SISAREA » WiFi

New Kindles now available for pre-order

Ross Miller — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:05:00 +0000

You might've heard about a new Kindle model or two this evening, and good news if they tickled your fancy -- they're now on Amazon and available for pre-order. Both the WiFi-only and WiFi / 3G models are shipping August 27th, the former in graphite and the latter in graphite and white options. Search your pocketbook, if you know it to be coveted.

P.S. - UK customers, try here.

New Kindles now available for pre-order originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hack brings WiFi to Sprint Palm Pixi courtesy of Verizon Pixi Plus radio board swap

Donald Melanson — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:31:00 +0000

We can't say it's the most practical of hacks, but it looks like Sprint Palm Pixi users eager to add some much-needed WiFi to their device do have at least one option. As demonstrated by PreCentral forum member gitit20, all you have to do is find a Verizon Pixi Plus somewhere, pull out its radio board, swap it with the one in your Sprint Pixi, and run the Sprint webOS Doctor application to get everything back in working order. As you can see above, the two radio boards are identical apart from the missing WiFi chip, and there's apparently no extra fiddling with serial numbers or anything required. Head on past the break for the whole thing on video.

Continue reading Hack brings WiFi to Sprint Palm Pixi courtesy of Verizon Pixi Plus radio board swap

Hack brings WiFi to Sprint Palm Pixi courtesy of Verizon Pixi Plus radio board swap originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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2011 Subaru Outback gains in-car WiFi option, strange Maine birds not included

Darren Murph — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 01:47:00 +0000

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.

2011 Subaru Outback gains in-car WiFi option, strange Maine birds not included originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Atheros and Wilocity embrace ‘tri-band’ wireless wares, 60GHz wireless PCIe

Darren Murph — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 03:59:00 +0000

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.

Continue reading Atheros and Wilocity embrace 'tri-band' wireless wares, 60GHz wireless PCIe

Atheros and Wilocity embrace 'tri-band' wireless wares, 60GHz wireless PCIe originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 23:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer’s LumiRead 600 hits the FCC with slow bursts of 2.4GHz radiation

Sean Hollister — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 04:12:00 +0000

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.

Acer's LumiRead 600 hits the FCC with slow bursts of 2.4GHz radiation originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cowon’s V5W PMP: a V5 with 100 percent more WiFi

Darren Murph — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:12:00 +0000

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).

Cowon's V5W PMP: a V5 with 100 percent more WiFi originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iriver WiFi Story turns to the ‘overpriced wireless connectivity’ chapter

Paul Miller — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 07:41:00 +0000

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?

iriver WiFi Story turns to the 'overpriced wireless connectivity' chapter originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 03:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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1 in 10 fliers using in-flight WiFi, Aircell ‘thrilled’ with repeat usage rate

Darren Murph — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 21:19:00 +0000

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.

We pinged Aircell (the makers of Gogo, which is by far the dominant in-flight WiFi provider in America) for comment on the linked report, and while they wouldn't comment specifically, they did confirm that they have been "thrilled" with repeat usage rates. The company's own research has found that "61 percent of Gogo customers have used it again within 3 months," which is a pretty fantastic attach rate. Now, if only it could get more people to try the service once, it may just be on its way to taking over the world. Or something. Full comment is after the break.

Continue reading 1 in 10 fliers using in-flight WiFi, Aircell 'thrilled' with repeat usage rate

1 in 10 fliers using in-flight WiFi, Aircell 'thrilled' with repeat usage rate originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cathay Pacific bringing 50Mbps WiFi, live TV and in-flight calling to fleet

Darren Murph — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 00:46:00 +0000

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.

Continue reading Cathay Pacific bringing 50Mbps WiFi, live TV and in-flight calling to fleet

Cathay Pacific bringing 50Mbps WiFi, live TV and in-flight calling to fleet originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Qualcomm demos augmented reality and peer-to-peer tech, tries to punch cellular gaming’s block off (video)

Sean Hollister — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 06:18:00 +0000

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.

However, augmented reality is only half of Qualcomm's mobile gaming plan -- a rep told Pocket-lint games like Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots are only financially viable if they can work across platforms. To that end, the company also demonstrated a simple three-player peer-to-peer title, but with -- get this -- a Nexus One (over Bluetooth), a Nokia N900 (over WiFi) and a Dell Latitude laptop all playing the same synchronous game. To commemorate this mishmash of awesome, the company funded another video; listen to an individual with a ludicrously bad accent give you the play-by-play after the break. Oh, and find some press releases, too.

Continue reading Qualcomm demos augmented reality and peer-to-peer tech, tries to punch cellular gaming's block off (video)

Qualcomm demos augmented reality and peer-to-peer tech, tries to punch cellular gaming's block off (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 02:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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