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Streaming high-definition video wirelessly throughout your home will be a major benefit of Wi-Fi 802.11ac in the next few years, says NPD In-Stat.

Expected to receive final approval by the IEEE toward the end of this year, 802.11ac will boast several improvements over 802.11n. The new wireless flavor will offer speeds surpassing 1 gigabit per second, almost three times that of 802.11n. It also promises to provide better coverage throughout an entire home with fewer dead spots.

From a technical standpoint, the new standard will use such technologies as beamforming and higher amplitude modulation to send … Read more

T-Mobile USA's stores may not offer the Double-Double burger, but they do have their own secret menu a la In-N-Out.

Starting January 25, existing and new customers who sign up for a T-Mobile premium data plan--which consists of signing up for 5 gigabytes to 10GB of data each month--can get the mobile hot-spot capability for free--as long as they ask for it. TMoNews first reported the news, noting that customers could also ask for a mobile album feature, which provides 10GB of cloud storage for media.

That's $19.98 in additional value for signing up for the higher … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Fujitsu's prototype Android smartphone highlights that quad-core processing in smartphones is just around the corner.

Set up in the company's booth at CES, Fujitsu claimed the powerhouse device ran Nvidia's latest Tegra 3 CPU and was contained under a solid block of transparent glass. The phone's few connections to the outside world were an HDMI port linking it to an HDTV along with Bluetooth wireless to speak to a wireless gamepad.

The Fujitsu rep I spoke to eagerly touted the phone's impressive horsepower provided by its four main computing cores running in tandem. A … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Most of us live in an apartment of about 1,000 square feet or less; Amped Wireless says it new router can cover an area 10 times larger.

The company showed off at CES 2012 the new R10000G High Power Wireless-N 600mW Gigabit Router. Powered by a 620MHz processor, dual high-power Wi-Fi 600mW amplifiers, and dual high-gain 5dBi antennas, this new router is set to deliver up to 10,000 square feet of Wi-Fi coverage.

To put things in perspective, most regular routers have a wireless output power of 50 milliwatts (mW); the R10000G is 600mW.

Amped Wireless says … Read more

LAS VEGAS--You'd better not leave this among the candies, at the risk of swallowing it.

TP-Link showed off at CES 2012 what is arguably the tiniest Wireless-N router yet, called the 150Mbps Wireless N Nano Router (model TL-WR702N). This router is about just the size of a square of white chocolate and looks like one, too.… Read more

LAS VEGAS -- D-Link said today at CES 2012 that it fully supports and is ready for the new era of Wi-Fi that's based on the new 802.11ac standard.

This resonates with the announcements of TrendNet, Cisco, Broadcom and other networking vendors. D-Link doesn't have any 802.11ac products to demo or showcase at the show, however.

The 802.11ac standard the upgrade to the existing 802.11n specification (known as wireless N) and is considered to be the wireless standard for the "post-PC era" of data connectivity. This is because over time, the number … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Netgear announced today at CES 2012 its first dual-band 450Mbps adapter, the N900 Video and Gaming 4-Port Wi-Fi Adapter (model WNCE4004).

It connects Ethernet-ready devices, such as desktop computers, printers, and game consoles, to an existing Wi-Fi network. The adapter comes with four network ports, meaning you can add up to four wired devices to the Wi-Fi network at the far end of the connection.

The fact that it supports dual-band and the higher 450Mbps speeds means that you can use it with any existing wireless networks without having to worry about compatibility or performance degradation.

Netgear says that … Read more

LAS VEGAS - While most networking vendors intend to introduce the latest and greatest at CES, EnGenius this year focuses on something that as old as wireless networking itself: range.

Yet that might be the most important aspect of a wireless router. The company announced today at CES 2012 a new family, called Engenius XtraRange, of routers designed to offer significantly longer range and better coverage than competing products.

EnGenius says that on top of the extra range, its new routers will also provide top performance for the existing 802.11n standard, making them a good fit for "bandwidth-intensive … Read more

LAS VEGAS--There's now another true 450Mbps dual-band router on the block.

Belkin announced today at CES 2012 the Advance N900 DB Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router, model F9K1104. This is the company's top-tier wireless router, similar to the already released Linksys E4200 v2 from Cisco or the WNDR4500 of Netgear.

The router offers the new 450Mbps wireless data rate on both the 2.4Ghz and 5Gh bands. Belkin says it also support its exclusive MultiBeam Technology designed to deliver "a high-powered signal that allows for higher and more-consistent network speeds and minimizes the number of wireless dead spots.&… Read more