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Since the beginning of the year, Broadcom has been the only provider of 802.11ac chips, which it calls 5G Wi-Fi, made to power routers, such as the Buffalo AirStation WZR-D1800H and other Wi-Fi clients. The playing field has changed a little now with Marvell announcing today a chip of its own, the Avastar 88W8897.

Marvell's new chip is slightly different from those offered by Broadcom. First of all, the Avastar 88W8897 combines 802.11ac, Near Field Communication (NFC), and Bluetooth in one die, providing more options for mobile devices. Secondly, this chip offers 802.11ac in the 2-by-2 (… Read more

Apple will release a television in 2013 for between $1,500 and $2,000, but it won't instantly revolutionize the industry, says Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. You have to wonder how much time it takes to trim a hedge that big.

Munster says the content offerings on an Apple-branded set might not initially be that much different than that of the currently available Apple TV set-top box, but that within five years he would expect the company to push back against the current cable and satellite TV models and move toward more DVR in the cloud and unbundled channels that consumers can pick and choose. … Read more

Simple.TV's innovative take on the over-the-air DVR made a splash at CES 2012, winning CNET's Best of CES award in the home theater category. Now the company has turned to Kickstarter, looking to raise $125,000 before the product launches this summer.

While Simple.TV's concept of streaming and recording over-the-air TV hasn't changed (read my initial CES story for more information), Kickstarter is making some attractive bundles available to project backers. For $200, you'll get the Simple.TV box, a full year of advanced EPG data and remote streaming capabilities, a Mohu antenna and a Simple.TV T-shirt -- a pretty good deal, considering the Simple.TV box itself will sell for $150. For $300, Simple.TV will also throw in a Roku XD and a lifetime premium subscription.

… Read more

Streaming video, with its instant access and wide selection, has exploded over the past few years. Whether it's Netflix, which despite some recent fumbles still remains hugely popular, or other services like Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu, and so on, more services and content have become available. Even better, the number of devices capable of streaming that content continues to grow.

With so many options available to stream Internet content, what's your pick?… Read more

How does Google and its high-tech-specs effort top company VP Sebastian Thrun's viral photo of a dad's-eye view of Thrun swinging his boy round in circles?

Easy. It puts the Project Glass spectacles on someone, puts that someone on a trampoline, then puts the setting on "video" and lets that someone start jumping and filming.… Read more

At the 2012 NCTA Cable Show, TiVo announced the eventual availability (again) of a TiVo IP set-top box for viewing content on secondary TVs and a new streaming box for use with mobile devices.

The TiVo IP set-top box (yes, that's what it's being called for now) works as an extender for a TiVo Premiere Q DVR. Connect the box to a secondary TV and to your home network, and you'll have access to live and recorded TV, video-on-demand services, or other broadband-delivered content through the main DVR.

Presumably it'll tie up one of the Q's tuners to access live TV, but with four tuners in the Q, you should be able to hook up multiple IP set-top boxes throughout your home. … Read more

PARIS--Feeling bad for all the TV manufacturers with ailing TV businesses? Maybe you should try those apps that came with that new flat screen.

The basic problem with the TV business is that there's very little a manufacturer can do to stand out from the crowd, said Tom Morrod, an IHS television analyst speaking the analyst firm's Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) Summit here. Manufacturers try to differentiate by adding apps and other higher-level services, but customers consistently care chiefly about price, screen size, and image quality.

"TVs are used to watch video, and that's pretty … Read more

Now that you can actually buy the first wireless networking products that use 802.11ac, Buffalo's router and media bridge, it's time you learned about the this new wireless standard. While the "ac" designation definitely does not mean "air conditioning," I can say for sure that 802.11ac is cool.

And by cool, I mean fast. That's the biggest difference about 802.11ac compared with previous wireless standards. But first let's see how similar it is.

802.11ac supplements 802.11n

802.11ac (aka 5G Wi-Fi) is the next step after 802.… Read more

Netgear today teamed up with Broadcom to announce and demonstrate a new line of wireless networking products that use Broadcom's 802.11ac chips. These are the chips that Broadcom showed off in preparation for and during CES 2012.

These devices include two routers, the Netgear R6300 WiFi and the R6300 WiFi, and one USB adapter, the A6200 WiFi.

All of these devices are based on the new 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard (or 5G Wi-Fi, as Broadcom calls it). The Netgear R6300 is the top of the line and supports the three-stream 802.11ac standard that offers up to 1.… Read more