wi-fi

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

Want to know where the Wi-Fi is? Check out Jiwire Wi-fi Finder, which lets you use your iPhone to enter your location and then displays a list of Wi-Fi hotspots. Choosing a location from the list brings you to a screen where you can get more information, view the location on Google Maps, or call the location immediately. We especially like the ability to only search Wi-Fi locations for free.

iPhone link: http://iphone.jiwire.com/

Web site link: http://www.jiwire.com/

Well, well, well...what do we have here? According to the kids over at Phone Scoop, the FCC has approved a Wi-Fi-enabled (802.11 a/b/g) BlackBerry device, which is a great sign since Research in Motion has been talking about adding this feature for more than a year now. A few other details about the device: it's said to be a GSM/EDGE smart phone with Bluetooth, a microSD slot, and it resembles the RIM BlackBerry 8800 and BlackBerry 8830 in the design department. No word on carrier or availability, but RIM CEO Jim Balsillie has said … Read more

AT&T DSL subscribers can now get free access to its Wi-Fi hot spots throughout the country.

Subscribers of services that offer download speeds of 3 megabits per second or higher will get access to any of its 10,000 hot spots in airports, coffee shops, McDonald's restaurants and Barnes & Noble bookstores for free, the company said Monday.

Subscribers of AT&T's lower tier service can pay $1.99 for unlimited Wi-Fi access. Non-AT&T subscribers pay $7.99 per day for Wi-Fi access in these public hot spots.

Adding Wi-Fi as part of … Read more