Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

A new division of Greyhound Lines Inc. called BoltBus has recently started service between Boston’s South Station and New York’s Penn Station. (As of April 24.) Besides having fares as low as $1 depending on how far you’re going and when you book your trip (at least one seat on every bus will cost $1) the BoltBus fleet also features free wi-fi and 110V sockets on the back of every seat. So those of you who are dependent on your electronics while traveling will be able to keep in touch with the office without worrying about your batteries dying.

BoltBus has also taken a standard coach seating configuration and actually removed seats so that each passenger has an extra three inches of legroom. That might not seem like much, but to those of us over 6 feet tall, every little inch helps. On their website the company admits that the wi-fi technology they are using is relatively new and there are certain spots along their route where it may be unavailable. But even with the occasional dead spot, it’s still far better than the standard Greyhound amenities like soiled seats, sketchy passengers and that smell you just can’t put your finger on.

[ BoltBus ] VIA [ Boing Boing Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Now don’t get me wrong, I actually think this wi-fi hotspot solution is a half-decent idea, particularly if you operate a small coffee shop or other venue and can’t afford to give away free wi-fi. But why is it solely reliant on coins? Even payphones these days have a slot for using a debit card or other coin alternative.

That aside, the Handlink Wi-Fi Kiosk just needs an internet connection from a local ISP and after that it seems to be pretty autonomous. Users wishing to purchase a few minutes of wireless internet just need to insert the necessary coinage into the slot and then hit the confirm button. A built-in thermal printer will then provide a ticket that includes the user’s account name and password, the purchase date and time, the expiry date and time, access duration and the wi-fi SSID. Once the time has elapsed the user’s internet access is automatically cutoff and the account is deleted, so there doesn’t seem to be a mechanism for adding just a few more minutes once you’re already online.

[ Handlink KS-800 Series Coined Hotspot Solution ] VIA [ Register Hardware ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The PHS300 Personal Hotspot from CradlePoint Technology allows you to share your broadband-enabled mobile phone or modem with multiple users by turning it into a secure wifi hotspot. The company claims that getting online is as easy as plugging your phone or USB modem into the compact router, and then connecting your PC to the wireless network. Of course since you’ll probably want to use the WEP/WPA security options so that everyone’s not mooching your wifi, the setup process might take a bit longer than they claim.

The personal hotspot includes a built-in lithium-ion battery that will keep it running for several hours and can be recharged via USB when connected to your computer. It can even be used to recharge a phone that’s connected to the USB port, though that will no doubt reduce its own battery life. It’s available from Amazon for $299.99 but you’ll want to make sure your broadband phone or modem are included on the supported hardware list before you pick one up.

[ PHS300 Personal Hotspot ] VIA [ GadgetKing ]

By Luke Anderson

I’m one of about a dozen Americans that almost never goes to Starbucks. There are at least three of them within 5 minutes of my house, so distance isn’t an issue. I just have no desire to drink expensive coffee and pay for WiFi access when I have all of that in the comfort of my own home. If I still had my old AT&T DSL, I wouldn’t have to worry about paying for internet while sitting there at least.

According to an announcement, AT&T will be replacing T-Mobile as the wireless internet provider in all 7,000 Starbucks locations. Of course, AT&T announced not long ago that customers that subscribe to their DSL service will be given free access to all WiFi hotspots, which will include the Starbucks locations.

If you’re not an AT&T customer, you can still purchase two-hour sessions for $3.99 or a monthly membership for $19.99.

[ AT&T ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I hope one day before I die I’ll be able to go anywhere with my phone or laptop knowing that whenever I want to go online, there will be WiFi available. But until that mythical day arrives I’m forced to hunt and peck for open WiFi scraps if I want to check my email anywhere outside my apartment. (Or the local Apple Store.) WiFi detectors make the hunt a little easier, and from what I can tell Canary’s Digital Hotspotter seem to be leading the pack.

The HS20 is actually the second generation of the Digital Hotspotter, and it uses a 96×94 pixel LCD screen to provide detailed information about detected 802.11b, g and n WiFi networks. It uses a “true 802.11 engine” which means you won’t see any false readings from Bluetooth devices, cordless phones or even microwaves and it has a new scrolling feature that allows you to see detailed information for multiple access points like network type, security level (open/WEP/WPA) and channel configuration. It will even give you a reading of a particular network’s top speed by sniffing the data packets, so I guess beggars can be choosers.

