Ah, now we’re talking. Over the years, HomePlug and wireless HD / HDMI haven’t exactly “taken off.” Routing internet signals over a home’s power network has been hampered by subpar transmission rates, and using wireless in the home for anything other than basic web duties has shown to be either too costly or too much hassle. Now, however, the HomePlug Powerline Alliance and the Wi-Fi Alliance have seen the light, and they’re joining hands in order to jointly push their technologies to homeowners. Focused primarily on ” facilitating interoperability of smart grid applications,” these organizations are fixing to enable SEP 2.0 applications to operate across a diverse mix of wireless and wired networks, and hopefully they’ll reach out to product manufacturers while they’re at it. Here’s hoping they’ll be able to nail it — the demand is certainly there, but the execution thus far has been downright depressing.
It’s a modern day dilemma, really — you’d love to hang that flat panel on your wall, but the wireless technologies available to mere mortals in the year 2010 just aren’t up to snuff. Wireless power is a pipe dream, and even wireless HDMI has its drawbacks. Case in point: ASUS’ new WiCast media streaming solution. Introduced last month in conjunction with Amimon, this high(er)-end streamer is theoretically capable of transmitting 1080p material over the air, with 3Gbps at its disposal. Trouble is, critics at AnandTech found that there were gobs of wires to connect before anything started to stream “wirelessly,” and moreover, they noticed significant artifacting in Iron Man 2 even with just five feet separating the receiver and transmitter. The good news is that the WiCast isn’t platform / machine-specific, but that luxury comes with a price — you’ll have to connect three cables (two USB and an HDMI) to your laptop and a receiver box to your HDTV. In the end, there seems to be just one real winner: Monoprice.
Try to get past the mess of wires in the prototype above for a minute; you might just be looking at the future of wireless power — at least if the folks at Aska Electron have their way, that is. They’ve developed a new system that not only wirelessly charges your gadgets (a la Powermat and others), but wirelessly transfers data at the same time at speeds up to 120Mbps. While complete details on how that’s possible are still a bit light, the system does apparently use the same coils for both charging and data transfer, but different wavebands for each. The real kicker, however, is that while it’s seemingly still just in the prototype stage, Aska says it expects the first commercial applications to hit the market by the end of this year. Exactly what those products might be isn’t clear, but Aska says the technology could eventually lead to thinner, waterproof devices that don’t need ports of any kind.
Azio, a manufacturer of computer peripherals like USB hubs, hard drive docks and external drive enclosures, and home networking peripherals, is getting into the keyboard game with five new wireless and wired keyboard models the company will release tomorrow. Among the five new models are one standard wired USB keyboard, three Bluetooth wireless models (including one Mac-specific model,) and one “Long-Range RF” keyboard, which promises users full functionality up to 100-feet from the receiver.
The USB wired keyboard will debut at $19.99 list price, with the Bluetooth keyboards ranging from $49.99 to $79.99 retail. The special Long-Range RF Keyboard will set you back $69.99 list, and includes a multi-touch trackpad on the right side with two mouse buttons for use with a home theater PC or conference room computer. Azio says the new models will be available tomorrow and will ship in time for the holiday shopping season.
When Logitech first introduced wireless peripherals, we’d be lucky if our alkaline cells lasted a week, but these days the firm’s low-power mice can go months on a charge. Now, the company’s taken the next logical step, and made a solar keyboard. With an ultra-slim 1/3-inch profile and a full slate of laptop-style chiclet keys, the Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 isn’t your average rack of buttons to begin with, but the ambient light solar panels installed on the top of either side should mean you’ll never need to plug it in to recharge. That’s not a claim we’ll be able to test easily, of course, as the company tells us its low-power integrated circuits can theoretically run for three months even if you leave it in a dark desk drawer. It uses the same 2.4GHz Nano Unifying receiver as several other Logitech wireless products, too, meaning you’ll only need a single one of your netbook or set-top-boxes’ precious USB ports. That’s often a concern on MacBooks as well, though you can see from the prominent Windows key this particular product doesn’t quite have a Mac-friendly setup.
Though we’re obviously far away from being able to tell you how the solar panels fare in normal use, we’re typing up this article on one of the boards right now. So far, we’re loving the flat, firm feel of the slab and rounded finger-friendly indents on each key, though the QWERTY layout’s actually a little cramped for our tastes. We’ll let you know how it holds up over the long haul. Find it next month for $80, though, if you’re already sold.
