wireless

Wireless high dev hits the streets

Amimon, an Israeli company that's been touting a version of wireless HDMI, has come out with its first chips, a prelude to the wireless war that will waged at the Consumer Electronics Show this year.

The company, which landed an investment with Motorola, says its chips can pass uncompressed 720p, 1080i or 1080p streams around the house from one device to another. Thus, you don't have to clutter up the room with ornate coils of cable.

Amimon can send signals through walls up to 100 feet with a latency of less than a millisecond.

Loewe and Funai will … Read more

The Gizmo Report: Option's GT Max 3.6 Express for AT&T

You might wonder why I'm posting again so soon after that twelve-post blogging marathon at Hot Chips. Well, I got a new gizmo last night and I just had to write about it.

Two years ago yesterday, I bought a Sierra Wireless AirCard 860 (a PCMCIA cellular modem card) from Cingular for my Apple PowerBook G4. I also… Read more

Finally: Verizon Wireless snags the Motorola Q9m

Well, I'll be darned. Wouldn't you know it? Verizon Wireless finally landed itself a new smart phone and a pretty exciting one to boot. Today, Verizon and Motorola announced the long-awaited successor to the Motorola Q and thy name is the Motorola Q9m.

The Q9m has added some notable improvements, including an excellent full QWERTY keyboard, a sexy red trim, and Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition. Motorola also decided to give the Q9m a heavy multimedia focus, given the Q's popularity with the younger crowd and consumers in general. (Did you know that 90 percent of the … Read more

Google 'probably' to bid for 700MHz spectrum

ASPEN, Colo.--Google is "probably" going to submit a $4.6 billion bid for a prime chunk of wireless spectrum, its chief executive said Tuesday evening.

Eric Schmidt told a dinner audience at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's Aspen Summit that "it's highly likely that when we get to that point we will see the regulatory framework that is conducive to the bid (we wanted) to make."

In response to a question from a T-Mobile representative, he added: "probably is the answer to that."

The Federal Communications Commission recently announced details about … Read more

Live from Hot Chips 19: Session 6, Wireless

This is the seventh in a series of posts from the Hot Chips conference at Stanford University. The previous installments looked at technology and software, process technology, multicore designs, IBM's Power6 efforts, Vernor Vinge's keynote address, and Nvidia. Other CNET coverage may be found here. This is sort of an experiment for me; I usually prefer to have time to review my work before I publish it. If you see anything wrong, please leave a comment!

This session has two presentations--one from SiBeam describing wireless HDTV transmission for home use, the other from Broadcom on new 802.11n Wi-Fi technology.

The SiBeam presentation is easily summarized: It describes a chipset that sends uncompressed HDTV video over… Read more

MTV, Real, and Verizon to take on iTunes with new music initiative

With their new joint digital music initiative, MTV Networks, RealNetworks and Verizon Wireless are taking a direct aim at Apple's iTunes powerhouse.

Called Rhapsody America, the yet-to-launch collaboration among the three companies will combine MTV's relatively unsuccessful Urge music store, the Real-owned Rhapsody subscription download service, and Verizon's V Cast mobile media service to create a music store that reaches across the PC, digital music player, and mobile phone platforms.

The new Rhapsody America company is officially a joint venture between MTV Networks and Real Networks, with Verizon Wireless as its exclusive mobile partner. Urge as a … Read more

Extend your Wi-Fi reach while on the road

Maybe we've seen too many spy movies, but when we first heard about the Wi-Fire, a portable Wi-Fi booster, we imagined some sort of collapsible parabolic antenna, maybe with an accompanying mini-tripod so it can sit next to you on your desk. In fact, the 3x4x3/8-inch directional antenna is rather boxy, and it attaches to your laptop's lid much like a Webcam. According to manufacturer hField Technologies, the Wi-Fire can connect to an 802.11b/g access point as far as 1,000 feet away, giving you the opportunity to roam beyond the range of your laptop'… Read more

Canon's new dSLRs get some new accessories

In conjunction with the Canon EOS 40D and 1Ds Mark III announcements, Canon also let loose with some new lenses and accessories.

At the high end, intimidating all the other lenses, sits the EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM, a $2,199 prime lens optimized for use with the 1Ds Mark III. Among other things, it's got improved dust-proofing and weatherproofing around the lens mount, and a round aperture (for a more natural depth-of-field blur). Canon says it's sharper than the original in the corners as well as the center, and that the increase to two aspherical … Read more

Google's bid for open wireless

Two years ago, Google partnered with Earthlink to offer a plan for San Francisco to provide free wireless access without dipping into the municipal budget. The City bit and today, San Franciscan's are still waiting for their wifi. Rumor has it that the deal has been killed by Earthlink, but according to a recent Guardian article Google's interest in wireless internet is still very much alive.

As part of the Coalition for 4G that also includes Intel, Skype and Yahoo, Google has successfully lobbied the FCC to change the way a portion of the airwaves are sold.… Read more

FCC find: CDMA-lovin' HTC Iris S640

Let's be honest here. If you're a Sprint or Verizon Wireless customer, you must feel a slight twinge of envy as companies steadily churn out cool GSM-only smart phones like the HTC Cavalier S630 and Nokia N95, while leaving the CDMA network in the cold. But there, there, don't fret; the smart phone manufacturers haven't forgotten about you. In fact, the FCC has just approved a device called the HTC Iris S640, a Windows Mobile 6 smart phone with integrated Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and EV-DO support. It's also said that the candy bar-style handset will have … Read more