The HS20 Digital Hotspotter should be available sometime soon with a retail price of $59.95.

[ Canary Wireless HS20 Digital Hotspotter ] VIA [ Gearlog ]

By Luke Anderson

After the movie Goldeneye (and the game of course) came out, James Bond was my hero. I always wanted to have some cool spy gadget that looked like something rather ordinary. I thought it was so cool when I finally got a pen that was also a laser pointer, even if it was quite obvious to the casual observer. Since then I’ve seen a whole slew of pens with more functions than you can shake a silenced PP7 at. Here’s one that you’ll like if you’re even trying to track down an open wireless signal.

The pen features 4 LEDs that will show you the strength of a wireless signal that is up to 30 meters away. It is powered by two button cell batteries and activated b a small button positioned just below the LEDs. It might not be the coolest spy gadget for your arsenal, but at $8, you can’t really go wrong.

[ ChinaVasion ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Luke Anderson

When I leave my house for any period of time I don’t generally worry about my place getting broken into, as I live in a pretty decent neighborhood. Since I have pets there’s usually someone stopping by to check them regularly, so I don’t usually give things a second thought. However, if I were the paranoid sort, I’d buy myself a Rovio in a heartbeat.

The Rovio is a WiFi-enabled spybot that can navigate your entire home with ease. There’s really not much more you can ask of a spybot. This little guy can patrol your house 24×7, and you can access its audio and video footage from anywhere in the world. Look for this guy to hit stores this fall for around $299.

[ RobotsRule ] VIA [ GeekAlerts ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If your city doesn’t have a reliable warchalking community, you’ll need to find another way to hunt down available wifi hotspots. And while there are plenty of pocket sized detectors already on the market, wearing this wifi sniffing watch from ThinkGeek won’t immediately brand you a nerd.

The steel case and retro-digital watch face are well styled, but the watch can also tell you the signal strength of a nearby hotspot on a scale of 0 to 8, as well as what type of wireless connection it is. It also has a daily alarm, a countdown timer, an electroluminescent backlight, a calendar and world time mode. While I’d probably upgrade the rubber watch band, the $29.99 price tag from ThinkGeek is pretty reasonable.

[ WiFi Detecting Watch ] VIA [ technabob ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you’ve ever been disappointed by the range of your WiFi router, you’ll be glad to know you’re just an upgrade away from being able to broadcast your wiFi signal up to a quarter mile in all directions. The Extreme Range WiFi router operates with 30dBm of power, which is apparently the strongest radio signal of this type allowed by the FCC.

While it might only seem useful for people living in giant mansions or working in large offices, if you happen to live in a downtown setting imagine being able to go anywhere for a quarter mile while still being able to connect to your home network. Besides the ‘extreme range’ the router also supports WPA-Enterprise, WPA2 and WEP security as well as 802.11b and 802.11g.

It’s currently available from ThinkGeek for $284.99.

[ Extreme Range WiFi Router ] VIA [ Uber-Review ]

By Evan Ackerman

Back in 2006, Eye-Fi WiFi SD cards were little more than an awesome idea just begging for some commercial investment to get them into production. And now, they’re here. These brilliant 2gb SD cards contain fully independent wireless software and hardware that will automatically upload pictures to the photo sharing website of your choice (or even to your home computer) via any locally available wireless network. No actual modifications are made to your images during this process (unless you want them resized), and the whole thing is managed at the Eye-Fi website. So, just to clarify, all your digital camera has to be capable of is saving images to a standard SD card, and the Eye-Fi card will work for you. As you might expect, range is not great (well under 100 feet), but power requirements (although unspecified) are supposed to be minimal. As we suggested last year, this means that you may be able to use your SD card as a buffer of sorts, freeing up space on the card as images get offloaded via WiFi. I can’t immediately tell whether Eye-Fi moves or copies files (I suspect it’s the latter), in which case you’d need to somehow be able to figure out which of your pictures have already been transferred. The price for all this convenience? $100 (at least 5x more expensive than a regular 2gb SD), with the software and online services included. Available at most major electronics retailers.

[ Eye-Fi ] VIA [ Sci-Fi Tech ]