Category: Wireless

A Penn State graduate student and professor have built a system that transmits wireless data at 1 Gbps over infrared light. And they think it can go even faster.

Just last month, we saw Siemens get to 500Mbps streaming using white LEDs, but this infrared solution works at twice that speed:

Their setup sent data across a room by modulating a beam of infrared light that was focused on the ceiling and picking up the reflections using a specially modified photodetector. The pair says that their measurements show the system could support data rates “well beyond” the one gigabit per second they are currently claiming.

While there are some hurdles to overcome before optical wireless networks become commonplace, the professor who guided the project believes that if the technology continues to develop at its current pace, we could see a practical application within three years. [PSU via Technology Review]

The computer mouse is just a small little device that gets disposed off along with a million other e-waste that poses a major problem to the earth. Another problem is that even thought the mice have become wireless, still the disposable batteries used in them again collects as e-waste products. But with Andele Peter’s wireless corky mouse all problems seem to get solved, Firstly it is wireless, secondly it requires no batteries. The mouse generates power from kinetic energy. Every time you click, or move the mouse around, or even use the scroll wheel, some amount of energy is generated that is used to make the mouse work.

Also, it is made from 100% recycled plastic components and recycled and biodegradable cork. So it is 100% eco-friendly! This is a part of the Greener Gadgets Design Competition in New York. We will be featuring one such product straight from the competition everyday from now, keep looking!

[mblast]

Both the keyboard and mouse of the Logitech Wireless Desktop MK710 purportedly get a ridiculously hearty three years of battery life. Between that and its concave keyboard: that’s some weird voodoo, Logitech.

Like the MK700, the keyboard is designed to “cradle” your fingertips, which sounds like it would make my hands fall asleep. It’s paired with a sculpted mouse with “hyper-fast” scrolling, and of course the wireless goodness spares you the trouble of all of those extra USB cords lying around.

Most impressive, though, is that three year battery life, which is positively Methuselahn in wireless keyboard terms.

Europe will be getting the MK710 this month, while us Yanks will have to wait until April. Both can expect to pay $100 US.

Logitech Announces Logitech Wireless Desktop MK710
Mouse-and-Keyboard Combo Features Industry-First Three-Year Battery Life
FREMONT, Calif. – Feb. 10, 2010 – Whether you’re catching up on your e-mail, updating your status on Facebook™ or just doing a little shopping, you don’t want any unnecessary inconveniences. To help you enjoy a comfortable and hassle-free laptop experience, Logitech (SIX: LOGN) (NASDAQ: LOGI) today introduced the Logitech® Wireless Desktop MK710 – the first keyboard-and-mouse combination to feature up to three years of battery life for both the keyboard and mouse, as well as the tiny Logitech® Unifying receiver, comfortable Logitech® Incurve keys™ and hyper-fast scrolling for the mouse.

“No one thinks about changing batteries until they have to, but when that time comes, it can stop you in your tracks,” said Rory Dooley, Logitech’s senior vice president and general manager of the Control Devices business unit. “With its industry-first three-year battery life for a combo, you might just forget the Logitech Wireless Desktop MK710 uses batteries at all.”

Ready to Work or Play – Whenever, Wherever
The combination of three years of battery life and the leave-in Logitech Unifying receiver ensures the Wireless Desktop MK710 is ready whenever and wherever you need it. To achieve three years of battery life, Logitech® Advanced 2.4 GHz wireless technology transmits information much faster and more efficiently than typical 27 MHz wireless systems. Furthermore, by reducing the amount of time the keyboard and mouse remain in active mode when left idle, the Wireless Desktop MK710 conserves power and minimizes lag when you resume typing or mousing. (Battery life of Logitech keyboards is based on a calculation of an estimated two million keystrokes per year in an office environment; battery life for Logitech mice may vary based on user and computing conditions.)

First introduced in August 2009, the tiny Logitech Unifying receiver is so small it can stay in your laptop when you’re moving around. And, a single receiver can be paired with up to six Unifying-compatible Logitech keyboards and mice – freeing up valuable USB ports and making it easy to mix, match and add to your existing setup, no matter where you are.

