WiFi Net News

pstrongEye-Fi has added a new high-end Wi-Fi card for digital cameras, updated its software, and added an auto-delete option:/strong I've been a fan of the Eye-Fi, a Secure Digital (SD) format memory card with Wi-Fi embedded since its release. But I've always had some nits to pick about how it works. Over time, Eye-Fi has addressed most of these./p pThe last appear to be resolved in the release of new software, and a new high-end card, the Pro X2. The software is available today, and pre-orders for the Pro X2 are being taken online now./p pThe Pro X2 (list $150) shifts its Wi-Fi to 802.11n, almost certainly the single-stream variety, which improves range and speed separately and together. The card includes 8 GB of storage, and is rated Class 6 for its read/write speed. This is a leap from 4 GB with its Pro card (see a href="http://www.eye.fi/products/compare-cards"ema comparison of all Eye-Fi cards/em/a)./p pimg src="/images/2010/prox2chip.jpg" width="300" height="400" align="right" hspace="5"The card supports all the Pro options, too, including ad hoc Wi-Fi connections, RAW downloads, hotspot access for 1 year, and Wi-Fi position-based geotagging. The Pro was formerly $150; the new pricing wasn't available as I write this./p pCoupled with the new card is revised software for working with the Eye-Fi. Until now, Eye-Fi has relied on agent software that creates a local Web server for handling configuration. The new software is a desktop application, which among other features will let you publish photos to multiple online locations simultaneously instead of choosing a single photo or social-media site. All Eye-Fi owners can use the new software./p pEye-Fi also introduces a new feature the company calls Endless Memory, and which I would describe as "delete as needed." The original Eye-Fi firmware would upload all JPEGs. Later revisions added models that handle RAW and movie files, as well as giving all user selective uploads. (You use the protect or lock function on your camera to select images for the Eye-Fi to upload.)/p pEndless Memory adds the final missing piece, which is automatic deletion as necessary of verified uploaded images and movies when space is needed for new material. For a photographer with a hotspot subscription or a laptop nearby for uploads, you could shoot, well, endlessly.br / /p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/0G6vrXyDqMHjBYEgJ8ZrOo7JHtY/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/0G6vrXyDqMHjBYEgJ8ZrOo7JHtY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/0G6vrXyDqMHjBYEgJ8ZrOo7JHtY/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/0G6vrXyDqMHjBYEgJ8ZrOo7JHtY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/IDZW1sHwWdk" height="1" width="1"/

pa href="http://gizmodo.com/5438139/wireless-n-support-in-next-gen-iphone-implied-by-apple-job-posting"strongGizmodo spurs sudden buzz about 802.11n in the next iPhone:/strong/a Gizmodo spots a job listing from Apple for an iPhone engineer who needs 802.11a/b/g/n implementation knowledge, and leaps to the notion that the next model of the iPhone may include 802.11n. /p pI haven't written about this, despite what seem like thousands of posts at various blogs, because my reaction was twofold./p pFirst: Well, duh!/p pSecond: You don't hire a handheld engineer today with 802.11 experience that doesn't include 802.11n. It's contemporary technology./p pI didn't get this buzz when I wrote in March 2009 about a href="http://wifinetnews.com/archives/2009/03/iphone_80211n_necessity.html"strongwhy and when the iPhone might get 802.11n/strong/a. I thought Apple might put single-stream N into the iPhone 3GS, which it did not. It will clearly arrive in the next iPhone model as the chips are ready to go./p pSingle-stream N doesn't magically make the iPhone's data transfers much faster. It will definitely speed them a bit. Rather, it improves range and eliminates coverage holes, while allowing better network neighbor behavior with other 802.11n devices./p pGizmodo noted in September that the latest iPod touch revision included Broadcom's 802.11n chip that also had an FM receiver built in./p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/YTwOdhiP9PA8HpnsQlPmOPBMKMU/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/YTwOdhiP9PA8HpnsQlPmOPBMKMU/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/YTwOdhiP9PA8HpnsQlPmOPBMKMU/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/YTwOdhiP9PA8HpnsQlPmOPBMKMU/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/QfVdL5SO7MM" height="1" width="1"/

