After all, Roku players only stream media from a handful of sources while an HTPC opens up the entire internet for playback on a TV. Plus, nettops and other small PCs are becoming extremely affordable. Unless the XR costs next to nothing, it makes more sense to save up for an HTPC. In the end, you might recoup the added expense by ditching your cable service. [Engadget]

It seems funny to me that wireless N is finally coming around despite the fact that I have been using it for years. But what about you? What Wi-Fi standard do you use at home?

We also just found out that the Zune HD will soon be able to wirelessly stream stored video to an Xbox 360. Problem is, the Zune HD only has 802.11b/g—notorious for spluttering HD content. While Microsoft's "Smooth Streaming" technology should be great for standard-def, I'm kinda skeptical about the HD side of things.

But anyway, an official 802.11n adapter for the 360? Sounds good to me. It's hit the FCC, and we'll let you know pricing/availability when Microsoft fills us in. [FCC]

According to their findings, the Broadcom BCM4329 chip does have support for 802.11n—a feature absent even in the iPhone 3GS. Needless to say, if you have an N router and are tired of slumming with a/b/g, this would be a big deal. The chip also supports FM transmission, meaning that software support down the line could allow users to stream music directly to car stereos without any extra hardware—although that possibility seems pretty remote. (The chip's Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and an FM receiver could be a Nike+ thing).

Supporting earlier rumors about the last minute omission of a camera in the touch, the guys at iFixit noted that Apple seemed to leave enough space for a camera at the top of the device—a 6mm x 6mm x 3mm space between the Broadcom chip and the wireless antenna that just might be able to hold the small camera now found in the nano. Of course, empty space doesn't mean that the camera can actually be integrated, or help you if have your heart set on the 3rd generation touch, but you can keep your fingers crossed that Apple will switch on the other features via a software update down the line. [ifixit]

Interesting tidbit, they've run out of letters to stick onto 802.11 for new wireless standards, so they'll be confusingly called things like 802.11ac. [PC Mag]

That's because Ruckus Wireless's ZoneFlex 7762 uses dynamic beam forming and adaptive meshing with wireless N. Dynamic beam forming, you say? Why yes. Ruckus says that its dynamic beam-forming antennae automagically find the best way to shoot the internet waves, so it has 3-4x the performance of other outdoor routers. It's supposedly able to keep going 150Mbps of bandwidth going at 1,000 feet between meshed node.

Oh, and it has a built-in heater, in case it gets cold (down to -40 degrees) and there are no blankets. Perhaps more pressing though: Would you buy a router from a company called Ruckus Wireless? [Ruckus Wireless via Cnet]]

A re-refresher, from last time they dropped new hardware:

All Fonera routers are open to all Fonera users, meaning that in exchange for providing Wi-Fi to the occasional Fonera-owning passerby, you get to tap into other Fonera users' connections whenever you're away from home. It's a pretty cool idea, but it's not clear that there are enough Foneras in existence for the concept to work in practice, at least in the US.

The company also has telco partners (albeit mostly overseas), who essentially subcontract hotspots to Fonera users. It's an interesting concept even if it's a little cultlike, and for the price—about $70—the Fonera 2n is a solid deal in strict hardware terms.

The company says the product is now out in "major retailers" in the US, though perhaps tellingly doesn't name any. A full feature list below: [Fonera via Ryan Block's Twitter]

Caters to Web 2.0 with Faster WiFi, Home Network Access, and Manages File Uploads/Downloads - Even With Your PC Off

MADRID, July 14 /PRNewswire/ — FON today introduced the Fonera 2.0n WiFi router in the US market, combining FON's revolutionary WiFi sharing and money making features with seamless integration and management of popular Web 2.0 services such as YouTube, Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, BitTorrent, RapidShare, and other content — even while users' PCs are off. The Fonera 2.0n is on sale now at major retailers. This announcement is significant because anyone can now upload, download and synch ALL of their web apps while away from home, without getting stuck for hours waiting for something to load.

"If there's one annoying aspect of the otherwise great internet, it's the time it takes to upload videos, pictures, or download movies, tv series, games, and software from the internet," said Martin Varsavsky, FON CEO. "The Fonera 2.0n is the first WiFi router that frees up your computer from those tasks. Close your computer, continue uploading and downloading!"

