Even over 3G and not Wi-Fi, the video quality was remarkably good for something you're watching streamed live. You can seek to any part of the movie using the default iPhone movie playback controls—just like the kind you see in any embedded Quicktime movie. Audio quality was good and the 200 movies gives you a fairly ample selection that will only grow as the site matures. For $9.95, it's a pretty damn good deal if you're a frequent traveler or if you need to hide your habit from your wife. "Favorites" support even helps you get to your preferred scenes as quickly as humanly possible.

In our opinion, it's probably the easiest way to get porn on your iPhone without loading it up in iTunes beforehand. [iRoticNET]

"We have not made any announcement regarding free Wi-Fi and iPhone. The webpage was posted in error and is being removed. Wi-Fi is a real differentiator for AT&T and it is our intention to make it available to as many customers as possible, but we have no announcement at this time."

Can you just make up your mind then? [GigaOm]

Tokyo, July 17, 2008 - Sony Corporation, Canon Inc., Eastman Kodak Company, Hitachi Ltd., Victor Company of Japan, KDDI Corporation, Kenwood Corporation, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Panasonic), Nikon Corporation, Olympus Imaging Corporation, Pioneer Corporation, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD., Seiko Epson Corporation, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, Toshiba Corporation today announced an agreement to form a consortium to develop specifications for interconnecting products using “TransferJet” a new interoperable wireless transfer technology that enables rapid transfer of high resolution video, music and images. The “TransferJet Consortium” (www.transferjet.org) plans to promote a wide range of products and services incorporating TransferJet technology with the aim of accelerating its adoption throughout the consumer electronics industry.

TransferJet wireless technology enables a high speed data transmission rate of 560Mbps, while eliminating the need for complex setup and operation. Directly touching two compliant electronic products together allows files to be transferred automatically, without the need for an access point. For example, touching a TV with a digital camera enables photos to be instantaneously displayed on the TV screen. Alternatively, downloaded music content can be easily enjoyed by touching a mobile phone to a portable audio player. TransferJet can be used as a universal interface across all consumer electronics devices.

The “TransferJet Consortium” will develop specifications and guidelines ensuring interoperability between products incorporating the technology, establish licensing schemes and administer the use of the TransferJet logo. The Consortium will also promote the advantages across industries and to consumers. Through these initiatives, the Consortium will aim to create and expand the market for TransferJet products.

"TransferJet Consortium" Members (as of July 17 2008 )

Sony Corporation ("TransferJet Consortium" Administration)
Canon Inc.
Eastman Kodak Company
Hitachi Ltd.,
Victor Company of Japan
KDDI Corporation
Kenwood Corporation
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd (Panasonic)
Nikon Corporation
Olympus Imaging Corporation
Pioneer Corporation
SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
Seiko Epson Corporation
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications
Toshiba Corporation

• YourDaughterIsAWhore
• KeepThatNoiseDown
• ThosePeopleIn1583LookLikeTerrorists
• ThatLawnChairIsSoAwful
• YourWifeCheats
• FreePornography
• IHaveYourMail
• IPoisonedYourDog
• IPoisonedYourKid
• YourPriusSucks
• GetYourOwnDSLCheapskate
• MyNetworkIsLockedJackass
• ISawYouNaked

We're sure you can think of much better ones.

There's apparently a new touchscreen handset from LG on the way, and early word is that it's slated to be the Korean phone maker's new flagship phone. So far known as the KC910, it appears to be more camera than phone, shooting at 8-megapixels with a real Xenon flash, face detection, image stabilization and a 480p camcorder function, which is worth noting. It also supposedly has an 800x480 resolution screen, which means it can show 16:9 movies with no cropping, all in a form factor a little over half an inch thick. If they can throw in a few other high-end features like Wi-Fi and a good browser then this handset could out-media the iPhone and be a real challenger, but we're holding our judgment till we've seen it in action. [Electronista, via DC Sources, via Ubergizmo]

features a 240 MHz MIPS32® CPU core with 16 KB of instruction cache, 16 KB of data cache, 1 KB of pre-fetch cache, and incorporates 4 MB of flash memory and 16 MB of RAM. In addition to an external 2 dBi antenna, the WGR614L integrates a second internal diversity antenna to provide enhanced performance and range.

