Hasta La Gadget!

We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, then here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget inquiry is from Daniel, who needs our help to tame his home network. If you’re looking to ask one of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“My home network is a mess. It used to be simple, after all, you’d just need a modem to connect to your ISP and a router. Lately, however, I’ve been adding more components like a NAS, a Z-Wave bridge, a 3G microcell and a computer for telecommuting. All of these things need a wired connection, which means I’m going to need to buy an eight-port switch sooner rather than later. As consumer hardware isn’t designed to be uniform and stackable, I’m now living in a mess! What I’d like to know is how others have tidied up — did you find an off-the-shelf cabinet or do I need to start building something on my own?”

Here’s where we turn the question over to you, our loyal Engadgeteers, to help solve and spread some peace through the gadget ecosystem this Saturday night. If you’ve tamed your own out-of-control home network, share your experiences below.

Filed under: Networking

Comments

The skyscraper? The hauteur router? The dapper WAP? All reasonable nicknames were considered, but in the end, Apple’s sticking with “AirPort Extreme.” The newest base station — the one introduced alongside the company’s Haswell-infused MacBook Air at WWDC — takes on a new look and gains 802.11ac support, but that’s not what you’re here for. You’re here for two reasons: first, you want to see this thing reverse engineered, and second, you want to get an idea of just how repairable it is. The gurus over at iFixit have done their usual teardown, offering up a plethora of lovely JPGs and settling on a respectable 8 out of 10 on the Repairability Index. Eager to learn more? Give that source link below a soft tap… with the key word being soft.

Filed under: Networking, Apple

Comments

Source: iFixit

While we learned many things about OS X Mavericks’ feature set at WWDC, there were a few important details hiding in the woodwork. Apple has just revealed a few of them through a new overview of the platform. Among them is a potentially huge step forward in the Mac’s willingness to play with others: Apple has switched its default network file sharing system from the ages-old Apple File Protocol to the more universal SMB2. The move gives OS X the same approach to sharing as more recent versions of Windows, helping it slot into the corporate world and mixed-platform households. AFP and the original SMB are sticking around, but they’ll now kick in only when needed.

The crew in Cupertino has also filled in many of the blanks surrounding Mavericks’ vaunted performance and power optimizations. Battery-saving tricks like App Nap and timer coalescing mostly involve heavy task rescheduling and throttling. Memory compression, meanwhile, relies on an old yet largely untapped algorithm to avoid hard drive access. A deeper dive into the new OS X release is available at the source, although it’s not for the faint-hearted — the overview’s developer focus doesn’t exactly make for casual reading.

Filed under: Networking, Software, Apple

Comments

Via: Ars Technica (1), (2)

Source: Apple

AT&T’s GoPhone plans are undergoing a major shakedown, and you’ll get a preliminary taste on June 20th once existing data packages are given the axe. Smartphone users who want internet access on GoPhone’s $25 or $50 plans currently have the option to purchase a 50MB data add-on per month for $5, a 200MB add-on for $15 or a 1GB add-on for $25. Only the $5 option will remain once the changes hit — and we all know having to budget 50MB of data in a month is a sad, sad proposition. Subscribers to the $50 plan have it even worse as they won’t be able to purchase any data add-on at all. Fortunately, the $65 plan that comes with 1GB of data remains untouched.

Things might not be as bad as they seem. When we reached out to AT&T, a spokesperson said:

Beginning June 20, we’re making some changes to our AT&T GoPhone prepaid plans to simplify our offers and better align with what customers are choosing and telling us they want. We’ve begun letting customers know about the changes in advance, and we’ll have more information on new, additional plan options soon.

The mention of “new, additional plans” coming soon gives us hope that the company is introducing new options to make the service more smartphone-friendly once again.

Filed under: Cellphones, Networking, Mobile

Comments

Via: CNET

There’s practically an overabundance of certifications for individual networking standards, but we haven’t seen many attempts at an uber-certification that ties it all together. Enter nVoy: the upcoming program will greenlight Ethernet, HomePlug, MoCA and WiFi devices that obey the IEEE 1905.1 standard for hybrid networks. Any gadget that gets the new seal of approval should be easier to set up and troubleshoot when it’s talking to other nVoy-ready products, whatever networking method they use. The first certified hardware won’t surface until the end of the year, but we’ll bide our time if it simplifies wiring up a basement home theater.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals, Networking, HD

Comments

Source: nVoy