Hasta La Gadget!

This wouldn’t be the first time a company repackages old routers for the new year, but to be fair, there haven’t been many technological advances recently for them to do much else. Belkin happens to be one such company, which has just announced five N-series 802.11n WiFi routers ranging from $39.99 (N150 at up to 150Mbps) all the way up to $129.99 (N750 at up to 450Mbps with dual band and USB). Frankly, a quick glance at the specifications doesn’t show much of an improvement from last year’s models, and that “exclusive” MultiBeam range-extending technology seems to be just a fancy name for MIMO. Still, you gotta give it to Belkin’s designers for the new chassis design — we much prefer this rounded look to the previous boxes. You can now grab an N150, N300, or N600 DB in the shops, whereas the N450 and flagship N750 DB will be showing up in mid-May. See press release after the break for the full details.

Continue reading Belkin repackages old wireless routers for its new N-series lineup

Belkin repackages old wireless routers for its new N-series lineup originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 11:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Road warriors riding the Sprint WiMAX truck will be pleased to know that there’s a new mobile hotspot device in the house. Dubbed the Overdrive Pro 3G / 4G, users can now simultaneously connect up to eight devices — as opposed to just five previously — to the mobile web via this little 802.11n router from Sierra Wireless. Better yet, Sprint has halved the price for this new model to $49.99 after a $50 rebate with a two year $50 service agreement, yet you still get the usual goodies like microSD expansion and built-in GPS support to boot. You can pick one up at Sprint stores starting on March 20th, but of course, the previous Overdrive is probably sufficient for most humble uses, anyway.

[Thanks, r0fl]

Continue reading Sprint announces Overdrive Pro 3G / 4G mobile hotspot router, available on March 20th

Sprint announces Overdrive Pro 3G / 4G mobile hotspot router, available on March 20th originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 02:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Good news for the Bigfoot faithful — the bandwidth management technology that’s been making your desktop gaming experience smoother for years is just about ready for the laptop sector. When we spoke with the company’s leadership back at Computex, they hinted strongly that infiltrating the mobile gaming space was a top priority, and it seems as if the stars have finally aligned for that to happen. The company’s new Killer Wireless-N 1103 and 1102 half-size mini-PCIe adapters are suited for use in pretty much any laptop on the market, with the primary difference between two being available streams: the former utilizes three-stream MIMO for data rates as high as 450Mbps, while the latter relies on a two-stream MIMO setup capable of pushing 300Mbps. Both units will have Advanced Stream Detect and Visual Bandwidth Control, which should make your wireless gaming and videocall sessions smoother, more reliable and more predictable, regardless of what the network situation is. We’re still waiting in tense anticipation for who Bigfoot plans to partner with here, but we’re guessing that the gaming mainstays will be all over this in no time flat. Keep it locked for more as we get it.

Update: Looks like Bigfoot has come clean with its partner lineup. Killer Wireless-N adapters will be introduced this month inside gaming and media notebook PCs from leading vendors including AVA Direct, CyberPower, iBuyPower, Maingear, Origin PC, Sager, The V-Machine, Velocity Micro and others.

Continue reading Bigfoot brings Killer bandwidth management to laptops via Wireless N module

Bigfoot brings Killer bandwidth management to laptops via Wireless N module originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, so there’s a good chance that the developing 802.11ac Gigabit wireless standard will receive its official seal of approval long before 2048, but by 2015? Given that it took 802.11n a full seven years to move on from Draft N status, we aren’t holding our collective breath. Regardless, there’s obviously a need for a far faster interface than what we’re using now, and the Wi-Fi Alliance is obviously doing everything it can to keep on keeping on. According to a loose study by In-Stat, Planet Earth will go from zero 802.11ac devices in 2010 to one billion by 2015, with Vice President of Research Frank Dickson noting that a draft of 802.11ac should be cleared at some point in 2011. As for backwards compatibility? Looks like you’ll just have to wait and see.

Continue reading Study: 802.11ac devices to hit the one billion mark in 2015, get certified in 2048

Study: 802.11ac devices to hit the one billion mark in 2015, get certified in 2048 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know Atheros, right? The company known for its various wireless networking products has just announced a little something called the AR6233. Billed as “the first SIP solution to support the new Bluetooth 4.0 standard,” this system-in-package (that’s what SIP stands for — but you already knew that) sports the aforementioned Bluetooth radio, as well as 802.11n “with a near-zero impact on the battery life of portable devices.” Sounds like just the thing for your handcrafted boutique cellphone startup! The architecture works with ARM or x86 processors, and is expected to be in volume production in Q2, 2011. PR after the break.

Continue reading Atheros debuts first Bluetooth 4 / 802.11n system-in-package

Atheros debuts first Bluetooth 4 / 802.11n system-in-package originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 11:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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