NETGEAR Launches Open Source Wireless-G Router Enabling Linux Developers and Enthusiasts to Create Firmware for Specialized Applications

Open Source Wireless-G Router (WGR614L) Delivers Higher Processing Power and More Memory for a Wide Variety of Customized Applications and is Supported by a Dedicated and Responsive Open Source Community

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – June 30, 2008 – NETGEAR®, Inc. (NASDAQGM: NTGR), a worldwide provider of technologically advanced, branded networking solutions, today announced the launch of the Open Source Wireless-G Router (WGR614L), a full-featured wireless router designed to serve as a reliable, high-performance platform to support a wide variety of applications created by the open source community.

The high-performance WGR614L, which is “Works with Windows Vista” certified, The router supports free open source Linux®-based Tomato and DD-WRT firmware and will soon support OpenWRT.

The WGR614L is supported by a dedicated open source router community, www.myopenrouter.com, which provides open source firmware downloads, forums, blogs, articles, source code, and user guides, and provides users with dedicated and responsive support by open source experts.

“The launch of the WGR614L is significant to the open source community as there has been a growing demand for more powerful platforms to support a rapidly growing segment of open source enthusiasts that are seeking to create more robust, commercial-grade applications for their wireless routers,” stated Som Pal Choudhury, senior product line manager for advanced wireless at NETGEAR. “In addition to adding a more powerful processor and additional memory to the proven Broadcom® platform, the most popular open source firmware, Tomato and DD-WRT, are available on WGR614L making it easier for users to develop a wide variety of applications. An important feature of our offering is the dedicated and responsive open source community which enables users to easily exchange ideas and troubleshoot issues. New applications currently being developed by this community include traffic shaping applications, redirections to captive portals for hotspots, guest access via a separate SSID, upstream and downstream QOS, and intelligent bandwidth monitoring.”

The NETGEAR Open Source Wireless-G Router (WGR614L), which features one 10/100 Internet WAN port and a four-port 10/100 LAN switch, incorporates an 802.11g access point to support wireless connectivity at speeds of up to 54 Mbps. The WGR614L supports static and dynamic routing with TCP/IP, VPN pass-through (IPSec, L2TP), NAT, PPTP, PPPoE, DHCP (client and server), and Bigpond. A Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) firewall protects the network from intruders, and the wireless connection is secured with support for 40-, 128- and 152-bit WEP encryption, Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), WPA2-PSK, and Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS). Additional security features include: Exposed Host (DMZ), MAC address authentication, URL content filtering, logs and e-mail alerts of Internet activity.

The NETGEAR Open Source Wireless-G Router (WGR614L) is backed by a one-year hardware warranty and is available now via select retailers, direct marketers, e-commerce sites and value added resellers at a retail price in the U.S. of $69.

According to leaked specs, the nine-point pad will offer users the option of instant messaging on Windows Live or Yahoo Messenger in a phone-style typing schema. The device will also use wireless to share media between home networked computers and access an internet-based media pool, called a Public Home Server.

The player is named after Creative's X-Fi audio technology, which restores lost data in compressed music files to create concert-like audio effects. Users can turn to two X-Fi options—Crystalizer makes audio richer and clearer, and Expand repositions the music to sound like it's coming from in front of you, simulating listening to a live performance on stage. Check out the manual:

[epiZENter]

The Price: Around $500—official price not announced yet.

The Verdict: It's good, but it's not $500 good, esp without a qwerty.

The E66 is the first number-pad cellphone I've used in 3 years that I wasn't afraid of. Calls on the phone are loud and clear both directions. Its thin form factor and grippy textured back make it enjoyable to hold and you can perform a decent amount of functions without sliding up the top. It has tons of features and it doesn't half-ass any of them. Like the N95, it's got a decent flash camera that takes sharp pictures and video, and has options comparable to most point-and-shoots. The Wi-Fi and 3G load fast in the browser, and GPS found my position when I was outside. (It didn't locate me inside, though, like some phones with assisted GPS.) OTA app downloading was painless and so was setting up my Gmail account.

Still, I have some beefs. Symbian doesn't feel very fast. Like many S60 devices, apps and options are buried deep in menus. The phone is too quick to auto-rotate between portrait and landscape modes, a feature that seemed pointless given the cramped real estate of the E66's 2.4" screen. Also, though there are third-party browsing options available that are probably much better, Nokia's built-in S60 browser sucks, plain and simple. It loads non-optimized pages in actual size so it's hard to navigate the screen, only allows for one page to be open at a time, and sorely needs touchscreen functions provided by other modern smartphone browsers.

I hate to mention it, but there's a touchscreen phone coming out in a few days on the same network that costs $300 less. This is the problem with a lot of unsubsidized phones. [Product Page]

SanDisk itself has tried the Wi-Fi thing before with Sansa Connect (itself an acquisition), but that fell short of brilliance. We're thinking maybe this is their attempt to get it right on the second try.