Built around the faster 802.11n standard, Fonera 2.0n has a greater WiFi reach and faster throughput than 802.11g routers, and its more powerful processors and sophisticated software enable it to run parallel applications and simultaneous uploads and downloads. A built-in USB hub and Fonera 2.0 management software allows users to connect external hard drives and other USB devices. This enables users to share data wirelessly, upload videos or photos automatically to YouTube, Flickr, Picasa and Facebook, or download* torrents or files directly from BitTorrent, RapidShare, and Megaupload without a computer running at the same time. Additional features include the ability to backup files to a hard drive, print, or access a remote webcam via WiFi, and convert an HSDPA or 3G dongle to WiFi.

Fonera 2.0n can also help users save money on energy and reduce their CO2 output. A Fonera 2.0n router consumes less than four watts while downloading, instead of a PC that averages 100 watts, so users can reduce their CO2 emissions by 273Kg a year — equivalent to driving an SUV more than 1,500km per year. **

"The deep integration of online file sharing, social networks, and other Web 2.0 content into our already busy daily lives translates into more hours spent at the computer, greater energy use and more greenhouse emissions," said Varsavsky. "By enabling users to handle basic computing tasks from the router instead of the PC, we're taking a small step towards reducing power consumption without limiting functionality."

Fonera 2.0 also maintains all the features of previous FON WiFi routers. Once connected, it creates two WiFi signals, one private and one public, that allow for a secure, wireless Internet connection at home and free access at FON Spots worldwide. Fonera owners can also choose to make money*** by selling FON WiFi access passes or letting guests roam at their FON Spot.

Fonera 2.0n is based on open source and developers are encouraged to create and share additional applications.

For further information about the Fonera 2.0, visit www.fon.com.

About FON:

FON started the free WiFi revolution in 2006 with the first Fonera WiFi router and the goal of free, ubiquitous WiFi for everyone. Today, FON has more than 350,000 FON Spots, over 1.3 million registered foneros, and a growing list of Telco partners who add FON functionality to their ADSL modems. Google, eBay, British Telecom, Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital are investors in FON.

Faster Wi-Fi should imply higher quality signals for video streaming, with "n" speeds having set the benchmark for wireless HD in the home theater industry already. But technically, no streaming bitrate limitations are listed on the product at this time.

The system also features a Vista-friendly Windows CE infrastructure with 4GB of storage that's compatible with MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, and WMV. You get home theater ports like HDMI and component. And the projector itself creates a WXGA (1280 x 800) image at 3,800 lumens.

Oh...but...it's gonna be like $6500 when it hits Japan this June. (The headline read "first!!" not "cheap!!") [Sanyo via SlashGear]

So you know what that means. Yes, yet another morsel of rumor and speculation to add to the "new iPhone something or other is due out from Apple this summer" roundup.

But here's some more meat anyway: In addition to support for speedier 802.11n networks, the 3.0 firmware also includes hints that a "new device" would enjoy more efficient power management. A special "integrated PMU (power management unit)" and a shared Bluetooth/wifi receive signal path would "[eliminate] the need for an external power splitter while maintaining excellent sensitivity for both Bluetooth and WLAN."

Sounds fascinating. But what will it look like, and what other new features will it have?

Update: Corrected iPhone 3G network support to 802.11g. [AppleInsider]

While mobile browsers are far from fast enough to handle data coming in at draft-N speeds, this does open the door for some nice wireless syncing potential. The chips won't be in phones ready for consumers until late 2009, so by then, perhaps there will be a market.

Oh, and about battery life: Broadcom actually claims that the 802.11n combo chip is more power efficient than similar 802.11g chips in phones now by allowing for single streams of data over a single antenna and packet aggregation. Full release follows:

Broadcom(R) BCM4329 Continues to Raise the Bar for Mobile Connectivity by Delivering Cost Effective Combo Solutions with More Features and Lower Power Consumption

IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced the availability of its newest wireless combination chip that enables mobile phones to support more media and data applications without impacting size or battery life. By integrating Broadcom's industry leading 802.11n Wi-Fi(R), Bluetooth(R) and FM technologies on a single silicon die, the new combo solution offers far more functionality than any other single-chip wireless solution on the market. The highly integrated Broadcom(R) chip also provides significant cost, size, power and performance advantages over discrete semiconductor implementations, making it ideal for handheld electronics.

