Wi-fi

While I'm a big fan of the Kindle 3, I think that Kobo may have got it beat with its new eReader Touch Edition. Featuring the latest Pearl e-Ink technology that so improved Amazon's models last year, Kobo's new Wi-Fi-enabled device also boasts optical touchscreen interaction courtesy of Neonode, is powered by a processor specially developed for e-Readers and comes with support for multiple languages. Read More

Elgato has just released – or to be technically correct, re-released – the latest addition to its line of digital TV tuners for PCs and Macs. The HDHomeRun is a rebranded dual tuner that has been sold by SiliconDust for nearly five years now and also sold in its previous incarnation by Elgato since mid-2007. The device has however received an update and is a little smaller and sexier than the original model, but still offers PC and Mac users the same ability to watch and record HDTV over a local wireless network. Read More

With a lack of USB ports or SD card reader there's no easy way to expand the storage capacity of an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. With the iPad and iPod touch topping out at 64GB and many opting for the cheaper, lower capacity models, many users are either faced with the task of picking and choosing and switching and swapping the media files and documents they think they'll be wanting to enjoy, or looking for an app to stream media over the Internet to their device. With this latter option leaving users at the mercy of increasingly congested Wi-Fi hotspots or chewing through data over 3G or 4G networks, Seagate has just announced another solution in the form of the GoFlex Satellite that combines a 500GB portable HDD with a built in wireless streamer to let users take their entire media library with them. Read More

Eye-Fi’s range of wireless memory cards have been giving photographers the ability to send photos from a digital camera to a computer over an existing Wi-Fi network for a few years now. That’s great if you’re close to your home network but what when you’re out and about and want to offload some of those captured pics and vids from your camera? The company’s latest Eye-Fi Mobile X2 Card answers the call with a new Direct Mode that allows the card to create its own Wi-Fi network so it can establish a direct connection and upload photos and videos directly to mobile devices such as a smartphone or tablet. Read More

Around the time I was hoping to swap my Olivetti typewriter for one of those new-fangled Apple Macintosh things, Seiko also created the UC-2000 wrist computer. The images of the device docked onto a QWERTY keyboard strapped to someone's arm still raise a smile even now. That was decades ago, and the industry has moved forward at an incredible pace, but Eurotech's new Zypad WL1500 definitely has the look of the Seiko. Happily, the technology in the new Zypad is much more up-to-date. Eurotech says that it's faster and lighter than other members of its wearable range, and also benefits from a longer battery life and numerous communication options. Read More

As promised at this year's CES, Motorola has announced that the Wi-Fi version of its Xoom Android tablet will be available this month. The 10.1-inch device is the first tablet to benefit from all the widgets, multi-tasking, browsing, notifications and customization capabilities of Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), and is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor supported by a gigabyte of RAM. It's not as thin as the new iPad 2 but is by no means chunky at 0.5-inch (12.9mm) and does sport a 1280 x 800 resolution (150ppi), high definition touchscreen display with HDMI-out for onward connection to a big screen TV. Read More

Given his recent health-related leave of absence, it was refreshing to see that Steve Jobs took the stage at today's Apple event to announce the forthcoming arrival of the iPad 2. It's lighter and thinner than the original, but packs in more features and more processing power. New additions include rear and front-facing cameras, an iOS update, smart covers, and a built-in gyroscope. Sadly, the only advancement on the connectivity front was the addition of HDMI via an optional adapter, and the carbon-fiber housing rumor looks to have been just that, a rumor. Read More

French media player specialist Archos is the latest to offer a modern take on the bedside radio alarm clock. Rather than wake you with a simulated sunrise or other mood lighting, the Arnova's alarm can be set to your favorite internet radio station or web TV channel. Users can load audio, photo or video files directly to the device's internal memory or via SD cards, wirelessly stream content from a computer via uPnP, and feed in tunes from an external MP3 player. Read More

The latest wireless technology finding its way into mobile phones alongside Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is near field communication, or NFC. It has taken a few years but the short-range wireless technology is gathering speed, with the number of NFC-enabled handsets on the increase and numerous trials of the technology being carried out around the world, mainly aimed at contactless payments and public transport ticketing applications. But if you’re worried you’ll have to throw out your current mobile phone to take advantage of the convenience of NFC then relax, because Simlink has teamed with Morpho to develop a key fob that brings NFC technology to any existing mobile phone. Read More