Wifi

For those of us who virtually live online, waiting around those few precious minutes for the system to boot into Windows, connect to the Internet and then present the browser is time wasted. For the last few couple of years, more and more new Windows machines have come pre-loaded with something that boots straight into our beloved online world. Splashtop is a browser-based operating system companion that allows users to get online in seconds after pushing the power button on. Now it's being made available for public beta download.  Read More

The Internet has opened up a brave new radio world to listeners who otherwise suffer airwave restrictions. With tens of thousands of stations now pumping out just about every kind of music imaginable around the clock, tuning in can be overwhelming and complicated. The Q2 Internet Radio from Armour Home Electronics offers to make the process a whole lot easier and a lot more fun.  Read More

MSI's Wind Top Professional and Entertainment All-in-One computers are to be joined by a new Classic model. The super quiet AC1900 is said to have low power requirements, and benefits from a high performance processor, good sized storage, Wi-Fi wireless connectivity and a DVD drive.  Read More

Spanish consumer electronics manufacturer Energy Sistem has set a pre-Christmas release date for its new Android-based, 5-inch touchscreen tablet computer. The Energy Tablet i504 is powered by a Rockchip processor, can render video in 720p high definition, is Wi-Fi-enabled and has both internal storage and expansion opportunities. To the side of the display is a built-in webcam and an optical trackball.  Read More

Last month Seattle programmer Eric Butler exposed the weaknesses of open Wi-Fi networks with his Firesheep add-on for FireFox. The program intercepts browser cookies to identify users and allows anyone running it to log into sites such as Facebook and Twitter as the legitimate user. While Butler wanted to encourage the use of HTTPS to combat such vulnerabilities, users can now combat Firesheep with another Firefox add-on – BlackSheep.  Read More

The e-Reader has been a success story, there's not much doubt about that. But with only various shades of gray offered by e-Ink, most manufacturers are now diving into color LCD devices (with the notable exception of Amazon). Now China's Shenzhen Guangxuntong Communication Technology has announced a paper-like color display on its new S700 e-notepad, although exactly what technology is used to achieve this has not been revealed. Here's what we do know...  Read More

Searching for a Wi-Fi hotspot on those increasing number of occasions when the need to update a Facebook profile while out and about outweighs all other concerns is much easier than it used to be, but can still be a trial. But now that the Wi-Fi Alliance has started certifying products capable of communicating with each other without the need to join up to a home, office or hotspot network, that tiresome search may soon be a thing of the past.  Read More

At the Toorcon 12 hacker conference in San Diego on Sunday, Seattle programmer Eric Butler introduced his Firesheep add-on for the Firefox Web browser in an effort to bring attention to the weakness of open Wi-Fi networks. In a practice known as HTTP session hijacking (or “sidejacking”) the add-on intercepts browser cookies used by many sites, including Facebook and Twitter, to identify users and allows anyone running the program to log in as the legitimate user and do anything that user can do on a particular website.  Read More

Swarms of flying robots might sound a bit ominous to those of us anxiously awaiting the inevitable robot uprising that will see humanity drop a notch on the scale of planetary dominance. But swarms of flying robots are just what a project at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland is working to create. However, instead of keeping an eye on prisoners in a robot-run internment camp, the Swarming Micro Air Vehicle Network (SMAVNET) Project aims to develop robot swarms that can be deployed in disaster areas to rapidly create communication networks for rescuers.  Read More