Combination chips have gained tremendous traction as more manufacturers add multiple wireless features to mobile phones and other handheld devices, and will account for nearly one-third of all wireless connectivity solutions shipped in 2012*. To serve this growing market, Broadcom recently announced its plans to introduce a new combination chip every 60 days over the coming months. A variety of products based on the Broadcom BCM4325, the industry's first Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM chip, are already on store shelves, and devices based on the Broadcom BCM2049 Bluetooth/FM chip are currently nearing production. Now the newest member of this award-winning combo family, the BCM4329, adds the most advanced Wi-Fi technology and FM transmit capabilities to enable even more powerful applications in smaller devices.

As mobile phones become more media-centric - with cameras, full-featured browsers and enhanced audio capabilities - many consumers want to share photos, videos, music and data between their portable devices and other electronics such as TVs, PCs, printers, remote speakers, headsets and car stereos. These applications can benefit from the new 802.11n standard, which offers higher throughput, more robust connections and much greater coverage than previous Wi-Fi technologies.

Broadcom continues to raise the bar for mobile connectivity by delivering one of the industry's first solutions to offer 802.11n for mobile devices. It provides up to 50 Megabits per second (Mbps) of actual wireless throughput, allowing large file transfers to happen more quickly while consuming less total power. In addition, the BCM4329 employs space time block coding (STBC), an 802.11n feature that enables a mobile device to maintain a connection with an access point anywhere within an expanded coverage area.

The BCM4329 includes both FM transmit and receive capabilities. FM transmit enables consumers to stream music directly from a personal media players (PMPs) or mobile phone to car stereos or home theater systems without having to purchase special adapters or use bulky cables. FM receive is already a popular feature that enables consumers to obtain real-time traffic information as well as listen to music, news and sports broadcasts on their mobile phones.

The BCM4329 also integrates Bluetooth, which is already a ubiquitous feature in mobile phones and PMPs, enabling hands-free communications with wireless headsets, cordless data synchronization and stereo music streaming to headphones and speakers. Since Bluetooth and Wi-Fi operate in the same 2.4 GHz band, both the Broadcom BCM4325 and BCM4329 combination chips use innovative co-existence algorithms and a shared antenna system to minimize interference and provide even better performance than products that use separate Bluetooth and Wi-Fi solutions.

"Handset manufacturers are excited about the opportunities that 802.11n brings, but they are looking for single antenna solutions that meet stringent size and power requirements," said Chris Bergey, Director of Broadcom's Embedded WLAN line of business. "The BCM4329 is another example of how Broadcom is driving the industry towards combination solutions, not by delivering a one-size-fits-all technology, but by integrating the right mix of technologies for the right applications."

Technical Information

Since handheld devices lack the space, battery power and processing power to support 802.11n implementations with multiple antennas, the BCM4329 uses single-stream 802.11n to transmit and receive data. This significantly reduces the system's footprint and power consumption when compared to multi-stream solutions. Despite the use of a single antenna, the BCM4329 provides faster and more reliable wireless connections than current 802.11g products.

In addition to its performance advantages, the BCM4329 is the industry's smallest and lowest cost dual-band 802.11n solution. Dual-band capabilities allow Wi-Fi users to leverage the less crowded 5 GHz spectrum for media applications that require faster guaranteed bandwidth. To eliminate the cost and size barriers of adding dual-band functionality to mobile devices, the BCM4329 integrates 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz CMOS power amplifiers, which can reduce bill-of-material (BOM) costs by up to 75 cents while providing the same or better performance than solutions using external power amplifiers. Broadcom's extreme integration also reduces power consumption and makes BCM4329 designs fifteen percent smaller than those based on its predecessor, enabling modules that are less than 75 mm2 to accommodate the board space requirements of handheld devices.

Availability and Pricing

The BCM4329 combination chip is now sampling to early access customers and is scheduled for significant production quantities in 2009. Pricing is available upon request.

No. The bottleneck in a setup like this is the centralized wireless controller chipset architecture that routes all of the data coming in and out. Proxim's solution, instead, uses a new distributed wireless architecture for which enables it to smartly share the burden over the two radios. It uses two standard Atheros 802.11n radio chips and a controller processor from Freescale. This is also different from the many dual-band routers out there that use two radios, but only for each band individually—not combined into a single bandwidth pipe.

