WiGig, just as a refresher, uses the currently empty 60GHz spectrum, and is capable of multi-gigabit communication. Rollout of WiGig-compatible products is still a long ways off—think mid-2011 at the earliest—but the alliance is slowly working towards that eventual release. Its lineup of supporting members is impressive, counting biggies like Microsoft, Samsung, Nokia, Intel, Dell, and now Nvidia among its board of directors, and a bunch more listed as contributors, so it's got some muscle behind it—but it remains to be seen if it'll really become the next Wi-Fi. The finished WiGig spec includes:

* Supports data transmission rates up to 7 Gbps – more than ten times faster than the highest 802.11n rate
* Supplements and extends the 802.11 Medium Access Control (MAC) layer and is backward compatible with the IEEE 802.11 standard
* Physical layer enables both the low power and the high performance WiGig devices, guaranteeing interoperability and communication at gigabit rates
* Protocol adaptation layers are being developed to support specific system interfaces including data buses for PC peripherals and display interfaces for HDTVs, monitors and projectors
* Support for beamforming, enabling robust communication at distances beyond 10 meters
* Widely used advanced security and power management for WiGig devices

WiGig is hoping to deliver the spec to its alliance members in the first quarter of 2010. [WiGig]

Rafael Rivera discovered that there was only a shortcut to the feature that was disabled; the feature itself is still there. All you have to do is type "adhoc" into the Windows search bar in the Start Menu and it'll show up, as illustrated above. Done and done.

You know what else is taken out of Windows 7 Starter? Their screenshot snipping tool. Yeah. They were too cheap to let netbook users have a SNIPPING TOOL. Thankfully the printscreen button combined with Paint (they didn't take that out!) still works. [Within Windows via Neowin]

Between this protocol and Windows 8, it seems that 2012 will be an exciting year. [Ars Technica via Electronista]

If you live in a city you're surrounded by free wireless nearly everywhere you go, the key is knowing what's available and open for use. Much easier than stopping every hundred feet and busting out your laptop is using your tiny PSP as a scanner. At MakeUseOf they cover two techniques for using your PSP to sniff out Wi-Fi locations. The first can be done with a stock PSP. You simply go into the network settings on the PSP and tell it to look for new wireless networks. That will work, but it won't look continuously just when you ask it to.

If you've set up your PSP to run homebrew software you have access to a superior option. Road Dog scans continuously, shows you the strength of the signal, and can even be set to alert mode where it will notify you on new finds even when you're not paying attention to the scanner. You don't need to write down the spots it finds, just press the NOTE button on the PSP and it'll save the information of the network you're looking at for later use.

If you're looking for novel things to do with your homebrew-enabled PSP, check out previous articles on how to use your PSP as a universal remote and how to use your PSP as a additional monitor in Windows. Have a favorite PSP application or trick for finding Wi-Fi without the hassle of booting up your laptop? Let's hear about it in the comments.

The Price:

$160

The Verdict:

Expensive, but worth it.

How do we justify a $160 scale when normal scales are $20 at Target? Think about when the last time your parents replaced their bathroom scale. Was it before you were born? Was it never? $160 isn't too much when you spread it out over a lifetime.

But even if you you just look at the features, the Withings scale is worth it. On the "weighing you" side, it reports your weight in pounds, kilos or the weird British stone, plus calculates out your fat mass and BMI.

The top of the scale is made out of, in their words, "tempered glass slab, covered with a layer of metal", which looks and feels classy. The whole thing feels modern—again, the complete opposite of a normal filthy bathroom scale.

After the Withings weighs you, it'll send all three data points online, to their free website, where it charts and graphs it for you. You can even have different users in your family, each with their own separate data graphs. And (this is probably something you won't use) it'll post your weight updates to Twitter, if you want. It's not mandatory.

And here, for example, is a kid being tracked as she gets older—not a person devolving into a serious eating disorder.

And if you have an iPhone/iTouch, you can access your chart via the free app as well, in case you want to show off to your friends how much weight you're losing.

In essence, the Withings makes for the perfect holiday gift. It's pricey enough to not make you look cheap, yet it still conveys the "I think you're fat" message that's inherent in giving someone a scale. [Withings]

Internet connectivity and functionality is impressive for a scale

Works great as a scale

Slightly expensive

Here are a few reasons why you shouldn't spend $600 on this now. One, it's too early a technology to be sinking money into. Two, since it's early, the price will drop dramatically in the next year or two if you really want wireless HDMI. And three, we love wires, especially for situations like watching HD movies where you want to have as little interference to your picture as possible.

But if you really want it, here it is. [Best Buy via Dvice]

More like it's the size of a matchstick head and I can definitely picture it hammering an eardrum the moment someone drops it into the ear canal. And, I shit you not, this "headset" comes with a super strong magnet for easy retrieval! What could go wrong?!

But wait, there's more! Since this was originally designed for Secret Service types in mind, there's also a Morse code communication feature that allows for silent communication with another party. Perfect for tapping out SOS to your doctor when you go deaf and need a consult.

Just $200 and this guaranteed trip to an emergency room is yours for the taking. [Skymall via OhGizmo]

I call this a deal on a phone with a terrific UI on a terrific network, but I'd pay double these rates if the Palm had a more sizable app library. But if your'e set on palm, remember what we said: For $80, even if 3x as much, the Pre is a much nicer piece of hardware. All Things D's John Paczkowski says it best: "If Things Get Really Bad, Palm's Pixi Will Make a Great Happy Meal Prize" [Amazon via All Things D]

But Mike notes that AT&T is already ok with setting up Windows and Blackberry phones with data only plans (but not iPhones) and that a data/voip-only phone is what Google proposed to the FCC when bidding on wireless spectrum back in the day.