Sprint and Clearwire have characterized LTE as complimentary to WiMAX time and again, but if that doesn’t allay your suspicions of turncoat tactics in the wireless data space, take it from Sprint CEO Dan Hesse’s lips. “Our 4G strategy is WiMAX, full stop!” he told GigaOM, adding that LTE isn’t necessarily on Sprint’s roadmap. Quizzed about WiMAX partner Clearwire’s LTE trials, however, he dropped a very intriguing hint about the possible shape of phones to come: “We have so much spectrum that we decided to do tests so in case we have multi-modal phones with other air interfaces, we can add LTE on top of WiMAX and run both networks,” he told the publication. Dual-mode WiMAX / LTE smartphone, anyone?
Firesheep. Created to demonstrate our vulnerability on public wireless networks, but still a viable way for prying eyes to assume your identity. Enter FireShepherd, a Windows application that jams Firesheep to keep your browsing private. Let’s set it up. More »
If you’re looking for high-end audio quality without running wires all over your living room, you don’t have too many options. Usually wireless sound suffers from terrible compression and signal loss when you send it through the air. Aperion Audio wants to fix that problem, and promises audiophile-grade sound quality with its new Zona Wireless Surround Sound Speaker System.
Simply plug the speakers into power and plug the wireless transmitter into your audio source, and the speakers automatically sync with one another and stream from the base station. Aperion specifically created the system so setup was simple, and the transmitter even has a USB port on it so you can use the speaker system as a wireless set for your home computer. The speakers have a range of up to 150 feet from the transmitter. If you’re interested, the set is available now for $499 list, and includes two speakers and the wireless transmitter.
Climbers of Mount Everest spent the past 24 hours updating Facebook statuses, after Nepal’s first-ever 3G connection was switched on yesterday at the base camp. The first use of the service? Making the world’s highest video call. [Reuters and Unitopia] More »
Add Wi-Fi to the list of technologies that the electronics industry wants to use to help eliminate cable clutter.
A new standard called Wi-Fi Direct made an important step towards becoming product reality Monday when the Wi-Fi Alliance announced it would begin certifying products that comply with the standard.
The Wi-Fi Alliance is the industry consortium that oversees the family of wireless technology standards known as Wi-Fi.
With Wi-Fi Direct, devices will be able to connect to one another easily for permanent or temporary connections, without requiring them to join the network of a nearby wireless router.
Instead, you’ll just push a button or tap the “OK” button in an on-screen dialog box, and your devices will link up to each other.
Think of it as the wireless alternative to a USB cable. Wi-Fi Direct joins a host of other wireless technologies, such as WiDi, Wireless USB and W-HDI, all aimed at replacing desktop and entertainment-center cables with skeins of wireless data wending their ethereal way through your house.
Wi-Fi Direct connections could be used to show images from your camera on a friend’s HDTV, display PowerPoint slides from your smartphone on a client’s video projector, send web pages from your tablet to a printer, or even stream HD video from your laptop to your TV. A cutesy animation from the Wi-Fi Alliance (above) shows how this could work.
Devices could support any number of connections, limited primarily by the computing power of the devices themselves and their programming.
“Since you’re not going through a router, there’s no single point of constraint,” says Edgar Figueroa, CEO of the Wi-Fi Alliance.
The technology will support bandwidth and ranges comparable to what regular Wi-Fi offers: Figueroa claims about 200 meters of maximum range and about 250-300 megabits/second of real throughput. Of course, in the real world, where walls and electronic interference abound, you’ll probably see somewhat less than that.
It should be enough to support a single HD video stream, however, which would be plenty for most home users. And if someone is simultaneously downloading another HD video stream via your Wi-Fi router, the two streams wouldn’t interfere with each other.
The certification program means that manufacturers can begin building compatible products, then get them tested by the Wi-Fi Alliance so they can slap a “Wi-Fi Direct” logo on their packaging. That process starts with the makers of chipsets and plug-in cards, such as Broadcom, which announced a Wi-Fi Direct-certified card Monday.
Within the “near future,” says Figueroa, such capabilities will trickle down to consumer products that incorporate the chipsets and cards now hitting the market. In practice, it could be months before consumer products are on sale, and it may be a year or more before it’s widespread.
But then the tricky part begins, because not all Wi-Fi Direct devices will be able to connect with one another. Devices will only be able to connect with devices that have compatible Wi-Fi Direct support. For instance, a smartphone might support Wi-Fi Direct printing, but not Wi-Fi Direct for an external display — meaning you wouldn’t be able to connect it with your TV, even if your TV supported the standard.
Explaining all that to non-technical consumers is going to be the industry’s next big wireless challenge.
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If you’re looking for high-end audio quality without running wires all over your living room, you don’t have too many options. Usually wireless sound suffers from terrible compression and signal loss when you send it through the air. Aperion Audio wants to fix that problem, and promises audiophile-grade sound quality with its new 