Comfort and Convenience – At Your Fingertips

The low-profile keyboard features Logitech Incurve keys and a cushioned palm rest. With their concave design, Incurve keys support the shape of your fingertips, while helping guide your fingers to the right keys. In addition, the soft, rounded edges make it easy for your fingers to glide from key to key. The cushioned palm rest gives you a place to rest your hands when you’re not typing. Plus, an LCD dashboard gives you at-a-glance status for Caps Lock, Scroll Lock, Num Lock and battery life.

The comfortable, midsize laser mouse delivers smooth tracking on a variety of surfaces and puts control in the palm of your hand. Hyper-fast scrolling lets you fly through long documents or, if you prefer, you can easily shift to precise click-to-click scrolling to navigate lists, slides and image collections. The mouse’s sculpted, right-hand shape guides your hand to a naturally comfortable position and places the three customizable thumb buttons within easy reach, so you can move quickly between Web pages or applications (after downloading of Logitech software).

Logitech Advanced 2.4 GHz wireless connectivity delivers the reliability of a cord plus wireless convenience and freedom. Fast data transmission, virtually no delays or dropouts, and 128-bit AES encryption give you the peace of mind that comes from knowing that your data is protected moving from keyboard to receiver to computer.

Pricing and Availability
The Logitech Wireless Desktop MK710 is expected to be available in Europe beginning in February 2010 and in the U.S. beginning in April 2010, for a suggested retail price of $99.99 (U.S.).

Texas Instruments says that their WiLink 7.0 is the first chip with four wireless radios in one: FM transmission and reception, GPS, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. What does this mean for you, gadget lovers? In theory, a wholalot goodness.

Texas Instruments claims that mobile gadgets using this chip would be able to do all those four functions for less money—30 percent less—in less space—50 percent—and consuming less energy than the current alternatives. [PR Newswire]

In today’s Remainders: tricks of all sorts. Wisair cuts some cords with their wireless display adapters; Netflix warns the FCC of potential loopholes in the Comcast/NBC merger; the inimitable BrussPup plays with our heads (and ping pong balls); and more.

Air Ball
I’m all for eliminating cords and wires whenever possible, so I was excited to hear that Wisair’s wireless display adapters were coming to Macs by the end of March in products from at least four OEMs. My excitement evaporated when I looked at InFocus’s Wisair setup, which incorporates a display, speakers, mouse and keyboard into one unsightly package. If you’re looking to get rid of wires for aesthetic reasons, like me, you’ll share my hope that some of the other Wisair-based systems will be a little sleeker and a little more flexible. Because making me use your keyboard, mouse, display, and speakers isn’t removing clutter from my desk, it’s adding it. [Engadget]

Tech TV
It seems that with each passing year the Super Bowl’s commercials get a little less exciting. Or maybe it’s me getting a little more cynical. Either way—Parisian Love aside—seeing high profile, memorable tech commercials during football’s big game is increasingly uncommon. Thankfully, Computer World offers a trip down memory lane, collecting the ten most memorable Super Bowl tech ads of all time, starting all the way back with Xerox’s “Monks” spot from 1976 and continuing up through today. There’s no sudsy Megan Fox, but maybe that’s a good thing. [Computer World]

To Xfinity and Beyond
Netflix is understandably worried about the impending Comcast / NBC merger. In a recent FCC filing, they warned that if net neutrality policies aren’t strengthened and enforced, Comcast could effectively use a loophole to promote NBC content on its own streaming services and keep that content off of others. And they have good reason to worry: as physical disc-dealing loses ground to streaming services, Netflix will have to keep up with companies who own the content and the means of providing it to stay in the game. [Washington Post]

Pup Pong
BrussPup, not content simply to blow our minds with his painters tape anamorphic illusions, posted “iBall” last night, a tech-trick of a slightly different variety. With some very careful timing, he plays a video of a ping pong ball back across four different displays, making look like he’s dumping the ball from device to device. Pretty neat. Also, keep an eye out for pieces of the glowing Nintendo controller illusion that are still up in his hallway. That’s dedication. Or maybe laziness. [BrussPup on YouTube]

Ryan McBride wrote:

PatientSafe Solutions (formerly IntelliDOT) has raised $30 million in a restructuring round of funding, according to a report in VentureWire. The San Diego-based startup, which develops technology that is intended to prevent costly errors in hospitals, is raising the funds as it plans to expand its product offerings.

