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As welcome as Transit Wireless’ strategy for wireless in New York City subways has been, having access in just six stations around one Manhattan district has been limiting for locals who want to stay online underground. Thankfully, there’s plans afoot to cover a much wider base. AT&T, Boingo and T-Mobile have offered to back a next wave of expansion that will cover 30 extra stations with cellular and WiFi access, in places we’re more likely to recognize: Columbus Circle, Rockefeller Center and Times Square are all part of the rollout. While the tragedy of Hurricane Sandy has pushed back completion to early 2013, it shouldn’t be too long before some of the city’s most important hubs (and tourist traps) are covered — and Transit Wireless’ ambitions to eventually put wireless in all of New York City’s subways could keep every borough online during the daily commute.

[Image credit: Retromoderns, Flickr]

Continue reading AT&T, Boingo, T-Mobile agree to back wireless in 30 more New York City subway stations

Filed under: Wireless, Networking

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Samsung Electronics announced on the 19th that Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE—the 4G version upgraded with new features—would be consecutively released via three major Korean mobile carriers. Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE simultaneously supports the voice call, video, and data transmission with the latest LTE technology such as VoLTE (Voice over LTE) and Multi Carrier, which is five times faster than the previous 3G technology. Equipped with a slew of new features, Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE runs on the latest Android …

Seagate has jumped into wireless mobile storage with both feet, launching the GoFlex Satellite (now just the Satellite) and even experimenting with an LTE-equipped drive for dedicated road warriors. The FCC has just revealed that Seagate isn’t having second thoughts about its strategy anytime soon: a previously unknown Wireless Plus drive has popped up at the US agency carrying 2.4GHz WiFi and a considerably slicker design. We don’t know much more, although a handily provided copy of the quick start guide makes clear that the Wireless Plus is still centered on Android and iOS device owners wanting to stream media beyond what’s on their internal memory. FCC clearance won’t give any clues as to capacities or a ship date, but it suggests that it won’t be long before our mobile devices have some added headroom.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Storage

Seagate Wireless Plus drive appears at the FCC teasing next-gen WiFi storage for Android, iOS originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 05:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Faster WiFi from public hotspots could be in the pipeline, with researchers developing software that can make browsing in wireless-congested environments around four times faster. WiFox is the handiwork of a team at NC State University, and acts as a “traffic cop” to balance use of individual wireless channels so that multiple routers don’t build up a backlog of data. In fact, WiFox only gets better the more people are active, with up to 700-percent boosts observed.

In a normal wireless environment, such as a café or airport, multiple devices trying to use the same channel can lead to sluggishness. That’s often because the router gets hammered with user requests, and can’t fire out the data requested promptly; instead, a backlog is built up.

What WiFox does is balance the backlog by assigning channel priority to the router depending on how much data it has to send out. That way, there’s still opportunity for individual users to make requests, but the router won’t get overloaded in its responses.

“The amount of priority the access point is given depends on the size of the backlog – the longer the backlog, the higher the priority. In effect, the program acts like a traffic cop, keeping the data traffic moving smoothly in both directions” NC State University researchers

Interestingly, the efficiency of the system increased when the number of users ramped up. The team saw roughly 400-percent increased data throughput when 25 WiFi devices were active, climbing to 700-percent with 45 active.

Best of all is that, as a software enhancement rather than, say, a new radio system as with 802.11AC, existing routers could be upgraded to support WiFox. There’s no telling when or if that will actually happen, however; the team –  Arpit Gupta, Jeongki Min, and Injong Rhee – will be presenting its research at the ACM CoNEXT 2012 conference next month.

WiFox boosts WiFi by 700% using wireless traffic cop is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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After establishing itself in the Android ecosystem with a native app, modern-day nanny cam outfit Dropcam has decided to optimize its service on the iPad, too. Users of the iPad 2, new iPad or the iPad mini can now view up to four Dropcam devices simultaneously, snap still images and receive real-time motion and audio alerts via SMS. Subscribers also have access to a cloud-based DVR service, which allows them to view, store and manage their recorded videos. So, whether you’re trying to catch your roommate stealing borrowing your clothes, or keep an eye on a mischievous pet, you can now grab a super-size update from the App Store.

Continue reading Dropcam’s iOS app goes big, now optimized for iPad

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Dropcam’s iOS app goes big, now optimized for iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Nov 2012 03:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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