Maximum PC wireless RSS Feed

Klipsch Revives Popular ProMedia 2.1 Speakers with a Wireless Twist

Paul Lilly — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:51:37 -0600

For the most part, Klipsch bowed out of the multimedia computer speaker market a long time ago, leaving behind a rabid fan base hoping it would one day return. That day has come, sort of. Klipsch is back and has brought with it a new 2.1 speaker-set, or more accurately, a new twist on an existing 2.1 setup.

It's hard to believe Klipsch's original ProMedia 2.1 speakers have been around for almost a decade. The new ProMedia 2.1 Wireless purports to look and sound like the THX-certified original, only this time without the wires. Replacing them is a USB wireless transmitter that plugs into your notebook's USB port.

"Only a few simple steps are required to get the ProMedia Wireless up and running. Just plug, play, and enjoy the full sonic impact of your music, movies, and games without being tied down, "said Don Inmon, Klipsch director of product development for personal audio. "No router or installation software is needed."

Klipsch says the wireless range extends about 30 feet in a single room, making it deal for dorm rooms, offices, living rooms, or anywhere else you might tote your notebook.

The new speakers are only available direct from Klipsch for $199.

Image Credit: Klipsch

Sonos Zoneplayer S5 Available Today

Paul Lilly — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:09:15 -0600

Sonos has released its new ZonePlayer S5 in the U.S., an all-in-one music sysetem with a built-in wireless receiver and amplified 5-driver speaker. The all-in-one can be controlled with an iPhone, iPod touch, or any Sonos Controller.

"This is the best time in history to love music," said John MacFarlane, CEO, Sonos. "The marriage of devices such the iPhone and the Sonos ZonePlayer S5 connects consumers to an entire world of music and gives them an easy way to control it all from the palm of their hand, in any and every room of their home."

Each of the five speakers comes with its own dedicated Class-D digital amplifier. The S5 also includes a 2-port Ethernet switch, auto-detecting headphone jack, analog audio inputs, support for several major music services, such as Last.fm, Napster, Pandora, Rhapsody, and SIRIUS, and the ability to download from any service offering DRM-free tracks, including iTunes and AmazonMP3.

On the social networking side, the Sonos Software v3.1 integrates Twitter into the Controller interface, allowing users to tweet the name and artist of whatever track they're rocking out to.

The ZonePlayer S5 is available now direct from Sonos for $399.

Image Credit: Sonos

Bluetooth 3.0 Use to Grow Exponentially by 2011

Ryan Whitwam — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:18:15 -0500

Don’t get all cozy with your Bluetooth 2.1 products just yet. There is another standard on the horizon that aims to take over your wireless life. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is touting a report that indicates 23 percent of Bluetooth equipped devices will run the new 3.0+HS standard by late 2010. This is expected to rise to 61 percent by 2011.

Bluetooth 3.0 was adopted on April 21 of this year. The new standard includes support for Alternative MAC/PHY (AMP) transport. AMP allows Bluetooth devices to use the 802.11 protocol for large data transfers. Additional power management technologies are expected to increase reliability as well. Circulation will start with external USB dongles for desktop and notebook PCs very soon.

Qualcomm Urges Implementation of Denser Networks for Better Wireless Service

Bart Salisbury — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:28:40 -0500

As oversell in the wireless industry continues apace its fairly apparent that existing networks can’t keep up with demand. AT&T is the glowing example, unable to manage the enormous data demands placed upon it’s networks by iPhone users, resulting in slow service and dropped calls. Qualcomm, a mobile data service provider, has offered up an obvious solution: make the networks denser.

Obvious, yes, but not in an obvious way. Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm’s CEO, says that by using femto networks on top of existing networks it’s possible to get “eight to 10 times improvement in user experience.” Patrick Mannion of RF Design Line describes femto networks, or femtocells, as “a low-cost, low-power cellular basestation that provides improved indoor coverage while backhauling the cellular traffic over a broadband connection.” Femtocells are preferred to a Wi-Fi option because the networks are more reliable and they allow wireless providers to keep control over revenue that would otherwise be lost if signals were carried on Wi-Fi.

John Walko, of the EE Times, is reporting that AT&T is currently experimenting with femtocell networks in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sprint has similar testing underway in Denver and Indianapolis.

