wifi

Dropcam goes HD with tiny new Wi-Fi video-monitoring camera

LAS VEGAS--Dropcam, which has made a name for itself for providing a user-friendly, easy-to-setup video-monitoring camera and service, has taken the wraps off its new video-monitoring camera, the Dropcam HD.

While Dropcam has just announced the product--and is shipping it later this month for $149--I've been playing around with an early sample for the past week. It has an interesting design and is fairly tiny. The camera can be removed from its stand (when you hook it up to your computer, you take it out of its stand), but most people will leave it in its stand and either set it up on a flat surface or mount it on a wall.

You can't swivel the camera remotely, but you can manually tilt and swivel the camera into almost any position. It's a fixed lens, which means there's no optical zoom, but Dropcam is now offering a digital-zoom feature. … Read more

Samsung targets technophobes with 'simple' Wi-Fi surveillance camera and baby monitor

LAS VEGAS--Along with introducing its InTouch Skype HD videophone for TVs, Samsung Techwin America today rolled out two new consumer video-monitoring cameras, the WiFi IP SmartCam and WiFi Video Baby Monitor.

Both cameras are designed to be very simple to set up and both will hit the market in March for $149.99.

Samsung claims the set-up is basically a no-brainer, requiring a single button push (or really two).

"Users simply locate the WPS [WiFi Protected Setup] button on the device and their home router," the company says, "and with a click of each, the two will automatically sync and the camera will be added to the network in less than 30 seconds."… Read more

Tools published that exploit router flaw

Researchers have released two tools that can be used to exploit a vulnerability in a protocol that makes it easier to set up secure home Wi-Fi networks.

Stefan Viehbock, who first reported the vulnerability to the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, released a tool that can crack a home Wi-Fi network in two hours. And Craig Heffner of Tactical Network Solutions, who had been working independently on figuring out the same vulnerability that Viebock reported to US-CERT, has also developed a tool that will allow hackers to gain access to some secure Wi-Fi networks in four to 10 hours. … Read more

How to find your Wi-Fi password

Wi-Fi passwords help maintain a level of browsing privacy and keep strangers or neighbors from stealing your bandwidth.

If you aren't in charge of your network, or rarely add new devices to it, you might forget what security key you picked. Retrieving this can be easy if you can access the admin panel of the router, but this isn't always an option-- like when you aren't in charge of the network, or you forgot that password too. Fortunately there's an easy-to-use program that can retrieve the security information for networks saved on your computer. Just follow … Read more

Sony EX523 series review: Budget LED workhorse

Sony has typically been a peg or two more expensive than its rivals but is now producing some value-conscious, high-enough-quality screens.

The Sony EX523 series is an example of a television with a decent feature set and image quality that stands up well against the competition. The main difference between the EX523 and the EX520 it replaces is onboard Wi-Fi. The EX523 is an edge-lit LED TV that performs about as well as the LG LV5500, although each has its strengths and weaknesses. If you're a stickler looking for accurate colors or are bothered by uniformity issues, it's … Read more

Device & Conquer: The flavors of wireless

Wireless Internet is becoming essential for most of us, yet it remains a bit like black magic.

For a lot of people, terms like 3G, 4G, and Wi-Fi are cryptic or just barely understood. How do they differ? When do you use each? And why do we even have to think about wireless connections so much? Brian Cooley explains what the different types of wireless do and how to use them. … Read more

Sony Reader WiFi PRS-T1 review: It can't quite catch Kindle

It's hard for some people to imagine, but Sony was the first major brand to offer an e-book reader back in 2006--beating the original Amazon Kindle to market by at least 14 months. Since then, however, the company's e-book strategy has been one step forward and two steps back as it plays catch-up with upstart competitors Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Consider the 2010 Sony Readers: the models pioneered e-ink touch screens months before the Nook and Kobo, but they inexplicably omitted Wi-Fi from most models--instead requiring readers to tether to a PC and download new e-books. Those … Read more

How to set up Wi-Fi Sync for iOS 5

One of the biggest changes iOS 5 brings for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users is Wi-Fi Sync. With it, you no longer need to physically connect your iOS device to your Mac or PC to sync its contents with iTunes. Instead, you need only to be on the same Wi-Fi network for iTunes to see your device and sync it. Here's how it works.… Read more

Virgin America in-flight Internet to go up a big notch

Virgin America and Gogo announced today that the carrier will be the first airline to offer Gogo's next-generation ATG-4 service. The two companies debuted the in-flight Internet access almost three years ago, and in May 2009, Virgin offered fleetwide Wi-Fi access via Gogo service.

According to Gogo, the new ATG-4 service will increase Wi-Fi capacity by about four times the current performance. This means you can download files faster and can even stream HD content without much latency, while flying. The companies say this improvement is achieved via the addition of directional antenna, dual-modem, and EV-DO Rev. B technology.… Read more

Ooma brings Wi-Fi to 'free' Telo phone system

Attention all owners of the Ooma Telo VoIP phone system or anybody considering buying it: you can now go wireless.

The company has taken the wraps off a new $49.99 Telo Air Wi-Fi adapter that allows you to place the Telo anywhere in your home that's within range of your wireless network. That's a big deal for Ooma, because a lot of folks don't want to have to tether the Telo base station to a wireless router that's hidden away in a closet or situated in a less-than-ideal spot in their home.

For those who … Read more