We wish them luck, but since Microsoft's millions haven't been able to get the thing sorted out, and Apple's Wi-Fi Music Store has been little more than a press release, we're not certain there's a tree to bark up here. OK, that's pessimistic—the other half of me says the world is waiting for a killer app. Welcome to the... whatever. [SanDisk]

I've been seeing "attwifi" access points at every Starbucks I've been to in NYC, and used the free Wi-Fi at two of them, so I figured the transition was complete at those stores, even though the T-Mobile network was still lingering in the background. Can any Starbucks employees lay out more info as to what's going down with the transition? [Reuters via GigaOM]

The 3G video chat allows iPhone to iPhone video communications on the fly via the front camera. According to the text, you can also chat with your iChat buddies if you're using Wi-Fi as well. Hot. Hit up Crunchgear for the rest of the pics. The only weirdness that we can see is that the (RED) version has no power toggle. Here's hoping these leaked pics are real, because we're really stoked about that video conferencing feature (3G iPhone toilet chats here we come!). Who knows if they ARE real, however, since they can be faked in Illustrator and then taken pics of with an iPhone camera.

Update: That footnote on the iChat image says to us that iChat is coming for the iPhone (text chat and video chat) AND Windows, with XP2 and Vista as a base requirement. iChat on Windows. That's not unbelievable, following in the steps of Safari this past year. Only makes sense that Apple would want Windows users being able to Wi-Fi video chat with their iPhone buddies.

[Ed Note:Although Chen was diplomatic about it, and they're very pretty, I don't believe these are real for a second. ] [Matt Hickey's Crunchgear]

Intel claims that this tech could allow up to eight secondary connections (which would mean eight wireless peripherals at once) as well as a concurrent connection to a standard 802.11x network, all on existing Wi-Fi hardware. It looks like anyone running current-gen Intel wireless adapters can expect to be able to connect with Ozma chip-equipped accessories with what essentially amounts to a driver upgrade.

There aren’t any Cliffside-enabled devices on the market yet, but Intel and Belkin have enough resources and market presence to give the system a pretty good chance at catching on. [Computer World]

Files are stored onto the piano's hard drive and can be transferred via USB to a PC, and then easily burned onto a CD for in-car listening. Plus, if you hook up the piano to a TV, you can display lyrics and graphics for a song on it. The best part? You can stream songs from the internet and have the piano play it by itself, depressing the keys and pedals at the right time, fooling your parents into thinking you've learned the song when you've actually spent the time playing your NES! Win! [Yamaha]

It should be noted that even though the cards are set at different pricepoints, the Explore, Share and Home all feature identical hardware (that's actually the same as the original Eye-Fi). So instead of making hardware differentiations, the company is pricing the cards according to the backend service.

The Explore
Through a partnership with Wayport, users will be able to automatically upload their photos in about 10,000 hotspots throughout the US. Through the partnership, the user will not need to accept terms and conditions at every coffee shop, and the user can receive email notifications for successful uploads. But the catch is that the Wayport service is only good for one year (Eye-Fi is looking into longer term partnerships with more hotspot companies, which they may or may not charge an additional fee for).

Geotagging comes with the Explore as well through Skyhook's Wi-Fi triangulation (the same thing we see the current iPhone using instead of GPS).

The Share
This model is pretty much identical in features to the current Eye-Fi. You get automatic syncing with your PC as well as services like Flickr.

The Home
The Eye-Fi home is made for people who just want to sync their photos with their PC, not upload them automatically to the web or hit up hotspots. It's essentially offering a price drop to consumers who aren't interested in the additional services.

The cards will be available starting June 6th. And unfortunately, current Eye-Fi owners will not be able to simply upgrade their cards to have Explore capabilities.

The Price: $199.

The Verdict: I actually like this thing a lot despite its laundry list of flaws—it's a bread-and-butter gadget that mostly works as advertised. It's got more radio stations than you could possibly ever listen to, from a good portion of the United Nations and organized into a bunch of different genres. Whether or not you want it basically comes down to how much you love radio, and if having thousands of stations on your alarm clock makes you tingly.

Here's what I dug: You can use any radio station (internet or otherwise) as your alarm. Bookmarks for your favorites, a necessity. The stations are about as well organized as you can hope for in cataloging thousands of them, and you can sort them by genre or location. Setup is simple, even without instructions. The sound and size aren't bad, though the bass could be a bit punchier. And I just like the concept of the thing—the core internet radio functionality works really well, above all.

