The Latest $299 Drone: Everybody is Doing It

The guards around the props make it far more resistance to damage … Why should DHS have all the fun. No armaments for now…

AR.Drone was a fun, albeit expensive toy ($299) when it arrived two years ago, but the new flyer promises an updated design and fresh features that put it much closer to the realm of your own personal spy drone.

AR.Drone 2.0 Tutorial video #2 : Pilot

When Parrot introduced the AR.Drone phone-controlled flying toy two years ago at CES 2010, it made quite a buzz. The pizza-box-sized flyer let enterprising pilots fly via their iPhones, seeing the world through the toy’s low-rez camera on their iPhone screen. Parrot won’t say how many devices they sold, but did note that they did well enough to warrant version 2.

AR.Drone 2.0, unveiled here at CES 2012, still costs $299, but is now stuffed with far more pro-level features and even offers a somewhat sleeker and, according to Parrot, more resilient design.

Parrot, a Paris, France-based company with over 250 developers, has transformed AR.Drone from a fun toy to a flying robot that could attract everyone from amateur pilots to film directors. The camera now shoots 720p video (fixed lens and no flash). It shoots and, more importantly, captures stills and videos, which are automatically delivers to your phone or tablet via a Wi-Fi connection.

Netgear Unveils True Dual-Band Range Extender With Support For Apple’s AirPlay

Netgear announced at CES 2013 its first wall-plug dual-band Wi-Fi range extender, the Universal Dual Band WiFi Range Extender Wall-plug Edition (model WN3500RP).

You plug it into a wall socket within the range of an existing Wi-Fi network to help extend its range. It’s also the first Wi-Fi range extender that can be directly connected to speakers for music streaming using AirPlay, via its standard 3.5mm audio jack, or the USB speakers via its USB port.

 

The new Universal Dual Band WiFi Range Extender can simultaneously extend both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands, making it best suited for a dual-band home network. It works, however, with a Wi-Fi network that uses either of the two frequency bands.

The WN3500RP comes in a compact design, just slightly bigger than a power adapter of a mobile device. It comes included with a dock and with a separate power cord in case you don’t want it to crowd the power sockets. The device’s USB port can also be used to host a printer and share it with the rest of the network.

The new Universal Dual Band WiFi Range Extender, Wall-plug Edition (WN3500RP) is available now and costs $100.

Intel To Offer Wireless Cards

Maho Bay is a desktop platform wrapped around the recently launched Ivy Bridge desktop processor and Intel plans to enrich this platform with a Wireless mini card offer of its own.

The plan is to make new SKUs based on half Minicard (mPCIe) standard and offer it with its boards that have support for PCIe 1X or faster. Maho Bay also allows some combinations with Sandy Bridge processors and will allow the use of these mini Wireless cards on older processors with new boards. It looks like the Panther Point chipset is necessary even for older Sandy Bridge processors on Maho Bay platform.

Trying to spruce up the desktop. Who wants to drag wire, when wireless now works so well.

The top range card with premium performance is Intel Centrino Ultimate N 6300, and the card has virtually the same specification like its mobile brother. It supports Intel Wireless Display as well as Intel My Wifi technology and quick driver connect.

Since it is using 3×3 antennas and MIMO standard it is capable of achieving speeds of 450Mbits per second and it does support multiple streams. It supports dual band 2.4 + 5 GHz and Intel Vpro. This is still a 802.11n based product as Intel hasn’t really jumped the gun to support 802.11ac in 2012.

It looks like it is too early for Intel to embrace this new standard due to its very limited market penetration.

At some point Intel will include 802.11ac products in its portfolio but according to our sources this won’t happen before Q2 2013 at earliest. Intel has total of 7 mini PCIe 1X Wireless cards to offer where five of them support WiDi and two lower end satisfy with 150Mbits per second.

Cable Companies Expand Free Wi-Fi

Five of the nation’s largest cable companies are partnering to allow their subscribers free access to each others’ Wi-Fi hot spots in cities across the U.S.

The nation’s biggest cable operators are banding together to offer free Wi-Fi access to their broadband customers in more than 50,000 hotspots around the country.

On Monday, Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications, and Time Warner Cable announced on the first day of the Cable Show here that they’d enable each other’s broadband customers to access their metro Wi-Fi hot spots. The companies are calling the new network “CableWiFi,” so that subscribers will be able to find the hot spots when they’re roaming outside their own cable territory.

In early 2010, Cablevision, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable began allowing their subscribers to roam onto each other’s Wi-Fi networks in New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Connecticut. And Bright House Networks and Cablevision have already launched CableWiFi alongside their branded WiFi networks around New York City and in central Florida earlier this month.

