wireless

The Grouse

The Ties That Bind

Our wireless manifest destiny is hampered by vaporware

Since long before the dawn of this century (always wanted to say that), tech pundits and proselytizers have been consulting their trusty prediction machines and proclaiming The Year of Wireless. It happened when IR ports showed up on laptops, then again when wireless mice began gracing desktops. Nearly everyone got on the bandwagon when Wi-Fi appeared, followed again with GPRS, EDGE, EVDO, etc—and of course with that most overpromised and underdelivered of technologies, Bluetooth.

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Modular Space System

DARPA plans to test whether a group of mini-spacecraft can do the work of a larger satellite.

It's a name only a government agency could love: the Future, Fast, Flexible, Fractionated, Free-Flying Spacecraft United by Information eXchange. Could DARPA possibly come up with a more tortured title for System F6?

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The $5 IR Keyboard

Still carrying a PDA? Type notes wirelessly on the cheap

If you happen to still have a PDA and youre looking for a cheap IR keyboard, look no further than BG Micro. BG Micro has slashed $55 off the former retail price of the discontinued Targus Universal Wireless Keyboard (PA870U).

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The Touchless iPod Remote

With a small radio tag in your glove, you can control your music on the slopes with a simple swipe of your hand

When you´re tearing downhill on your snowboard, it´s a little distracting to take off your glove and dig out your iPod just to, say, hit pause. Instead, build this simple radio-frequency ID system and control your iPod by waving your hand in front of your coat.
A tag sewn into your glove sends instructions to a reader stashed in your pocket.
Unwire Your iPodCost: $161Time: 6
HoursEasy | | | | |
Hard

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Network Your Backyard

Surf the Web from the hammock out back (or the park down the block) with this solar-powered Wi-Fi extender

The promise of Wi-Fi is freedom-the ability to bring your laptop or PDA away from the anchor that is your desk and into your life. With most wireless routers, however, your life had better stop at around 300 feet, and forget about heading outside. Between the noise generated by other local wireless devices and physical obstacles like furniture and walls, chances are your Wi-Fi signal is little more than a whisper by the time it hits your backyard. So I built a box that can pick up that signal and boost it another 200 to 300 feet.

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Web Calling Cuts the Cord

Cheap-even free-wireless VoIP, without a computer

Forget AT&T and the like. The only phone company you need is Skype, which routes your calls over the Internet and, as of May 15, 2006, costs nothing for outgoing calls made by users in the U.S. and Canada. And now you can almost forget your cellphone provider too-with this new Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gear, you can make calls using Skype (or Vonage, another VoIP provider) from just about anywhere.

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Network Your Backyard: Detailed Instructions

Follow along with these in-depth steps to set up a solar-powered outdoor Wi-Fi access point

For the basic overview of the project, click here.

Parts:

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New Orleans Goes Online

The city hopes to jump-start recovery with the nation's first municipally-owned free Wi-Fi network

Doing business in the Big Easy just got easier. In an effort to make living and working in post-Katrina New Orleans as appealing as possible, the city is experimenting with an Internet network that is free for all users. The system-which uses wireless Internet routers mounted on streetlights to beam signals throughout the city-marks the first time that municipally-owned and -operated Wi-Fi has been offered to the public without restriction or cost.

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One Charger to Rule Them All

A nonvolatile fuel cell promises to soothe your battery woes

If you travel frequently, you’re probably lugging around a clunky array of backup batteries for all your wireless gizmos. Soon you’ll be able to lighten your load with Medis Technologies´s new nine-ounce disposable Power Pack. When your iPod dies mid-flight, you can plug it in for a full on-the-spot recharge. The 1.3-watt device will do this five times. It will also deliver five full charges for your digital camera or 20 hours of talk time for your cellphone before it’s spent.

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