wireless

One of the U.S. government's most significant sales of wireless airwaves concluded on Tuesday, racking up nearly $19.6 billion in bids over 261 rounds.

The 700MHz spectrum, which is currently being used to air analog TV broadcasts, was put on the auction block by the Federal Communications Commission in January. It's scheduled to be freed up by February 2009 to make way for all-digital broadcasts.

The slice of airwaves has proven attractive to potential bidders--including Google, Verizon, and others--not only because it's one of the last remaining chunks of beachfront spectrum, but because of its … Read more

Phone Arena managed to get a picture of what looks like the LG VX9700 slated to come out for Verizon this spring. It's a touch-screen phone in the vein of the LG Prada, and reportedly features a 3.2-megapixel camera, EV-DO support, an MP3 player, and a microSD card slot. It'll be interesting if this comes out at the same time as AT&T's own Prada clone, the LG Vu, since the Vu is also slated to be AT&T's MediaFLO launch device. Looks like we'll have to wait a month or two … Read more

If you're working on those hoarding issues but still can't quite bear to go cold turkey without a USB storage key at all times, then maybe this is a compromise on the way to recovery.

Asus has created a mouse that doubles as a flash drive so you can maintain your pack-rat tendencies with no one being the wiser. The MS71 is a wireless mouse that has a detachable dongle that acts as a USB transmitter when it's not being used for the storage half of the equation, according to Everything USB.

As a mouse, it certainly … Read more

Here's the problem with most "travel" mice: power. If they're not plugged into a USB port, they need batteries--which inevitably die at the worst possible time. Sure, there are rechargeable rodents, but then you need to remember the charging dock and/or cord. And let's not forget: A mobile mouse is one more thing taking up space in your bag, one more thing you run the risk of losing.

Enter the ingenious MoGo Mouse BT, which operates wirelessly via Bluetooth and docks/recharges inside your notebook's PC Card slot. How smart is that! Newegg.com has the MoGo Mouse BT for $29.99, … Read more

It's taken awhile, but Monster's "iSoniCast Wireless Audio Bridge" is finally shipping. The device serves as a dock that connects the iPod to a home stereo but also turns the media player into a remote control with a snap-on dongle. It first appeared on Crave after our esteemed colleague John Falcone wrote about it last summer, apparently even before it had been christened as the "iSoniCast" or had any pricing. (It will sell for $99.95, according to the Monster's press release.) Though it looks slightly different from the photos released last year, … Read more

Are Wi-Fi hot spots going the way of public telephone booths?

Johan Bergendahl, chief marketing officer for wireless-equipment maker Ericsson, thinks they are. During his keynote address on Monday at the European Computer Audit, Control and Security Conference in Stockholm, Bergendahl told an audience that as more people use wireless broadband fewer people will use Wi-Fi hot spots in public places.

"Hot spots at places like Starbucks are becoming the telephone boxes of the broadband era," Bergendahl was quoted as saying in a post by the IDG News Service.

Bergendahl argued that wireless broadband is growing faster than … Read more

PALO ALTO, Calif.--If you are like me your eyes probably glaze over a bit when people start talking about wireless spectrum.

Well, maybe consumers should start paying more attention because the debate over how spectrum is managed will determine how we'll be able to use all types of devices in the future, Tim Wu, Columbia Law School professor, said at a Legal Futures Conference at Stanford University on Saturday.

Specifically, there is a "battle for platform supremacy between two different types of devices"--mobile versus computer, he said. The mobile platform has a centralized, monopoly legacy … Read more

Rumors are swirling today over the future of Sprint. First off, Seeking Alpha is reporting that Sprint has hired Morgan Stanley for a possible spin-off of its Nextel brand. Sprint's ongoing troubles have been widely reported over the last few months and many analysts have named the 2006 merger between Sprint and Nextel as a key cause of the carrier's ongoing troubles. With that in mind, a spin-off of Nextel may be surprising, but it wouldn't be so shocking.

But that's not the only Sprint dish going around today. The Kansas City Star said that Merrill … Read more

For all the advances made in Internet telephony over the last decade, the hardware end of the business has lagged woefully behind. All too often we've seen things like retro corded handsets or other bizarre devices that would seem to keep a caller hopelessly tethered to the desktop.

Headset makers are coming up with some solutions that problem, however, with wireless headsets. First we saw a pair by Creative Labs at CES in January, and now Logitech has debuted a similar product, a 2.4GHz wireless stereo headset developed specifically for VoIP calls.

Not only does the "ClearChat PC Wireless&… Read more