News about WiFi:
Google’s offices raided by cyber police
What are Google and their street view cars like? Don’t get me wrong I think Google’s street view is a fantastic tool. You drop the little green man onto the map and you can wander around the streets as if you were there. Want to see what your friends new flat looks like? You can. Want … [visit site to read more]
2011 Subaru Outback gains in-car WiFi option, strange Maine birds not included
Slowly but surely, the future is creeping up on us. In-flight WiFi is getting there, and in-car WiFi is following suit. Autonet Mobile already sunk its teeth in at General Motors, and now it’s doing likewise over at Subaru. The automaker that insists it’s all about love is about to give prospective buyers of the 2011 Outback an option to install a router within their ride for a one time fee of $534 (including activation). Of course, it’s on you to pay that $29 / month premium that keeps the signals flowing, and yes, you’re still better off buying a MiFi and just bringing it along. But hey, there’s nothing like factory integration, right? Well, aside from seagulls checking their Twitter accounts while you explore Acadia National Park… freeloaders. Read the rest of this entry »
VoIP Roundup: mobile SIP providers on trial
The VoIP landscape has changed over the years, with many providers evolving into more than just the desk-phone VoIP we used to know. VoIP companies continue to add ways to entice consumers and small businesses. In this article, I will be sharing my experience with several BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) VoIP providers. Most BYOD VoIP providers use SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) to allow softphones or other devices to connect; I’ve been using Acrobits SoftPhone on iPhone, SipDroid on Android phones, and a Linksys PAP2 VoIP adapter. As for my connection, I was using FIOS with 25Mbps download and 25Mbps upload when connected to WiFi or LAN; while mobile, I’m connected to AT&T 3G and T-Mobile 3G. For all my tests, I used the G.711 (uLaw) codec on WiFi /LAN connections and G.729 on 3G. Read on for my real-world test results.
iPad iOS 3.2.1 update promises WiFi fix, adds Bing
It’s not just the iPhone 4, 3GS and 3G that have seen an iOS update; both flavors of the iPad have also been treated to a new version of their software, too. Not iOS4, sadly, but iOS 3.2.1 which brings with it various bugfixes together the most important of which is to address dodgy WiFi connectivity on the Apple slate.
Atheros and Wilocity embrace ‘tri-band’ wireless wares, 60GHz wireless PCIe
The amount of dual-band products (you know, those that support both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands) is slowly growing, but already a pair of companies are thinking about the next big thing: tri-band. Atheros and Wilocity have both been eying that 60GHz stuff that the WiGig Alliance is pushing around these days, and now they’re announcing a collaboration to “build tri-band wireless solutions that combine the ubiquity and coverage of WiFi with the multi-gigabit performance of the Wireless Gigabit Alliance’s 60GHz technology.” The new gear would enable all sorts of backwards compatibility, and while there aren’t too many details being shared just yet on exactly what kind of kit is in the pipeline, we do know of one particular tidbit. That tidbit, of course, is wireless PCI Express, or wPCIe. Developed by Wilocity, this black magic would essentially enable PCIe devices to be docked outside of the desktop and have their signals beamed to a receiver card within the desktop. Think external graphics, storage arrays, etc., all sans cabling. It’s being reported that wPCIe can push data at up to 5Gbps, and if all goes to plan, the spec should scale easily to 7Gbps. Be sure to give the links below a visit for a deeper dive, and get ready to give that SFF machine you’ve often overlooked… well, another look. Read the rest of this entry »
Elonex 710EB tablet ereader hits Amazon preorder; due July 31st
Elonex’s 7-inch ereader tablet, the 710EB, has shown up for preorder on Amazon UK. Based around a 7-inch LCD TFT display, rather than the more common E Ink panel, the Elonex 710EB is still a mysterious beast in terms of specs; we know it’s ARM based, has a quoted 8hr battery life and wireless connectivity, but beyond that Elonex are tight-lipped.