Of course, your computer only has one radio, so you won't see double the speeds on your local machine. This just helps cram more data onto a huge enterprise network without bringing it down, but an interesting strategy that could, theoretically, find its way into more consumer-type gear. The dual-radio AP-8000 costs $1,099, and also looks like a Dungeness crab after I've eaten four delicious legs already. Sold! [Product Page via GigaOM]

The 802.11n standard already uses parallel data transmission, doubling up data streams to reach its claimed 300Mbps raw data throughput. Quantenna thinks they can stack that same tech to reach a ridiculous 1Gbps, which they claim they'll be able to do for under $50 per chipset. The same principles can be applied for purposes of redundancy, achieving greater reliability and range but at typical 802.11n speeds, which nobody really cares about because — honestly now — 1Gbps. [Ars]

This isn't a print server situation, or a network-attached storage thing either, from what we can tell. Technically, D-Link didn't say a whole lot, except:

SharePort turns the local USB port located on the back of the 802.11n family of Wi-Fi routers into a fast and responsive virtual port so users can access a range of USB devices, by utilizing a new technology of USB over TCP/IP.

Models that can be upgraded include D-Link Xtreme N Gigabit Routers DIR-655, DIR-825, DIR-855 and DGL-4500 Gaming Router, plus the RangeBooster N DIR-628. We'll try to run a test of this soon, but if you beat us to it, tell us about your experience.

Press Release for DIR-825 Router

D-LINK NOW SHIPPING COST-EFFECTIVE DUAL BAND 802.11n Wi-Fi ROUTER WITH SharePort(tm) TECHNOLOGY

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., Oct. 1, 2008 - D-Link, the end-to-end provider of network solutions for consumers and business, today began shipping an Xtreme N(tm) Dual Band Gigabit Router for the home or small office, featuring dual band access that simultaneously creates two networks to provide superior clarity, faster Wi-Fi and wired gigabit speeds and HD Fuel(tm) enhanced Quality of Service (QoS).

The D-Link(r) DIR-825 also features SharePort(tm) technology that allows users to share USB devices such as printers, multi-function printers (MFP) and storage drives with other computers on the network — in either a wired or wireless environment.

SharePort turns the local USB port located on the back of the DIR-825 router into a fast and responsive virtual network port so users can access a range of USB devices regardless of their location in the home or office. With the power of 802.11n Wi-Fi technology, D-Link's latest addition to its Xtreme N wireless family allows the user to check email and browse the Internet on the 2.4GHz band while simultaneously streaming high-definition (HD) movies and other media on the 5GHz band, making it ideal for online gaming applications on the PC and gaming consoles such as PS3(r), Xbox 360(r) and the Nintendo Wii(r).

The latest offering in the D-Link Green(tm) family of routers, the DIR-825 integrates D-Link Green Ethernet(tm) technology that uses an innovative, energy-saving feature that automatically detects link status and network cable length, then adjusts power accordingly. D-Link routers also feature Wi-Fi scheduling that allows customers to easily program when the Wi-Fi radio signals are turned on and off to further save energy consumption.

With the router's powerful new HD Fuel technology users can enjoy the clarity of the 5GHz wireless band while benefiting from intelligent quality of service ideally suited for streaming HD media and for other bandwidth-intensive applications such as online gaming applications.

HD Fuel takes wired and wireless data traffic, categorizes and separates it into multiple data streams and assigns priorities - Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), video streaming and online gaming are given priority over Web browsing, for instance. The dual band capability helps to enhance speed even more by using the 2.4GHz band for regular computer applications and the 5GHz band for larger, more intense data transfer.

"By expanding our Xtreme N wireless router product line, we are further meeting the consumer's need for full Wi-Fi network functionality and reliability for powering their digital home at prices they can afford," according to Steven Joe, president and CEO, D-Link Systems, Inc. in Fountain Valley, Calif.

Key Features and Benefits
? Xtreme N technology for farther home or office coverage
? Support for advanced WPA and WPA2 encryption, advanced firewall and
parental controls for maximum security
? D-Link's Quick Router Setup Wizard for easy installation and online access
? Good Neighbor Policy support to prevent interference with other wireless
networks
? Backward compatibility with 802.11g, 11b and 11a devices, including game
consoles and digital media players.
? Compliance with D-Link's ongoing Green initiatives to promote energy
conservation and environmental protection
? 24/7 basic installation support
? One year limited warranty

Price and Availability
The DIR-825 will be widely available Oct. 1, 2008 through D-Link's network of retail, etail and solution providers, and online at www.dlinkshop.com for the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $199.99. SharePort also will be available in D-Link's family of high-end 802.11n routers, including the DIR-628, DIR-655, DIR-855 and DGL-4500**. Current owners of those routers will be able to upgrade to SharePort technology by downloading the firmware and client utility from the D-Link website, www.dlink.com.