WiFi NEWS

December 18, 2006Staccato Communications calls it “a first for ultrawideband.” The chip maker is working with South Korea’s SK Telecom and some unnamed partners to make phone handsets that use UWB technology for a variety of uses. The goal: Turn the phone into the central computing platform for the user, as well as to kick off what Staccato calls Personal Area Social Networking (PASN). Such phones could actually start trickling into the market in
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December 13, 2006

Skype, EBay’s (Quote) Internet phone service, today announced anunlimited calling plan for SkypeOut users. The new option comes as ayear-long freeperiod nears an end.

Details of the flat-rate annual plan for calls within the U.S. and Canadainclude a $14.95 introductory rate until Jan. 31, 2007. After that, Skypeunlimited calling costs $29.95.

Skype-to-Skype calls remain free and calls outside of the U.S. and Canadaare 2.1 cents per minute.

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December 13, 2006It’s been two years since the initial specification for ZigBee was announced by the ZigBee Alliance, a consortium of companies all with big plans for the short-range, low-power, 2.4GHz (and 868/915MHz) radio frequency (RF) 802.15.4-based mesh technology. ZigBee will be used to deliver secure, wireless control of everything in a home, office, or warehouse, from the lights to the doors to the thermostats and beyond for years at a time.
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December 12, 2006UPDATED: Rival chipmakers Qualcomm (Quote) and Broadcom (Quote) were both declaring victory after an U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that even though Qualcomm violated Broadcom’s patent, it refused to ban U.S. imports of cell phones using Qualcomm chips.

Broadcom hailed the decision by the ITC court to uphold a ruling by administrative law judge Charles Bullock as a victory for patent rights. Qualcomm viewed the
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November 15, 2006In what the companies are calling a strategic alliance, Microsoft will be working with MetroFi to bring “locally relevant MSN content and services to MetroFi’s advertising supported, free Wi-Fi network throughout Portland, Oregon,” according to a statement issued today. They’ll be using Microsoft’s adCenter platform to help advertisers get placement with MetroFi. The local paper, the Oregonian, describes the
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November 15, 2006As municipal Wi-Fi deployments continue to gain momentum, Cisco Systems wants to be there for the providers and carriers trying to answer a request for proposal (RFP). Its solution is called ServiceMesh, a bundle of all of Cisco’s outdoor wireless offerings. “We’ve seen cities ask a provider to answer an RFP with some kind of equipment provider [as partner],” says Joel Vincent, senior manager for outdoor
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November 15, 2006Wisair and Y-E Data earlier this month announced the launch of Y-E Data’s YD-300 four-port ultrawideband hub, which is based on Wisair’s chipset and reference design. The product has been certified by TELEC (Telecom Engineering Center), Japan’s wireless certification organization. It’s the first ultrawideband hub product to be certified in Japan, and the first to be launched commercially.The four-port hub is intended
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November 14, 2006The co-founders of Novarum have given themselves a rather unique mission. Instead of pontificating about what’s happening with wireless IP data/voice networks in big cities, they’re actually going to measure just how useful those networks are for end users in accomplishing what they call “meaningful work.” Managing partners Phil Belanger and Ken Biba worked together at Vivato (they left before it imploded). Belanger’s
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November 13, 2006A “critical vulnerability” exists in the driver running wireless client chips from Broadcom of Irvine, California. The company is the number one Wi-Fi chipmaker, providing silicon for laptops from Dell, HP and Gateway, plus third party Wi-Fi network cards. The problem is a stack-based buffer overflow that attackers could use to hijack a computer, even via a wireless connection. It’s found in the driver file BCMWL5.sys, and can be
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November 9, 2006In a deal likely to foreshadow future agreements between makers of digitalmusic players and content companies, Microsoft (Quote) said itwill pay Universal Music Group (UMG) a cut of each upcoming Zune devicesold.

Expected to launch Tuesday, the Zune player faces stiff competition from Apple’siPod, which dominates the digital music market. Microsoft hopes to emulate the iPodand iTunes success by offering the $249.99 Zune in conjunction with aWeb site where consumers can purchase music.

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