Jan 14

Amtrak adding free WiFi to some trains, still no charge for delayed arrivals

Posted in: Today's Chili, wifi
Amtrak adding WiFi to some trains, free for now, still no charge for delayed arrivals

There are a variety of reasons to not take Amtrak: expensive tickets, frequent delays, worn-down interiors, and even more delays. But, for gadget hounds, trains can make a compelling option thanks to the lack of cellphone bans, power outlets at nearly every seat, and fewer cavity checks than airline travel. Now, a very few of those lines are getting even more appealing with Amtrak announcing that Acela lines between Boston, New York, and Washington will be receiving WiFi upgrades in March. That the service will be free is great news — that the word “initially” is inserted before the word “free” isn’t so very great. What about those commuters who take the company’s slower, regional routes around the East Coast? WiFi is said to be coming there too, eventually, and might even make its way to the west some day — but, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is Amtrak we’re talking about here.

Amtrak adding free WiFi to some trains, still no charge for delayed arrivals originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jan 13

D-Link’s adorable myPocket 3G router gets FCC approval

Posted in: router, Today's Chili, wifi

Announced last month, D-Link is entering the mobile 3G router space with a suspiciously MiFi-esque product dubbed “myPocket” that pushes up to 7.2Mbps worth of HSPA over a portable WiFi cloud. The device — model number DIR-457 — has just been blessed with FCC approval today, which is a particularly good thing considering that it offers North American 3G compatibility on the 850 and 1900MHz bands. D-Link is no stranger to the 3G router market — it’s been making them for several years, actually, but this would be the first model that looks pocketable (hence the name, we suppose). It’s not shipping Stateside just yet, but between this and Novatel’s offerings, AT&T’s got to make a move at some point.

D-Link’s adorable myPocket 3G router gets FCC approval originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Wireless Goodness  |  sourceFCC  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 13

Silverpac Silverstat 7 provides energy usage data, responds to touch

Posted in: power, Today's Chili, touchscreen, wifi

Boy, if it’s not car dashboards, it’s thermostats — you just can’t get away from touchscreens these days. The latest 7-inch temperature regulator from Silverpac comes with a bunch of extra goodies to entice the touch control-loving generation into the energy conservation game. With WiFi built in, the Silverstat 7 can pump data out to the internet or your home network, and is equally adept at streaming photos, music and other content back from those connections. A full week’s worth of water temperature instructions can be programmed into the device, which can also inform you of weather conditions and your home’s energy consumption. The latter part is most intriguing, as you’ll be informed of power usage on a per-appliance basis, which can be mighty beneficial when a certain bit of home hardware gorges on electricity without you knowing. June 2010 is set as the release date, but the wallet damage remains unrevealed.

Silverpac Silverstat 7 provides energy usage data, responds to touch originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gizmodo  |  sourceSilverpac, BusinessWire  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 12

T-Mobile killing @Home service, softly

Posted in: hotspot, t-mobile, t-mobile usa, T-mobileUsa, Today's Chili, VoIP, wifi
T-Mobile killing HotSpot@Home service, softly

Those of you making use of T-Mobile’s VOIP offerings to save some minutes, hang onto your WiFi. The newly Google-favored carrier has decided to axe its HotSpot@Home service, meaning no more landline VOIP calls through the service calls over WiFi from home. T-Mo will allow existing subscribers to carry out their existing contracts (if only to avoid giving them an early out), and everyone can still make calls over WiFi at the company’s public hotspots, but no new folks will be able to add the service to their accounts, meaning this old offering won’t die, it’ll just fade away.

Update: As a number of you pointed out it seems we’ve got things a bit wrong here courtesy of some conflicting reports. The HotSpot@Home service will live on, but the @Home service, which provided VOIP access through landline phones, is the one being put out to pasture here.

T-Mobile killing @Home service, softly originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink BrightHand  |  sourceAP  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 12

Santa Fe WiFi foe strikes again: sues neighbor for using wireless devices, lives in a car

Posted in: lawsuit, radio, Today's Chili, wi-fi, wifi
No, this isn’t him, because the real Arthur Firstenberg (with or without a cat) would probably need more than an aluminum helmet to cure his “electromagnetic sensitivity,” symptoms of which allegedly include stomach pains and memory loss. In fact, this man — an active member of the anti-wireless group in Sante Fe — has taken one step further by suing his bewildered neighbor 25 feet away for refusing to switch off her wireless devices, which he claims has forced him to stay at friends’ or live in a car. We’d say just chill out, find some place in the middle of an African desert, and then fly out. Oh, wait.

