Touchscreen digital cameras are all the rage (just ask any teenage girl who's seen Ashton Kutcher pimping a Nikon Coolpix), and while that isn't new territory for Samsung, the company's upcoming CL80 boasts a few new tricks.

Electronista describes the CL80 as "Samusng's first real connected camera," which points to the model's Wi-Fi connectivity to upload photos to Facebook, Flickr, Photobox, and Picasa without having to sync up with a PC.

The CL80 will also sport a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen display with haptic feedback, a 14MP sensor, a 7X wide-angle lens, and hardware image stabilization. And of course it will come ready to take H.264 videos at up to 720p.

No word yet on price or a projected release date, both of which are likely to be revealed during CES next month.

The Ford Motor Company today announced plans to turn vehicles into rolling Wi-Fi hotspots when it introduces the second generation of its SYNC in-car connectivity system next year.

That means passengers will be able to connect to the Internet from just about anywhere. All the vehicle's owner has to do is plug in their USB mobile broadband modem into SYNC's USB port and it will start beaming out a secured Wi-Fi signal wherever the modem is able to connect.

"While you're driving to grandma's house, your spouse can be finishing the holiday shopping and the kids can be chatting with friends and updating their Facebook profiles," said Mark Fields, Ford president of The Americas. "And you're not paying for yet another mobile subscription or piece of hardware because Ford will let you use technology you already have."

To prevent unauthorized piggybacking, Ford says its SYNC Wi-Fi system will default to WPA2 with a randomly chosen password.

Beginning next month, McDonald's will do away with its $2.95 fee that it had been charging its customers for two hours of wireless Internet access, and will add free Wi-Fi to its menu, David Grooms, McDonald's USA Chief Information Officer, said in an interview.

Making the free access possible is AT&T, which has partnered with the fast food chain to offer free wireless through most of its restaurants. Financial details of the deal, however, were not disclosed.

McDonald's decision to make the switch to free Wi-Fi comes as the chain tries to transform itself into a social hangout and not just a greasy burger joint. In addition to its wireless plans, McDonald's will also begin selling frappes and smoothies in most of its stores by mid-2010.

"We're becoming a destination and free Wi-Fi just naturally fits," Grooms added. "This is another long-term investment that we see helps McDonald's stay relevant as a brand in the marketplace."

SMB's concerned about the security of their Wi-Fi networks have a new low-cost service to choose from that will tell them if their passwords are up to snuff.

The service is a cloud-based WPA Cracker with access to a 400-CPU cluster. For just $34, it will check a company's password against a 135-million word dictionary, which takes about 20 minutes. For those who don't mind waiting 40 minutes, the price drops to $17 to access the system at half mode.

What's notable about the 135-million dictionary is that it's been set up specifically for cracking Wi-Fi passwords. It contains common phrases and forms of "elite speak" that have taken WPA networks into account.

More info at www.wpacracker.com.