Time Moves On

The courts blindly follow. As the number of WIFI nets increase, do you know who may be using your net? Nope, probably not. Even if you have WPA2 enabled, many still don’t, how can you tell who is really using your line?

Another judge has ruled that you can’t identify pirates based on IP addresses. How could you do that?

Another U.S. judge has ruled that an IP address does not identify copyright infringers, as the person paying for Internet access might not be the individual downloading illegally obtained content. The decision is one of many over the last year that are thwarting the plans of copyright holders who are looking for piracy-related financial gain in the American court system.

With the number of snoopers increasing at alarming rates, you really need to turn off the power when your nets are unused. Hackers never sleep, so maybe your net should. I switch off when I leave home. Nowdays, 61-percent of US homes now have wireless access.

This particular case is unique because the judge actually goes into detail as to why content owners can’t go after individuals using an IP address. The ruling was filed by Judge Gary Brown in the United States District Court of the Eastern District of New York in response to numerous lawsuits filed against John Does by adult film studios.

“The assumption that the person who pays for Internet access at a given location is the same individual who allegedly downloaded a single sexually explicit film is tenuous, and one that has grown more so over time,” he writes. “An IP address provides only the location at which one of any number of computer devices may be deployed, much like a telephone number can be used for any number of telephones.”

“Thus, it is no more likely that the subscriber to an IP address carried out a particular computer function – here the purported illegal downloading of a single pornographic film – than to say an individual who pays the telephone bill made a specific telephone call,” he adds.

The ruling makes sense. For those who still use land-based phones, a single number can ring any number of phones plugged into wall-mounted jacks. The principle is somewhat the same when it comes with networking: you get one “phone number” that can be accessed by multiple “phones.” The difference is that when wireless comes into play, additional devices outside the home can access that “number” if the network isn’t secured.

Looks like the courts are taking note of the numbers of “open wifi” both commercial and otherwise. When white space WIFI comes on line, it gets worse.

To read the full document, TorrentFreak has it embedded here.

In Support Of The Obvious — Tethering

According to industry analyst Chetan Sharma, about 90 per cent of tablets sold in the US towards the end of 2011 were Wi-Fi only. This is not surprising considering the ubiquity of Wi-Fi. And for the occasions when Wi-Fi isn’t available, there’s tethering.

All major smartphone platforms now support tethering – the ability to share the phone’s mobile broadband connection – normally with up to five devices. Tethering effectively turns the handset into a Wi-Fi hotspot, using the 3G/4G connection as backhaul. The normal limit of five devices is a bit of a joke since, unless a user plans on running their own internet café, it’s hard to imagine a use-case which would require sharing so many concurrent devices.

The beauty of tethering on these smartphones is the simplicity. On most platforms tethering can be activated in under five taps – on iOS it’s just three taps from the homescreen (Settings–>Personal Hostpot–>ON). Once activated, any device which has been previously authenticated onto the hotspot will reconnect automatically. The result is that connecting a non-cellular gadget (like a Wi-Fi-only tablet) to a cellular broadband network can typically be carried in a few seconds.

So the question is: why do I need a cellular modem inside my tablet or ultrabook, especially when integrated cellular broadband comes at a significant cost premium and normally requires an additional mobile data plan?

Admittedly, there’s a catch with tethering. A concessionary gifts which the likes of Apple and Microsoft and have made to mobile operators with their respective smartphone OSes is the ability to easily detect tethering activity, as well as the option to disable the tethering function. As a result, subsidized smartphones sold by carriers can have the tethering function hidden, unless the subscriber is on a tariff which allows tethering. Or the subscriber can be pushed onto a more expensive tariff if tethered usage is detected.

There’s something fundamentally wrong with operators charging for something I’m already paying for. If I’m on a mobile plan with a 1GB limit, I should be able to use that data allowance for whatever I want. Imagine if DSL service providers dictated which devices in your home, or how many, could use your residential broadband connection! The tethering premium can be steep. In the UK I’m paying Vodafone an additional $8 a month to have tethering enabled on my iPhone, but AT&T’s premium in the US is $20.

iPad 2 drops to $399 — Ruins the day for Android crowd

Price point pricing … When you are ahead, crush the competition.

In addition to the official unveiling of “the new iPad”, Apple has also announced that the current iPad 2 will still sell alongside the new iPad, but at a slightly lower price.

The base 16GB WiFi only version of the iPad 2 has been reduced to $399, while the 3G model will now sell for US $529. The new price for the iPad 2 puts a lot of pressure on the competition as, until now, the biggest dissadvantage of the iPad 2 was always its premium price. However, at $399 the cheapest 16GB WiFi version looks like a pretty good deal compared to 10-inch Honeycomb tablets.