Image Credit: Smurrayinchester/Wikipedia Commons

Over-the-Air Music Downloads Now Available for Blackberry

Pulkit Chandna — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:45:23 -0500

Blackberry users will no longer have to feel let down by their inability to download music wirelessly. UK-based service provider 7digital and RIM have made good on their promise of an over-the-air music download service for Blackberry. 7digital’s application is now available on the Blackberry App World Store.

The absolutely free app provides access to 7digital’s 6 million track-strong library of DRM-free music. Users can download low-quality tracks when on the move. Such downloads are automatically replaced with high bit-rate tracks (usually 320kbps) when the device is connected to a Wi-Fi network. The majority of tracks and albums are priced at $.77 and $7.77, respectively. Smartphones supported at launch are the BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Curve 8900, BlackBerry Tour, BlackBerry Curve 8520 and BlackBerry Storm.

Image Credit: IntoMobile

Netgear’s Open Source Router Available Soon for your Tweaking

Jason Barry — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:25:40 -0500

Netgear announced their latest foray into the open source wireless router realm with the Netgear WNR3500L. Cisco based Linksys routers targeted at consumers have been flaunting the Linux OS for quite some time. However, Netgear has plans to become a favorite amongst the open source networking community.

The WNR3500L rocks the latest 802.11n support and is fully customizable with the latest open source firmware out there: DD-WRT, OpenWRT, and Tomato. Som Pal Choudhury, senior product line manager for advanced wireless, also mentioned their “Development Partner Program, with multiple software vendors and developers creating customized, robust, commercial-grade applications on the WNR3500L.”

In addition to the open source community, Netgear has collaborated with software application companies to deliver applications such as hotspot software by Sputnik, and remote access by Leaf Networks, among others, to run additionally on the Linux platform.

In terms of hardware, it sports a 480MHz MIPS 74K CPU, 8MB of flash memory, 64MB of RAM, 5 gigabit Ethernet ports, and USB ports for shared peripherals. Netgear will launch the router this Fall with a starting price of $139.99.

The price is a bit steep; do you think the flexibility of Linux and additional software, not to mention full 802.11n support is worth the price tag?

Sony Prototype Sends Electricity Through the Air

Justin Kerr — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 18:04:20 -0500

Countless standards exist for sending data over the air, but even devices that are designed to be 100 percent wireless end up needing to be plugged in eventually. Sure some gadgets like the Palm Pre allow for wireless charging via electromagnetic induction, but somehow the milliamps required to accomplish this just isn’t as impressive as Sony’s latest demonstration which showed a 22-inch LCD being powered wirelessly using a source that was almost 20 inches away.

Currently they are calling the technology “magnetic resonance”, and it works by transferring energy between two coils using a magnetic field. By tuning the coils to the same resonant frequency, energy can be moved safely, even when the two coils are not aligned. It also allows them to keep metal objects that get in the way from heating up.

Early tests show both the promise, and the limitations of this new technology. Currently the power transfer is only 80 percent efficient, and with a range of only 20 inches, they clearly still have some work to do before this goes mainstream. The announcement which was made on Friday was only to demonstrate their progress, and it will likely still be several years before anything like this starts appearing in commercial products.

Okay, so this isn’t a testla coil, but are you comfortable with the idea of electricity being wireless?

Modded Wireless Network Can See Through Walls, but Can’t Save the World Just Yet

Jason Barry — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:20:24 -0500

The folks over at the University of Utah are working on using wireless networking equipment to see through walls. Yep, they are trying to turn your wifi network into an investigative x-ray machine.

Well, it is slightly more complicated than that. They set up a 34-node wireless network and used principals similar to sonar to aggregate the movement of objects behind physical objects. You can practically hear the excitement from all the spy-happy teenagers. Joey Wilson and Neal Patwari’s intentions were much more altruistic.

“We envision a building imaging scenario similar to the following. Emergency responders, military forces, or police arrive at a scene where entry into a building is potentially dangerous. They deploy radio sensors around (and potentially on top of) the building area, either by throwing or launching them, or dropping them while moving around the building. The nodes immediately form a network and self-localize, perhaps using information about the size and shape of the building from a database (eg Google maps) and some known-location coordinates (eg using GPS). Then, nodes begin to transmit, making signal strength measurements on links which cross the building or area of interest. The received signal strength measurements of each link are transmitted back to a base station and used to estimate the positions of moving people and objects within the building.”

Obviously, privacy is a concern. But let’s face it, you’ve got nothing to hide so long as you aren’t a terrorist, hostage wrangler, or scantily clad getting out of the shower.