microSD card with Wi-Fi functionality

Remember the Eye-Fi card that made waves some time ago with its ability to offer Wi-Fi connectivity alongside a sizeable amount of memory whenever you plug it into a non-Wi-Fi-capable device? Well, technology has advanced to a point when Wi-Fi connectivity is shoved into something much smaller - a microSD memory card this time round. Just in case you just crawled out from a rock or something, a microSD memory card is no larger than your fingernail, which makes this feat all the more amazing. Available from KDDI Corp., it comes mounted with a wireless LAN IC compliant with IEEE802.11b/g, a transceiving antenna, passive components and so on. There is no word on a release date as at press time though.

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Dell Adds "My WiFi" Access-Point Tech to Notebooks

Dell has added the Intel "My WiFi" technology to three notebooks: the Studio 15, Studio 17, and the Studio XPS 16, the company said Tuesday.

What is My WiFi? Put simply, it's the combination of an Intel Centrino 2 platform as well as some associated Intel software that turns your Wi-Fi client into an access point, so that others might share a single Ethernet-based Internet connection.

The technology allows up to eight Wi-Fi devices and to share files between them on a Centrino 2-based laptop running Windows Vista, according to Lionel Menchaca, who blogged about the addition for Dell.

"So what could do with My WiFi? If you're at a hotel and logged in for broadband access, you could share your connection with other Wi-Fi enabled laptops in a room, or transfer images from a Wi-Fi enabled smartphone to your laptop," Menchaca wrote. "In the home networking side, you could use it to print wirelessly or to share photos from your laptop directly to a photo frame without having to transfer the images through a cable or via an SD card. Pretty cool stuff."

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Eye-Fi Explore Video

Chances are, these days, you won't be buying a new digital camera that doesn't record video. All the major camera manufacturers have been selling point-and-shoot models that do video for a while now, and even D-SLRs are becoming video-capable. While we loved last year's Eye-Fi Explore, its still-image-only support seems limiting at this point. Enter the 4GB Eye-Fi Explore Video ($99.99 direct), which provides the same seamless, wireless uploading as its older SD card cousins, but adds video support to the mix.

As with the original Eye-Fi Share and the Explore, the Explore Video looks like your standard-fare SD card and comes with its own USB card reader for setting up and configuring the Eye-Fi Manager software, which is PC and Mac compatible. Setup is simple: It took me no time to configure my test card with my home WEP-encrypted Wi-Fi network and establish my PowerBook as the card's "home base." so any photos or video I shot would be saved automatically to the PowerBook's hard drive when it was powered on. I also linked the card to my Picasa Web Albums and YouTube accounts with no problems.

The Web-based Eye-Fi Manager is also where you control the Explore's geotagging and hotspot capabilities. With geotagging enabled, the card marks the location a photo or video was taken when it's uploaded. You can access geotagging information from within the Manager and in select photo-sharing sites; photos I uploaded to Picasa Web Albums were accompanied by a Google Map, and the locations were accurate within a city block. The Explore is able to upload files from any hotspot in Wayport's network of 10,000-plus, which includes hotels, stores, airports, and many McDonald's and Starbucks restaurants. Within the PCMag office's ZIP code in Manhattan, I found 17 hotspots; a staffer in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, has two local spots, and another in Ithaca, New York, has seven. And to ensure your privacy, any files you upload at a Wayport location are encrypted. You can also set up alerts in the Eye-Fi Manager to inform you via text message or e-mail when uploads start, end, or are interrupted.

The "Video" iterations of both the Eye-Fi Explore and the $79.99 Eye-Fi Share, which lacks the geotagging capabilities and requires you to subscribe for hotspot uploads, can communicate with YouTube, SmugMug, Flickr, Photobucket, and Picasa Web Albums for video uploads. (There are a total of 25 supported sites for photo and video sharing.) The Explore will upload to only one video and one photo site at a time, however, and you can change the destination site only from within the software, not on the camera. You can opt for your uploads to be private at the onset, and choose to share them from the destination site later on.

A 1-minute test video I shot with a Canon PowerShot SD780 IS uploaded to my home computer and my YouTube account in about 10 minutes. A 60-second high-def (1080p) video I shot at a boxing match at Madison Square Garden with a Canon PowerShot SX1 took about 25 minutes to upload.

These somewhat lengthy transfer times lead me to my biggest gripe with Eye-Fi cards in general: They can really sap your camera's battery life. Since the card can communicate with your home network or a hotspot only if the camera is on, with both Canons I had to change the power-save settings so the camera wouldn't automatically shut down during uploads. If you don't know how to adjust those settings on your camera, the Eye-Fi Manager can walk you through the process for most popular brands.

Some digital cameras help to combat the power drain problem by integrating Eye-Fi settings. The Casio Exilim EX-FC-100 (and most of Casio's 2009 lineup) along with the Nikon D60 and D90 let you switch off the Eye-Fi's wireless radio to save battery life. It would be nice if you could do a bit more to control the card, like select which files you want to upload, or tell the camera to shut down automatically when an upload is complete.

Still, there's a lot to like here, and it's hard to imagine going back to cables and manual photo transfers after using the Eye-Fi Explore Video during my evaluation period. A $100 memory card, might feel like a luxury—especially when you can easily find a standard 4GB card for about $30. But if you want to eliminate the wires (and the thought) from transferring photos and videos to your hard drive or sharing sites, the Explore Video does the trick—and it's the most complete Eye-Fi offering to date. It doubles the storage capacity of previous cards and includes lifetime hotspot access, which costs an extra $14.99 a year with the less-expensive Eye-Fi Share Video.

