Wireless technology is getting better all the time. I just bought an N1 router from DLINK (with Gigabit LAN!) and a Belkin N1 PCI card. With local access at a staggering 300 Mbps over the air, I am fairly pleased with the performance. I do not have anything that supports Gigabit yet, but expect to have something later.

Now, researchers from Georgia Tech have devised a method to push data through the air at speeds reaching 15 gigabits a second… at one meter. Also, each additional meter between the source and the client drop the speeds 5Gbps. Okay, so at this point, you might as well buy a Gigabit router and a 50 ft ethernet cable and get 1Gbps at farther range, but this device has its advantages.

Apply this to a media center PC (I am currently building a Linux-based Media Center, coming in a future NextLust article) or a laptop on a couch right next to an access point, and the potential for awesomeness expands. While the technology is still officially unnamed, it is referred to as standard 802.15.3c. Heres to hoping that they increase the range to at least 15 meters, so that this would be a much more interesting product.

[Via Georgia Tech]

**UPDATE: EFFECTIVE NOW**
AT&T customers will be lucky enough to have free use of Wi-Fi hotspots in 10,000 locations across the country. Anyone who subscribes to the Pro, Elite, and FastAccess plans can access the hotspots that are located in hundreds of airports, coffee shops, restaurants, Barnes and Noble stores, and McDonald’s.

For those lower plan people who are still members of AT&T’s phone service, an extra $1.99 per month will allow them to take part in the convenience. Other customers who wish to use the Wi-Fi but do not use AT&T can still purchase a plan that costs a whopping daily fee of $7.99.

According to statistics, nearly 13 million customers have broadband services through AT&T, which means that encouraging customers to upgrade or add the Wi-Fi plan will bring in huge piles of cash for AT&T.
[Via Yahoo]

Media centers seem to be all the rage nowadays, as high definition movies and television shows, as well as higher quality picture and music have started to invade the market. While some recent additions to the media center families, like AppleTV and distinguished models from several startup companies have been impressive, none have really captured the idea of replacing a Tivo, computer, amplifier, receiver, Netflix deliveries, media players, DVD player, and catch-all computer … until now.

As Alienware describes it, the Hangar 18 can do just about anything:

* Watch - Watch, pause, and record your movies, TV shows, photos, and internet videos on your widescreen TV in high definition
* Listen - Listen to all your favorite songs and artists with Hangar18’s onboard 5.1 surround sound amplifier
* Share - Wirelessly stream all your media to other PCs, mobile devices, and media extenders throughout your home.
* Download - Download content from all over the internet to one secure location to store and share with your home and others.

Full details and more pictures inside!
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Who would have thought that little transmissions through the air could cause health problems. Apparently, technology confused old people that live in the UK would. Several schools have begun removing wireless routers and access points in order to protect the brains of their little school girls and boys. No word yet on whether or not they realize that wireless networks use radio frequencies, and operate on the same spectrum as amateur radio users (they all seem fine… relatively). The only additional piece of information that you should probably know- London is smothered with Wi-FI coverage:

My favorite part of the article:

One London resident said she removed Wi-Fi systems from her home after having strange symptoms like unexplained lethargy. She told the British newspaper she no longer suffers after the removal of the systems from her home. She is now urging her children’s schools to remove the systems, the Independent reported.

[Via Post Chronicle]

Actually the purveyors of this “magic box” never use the word stealing. Instead, choice words like open, freeloading and my personal favorite, canalized are used. Hey, whatever keeps the po-po’s away right? The Slurpr is a home made concoction by two friends who noticed tons of unprotected WiFi signals floating around Amsterdam. Individually, they offer meager connection speeds but the Slurpr unscrupulously finds them all and combines them to make one ultra-mega connection.

Now the duo are totally aware of the legal consequences but since they live in the EU, who cares! They plan on selling the box for 999 EURO which is a little over 1,000 US. They’re taking pre-orders now.

It seems they are willing to ship to the US so is this something you’d be interested in?

Here’s a useful tidbit I read over at ZDNet. If you’re an early adopter of “The Vista”, yes that’s what I’m calling it, you get an added bonus. For both those in the UK and the US there’ll be 3 months of free wireless.

In the UK the service will be provided by The Cloud and here in the states by T-Mobile. The word is that you don’t have to provide any credit card details. Free wifi for a quarter of a year doesn’t sound that shabby as an extra if you were planning on getting the vista anyways. The free trial service ends April 30. Hit the Link for the original article.

[Via ZDNet]

That’s right top ten lists, fear and tremble in the almighty shadow of NextLust’s Ultimate List of Mac Apps. Hopefully you learn a thing or two about applications already sitting on your hard drive and have your eyes opened ever so slightly to see how many useful freeware apps are just floating around the internet waiting for you to give them a go.

I am tentatively calling this list “Part 1″ in case I get a ton of replies with some sweet programs I just happened to miss. So without further ado:

The Ultimate List of Mac Apps Part 1

(the following applications are listed alphabetically)

(more…)

In a cross-promotion between T-Mobile and Microsoft, T-Mobile will be offering free WiFi Hotspot access through April 30th to Windows Vista users. I’m pretty sure this offer probably won’t convince anyone to move to Vista, but free is free. So if you’re planning on upgrading, be sure to take part in the promo and get yourself some free WiFi. Check out the details here, on this truly BIZARRE website created to inform people about the deal. Click the button that says “Rock Some WiFi”. The site even has two Russian cosmonauts rambling on to each other. No, I’m not kidding.

But wait! It’s gets better! And just when you though it couldn’t! If you click the “Jefferson Starship” button, they have a spot holder for something they’re calling “Signed Poster Windows Vista Giveaway”. Now THAT’s a promotion!