WiFi NEWS

January 12, 2007There has been some concern lately, mostly in the UK, that the radio frequency radiation (RFR) emitted by Wi-Fi devices poses a health risk to people. Individuals suffering from a variety of innocuous but unpleasant symptoms including nausea and “brain fog” have attributed their ailments to Wi-Fi signals. The complaints have resulted in the banning of Wi-Fi in some areas, particularly those frequented by children. However, according
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January 10, 2007A lot of computer connections have gone wireless today, from your network to your printer, but there are two things that can’t go wireless: the power supply, and your monitor’s video connection. Right? Well, wireless extension cords may not be real, but work may be progressing on wireless energy transfer — which involves no cords, although the products still have to touch… But what about your display? DisplayLink of Palo Alto, California
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January 9, 2007Internet phone company Vonage (Quote) inked a three-year agreement with EarthLink (Quote), allowing the Internet access provider to offer Wi-Fi access to customers served by municipal wireless networks. Vonage said later this year it will provide customers in EarthLink areas wireless modems as an alternative to DSL or cable Internet. Vonage also said its Wi-Fi phone will eventually use the networks, providing subscribers the option to place voice calls over Wi-Fi.

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January 9, 2007
Click to ViewAt the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week, Nokia has already introduced several new wireless products, including the N800 Internet Tablet. Nokia’s N800, a followup to the 770 Internet Tablet, is already available in the U.S. for $400 and in select European markets for 399 Euros. Nokia has brought the Internet Tablets under the umbrella
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January 8, 2007Sure, the future is all about video this and multimedia that and hooking your TV to the network and watching shows over the Internet from anywhere… but the short-term money is still in the routers and PC cards with the newest technology. At least, that’s still the case at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show this week, where vendors have new gateways from your network to the broadband connection. However, with draft 802.11n tech built
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January 8, 2007At CES 2007 in Las Vegas today, the Wi-Fi Alliance said it has certified the first products supporting Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS). This is an optional technology meant to make it easier for home and small office network operators – those without an IT staff — to deploy secure wireless LANs. Parks Associates forecasts that 90% of homes with networks will use Wi-Fi by 2010; the Alliance’s own surveys show security is among
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The Ovation iX has a touchscreen, speakers, and Wi-Fi built in. It shows commercials, but can also transfer music files to equipment in a car that’s appropriately configured. Microsoft’s Automotive Business Unit was involved in the development. Of course, I totally want to be waiting for gas while somebody fiddles with settings to buy music from a pump. Pump rage could be 2008’s road rage.

This is preventing the kind of growth predicted a few years ago as newer devices that use home electrical wiring as a network media were to hit the market. With specs like that of the HomePlug Alliance offering speeds of 200 Mbps, you’d have expected something to coalesce around a dominant flavor. Instead, you have chipmakers each pushing their own solution. This year’s CES doesn’t seem to offer clarity. Nancy Gohring reports for
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The article includes comments from several researchers, all of which agree that the signals from wireless LANs fall well below any minimum level of concern based on decades of research, and that specific projects used to measure electromagnetic radiation confirm Wi-Fi’s small role in an overall hum of background noise.

EarthLink this week finally fulfilled the first phase in their buildout of Philadelphia, the largest urban deployment currently underway in the the U.S. While other networks are larger in scale, and larger urban networks are planned, Phila. is the one to watch because of its prominent political role in the development of arguments for and against municipally authorized or built Wi-Fi networks.

EarthLink committed from the beginning of its negotiations
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