Researchers may soon make LEDs do double duty – light and wifi

That’s right. Pretty soon, computer users will soon have an potentially uninterrupted wireless connection thanks to the use of light emitting diodes (LEDS) as both lighting fixtures and wifi access points. The idea, funded by an $18.5m grant from the US National Science Foundation, is being studied by researchers of Boston University is essentially that because LEDs run so cool, and use so little power, that the remaining signal used by the LED for power can also be used as conduit for wireless access points.


And it’ll be pretty fast too, as data will be able to travel using visible light at up to 10 Mega bytes per second. And the best part is, the technology can be adapted using existing power lines, so there’s not need for investment in an expensive infrastructure.

And it makes a lot of sense. With today’s tech obsessed workers getting more mobile, and with smart phones actually just computer platforms with a cellphone connection, why wouldn’t it? Phone’s like the iPhone not only have cell connections, but also wifi access. More and more manufacturers are starting to see that people want to be more mobile and not chained to their desks. So, if Boston University can get this working, it could revolutionize the corporate workplace.

Secure your WiFi network

Wireless Internet access in homes and offices has emerged as the easiest option for terrorists to abuse. After Ahmedabad blasts in India, in which WiFi system of an American resident in Mumbai Ken Haywood was hijacked to send the terror mail, they used the wireless network of a firm Kamran Power Control to send their sinister mail about Delhi blasts to media. In both the cases, the users had not secured their WiFi networks. Wireless Internet access is a huge convenience that we have got used to, but it is important to secure them. Most Internet users do not even realise that connecting their system to Web through WiFi routers can make them more vulnerable to hackers. Here are some simple ways to secure your WiFi network and prevent its misuse.

Few Tips for Securing Wi-Fi's

Password-protect your router

The first thing to do to make your wireless network secure is to access Internet through a password protected router be it home or office. Every router comes pre-configured with a standard password, and hackers know this. This makes it very easy for hackers to simply gain access into your network, gain control over its administrative rights and use your network and computer the way they want.

Wardriving, in which any person within the peripheral reach of your router’s wireless signal (between 20 to 100 metres) can simply stand outside your premises in a car or on a bike and send a terror mail by using a laptop or handheld device.

How to feed password

To prevent this, a password must be fed at the time of setting up the router and connecting it with the DSL. This password can be written down and kept with you, and inserted each time when your system asks for it before connecting you to Internet.
The large WiFi systems at most airports, hospitals, enterprises, or educational and scientific institutions, are password protected. Such access control is intended not only at revenue collection, but also security of the system. There is no reason why individuals or small organisations should not follow the same principle as a misuse of their IP -- be it for sending out pernicious mails or hacking other’s computers -- can make them liable to be accused by the police.
If you do not know how or where to put the password, call up your service provider and insist that the engineer puts in the password in front of you. Ensure this each time you change the settings, or your machine and hand-helds. Similarly, auto logins may be a great convenience, but are a taboo from security perspective.

Change the password

Change this administrator password on the router from time to time like you should change any other password so as to minimise the risk to your network.
How you change your password varies from router to router. There are several sites on the Net (even sites of the company that owns the brand of router you use) which will tell you how to go about changing the password of your router. If the task is still insurmountable, call up your ISP to understand the process. But remember not to have a wireless network without password.

Use Encryption

One of the best ways to secure your WiFi network is through encryption. There are primarily two encryption WiFi standards --- Wireless Equivalent Protocol (WEP) and WiFi Protected Access (WPA).
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is the original wireless encryption standard, which is now outdated. The main problem with it is that it can be easily "cracked." Cracking a wireless network means defeating the encryption so that you can establish a connection without being invited. A 128-bit WEP is an updated, more secure version of the original WEP.
However, skilled attackers can still crack 128-bit WEP in a few hours or less, giving them access to your network.

WPA-Personal

WPA-PSK (also known as WPA-Personal) is a more secure alternative to WEP. However, since it is newer, it is not as widely supported. However, if you have wireless devices that don't support WPA, such as media extenders or wireless cameras, you will have to use WEP on your network instead.

WPA-Enterprise

You might also see the security method called WPA-Enterprise. As the name suggests, this method of network encryption is designed for business use. Setup for WPA-Enterprise is more complex than for other types of encryption, and it requires special network infrastructure.
The newest type of wireless encryption, WPA2 provides the highest level of encryption available. WPA2 encryption should be your first choice if your wireless router -- and all of your wireless computers and devices -- support it.
Also, remember, if you use WEP encryption, change your encryption key once a month. So even if someone manages to learn your key, they will be locked out again when you change it.

Turn off your network

A very simple tip which goes a long way is to turn off your network when not using it. All you need to do is to just turn off your router when you are not using your network. Remember, the lesser time your wireless network is on, the less are the chances of it being hacked. So, switch it on only when needed and then switch it off.

Look for those wireless intruders

Treat WLANs as untrusted networks. Always remember to check your network to see if intruders have made their way in. There are several free programmes available on the Net which will help you monitor wireless monitors.

In UK Mobile broadband beats Wi-Fi

An amazing wireless milestone has been reached in the UK: More people away from home are connecting to the Internet via cell phone wireless -- mobile broadband -- than Wi-Fi. Just one year ago, Wi-Fi was far ahead. Is the U.S. next?

Wi-Fi always had the advantage of speed. But as mobile broadband gets faster, and carriers more agressively market upgraded plans and services that can be accessed over mobile broadband, more people everywhere choose to connect over their cell phone's data connection.

I think this milestone will eventually be reached everywhere, and possibly even kill off Wi-Fi altogether.

This news comes from a Point Topic survey of mobile broadband users.