VentureWire reports that the lead backers in the round included TPG Biotechnology Partners, Camden Partners, and Psilos Group Managers. Company CEO James Sweeney told VentureWire that his firm, which changed its name from IntelliDOT to PatientSafe last year, has raised a total of $73 million since 2003. PatientSafe provides hospitals with wireless systems that are intended to prevent medical errors, infections, and injuries.

Xconomy has previously spoken to Sweeney, a serial health IT entrepreneur who became CEO of PatientSafe (then IntelliDOT) in the first half of 2009, about the huge potential for wireless technologies in healthcare.

Comments | Reprints | Share:  

 
 
 

Look at your bill and find out how much your business can save with Comcast Business Class. Internet, Phone & TV for $99. Learn More

Ads by Pheedo

If you struggle with frequent load shedding or are just plain environment friendly and want to restrict the use of electricity in your daily chores, why not move to an energy efficient vacuum cleaner instead? Miele Hybrid is said to be the first vacuum cleaner that can work with lithium-ion batteries, for a chord-free cleaning experience. You can charge the lightweight and powerful lithium-ion batteries automatically by using the power chord. These batteries are clean and can last for 10 years. It also guarantees enough power to the 1,800 watt motor, so that you can clean with the same efficiency. They require 3-hours to charge. Once charged, the batteries can be used for a non-stop 20 minutes without power assistance.

The cleaner also pulls the plug on overheating; the motor stops automatically at a particular temperature and restarts only when cooled down. The Hybrid comes with an AirClean filter, HyClean FJM bags with 9 levels of filtration, a 9-meter cleaning range, 3 multi-directional casters, metal telescopic tube and 3 cleaning nozzles accessible due to the VarioClip system. Weighing 6.3kgs, the maximum sound levels are set at 77 dB for AC and 69 dB for battery operations. Available in silver finish, the Hybrid is priced at around $1,055.

[Appliancist]

In today’s Remainders: excitement! Sorta. A shot of the iPhone 4 that doesn’t really tell us anything about the iPhone 4; a Star Wars and Sea Chicken adventure; a $500 HD camcorder that doesn’t quite rev our engines; and more.

Home Movies
JVC’s Enverio family grew by one member today with the announcement of the GZ-HM340, another just-barely-sub-$500 HD camcorder. The camera is outfitted with a Konica Minolta HD lens with 20x optical zoom and 16GB of flash memory expandable by SD card, and includes one touch upload to YouTube, face recognition and image stabilization. That’s all good and well, but at this point we’ve seen $500 HD camcorders before and it’s gonna take little bit more than the GZ-HM340 offers to really get our mouths watering. [Engadget]

Roaming
AT&T is providing their own relief for those volunteering in Haiti, waiving all international roaming fees, data fees, and text message fees for its customers helping out in the devastated nation. The “billing relief” will be retroactively effective back to January 12, the day the earthquake hit, and will last until the end of February. Good for AT&T, but it only took Verizon eight days after the quake to waive their international fees. [AT&T]

iSpy
Trust us. We like a good iPhone rumor as much as the next crew, but this banged up photo just leaves us scratching our heads. Sure, that might in fact be a prototype of the new iPhone on top of a prototype iPad, but that doesn’t mean there’s much to take away here. It looks like the iPhone’s aluminum bezel has been replaced by some sort of black plastic, but seeing the state of the iPad in the shot, it’s hard draw any real conclusions from this sneak peek. [Apple Insider]

Episode IV.5
If you were unclear about the events that transpired between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, this Japanese commercial from 1978 fills in the narrative: Luke, Han and Leia are still involved in a passionate love triangle and spend most of their time in karaoke bars; C3PO is a waiter at one such bar, often serving the galaxy’s favorite brand of tuna fish: Sea Chicken; Chewbacca jumps up and down for some reason. In fact, by the end of the commercial we see that everyone loves Sea Chicken tuna fish so much that the Empire and the Rebel Alliance are temporarily able to put aside their differences and enjoy a brief period of tuna fish-filled intergalactic harmony. Then, the Rebel fleet absconds to Hoth with all the Sea Chicken and we all know how it goes from there. [CrunchGear]

The fifth Wacom Intuos4 is named the “Intuos4 Wireless” as it teams up with Macs and PCs via Bluetooth. An 8 x 5-inch display used with a pressure-sensitive Grip Pen will have designers porting their creations to Adobe instantly.