The initial post that there would be a Google phone—an in-house, top-to-bottom Google developed handset running android—was met with skepticism by the press. Most people quoted previous statements from Google's Andy Rubin stating that they would not "compete with their own customers" by releasing a handset of their own. That mimes microsoft's strategy with PCs and Phones, versus their in house designed Xbox and Zune hardware. But there is a difference here, despite the quote from Rubin: Google does not charge for Android, so are these people customers or beneficiaries of the only real modern mobile operating system that they can license. And Free. I mean, Win Mo is currently terrible and costs money and symbian is a joke. Blackberry isn't up for grabs. And does Google care if they lose a few points of market share? I don't think so. This isn't even close to their core business, except that whenever someone gets on the internet, Google stands to make money. In this case, Google wins not by licensing more OSes to be used on phones, but in the very act of getting more phones in the world, no matter what the OS or platform. Now that's scary power. [Techcrunch]

There are two main problems: We like bills to be consistent, and we're risk-averse consumers.

To the first point, Sprint tried to offer a plan in 2004 where 300 minutes cost $35, and $2.50 for each additional 50 minutes. Seems great to me, no outrageous overage charges. But customers didn't like it because their bills would vary so much from month-to-month, so Sprint switched back to age-old tiered minutes plans.

Because we like consistent billing, the carriers institute ridiculous overage charges to convince us to spend up. That way we don't have to worry about any unforeseen costs, even if the fixed price plan ends up costing more than a variable pricing structure would.

The article also goes into how stupid expensive text message rates are subsidizing falling voice revenues, how wireless carriers would love to stop subsidizing phones, and more.

I know the average Gizmodo reader would like nothing more than to pay as little per minute as possible, but the average consumer thinks differently.

What's interesting is that this wholesale mentality does work, at least in terms of raw pricing. One minute of talk time costs 5 cents, and the average text message costs 1 cent. According to the article, that's the lowest average pricing in the developed world. The minutes do come at a bulk discount, it's just a matter of whether or not you use all of them.

I'll leave it to you commenters to discuss, but it's a good read into how wireless pricing in America got so complicated. [New York Times]

It will be available on November 22nd, free with rebate after signing up for a contract. That means you customers in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, LA and Miami. [AT&T via Engadget]

You were born but a hyped, sidetalking Taco. Then, after we had our laughs for several years, papa Nokia ditched your dedicated hardware and opened it up to phones of all kinds—as long as they said N-O-K-I-A on them. It was a smart move. Because you sell lots of phones, and if your gaming platform was to live, it needed to be on as many of those as possible. It looked ok at this point, as a platform and service. And the hardware was nice at times. But that didn't change the fact that no one I know ever talked about you, n-Gage, much less played with you. The button layouts, games and online vs modes never really came together as well as you'd liked in terms of people buying and using it. Why? I don't know. I guess, at least in America, we couldn't get the handsets for less than the price of 5 Nintendo DSes. But beyond that, you never had any games that people cared about, despite having signed up companies like EA so easily because papa Nokia was still number one. And every year at E3, your booth was like a buzz-vacuum. So, I can't say we'll miss you. We hardly knew you were there. But let's just chalk this up to more high end consumer failure to excite at Nokia, which has been a trend of late.

I'm done. Honestly, this much word count on nGage is charity, even as a farewell. See ya. Hope we never have to see you again. But the word is, you'll probably just fold some games of yours into a general app store. The dead never stay dead for long in the gadget game.

The move, if it did happen, would clearly be a response to the surging popularity of iPhone gaming.

"Only people who can pay thousands of yen a month [in mobile phone subscriptions] can be iPhone customers. That doesn't fit Nintendo customers because we make amusement products," Mr Iwata said.

The Kindle's one-off cost would better suit Nintendo's customer base, he said. "In reality, if we did this it would increase the cost of the hardware, and customers would complain about Nintendo putting prices up, but it is one option for the future."

Interesting! Would you pay more up front for free lifetime wireless access on a new handheld from Nintendo? [Financial Times via Electronista]

The Price:

$130

The Verdict:

It's good! We had three issues with the first one: wireless interference, the inability to adjust the volume from the computer when using the USB wireless audio dongle, and the price. To start, it's $130, down from $150, and our volume changes on the MacBook Pro transferred directly over the air to volume changes in the player.

If you're talking sound quality, the Mint Studio is decent. This is more about the convenience of wireless speakers than having a really great sounding set of speakers. For $130, you get a not-too-shabby set that can also act as an iPod dock. It's definitely better than the speakers you have in your laptop, so that's already an upgrade.

Lastly, the wireless interference is reduced by hopping over two channels instead of just one, which should help to curb many problems unless you have a lot of wireless laptops using the same frequency. Also, 802.11n laptops and routers are pretty much de facto since we reviewed the previous Mint, so you shouldn't see any interference if you're using the 5GHz channel for your N traffic.

One bonus feature introduced in the Mint Studio is the ability to support three different units from one transmitting laptop. We tested this in our house, with the laptop source and USB transmitter on the first floor, and one unit on each of the three floors. It was able to reach all three floors with zero audible loss, which is pretty great, and within its household operating range (with walls and floors) of 100 feet.

And in case there was any confusion, it's not waterproof—we just enjoy planting it on a shelf outside the shower and streaming music while we bathe. It allows us to keep our laptops out of splash distance too.

It also still supports line-in and still acts like an iPod/iPhone dock, and works fine in those respects too. With the low price and improved featureset, I think the Mint Studio is a pretty good buy for people who want cheap multi-room audio that can also function as an iPod dock. [Mint]

Fixed interference issues and remote volume control from a computer

Cheap way to get wireless streaming music throughout your house

Sound quality isn't astounding