pstrongNothing interesting happened in 2009:/strong The top 10 most visited pages at Wi-Fi Networking News in 2009 were stories from 2003 to 2008. Go figure! In fact, only 13 of the top 50 viewed pages were stories from this year, although about 15 percent of page views were visits to the site's home page./p pTopping the list is that old favorite, a white paper on security: a href="http:///wifinetnews.com/archives/2003/11/weakness_in_passphrase_choice_in_wpa_interface.html"strongWeakness in Passphrase Choice in WPA Interface/strong/a./p pThe site had about half a million itinerant visitors who came and left, and about 80,000 routine visitors who read on some regular basis via the Web, email, and RSS./p pI thank all of you for continuing to read the site and provide comments, feedback, and news. I wish everyone the happiest of new years./p pCopyright copy;2009 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/kA-XZ_zsnwmSp4kc_tf2d89KPv4/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/kA-XZ_zsnwmSp4kc_tf2d89KPv4/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/kA-XZ_zsnwmSp4kc_tf2d89KPv4/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/kA-XZ_zsnwmSp4kc_tf2d89KPv4/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/BY5JjMBAPS4" height="1" width="1"/

div style="width:200px; background: url(http://wifinetnews.com/images/2009/chicken_wire.jpg) repeat"div style="opacity: 0.81; background: white none repeat" a href="http://news.google.com/news?hl=ensource=hpq=Culprit+in+Wi-Fi+Failures:+Chicken+Wireum=1ie=UTF-8ei=UOs7S5i6MYTMtAOL7NW_BAsa=Xoi=news_groupct=titleresnum=1ved=0CAoQsQQwAA"strongThe Wall Street Journal has this amusing story about the Faraday cage effect of metal in the walls of older homes:/strong/a Those of us following Wi-Fi have known about this problem for a decade, although it was less of an issue with 802.11b, which had trouble going farther than a room or two, anyway. Many building materials are problematic: bricks retain water, which absorbs 2.4 GHz signals; thick stonework found in many older European homes are a problem, too. pI must note that this article about chicken wire was written by Geoffrey Fowler. Seriously./p p(a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/neighya/3545485038/"strongChicken wire background/strong/a by Elneacute; Burgers; used by Creative Commons license.)/div/div/p pCopyright copy;2009 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/G-sPrOabbC1aDDrwLMOO4VkPhTA/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/G-sPrOabbC1aDDrwLMOO4VkPhTA/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/G-sPrOabbC1aDDrwLMOO4VkPhTA/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/G-sPrOabbC1aDDrwLMOO4VkPhTA/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/KAIEFAjbL3U" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://wifinetnews.com/images/muni_icon.jpg" align="right" border="0" hspace="5" /a href="http://www.nycwireless.net/2009/12/why-no-one-should-talk-to-or-read-anything-from-the-heartland-institute/"strongDana Spiegel posts an exchange with a writer at the Heartland Institute, wherein the writer starts with a bias and then stoops to insults:/strong/a Oh, lordy, our friends at the industry-funded (but-we-won't-disclose-who) Heartland Institute are trying to explain how evil municipally funded free Wi-Fi is again. I thought I was back in 2005, again./p pGiven that Miami Beach and St. Cloud, Flor., are now just about the only free city-wide Wi-Fi funded by a city in the US, I don't see the urgency in Heartland trying to explain why it's an evil entitlement. /p pThe Heartland "reporter" (hrmph) tells Dana Spiegel that in St. Cloud "the City Council tried to shut down their free WiFi service because of the expense but stopped that initiative after residents who could not pay for their own Internet access protested loudly. In that vein, do you foresee municipal WiFi networks like Miami Beachrsquo;s at all becoming another entitlement program for Americans?"/p pThat's some myopia you've got there! St. Cloud residents of all stripes, not just those who "could not pay" for Internet service--that's bought-and-paid-for thinktank code for "poor and probably African American because they're poor"--were interested in keeping the service alive. The city council and mayor responded to the outpouring of interest, and funded the network further as a result./p pWe last tangled with the Heartland Institute in depth in 2005. I wrote a piece called "a href="http://wifinetnews.com/archives/2005/02/sock_puppets_of_industry.html"strongSock Puppets of Industry/strong/a" (1 February 2005) that spelled out undisclosed funding and other conflicts in a report issued on municipal broadband that was riddled with errors./p pThe Heartland Institute continues to claim that it is "not affiliated with any political part, business, or foundation," which continues to beggar my imagination as a statement. The institute has concocted ever more elaborate explanations as to why it doesn't disclose donors, which are known to include major firms in industries about which the institute produces anti-regulation reports. Corporations and foundations provide 89 percent of funding (per the institute's 2009 report), with corporations making up 13 to 16 percent. The foundations are the usual suspects that push money to thinktanks to create research and