Posted 11/19/09 at 02:57:20 PM by Bart Salisbury

The Flip digital camcorder may be headed for an upgrade. So reports Pocket-lint, anyhow. According to the website, Cisco, which purchased Pure Digital, the creator of the Flip, is poised to integrate some new features, including its own networking technology.

Pocket-lint confesses “details are thin on the ground” but that the new Flip will have a large screen, which will slide to reveal the record and menu buttons. (It doesn’t seem that touchscreen, because of price, will be part of the upgrade package.) And that it will also have Wi-Fi, allowing users to record and upload with having to use an intermediary.

It’s expected the upgraded Flip will be available about the middle of 2010. No information on pricing was available.

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Posted 11/17/09 at 09:00:34 AM by Paul Lilly

Did you think Verizon would back down from its 3G map ads after AT&T hit the wireless carrier with a lawsuit? Not gonna happen. Instead, the ads keep rolling, and so do the jabs, including one that was filed in response to the suit.

"AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon's 'There's A Map For That' advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon's ads are true and the truth hurts," Verizon's lawyers wrote in a 53-page Memorandum of Law.

The document went on to defend Verizon's position that there's no way the wireless carrier is confusing or misleading customers about AT&T's coverage because "each ad speaks of 3G coverage repeatedly, [and] the maps used in each are clearly labeled 3G."

For a 53-page court document, it's actually a fun little read, and Engadget believes that's entirely by design, pointing out that this was probably drafted with publication in mind. After giving it a once-over ourselves, we'd have to agree.

Give the PDF a read here, then hit the jump and tell us what you think.

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Posted 11/06/09 at 12:00:58 PM by Gordon Mah Ung

We’ve long loved Eye-Fi’s series of Wi-Fi-enabled SD cards that allow you to instantly upload pics from your camera to a website, but it has lacked two key features: the ability to select which photos you want to upload and the ability to perform peer-to-peer transfers from the camera to a computer or laptop. This new card addresses those needs.

The card continues to support all the good stuff we’ve seen before in Eye-Fi cards: the ability to connect to open access points to upload your photos to a photo service, Wi-Fi-based geo-tagging, and video sharing. But we’re more excited by the improvements in the Eye-Fi Pro. Now, instead of uploading every image on the card, you select which photos you want to upload by checking the write-protect on the files and the card dutifully uploads them. JPEG, video, and even RAW files are now supported, too. And in case you’re wondering whether RAW is too large to transfer via Wi-Fi, we moved an 18MB RAW file from a Canon EOS Rebel T1i to a laptop in about two minutes using the Eye-Fi Pro’s Ad-hoc mode. Not bad.

Continue reading this review after the jump.

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Posted 10/14/09 at 04:12:42 PM by Bart Salisbury

Wi-Fi’s about to get a whole new look to it, one that eerily resembles Bluetooth. The Wi-Fi Alliance has announced it is nearing completing of specifications for Wi-Fi Direct which will provide peer-to-peer connections between any two Wi-Fi devices, such as mobile phones, cameras, headphones, printers, computers, keyboards, and mice. The new standard will be backward compatible to include all currently Wi-Fi certified legacy devices.

Wi-Fi Direct will make connecting to Wi-Fi a lot easier, and it may well prompt a shake-up in the Bluetooth and wireless router industries. Because Wi-Fi Direct essentially replicates Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi is more prevalent, manufacturers may opt to consolidate on the more widely available standard, and consumers more comfortable with Wi-Fi may likewise put pressure for Wi-Fi direct devices and peripherals. With peer-to-peer relationships available the demand for standalone routers could significantly diminish.

Besides getting to have a wireless keyboard without a dongle, finding a Wi-Fi hotspot becomes simpler, as we all become Wi-Fi hotspots.

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Posted 10/06/09 at 06:45:23 PM by Pulkit Chandna

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.

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Posted 09/13/09 at 01:20:09 PM by Justin Kerr

The IEEE standards group has finally ratified 802.11n, a standard that has been stuck in limbo since 2006 when it first entered draft status. Draft N devices delivered on the promise of higher speeds and better range, but despite assurances, many feared compatibility would be an issue down the road. 

The extended delay in approving the standard came from competing “pre-N” technologies from Atheros and Broadcom, which led to a long and drawn out debate over the form of the final spec. The delay led the IEEE to certify Draft 2.0 802.11n devices in March 2007, with the understanding that these would be upgradable through firmware to the final standard. To accomplish this, a promise was made to make no major changes to the spec, or the certification process.

802.11n has seen a high level of adoption within consumer electronics and networking equipment, but companies are typically slow to adopt anything bearing the title “draft”. Keep an eye out for new firmware and drivers for your 802.11n hardware in the days and weeks to come. Officials from the IEEE plan to publish the final standard sometime in mid-October. I guess the time has finally come to look forward to the next big leap in Wi-Fi speeds. I wonder how many letters of the alphabet they plan to skip this time?

Have you been waiting for the Wi-Fi Alliances blessing to buy new hardware?

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Posted 09/11/09 at 07:31:36 AM by Paul Lilly

VIA on Thursday unveiled the eNote Turnkey Solution , an 11.6-inch ultra-thin notebook boasting both WiMAX and Wi-Fi connectivity. The company said it plans to demo the unit during 4G World in Chicago from September 15-18.

"The VIA eNote Turnkey Solution is one of the most advanced mobile notebooks in the world," said Georges Karam, Sequans CEO. "It incorporates all the features one would expect in a state-of-the-art ultra mobile product, plus all the connectivity options that users need to experience truly high speed connectivity anywhere they go."

In addition to WiMAX and Wi-Fi, the new eNote will come configured with a VIA Nano processor clocked at 1.3GHz on the VIA VX800 digital media IGP chipset, integrated VIA Chrome9 graphics, up to 2GB of DDR2 memory, video acceleration for MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV9, VC1, and DiVX, three USB 2.0 ports, a VGA port, 4-in-1 card reader, 2MB webcam, Windows XP, and a 4-cell battery for up to three hours of run time.

No word yet on price or availability.

eNote Turnkey Soluition Video

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Posted 08/28/09 at 09:49:50 AM by Paul Lilly

In exactly the same time it takes to cook a batch of minute-rice, computer scientists in Japan claim to have developed a way to crack WPA encryption just as fast.

Security researchers first showed how WPA could be broken last November. The earlier attack worked on a smaller range of WPA devices and took about 12 to 15 minutes to work its mojo. But the Japanese researchers have taken the attack to a new level, according to Dragos Ruiu, organizer of the PacSec security conference where the first WPA hack was demonstrated.

"They took this stuff which was fairly theoretical and they've made it much more practical," Ruiu said.

Both attacks are limited to WPA system using the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TIKP) algorithm, which means if you use a newer WAP2 device or a WPA system based on the Advanced Encryption Standerd (AES) algorithm, you're in the clear. At least for now.

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