Acer’s LumiRead 600 hits the FCC with slow bursts of 2.4GHz radiation
Acer’s 6-inch LumiRead e-reader just hit the FCC, but there’s not a lot to learn — the company smartly withheld the user’s manual and detailed images, so all we have are the triplicate forms of stalwart government employees trying to irradiate themselves. Those thankfully painless tests reveal that the Kindle-alike will have standard 802.11b/g WiFi alongside its monochrome E Ink screen, and the whole 532MHz Freescale iMX357 kit will be powered by a 3.7V, 1460mAh battery. Exciting stuff, we know. In other news, the FCC’s “ancillary equipment” list features genuine Apple iPod earbuds, and a Dell Vostro 1510 — because that’s how they roll. Read the rest of this entry »
Cowon’s V5W PMP: a V5 with 100 percent more WiFi
What do you get when you marry a V5 with WiFi? Why, a V5W, of course! Cowon’s sexy V5 portable media player — a device we (mostly) loved on back in March — has just gained the primary feature that we argued should’ve been included from the start. It looks as if all of the other specifications have remained the same, meaning that you’re still looking at a 4.8-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen, Windows CE 6.0 underneath, 16/32/64GB of internal storage, USB 2.0 connectivity, HDMI / composite video output, a solid list of supported file formats and the best audio quality this side of the Mississippi Indian Ocean. Pricing remains a mystery for now, but we suspect it’ll list for around the same as the original (which still needs a price drop, frankly). Read the rest of this entry »
iriver WiFi Story turns to the ‘overpriced wireless connectivity’ chapter
Outside of a perhaps too strong resemblance to the Kindle, there was nothing much to fault the iriver Story when we played with it back in January. Its biggest downfall, however, was a lack of wireless connectivity, and iriver is going to rectify that with the new iriver WiFi Story. Apart from this obvious enhancement, nothing’s really new with this reader, which was already pretty feature-flush on the software side, including decent format support for books and even Microsoft Office files. Unfortunately, while the current iriver Story goes for £149 at WHSmith in the UK (which is doing the e-book store end of things as well), the new WiFi model will apparently retail for around £250 — exactly double the cost of a Kindle in the UK right now, with the sort of WiFi premium that only Microsoft could love. So while consumers are getting a kick out of this Amazon / B&N price war in the e-reader space, it looks like it’s indeed going to be tough for other manufacturers to keep up. Right, Sony? Read the rest of this entry »
1 in 10 fliers using in-flight WiFi, Aircell ‘thrilled’ with repeat usage rate
US airlines are still struggling to keep pace with their Asian contemporaries, and while we won’t be satisfied until each and every plane that soars over this great land has an integrated router, there’s no question that carriers seem to be racing to equip their fleets with in-flight WiFi. According to recent analyst reports, fewer than 10 percent of fliers are using the service, but on the other hand, one in ten fliers are. There’s obviously two ways of looking at this — in-flight WiFi is still a fledgling technology, and it’s only available on around a third of domestic flights. From that perspective, a 10 percent overall usage rate looks pretty impressive. But there’s no question that cost is a concern here, as is time; many fliers are using their moments in the air to actually disconnect for a change, and few corporations actually have policies in place to reimburse employees for WiFi charges accumulated in the air. Furthermore, fliers can’t even use their laptops for the first and last half-hour of flights, so unless you’re flying coast-to-coast, you may assume that only having an hour or so to surf just isn’t worth the hassle.
Cowon V5W adds WiFi to Full HD touchscreen PMP/MID
Cowon has updated their V5 PMP with a new injection of WiFi, creating the Cowon V5W. Packing a 4.8-inch WVGA touchscreen, up to 64GB of flash storage and an HDMI output, the V5W has WiFi b/g and an S/PDIF output, and runs a custom Cowon UI on top of Windows CE 6.0.
Cathay Pacific bringing 50Mbps WiFi, live TV and in-flight calling to fleet
Mmm… we like where this is headed. While legacy airlines in America are struggling to outfit their fleets with in-flight WiFi alone, Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways is showing ‘em how it’s done. The airline has just inked a memorandum of understanding with Panasonic Avionics for the “provision of full broadband connectivity on all Cathay Pacific and Dragonair passenger aircraft.” Yeah, you read that correctly — by early 2012, Cathay will make 50Mbps internet service, in-flight GSM cellphone service (voice, SMS and data) as well as live and pay-per-view television available to every last passenger. The finer details are still being hammered out, and we aren’t told whether every single bird in its fleet will be online from Day 1, but we’re still as giddy as ever for this to become a reality. Here’s hoping this pushes those other airlines into getting with the program, and at the very least, it ought to give you plenty of reason to take that Asian vacation you’ve been putting off. Read the rest of this entry »
Samsung SNE-60 ereader to make expensive French debut
Samsung’s SNE-60 ereader continues to pop up across Europe, with its recent UK preorder debut followed by a pricey French launch. According to Actualitte, French retailer Carrefour will be offering the E-60 at its 228 stores across the country, though the price will make your eyes water: €329 ($411).
Qualcomm demos augmented reality and peer-to-peer tech, tries to punch cellular gaming’s block off (video)
It’s just a tablecloth and a piece of paper, until you pull out a Nexus One, at which point it magically becomes an arena where toy robots fire off punches. Augmented reality isn’t anything new, of course, but Qualcomm seems determined to bring it to cell phones in a big way — launching an AR game studio, sponsoring a $200,000 developer challenge, and announcing a free software development kit (which will see open beta this fall) all on the same day. The company partnered with Mattel to build the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots proof-of-concept you see above using that very SDK, and you’ll find a hilarious video of grown men pretending to have the time of their lives with it right after the break.