Not groovy: The screen and UI are ugly, straight out of the early '90s. A significant issue is that the Wi-Fi receiver is weak—my DD-WRT router blasts the signal at 85mW, and on the other side of my apartment (which is by no means cavernous) two rooms away, I only got two bars. In a larger pad, this will be a problem. It lost service occasionally, requiring a reboot. And I never could get it to sync up with Windows Media Player, even though it saw my computer, and my computer saw it. Given these issues, $199 is just way too much, as much as I like this thing's soul. [Aluratek]

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, and SEATTLE, Wash., April 25, 2008 — AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) today announced the beginning of the rollout of AT&T Wi-FiSM service at company-operated Starbucks stores, kicking off a nationwide effort that will continue through 2008. At the 2008 AT&T Inc. Annual Meeting of Stockholders in San Antonio, chairman and chief executive officer Randall Stephenson announced that the companies have already started the deployment of AT&T Wi-Fi service at Starbucks locations in San Antonio, making it the first market to deliver the complete AT&T Wi-Fi experience in the U.S.

Also, as of May 1, qualifying AT&T high speed Internet and Wi-Fi customers will have complimentary Wi-Fi access at more than 7,000 Starbucks locations nationwide. For millions of AT&T customers, that means more speed in more places — and for free — is on its way.

"With the power of our Wi-Fi network, and through our partnership with Starbucks, we're strengthening our ability to meet the needs of today's mobile consumer virtually anywhere and everywhere," Stephenson said. "Expanding our reach across company-operated Starbucks locations nationwide helps us bridge the gap between our wired and wireless offerings and affirms AT&T's commitment to connect people with their worlds, everywhere they live and work."

"We continue to build on the experience we know our customers expect from us," said Chris Bruzzo, chief technology officer, Starbucks. "By partnering with AT&T as our U.S. Wi-Fi provider we aim to deliver a better value, greater convenience and seamless connectivity in a mobility centric world to our customers."

As of May 1, qualifying AT&T customers can connect to the Internet from Wi-Fi enabled company-operated Starbucks locations nationwide by simply selecting "ATTWiFi" after powering up their computers. Free AT&T Wi-Fi service is currently offered with AT&T's three higher-speed residential broadband packages, all small business broadband packages and with all AT&T U-verseSM offerings with high speed Internet service.

For other customers, AT&T Wi-Fi service will reach company-operated Starbucks locations on a market-by-market basis throughout the year. The experience will include a mix of free and paid connection options for both frequent and occasional Wi-Fi users and qualifying Starbucks customers. Once AT&T Wi-Fi service is available, customers will be able to shop and surf both Starbucks' and AT&T's respective home pages for products and services.

The initiative brings together two of the most recognizable global brands to create a powerful and convenient online experience for consumers and business customers. The San Antonio launch delivers on the companies' joint commitment to begin the rollout of AT&T Wi-Fi service this spring.

After you have the router configured and the Predator assembled, all you've gotta do is point it in the general direction you plan to steal signals from (obligatory disclaimer which could be illegal in your locale), and it'll automatically grab the strongest one around that can connect to the internet. Overall, pretty neat hack, and useful (and totally legal) if you need internet in, um, your tree house. [I-Hacked via BBG]

NIKON INTRODUCES THE NEW COOLPIX S52 and S52c, STYLISH CAMERAS DESIGNED TO OPTIMIZE YOUR PICTURE TAKING AND SHARING EXPERIENCE

New Style Series Cameras Boast Stunning Design and Innovative Sharing Technologies

MELVILLE, NY (April 10, 2008) - Nikon Inc. is pleased to introduce the new COOLPIX S52 and S52c to its Style Series of digital cameras. These cameras combine Nikon's stunning wave-surface camera body with advanced features designed to produce incredible pictures with ease. With 9.0 effective megapixels, a 3x, 38-114mm Zoom-NIKKOR lens, Optical Vibration Reduction (VR) Image Stabilization and manual sensitivity settings as high as ISO 3200, the COOLPIX S52 and S52c are for consumers looking for a stunning camera that takes equally stunning photos.

"We are pleased to introduce the COOLPIX S52 and the S52c to our Style Series line of compact cameras, as they combine an elegant camera design with advanced imaging capabilities," says Bill Giordano, General Manager, Marketing, COOLPIX for Nikon Inc. "With the versatile COOLPIX S52 and its Wi-Fi enabled counterpart, the S52c, users will have the opportunity to take incredible pictures with exceptional detail and sharpness."