reports that allows affiliated companies and institutions to cite data as independent of the funders./p pAll you need to know about Heartland may be encompassed in the Sock Puppets post, in which I note that (at the time) Heartland had a Philip Morris executive on its board, even as it wrote reports and a book denying peer-reviewed scientific and economic analysis of the societal costs of smoking. In the comments, Heartland's head denied that such an executive was on the board, despite the fact that the Web site listed that executive and his affiliation.br / /p pCopyright copy;2009 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ZooYwp-FP1_Az8NKTEPkvwwocrY/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ZooYwp-FP1_Az8NKTEPkvwwocrY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ZooYwp-FP1_Az8NKTEPkvwwocrY/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ZooYwp-FP1_Az8NKTEPkvwwocrY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/dTJnibcbJl0" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://wifinetnews.com/images/plane.jpg" align="right" hspace="5" height="80" width="80" border="0" /strongTemporary TSA rules in the wake of attempted detonation of something during Detroit landing mean no electronics during last hour of incoming international flight to the US:/strong The rules in place as of today for flights arriving in the U.S. prohibit anything in your lap, standing up, using the restroom, and any access to your carry-on baggage. Carry-on limits have already been tightened as well, further than the existing tiny ones. The last-hour limits sound similar but more restrictive than the rules when flying into Reagan National in D.C./p pThese rules don't yet appear to apply during the first part of a flight, but it's typically at least 20 minutes after takeoff until the 10,000-foot limit has been passed, and later when the fasten seatbelt light is turned off./p pSo far, the rules apply only to arriving international flights, but the New York Times notes, "It was not clear how often the rule would affect domestic flights." Earlier today, it sounded as if some domestic flights would also see this restriction./p pFor in-flight Internet providers Aircell and Row 44, this could be devastating if the rules cover domestic flights or flights that spend significant time over the US. /p pFor flights up to 3 hours, which I believe are at least half of U.S. domestic mainline (non-regional jet) flights because of the hub system, that leaves precious little time to use any electronics, and makes it unlikely someone will pay the $10 rate for those flights. For longer flights, the $13 rate Aircell levies may be more reasonable, but travelers will now be mentally removing 90 or more minutes from the useful time they have./p pIf these rules remain in place, I will be curious how quickly Aircell and its partner airlines change pricing, and whether in-fight Internet upgrades to planes continue at the pace they were at./p pConnexion by Boeing had a lot of factors against it, but one of the key ones was new rules and a drop in airline revenue following 9/11./p p[This post was updated later on Saturday to make clear that it appears only international flights entering the US would have these final-hour restrictions, but it remains up in the air, literally, as to whether those rules will also affect domestic flights.]/p pstrongUpdate:/strong My pal Xeni Jardin at BoingBoing a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/28/do-new-post-pantsbom.html"stronghad the same idea/strong/a after flying back from Guatemala yesterday./p pCopyright copy;2009 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/RjJTFVN9x_VSYJTJCFuz2ScY5q0/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/RjJTFVN9x_VSYJTJCFuz2ScY5q0/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/RjJTFVN9x_VSYJTJCFuz2ScY5q0/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/RjJTFVN9x_VSYJTJCFuz2ScY5q0/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/r4hY_2zVlVk" height="1" width="1"/

pa href="http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=31640"strongFord offers a remarkable option to add Internet access to an auto:/strong/a Unlike automakers who have signed up to build in the Autonet Mobile system, a Wi-Fi gateway with a built-in cell modem, Ford is opting for a bit of openness. Car owners with the next generation of a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Sync"strongFord Sync/strong/a (by Microsoft) coming next year can plug in their own USB broadband modems into a slot near the gear shift to enable Internet access over Wi-Fi to passengers. USB modems are offered by all carriers, including Virgin Mobile's currently unique pay-as-you-go plan./p pFord should also be praised for not just offering, but requiring WPA2 Personal security. You might want to share access with others, but not after you see your first cell data bill with overage charges on it./p pBy allowing a USB adapter, Ford lets