Wi-fi

The graphite and display overhaul that Amazon gave its Kindle DX earlier in the month has now been applied to its third generation 6-inch model. The new Kindle will be available with 3G and Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi only, is 15 percent lighter and 21 percent smaller than its predecessor but still retains the 6-inch display and now comes with double the storage capacity. Read More

Apple has announced that its iPad will be available in an additional nine countries from Friday, July 23. All varieties of both the Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models will hit Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore. Read More

Unsurprisingly, the Australian outback doesn’t exactly boast the greatest mobile phone coverage in the world. But researchers down under have managed to make mobile phone calls in this remote landscape without the use of towers or satellites. Instead of relying on expensive infrastructure, the researchers created a mesh-based phone network between Wi-Fi enabled mobile phones that allowed them to communicate with each other. Read More

Accessing the Internet while away from the home or office has never been easier. When there’s no Wi-Fi available users can jump on 3G broadband to get their online fix. And that’s the way it has generally been, with the two main mobile communications technologies acting as complementary services. But with the advent of Wi-Fi based municipal wireless networks some experts say there is a strong possibility that Wi-Fi will compete with the 3G cell phone network in city areas and perhaps even become a substitute. Read More

If you like to find out what else is on radio, the Grace Digital Solo Wi-Fi Internet radio tuner could be one to add to your collection of music devices. Solo connects to practically any home stereo system or powered speaker set via its stereo RCA jacks and promises easy set up with its built-in Wi-Fi 802.11g card that connects directly to any 802.11b/g/n wireless router. There’s also an free iPhone app that turns your phone into a remote that allows you search, skip, and power the Solo anywhere within range. Read More

SilverPAC has announced a new touchscreen programmable thermostat that not only controls your heating and air conditioning, but can communicate with smart home meters, outlets, and switches to help you manage your entire household energy use. The SilverSTAT 7 features 802.11 WiFi, plus ZigBee and Z-Wave wireless communications. The 7in. (17.8cm) display can show energy use on a per-appliance basis to help you analyze and adjust your home’s consumption and efficiency. Read More

Some may call it a sophisticated alarm clock, but the truth is that the Dash presented by Sony at CES 2010 is simply much more than that. A one-of-a-kind "personal Internet viewer," this device is designed to let you pull all sorts of information off the Internet from its 7-inch touch screen even when you don't have a PC at hand. Read More

With home energy consumption and ways to reduce and manage it becoming an increasingly important issue, Intel has at this weeks CES shown its Intelligent Home Energy Management concept. Taking the form of a Wi-Fi enabled 11.5” touchscreen dashboard, the wall mounted system enables users to not only track their household’s monthly energy usage, but offers a host of other features like leaving video memos for other family members and a “goodbye” switch that instantly configures all appliances to their least consumptive setting – as well as reminding the user if they have left the stove on. Read More

When is an eBook reader not merely an eBook reader? When it’s an enTourage eDGE reader. Unveiled this week at CES the clamshell designed reader is billed as the world’s first dualbook, with a 9.7” black and white E-ink screen on the one side and 10.1” LCD color touchscreen on the other. Along with 4GB of internal memory and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capability, the unit functions as a mini-netbook, notepad and audio/video recorder. Read More