The COOLPIX S52 and S52c feature Optical VR Image Stabilization technology, which compensates for camera shake as well as ISO capabilities up to 3200, which provide more opportunities to capture fast moving subjects and greater flexibility and clarity when shooting in low-light settings. These cameras also boast an AUTO ISO control, which automatically selects the optimal sensitivity across a range between ISO 100 and ISO 800, and up to ISO 2000 in High-Sensitivity mode.

Providing even more control and freedom in photo taking, the S52 and S52c come with a 3x Zoom-NIKKOR lens designed to capture brilliant detail and vivid colors in every photo and a huge 3.0-inch high-resolution LCD screen allowing easy sharing and viewing of images. Also, these new cameras are built on Nikon's innovative EXPEED digital image processing system designed to enhance noise reduction and improve the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio.

Like all cameras in the COOLPIX line, the S52 and S52c include Nikon's unique image innovations including enhanced Face-priority AF, which automatically finds and focuses on up to five faces within the frame; In-Camera Red-Eye Fix, which can automatically detect and correct red eye in a photo; and D-Lighting, which compensates for excessive backlight or insufficient flash in images.

The Wi-Fi enabled S52c can send images directly via email through its Wi-Fi connection, as well as support my Picturetown, Nikon's photo sharing and storage service. Through my Picturetown, users can email pictures directly to friends and family, publish pictures to the photo community sharing Website Flickr®, and link their photos to blogs and social networking sites. Pictures can also be sent to the email addresses of a Blackberry® device for viewing.

The S52 and S52c both feature the Pictmotion function which will allow users to combine their favorite movies and photos and create in-camera slide shows with music including songs uploaded from iTunes.

The COOLPIX S52 and S52c come packaged with Nikon's exclusive COOLPIX Software Suite for organizing, editing and sharing photos. The S52 and S52c are SDHC compatible and utilize Nikon's ultra-compact EN-EL8 rechargeable Li-ion battery. The S52 will be available in Crimson Red and Midnight Black. The S52c will be available in Vibrant Black.

The COOLPIX S52 and S52c will be available nationwide in May 2008. The S52 has an MSRP** of $249.95, and the S52c has an MSRP** of $279.95. For more information about these and other COOLPIX cameras, please visit www.nikonusa.com.

** Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price.Actual prices are determined by Nikon Authorized dealers and are subject to change at any time.

Your HUD (Heads Up Display) or arm mounted screen will show you virtual or real enemy activity. But be careful, enemy hackers might be spoofing more troops and enemy aircraft in the area...Half the team maybe remotely engaged in assisting you against the cyber threat...The other part of the company is en route to the next geocache where the assignment is then downloaded. As you approach, it recognizes that you are within 30 yards of the designated position. It then deploys the next mission to your PDA.

We were advisors in 2005 to the 10th Mountain Division and during that time we were conttracted [sic] as Tiger team RF advisors. As a result of this invaluable time spent with our military, we have learned the art of miniaturization, have become battery experts, and are quite versatile in covert and black op wireless communication systems.

Bottom line: There's no reason to believe Fry one way or the other just yet—though his promo shot does looks a bit intentionally mysterious. Whatever, if he and his team of developers does pack all of this magic into a PSP-shaped clear router-looking thingy with disco lights, will will be eager to review the thing, feature by feature. [PocketGamer]

• The free demo available at Taproot Systems will support only one Wi-Fi connection.

• Though the system will work with any 3G platform (provided the WinMo or Symbian smartphone has Wi-Fi, duh), it will only allow voice calls through on HSDPA networks like that from AT&T.

• Taproot wants to sell this software to carriers and not to you, dear individual readers. Man, if I don't see a ridiculous monthly fee being attached to what would otherwise be an awesome use of bandwith you're already paying for!!!!!.

If you get a chance to test it out, though, please let us know how it works. [PC World]

Update: There's also a free one for Windows Mobile phones called WM WiFiRouter. -JC

Even though the Wi-Fi has been tested at 60 miles, it will be necessary to spread out access points every 30 miles from the main antenna to ensure a quality signal. Still, each RCP device costs only $500, which means you could put together an entire end-to-end system for around $1000. Plus, the radios consume very little power, making it possible to run them on solar energy. It sounds great, but one has to wonder if there would be interference problems (and whether or not this newfangled software solution can overcome them). My guess is that it is probably not something that could be utilized outside of a rural setting. [Technology Review]