Ed Sutherland

Wi-Fi, long known for extending the wired office to laptops, PDAs and street-level cafis, is developing its next platform. From badges to rings to jackets, Wi-Fi’s next hot spot may be on your body. The Sixth Annual International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC) wrapped up Thursday at the University of Washington. One of the audience […]

Could a new technology from the creators of compact discs turn Bluetooth into the wireless equivalent of eight-track tapes? As so often happens, depends on who is talking. Hoping to duplicate their success in the 1980s when Sony and Philips introduced audio compact disc recording technology, the two companies recently unveiled what they have dubbed […]

Is Wi-Fi shedding its blue jeans for pin stripes as 802.11 looks to go commercial? Analysts and those in the trenches of fee-based hotspots see an inevitable trend as Wi-Fi availability goes nationwide. When T-Mobile, previously known as VoiceStream, recently announced they planned to rollout commercial Wi-Fi service in some 2,000 Starbucks coffee shops, part […]

Dallas, TX-based Texas Instruments made waves with a flurry of announcements unveiling chips aimed at the burgeoning demand for 802.11 networking at home and in the office. TI first released a new chip designed to reduce the most vexing problem for devices seeking to add portability: battery life. Devices ranging from your cell phone to […]

The sorry state of Wi-Fi security has become one of the most well known secrets of the 802.11 networking standard. The ease of setting up a wireless networking using 802.11-based technology is mirrored by the effortless way hackers, snoopers and the just-curious can detect, enter and use Wi-Fi networks used by corporations, coffee shops and […]

Wi-Fi, the 802.11b 11Mbps wireless networking technology so popular in the United States, has definitely jumped the ‘pond’ to the United Kingdom and other European nations. Yet the faster, more muscular 802.11a standard is just now recovering from jet lag as vendors attempt selling wireless products to wary European regulators. One of the most successful […]

With Wi-Fi networks at the office, the home and the corner restaurant, a number of efforts are being made to allow users to move, or “roam” between the many thousands of access points beaming everything from Internet access to corporate local area networks. The ability to easily roam from your home 802.11 network, down the […]

Wi-Fi enabled laptop and notebook computers seem to be everywhere. From public hotspots where you order a steaming cup of mocha latti alongside a wireless broadband connection to the family physician with a wireless laptop, using an 802.11b card is becoming as common as last month’s issue of National Geographic in the waiting room. Since […]

Remember the days of tightly woven neighborhoods? It wasn’t uncommon to ask a neighbor for a cup of sugar, borrow the hedge clippers or to use the telephone. In a 21st-Century attempt to regain that closeness, an ever-growing band of wireless community networks, AKA Freenets or neighborhood area networks (NANs) are sprouting up across the […]

Along the banks of Boston’s Charles River, visitors to a luxury hotel are on a guided tour of an art gallery. But this tour is different. Instead of a human guide, there are PDAs and laptops. Rather than plugging in, you step inside a Location-Enabled Network, or LEN, the latest type of wireless network. The […]

As an increasing number of handheld computers/PDAs and cell phones adopt Wi-Fi so users can continue roaming, the question arises of how mobile devices can stay connected to wireless local area networks without draining their limited internal power supplies. Two Canadian companies are racing to get the most performance from limited battery-charged devices. IceFyre Semiconductor, […]

Wireless networks are going to the head of the class as universities nationwide embrace 802.11b networking and the Wi-Fi standard. From coast-to-coast educational institutions are grasping that cutting wired connections in the classroom makes sense to both students and a school’s bottom line. Washington’s American University is the latest school to go totally wireless. The […]