[Photo courtesy of Wally Glenn]

Santa Fe WiFi foe strikes again: sues neighbor for using wireless devices, lives in a car originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Reddit  |  sourceDSLreports  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 11

Intel’s Atom-powered home energy dashboard concept gets itself a website, no closer to retail reality

Posted in: capacitive, concept, intel, intel atom, IntelAtom, OLED, prototype, Today's Chili, touchscreen, wi-fi, wifi

If you recall all the way back to last week — yes, it’s a bit of a blur to us, too — Intel CEO Paul Otellini brought to his keynote an Atom-powered home monitor system, demonstrated by him and his rockstar compadre Craig. It was actually quite impressive, and thankfully Intel’s gone ahead and launched an educational page for the Intelligent Home Energy Management Proof of Concept. The specs break down as follows: a gorgeous 11.5-inch capacitive OLED touch screen, Z530 processor, motion sensor and video camera support, stereo audio, WiFi, and Zigbee integration. Throw in an open API and we’re pretty sold on this — assuming it was real, of course, and at this point it’s nothing more than a teaser of things to come. Hit up the source link and expect a notable uptick in your longing for the future.

Intel’s Atom-powered home energy dashboard concept gets itself a website, no closer to retail reality originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink OLED-Display  |  sourceIntel  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 10

Aircell to start in-flight video download service later this year

Posted in: Today's Chili, video, wifi

Aircell may have skipped out on having a presence at CES this year, but that doesn’t mean that nothing is going on in the wide, wacky world of in-flight internet. The company confirmed to us via email that it’s planning a new video download service for 2010, a little something that’ll go by the name Gogo Video. PC World was able to sit down with Eric Lemond, director of product management for the company, and they found that the service will be a lot like the iTunes Video Store in function. Users will be able to tap into their onboard WiFi in order to suck down TV shows and film rentals, which will be available for viewing up to 24 hours from the time of purchase. The files themselves will remain on the laptop (as in, this isn’t just a streaming service), and while the exact launch date has yet to be nailed down, we are told that it will only be available for Windows laptops initially. Prices should range from $2 to $4 based on the programming, though we’re still waiting to hear what kind content partners will be signing on. Fret not, jetsetters — the unfriendly skies are about to get a bit more bearable.

Aircell to start in-flight video download service later this year originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 10:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourcePC World  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 10

Pure Oasis, Sensia and Sirocco 550 internet radios hands-on

Posted in: hands-on, ipod dock, IpodDock, radio, Today's Chili, wifi

Pure’s WiFi-enabled radios are making their US debut here at CES, and we’ve gotten to grips with the top trio on offer. The Oasis (pictured above) is a weatherproofed, rubber-rich unit, which can resist splashes of water and go on for between 10 and 15 hours on a single charge. We agree it looks like a durable machine, but — while it can reach some pretty high volumes — the sound itself was predictably lacking at the furthest ends of bass and treble. Moving up in the world to the Sensia delivers a snazzier touchscreen interface with built-in Facebook and Twitter integration, but we clashed with some deal-breaking lag while using it. Finally, the top tier Sirocco 550 offers a more conventional styling to go along with a CD player (those still exist?) and an iPod / iPhone dock. Priced at $249, $349 and $449, respectively, these should all find American shelves to sing from by the middle of this year.

Gallery: Pure Oasis, Sirocco 550 and Sensia internet radios hands-on

Pure Oasis, Sensia and Sirocco 550 internet radios hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 03:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jan 08

D-Link’s DIG-1320 Powerline router eyed at CES

Posted in: networking, router, Today's Chili, wifi
Looks like Netgear isn’t the only one bringing its Powerline data-over-power line devices to Las Vegas this week! Our fine friends at GDGT have just hepped us to a couple new D-Link boxes, including the DIG-1320, the company’s first Powerline router — with 802.11n WiFi to boot!. If using the ominous power of electricity to watch The Fall Guy on Hulu seems a bit much, the company has also unveiled DIR-632, its first consumer dot-n router with (count ’em!) 8 Ethernet ports. No word on price or release date, but if any of these things “fall off the back of a truck,” we’ll drop you a line. We know a guy.

D-Link’s DIG-1320 Powerline router eyed at CES originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 10:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceGDGT, GDGT  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 06

Sprint Overdrive hands-on

Posted in: 4G, hands-on, router, Sprint, Today's Chili, wifi, WiMAX

If you were worried that packing WiMAX into a MiFi-like device would end up bloating it by a thousand percent, we’re very happy to report that you’d be wrong. The Overdrive’s only marginally bigger than a MiFi and takes on a diamond-cut square shape (as opposed to the MiFi’s rectangle) while adding a monochrome LCD up front that can be triggered on by touching (but not pressing) the power button. Other than that, you’ve got a micro-USB port, a microSD slot… and, well, that’s about it. For something designed to slide into your pocket, we’d have it no other way.

Gallery: Sprint Overdrive hands-on

Sprint Overdrive hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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