Apparently, Apple hopes that this lower price will attract schools and other institutions that will buy iPads in large numbers.

More here.

TI Rolls Out 5-in-1 Wireless Chips

Horay for wireless … laptops rejoice.

Texas Instruments has introduced a family of five-in-one wireless devices.

The WiLink 8.0 family includes 15 different products incorporating different combinations of Wi-Fi, GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System), NFC (Near Field Communication), Bluetooth and FM transmit/receive technologies.

TI is aiming the devices at mobile applications such as smartphones, tablets, eBooks, etc. The WL187x, WL185x and WL183x devices are focused on “higher to mid-tier” devices, while the WL180x devices are aiming at “lower-cost” mobile markets. The product family includes integrated RF front ends for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

WiLink 8.0 devices are sampling today. Products with WiLink 8.0 solutions inside are expected to ship in the second half of 2012.

NPD In-Stat says it is the new black

Beancounters working for NPD In-Stat say that the Wi-Fi chipset market continues to march forward at a brisk pace as a growing number of consumer electronics are integrating Wi-Fi.

According to NPD’s latest report, as Wi-Fi connectivity grows, and prices for chipsets decrease, new markets for Wi-Fi are opening in areas traditionally dominated by other wireless connectivity standards. The report said that new markets such as smart meters, wireless mice, automobiles, and home automation will help drive sales of Wi-Fi chipsets to $6.1 billion in 2015.

Analyst Greg Potter wrote that broadband speeds are not yet fully utilizing the available bandwidth allowed by Wi-Fi.  But newer use cases, such as streaming high-definition video from devices to the TV, mean there needs to be an increase in bandwidth.
New standards such as 802.11ac will provide that necessary speed increase, he wrote.

Wi-Fi Alliance Thinks ‘Super Wi-Fi’ Term Confusing

Wants White Space Folks to Stay Away From Their Brand

White Space broadband is  a wireless technology that trys to squeeze in to the “white space” between the new digital TV spacings. There is simply not enough bandwidth there to duplicate real WiFi bandwidth. But the distance served is greater, something like kilometers rather than feet.

Last week the Wireless Innovation Alliance (whose members include Microsoft, Google and Dell) announced that Wilmington, North Carolina was home to the first non-trial deployment of White Space broadband, a technology that makes use of the unlicensed spectrum vacated from the shift to digital television. In their release, the group called the technology “Super Wi-Fi,” a term that was inaccurately affixed to the technology by FCC boss Julius Genachowski in 2010.

Apparently this designation annoyed the folks over at the Wi-Fi Alliance, who issued a press statement trying to crush the Super Wi-Fi moniker before the technology gets rolling. According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, use of the term will sow confusion among users who might think the two technologies are compatible.

The Wi-Fi Alliance supports efforts to use the unlicensed spectrum known as Television White Spaces to expand connectivity.  However, Wi-Fi Alliance cautions that the use of terminology such as “Super Wi-Fi” or “Next Generation Wi-Fi” for the Television White Spaces implementations available today will lead to substantial user confusion. Consumers should be aware that recently-announced deployments using terms like “Super Wi-Fi” are not in fact Wi-Fi®.

• The technology touted as “Super Wi-Fi” does not interoperate with the billions of Wi-Fi devices in use today
• Today’s deployments in Television White Spaces do not deliver the same user experience as is available in Wi-Fi hotspots and home networks
• Wi-Fi is a registered trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance and the term “Super Wi-Fi” is not an authorized extension of the brand
• Wi-Fi Alliance discourages the use of Wi-Fi in a manner that could confuse consumers

“The Wi-Fi Alliance supports efforts to use the unlicensed spectrum known as Television White Spaces to expand connectivity. However, there is currently no Wi-Fi technology that operates in this spectrum,” said Wi-Fi Alliance Marketing Director Kelly Davis-Felner. “It is important that users not be misled into confusing any such technology with Wi-Fi.”

“The technology touted as ‘Super Wi-Fi’ does not interoperate with the billions of Wi-Fi devices in use today,” warns the Wi-Fi Alliance, adding that “today’s deployments in Television White Spaces do not deliver the same user experience as is available in Wi-Fi hotspots and home networks.”

Trying to stop consumer confusion in such matters is kind of like trying to stop the rain, with most consumers not knowing what a gigabyte even is, much less capable of differentiating between technologies like Mobile WiMax and LTE (no thanks to the ITU and wireless marketing departments). The group is of course primarily concerned that the name is an unofficial use of the Wi-Fi brand, and was at least kind enough to issue a press release instead of immediately filing a lawsuit.