wireless

D-Link claimed today to be the first company to offer green Wi-Fi home networking. While the "first" notion of the claim is debatable--I've seen routers from other vendors with an eco-friendly design--the green aspect is more than welcome.

The company said its green initiative that adds eco-friendly features to the Xtreme NT line of wireless routers could reduce the devices' power consumption by 40 percent without sacrificing performance.

These new features cut down the power usage by automatically detecting link status and network cable length then adjusting the power accordingly. The new routers also feature Wi-Fi … Read more

Soundcast Systems focuses its efforts on a very limited line of wireless audio products and it shows: the company consistently earns praise for its top-notch wireless sound quality. Competitive pricing, however, is not Soundcast's strong suit, and the OutCast is no exception.

This $700 weatherproof, wireless speaker setup is definitely not your average iPod speaker, but that's a good thing. It's innovative, extremely easy to use, and offers great sound quality. It could use some help in the looks department, though. Read the full review.

Correction, 7:30 a.m. PDT Wednesday: This report mischaracterized the iPhone 3G's influence on AT&T's second quarter. The phone's launch came after the quarter's close.

AT&T reported nearly a 5 percent increase in second-quarter revenues, as it headed into the launch of the iPhone 3G.

The telecommunications powerhouse, which is the exclusive U.S. carrier of Apple's popular smartphone, reported that iPhone 3G sales nearly doubled within the first 12 days after its July 11 launch, compared with the initial launch of the iPhone in 2007.

"In the days … Read more

The backers of Wireless Home Digital Interface plan to announce they are officially banding together Wednesday. But we're still months, or even a year from true, interoperable devices that can send high-definition video between themselves.

Wireless Home Digital Interface, or WHDI, sends uncompressed, high-definition video signals over the unlicensed 5-Gigahertz band. The backers of it say its immune to obstructions like walls and can deliver a signal that covers an entire home--that means setting up a set-top box in a basement and connecting it wirelessly to a 1080p TV in an upstairs bedroom.

But we've been hearing this stuff for years. … Read more

Verizon Wireless today launched the Motorola V750. The silver flip phone offers a durable design and it operates on the carrier's EV-DO Rev. A network. Its features include external music controls, full Bluetooth with a stereo profile, and support for the carrier's V Cast video and V Cast Music with Rhapsody services.

The phone has a 2.5mm headset jack, a 2-megapixel camera, text, multimedia, and push-to-talk capabilities, a wireless Web browser, instant messaging, an external memory card slot, and support for the VZ Navigator GPS service. The Moto V750 costs $99.99 with service.

In the famous words of Beyonce, "I can (up)/ Can I (up)/Let me upgrade you." Perhaps that will be the tune Samsung SCH-i760 owners will be singing today as Samsung released an official Windows Mobile 6.1 software upgrade for the Verizon Wireless smartphone. The software update is available for download through Samsung's Web site and has installers for both Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista users.

Obviously, it's been convenient to operate plug and play bus-powered peripheral devices that use USB and FireWire connections, since all you need is the device itself and one data cable that, once plugged in, also draws juice from the computer to feed the device. However, admittedly, that definitely is less convenient than no cable or plugging at all.

A consortium was established on July 17 in Tokyo to promote a radically new and exciting close-proximity wireless technology, called "TransferJet." This new technology enables a high speed data transmission rate of 560Mbps (by comparison, USB 2.0 has … Read more

It's the rare notebook that doesn't have Wi-Fi, but not all models offer Bluetooth. Though not a critical feature, the short-range wireless technology is handy to have for things like cordless mice and cell-phone tethering (i.e., using your phone as a modem). Meritline has a teeny-tiny USB-powered Bluetooth adapter on sale for just $7.99 shipped.

What I love about this thing is that it's so teeny-tiny: Just a rounded little nub. You can leave it plugged into a USB port and barely know it's there. This is a Bluetooth 1.2-compliant adapter with a … Read more

Based on all the previously released LG Chocolate handsets in the U.S., there appear to be three defining characteristics of a Chocolate phone--it has touch-sensitive controls, it has a slider design, and it has a scroll wheel not unlike the iPod.

Well, the LG Chocolate 3 only has one out of the three characteristics, making us wonder if it even truly deserves the Chocolate branding (it doesn't even look anything like its namesake). Indeed, the LG Chocolate 3 has no touch-sensitive controls at all and is the first Chocolate handset to be in a flip form factor.

The … Read more