Autodesk and Corel are also compatible with the graphics tablet, which is the same size as the medium Intuos4 model. It charges via USB and has 18 hours of battery life when not connected. There’s a few other changes with the design of the Intuos4 Wireless in comparison to the other four models, but if you’re wanting a comprehensive look at it, then CNET has got an early review of it.

Pricing for the UK market looks set to be £359.99 when it goes on sale in March, with the US able to pick one up for $399 now. [Wacom Wireless via CNET]

(Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from our latest report, Inside Clearwire: A Network Report, which looks specifically at Clearwire’s use of microwave backhaul for its nascent national WiMAX broadband network. The full report can be downloaded FREE by clicking on this link.)

BACKHAUL: THE BACKBONE OF THE NEW NETWORK

Though its funding comes in chunks of billions of dollars, in the world of telecom Clearwire is a scrappy startup — an underfunded underdog that is forced to improvise and invent new rules to play against the telecom titans whose advertising budgets alone dwarf Clearwire’s yearly captial expenses. On Clearwire’s side, however, is an impressive swath of wireless spectrum, and the power of using open, standards-based Internet Protocol (IP) technology at its base to produce economies of scale and to promote competition among its suppliers.

“When you have no money, and you’re a small company, and you are desperate to differentiate yourself, you’d be amazed at what you can come up with,” said Dr. John Saw, Clearwire’s Chief Technical Officer who has been with the company since its inception — his bio notes that he was the company’s second employee hired. “The nice thing about Clearwire is that the first day on the job, I had no legacy network to worry about,” said Saw, a veteran of AT&T’s wireless operations before joining Clearwire. “Craig [McCaw] told me let’s not make the same mistakes that were made before.”

One of the places Saw and Clearwire started innovating right away — and this was starting when the company was launched in 2004 — was to figure out a better way to do “backhaul,” the term associated with bringing bandwidth from the Internet to the radio towers.

“From the first day we built the company we started asking what we were going to do with backhaul,” Saw said. In the buildout of previous cellular infrastructures, most carriers used a pair of T-1 lines — about 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth in each — to provide connectivity to their towers.

“That’s enough [backhaul] to carry narrowband voice traffic, but we know that a couple of T-1s is insufficient when you have a lot of bandwidth needs,” Saw said. “If your iPhone is slow, it might be the fact that AT&T’s backhaul is completely full.” Indeed, AT&T announced in January of 2010 that it had spent the past year putting in an additional 13,500 T-1 lines into just San Francisco and New York — among the most congested of its 3G markets — along with 238 new optical backhaul lines as well.

Clearwire’s early calculations on user demand, Saw said, led the company to believe that it would need conservatively to provide 30 Mbps to 50 Mbps bandwidth to each of its towers — “That’s 20 T-1s, or else you are going to need to bring optical fiber to the sites,” Saw said.

While optical fiber connections could certainly support such bandwidth needs, Clearwire had two expensive problems in the way of using that approach: The cost of trenching the physical fiber to each tower location (which typically involves digging up streets) and the cost of metro fiber facilities and fiber-based services. Instead, the newest wireless broadband provider looked to the air when it came to its own backhaul needs — using technologies based on microwaves, which have long been used to transmit television programs, long-distance phone calls and other communications traffic.

“We didn’t do this because we wanted to be different, we did it because we had to,” Saw said. “Clearwire does not own any fiber facilities, so we put a strong and heavy emphasis on microwave backhaul.”

A big problem, especially in 2004 when Clearwire started its initial buildout, was that there were no vendors in sight with the equipment Saw wanted — a microwave radio that spoke Ethernet, so that the company could keep its flat, IP-based architecture intact.

“When we asked for an Ethernet-based microwave radio, 5 years ago nobody even knew how to spell that,” Saw said. After many frustrating meetings, Saw and Clearwire finally found the Canadian firm Dragonwave, whose Ethernet microwave radios fit the bill. Saw and Clearwire used those radios to build what he describes as a “flat Layer 2 mesh network,” where cheap Ethernet switches at each tower site help establish a network that doesn’t have a single point of failure.

“What we do is basically switch those microwave packets around, so that every cell site has more than one path back to the data center,” Saw said. “They are very low cost Layer 2 Ethernet switches, but they are very intelligent and will automatically switch traffic around with intelligent failover. It’s far cheaper than any cell site switches used for 3G today.”