a car owner who already has a 3G subscription plug in instead of adding yet another subscription fee on top./p pSync costs $395 as an optional add on, although it's included in certain high-end Ford and Mercury models. The system is designed to allow integrated use of cellular phones and digital media players, as well as provide emergency service and send car system status reports. Next year, turn-by-turn navigation will be added (three years at no cost)./p pCopyright copy;2009 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/NIqDPmHbp68vEF4Bxjm9s_HSh5U/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/NIqDPmHbp68vEF4Bxjm9s_HSh5U/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/NIqDPmHbp68vEF4Bxjm9s_HSh5U/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/NIqDPmHbp68vEF4Bxjm9s_HSh5U/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/UQnJu1f4184" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://wifinetnews.com/images/weefi.jpg" align="right" border="0" hspace="5" /a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Connectify-Releases-prnews-998425882.html?x=0.v=1"strongConnectify releases Windows 7 PAN enabler:/strong/a Connectify has pushed out the 1.0 release (a href="http://www.connectify.me/download/index.html"strongfree/strong/a!) of its software that turns on a hidden feature in Windows 7--never completed with the proper user interface--to allow a single Wi-Fi connection to accept local connections while itself connected to a Wi-Fi network (infrastructure style). This avoids the trouble of ad hoc networking, while allowing robust WPA2 security./p pa href="http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/12/18/ohno_wifi_PD_1218.ART_ART_12-18-09_B4_3LG1MKT.html?type=rsscat=sid=101"strongCleveland considers 4 1/2 sq mi free network:/strong/a What's most interesting about this plan may be the proposed cost: $600,000 to build. In the olden days, it was a few hundred thousand dollars per square mile, as I recollect, even though it was often billed as "$100K," but that didn't include the modern density that's understood to be needed, and the real bill for the back end. Cleveland has other areas with free service through the a href="http://www.onecommunity.org/"strongOne Community effort/strong/a that sprang out of initiatives at Case Western University./p pa href="http://www.bluetooth.com/Bluetooth/Press/SIG/SIG_INTRODUCES_BLUETOOTH_LOW_ENERGY_WIRELESS_TECHNOLOGY_THE_NEXT_GENERATION_OF_BLUETOOTH_WIRELESS_TE.htm"strongBluetooth's low-energy mode announced:/strong/a As part of Bluetooth 4.0 (even though 3.0 is just starting to ship now), the low-energy mode will provide networking for sensors that can't carry huge or rechargeable battery packs. This will be useful in healthcare, alarm monitoring, fitness, and other categories. The ZigBee standard was supposed to eat up this kind of usage, being a low-power, low-bandwidth technology, but Bluetooth wants to sweep this use inside its existing ecosystem. The data rate will be 1 Mbps./p pCopyright copy;2009 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/jK6JhOejU4CO85kgxEZ0BtaT-wY/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/jK6JhOejU4CO85kgxEZ0BtaT-wY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/jK6JhOejU4CO85kgxEZ0BtaT-wY/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/jK6JhOejU4CO85kgxEZ0BtaT-wY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/dO7x9VxexhU" height="1" width="1"/

pa href="http://wnn_podcasts.s3.amazonaws.com/wifi_week_091217.mp3"strongRunning through last week's top stories:/strong/a Verizon extends free Wi-Fi at thousands of US hotspots to 3G laptop/adapter users (Windows only, thanks), Continental signs up for 21 planes with Aircell, and McDonald's ups the ante in its competition with Starbucks by unleashing free Wi-Fi starting mid-January in the United States. /p pUse the player below to listen in a browser, or you can download an a href="http://wnn_podcasts.s3.amazonaws.com/wifi_week_091217.mp3"strongMP3/strong/a or a href="http://wnn_podcasts.s3.amazonaws.com/wifi_week_091217.m4a"strongAAC/strong/a file./p pembed src= "http://www.odeo.com/flash/audio_player_standard_gray.swf" quality="high" width="300" height="52" allowScriptAccess="always" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars= "valid_sample_rate=trueexternal_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwnn_podcasts.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fwifi_week_091217.mp3" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" /embed/p pCopyright copy;2009 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/M_m7leyrQnolJid9msM0NtPdyfQ/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/M_m7leyrQnolJid9msM0NtPdyfQ/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/M_m7leyrQnolJid9msM0NtPdyfQ/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/M_m7leyrQnolJid9msM0NtPdyfQ/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/STe6b_hwRXI" height="1" width="1"/