

Most often, motels provide better Wi-Fi than pricey hotels, and that's something I've been railing away at for some time, hoping that I can make a small dent in those establishments' arrogance towards their paying customers.

So when I pulled into this city just south of Phoenix Sunday night, I was pleased, but not surprised, to discover that my room would have … Read more

Alarm clocks are typically--though not always--hateful little sods, synonymous with a miserable feeling of remorse that the night is over and that romantic tryst with Philippa Forester was merely a dream. Solely responsible for getting us out of bed at the butt-crack of dawn, they're hated with the fury of a thousand suns. The nerds at Philips also have to get out of bed, so it's no surprise they've put considerable effort into making them less rubbish with the WAK3300.

This system goes hand-in-hand with Philips' WACS7000 music system we recently reviewed. As a stand-alone alarm … Read more

LAS VEGAS--One of the things I heard about this insane city that surprised me the most was that the Monorail had Wi-Fi on it.

I'm in town to cover the technology of the Cirque du Soleil on my Road Trip around the Southwest, and I had heard it from a friend. That in and of itself wasn't enough to make me believe it. But then I read something on the Intarweb that I thought confirmed it. After all, the pipes never lie, do they?

And if there's one thing I like, it's finding new ways to get online when on the road. … Read more

Microsoft is teaming up with advertising technology provider JiWire to offer advertisements on municipal Wi-Fi networks.

The companies are testing the new advertising service in Portland, Ore., and Oakland County, Mich.

The companies haven't talked about the details of the deal, but they have said they will share revenue from advertising.

Using advertising to subsidize or offer free Wi-Fi in citywide networks is not a new concept. San Francisco plans to offer a free tier of service when it rolls out its network. It has chosen EarthLink and Google to build the network.

But JiWire CEO Kevin McKenzie said … Read more

Were the iPhone designers North Carolina fans?

Network World is reporting that Duke University's Wi-Fi network is suffering from what appear to be rogue iPhones. Duke's Kevin Miller told Network World that the iPhone's Wi-Fi chips are flooding the university's Cisco access points with requests for MAC (Media Access Control) addresses. This is apparently knocking out dozens of access points as the 150 iPhones on campus wander around between different hotspots.

It seems a bit weird to me. No other reports of trouble with iPhones and Wi-Fi networks have surfaced, though of course it's very … Read more

After two days of timing and comparing the iPhone's download speed between AT&T's EDGE network and Wi-Fi, our CNET Lab has just released its official results.

EDGE averaged a download time of 15.69 minutes for a 9.4MB file, while Wi-Fi required a mere 1.18 minutes. In the end, our test results indicate that the iPhone's Wi-Fi connection is about 13 times faster than using EDGE.

Tests were run at different points throughout the day to account for changes in network bandwidth, and the iPhone was reformatted after each download to ensure that … Read more

Belkin announced today the newest member of its N1 family of 802.11n-based networking products--the N1 Vision. Belkin broke the mold of usability with its original N1 router, but the N1 Vision takes it a step further: mounted on the front of the sleek, black router is an interactive network display. The graphical LCD displays information such as your upload/download speed, network bandwidth usage, the number of connected devices on your network, the guest access network key, and the date and time. A four-way rocker key lets you navigate through the available information.

The N1 Vision is compliant with … Read more