Though Clearwire hasn’t yet launched enough networks or attracted enough users to know how the microwave setup will really perform under strain, Saw said its implementation seems to be a harbinger of the future, since now many vendors are offering Ethernet microwave radios.

“What nobody knows is that by being a wholesale backhaul service provider to ourselves, we’re probably one the the largest in the world on microwave,” Saw said.

For more on Clearwire’s network, download our latest report, Inside Clearwire: A Network Report, for free by clicking here.

Here’s a neat Instructable for significantly increasing the geek factor in your car’s rear windshield, showing how to modify a Wi-Fi-detecting t-shirt into a Wi-Fi-detecting window decal. At some point in some traffic jam, you’ll make a fellow nerd’s day.

Starting with a novelty t-shirt that displays the strength of Wi-Fi signals in the area, an Instructable user lived up to his matching user name and license plate of “MacGeek” by hacking together this Wi-Fi detecting window decal.

While it may not be entirely useful for finding access points, except maybe to a laptop-wielding driver behind you in a serious bumper to bumper, it will definitely be useful for announcing your geek pride to your fellow drivers. [Instructables]

There is just no ducking it anymore — AT&T has a real problem with its wireless network, and according to reports the company spent a good deal of time on its quarterly earnings conference call Thursday trying to convince investors and other followers that Ma Bell was ready to spend to fix the problems — $2 billion more throughout 2010, according to AT&T, bumping its yearly network capex spend to about $18 billion to $19 billion.

While we’ve reported on this song and dance before — AT&T talked about adding lots of backhaul at its developer day confab in Las Vegas the day before CES started — AT&T still can’t seem to bring itself to say exactly how bad its network problem is, but hey they are trying. Witness this slide from their investor presentation, which is supposed to make you feel good about how the progress is going:

I mean, the squiggly lines are all going in the right direction — but could anyone else but AT&T think they could get away with submitting a chart without numbers on the Y axis to clarify exactly what the hell they were talking about? Anyone think they could pass even an internal budget meeting with graphs without numbers?

But hey, AT&T is selling lots of devices and wireless-data revenues are up so things must be OK. Meanwhile, even as AT&T seems ready to spend enough to build a cell tower for each and every potential user, we haven’t even begun to talk about AT&T’s spectrum position, and whether or not it is sufficient to enable all this wireless growth. Our take? No squiggly lines are going to make this story go away, anytime soon.

Om said it best in less than 140 characters: “If i had to buy an iPad, I would buy a WiFi one with a Sprint MiFi. Who needs to blow money on a crappy AT&T 3G connection.”

His late Wednesday tweet summed up perfectly my reaction to the Apple iPad’s pricing for a model with connectivity to AT&T’s 3G cellular service: Why would you pay an extra $130 “3G tax” for the privilege of connecting one device to a network whose underpinnings are still suspect? Especially when you can get a mobile Wi-Fi router, either in the slim 3G-only version or in the beefier, brawnier hybrid 3G/4G configuration — and have better connectivity for your iPad and four other devices?

From AT&T’s standpoint, the pricing structure makes sense — by making it a high leap over the base iPad price, you can guess many folks will opt not to spring for a 3G version, especially since (unlike an iPhone) this device is primarily designed for content consumption or creation, and not necessarily for communications. (Though we fully expect Andy A to be the first to use it in an airborne Wi-Fi/VoIP configuration)

The fact that it will run on AT&T’s upgraded 7.2 Mbps version of 3G means that it will have access to the newest equipment on Ma Bell’s cellular net, unlike all the older iPhone users who are stuck on the slower, clogged version of AT&T’s 3G operations. So with smaller user numbers and a fast path to the fast lane of the network, why not offer unlimited data. Sort of like giving free drinks to 1K passengers on United. A far smaller number than the shlubs who have to buy their own liquor in steerage.

Bottom line? If you want an iPad and want Internet connectivity for it, go the pocketspot route as suggested by Om, with either a 3G version (Sprint and Verizon) or one with WiMAX if that service is offered in your locale (Clearwire’s Clear Spot or Sprint’s Overdrive). Sprint’s, at $60 per month for service and $100 for the Overdrive, seems a smarter play if only because it will continue to provide connectivity no matter which latest Wi-Fi device you add to your traveling arsenal. Seems to make more sense than overpaying for questionable connectivity to a single, limited device.