By Chris Scott Barr

Barnes & Noble is definitely my favorite bookstore to frequent. It just has a friendly and inviting environment, with plenty of chairs to sit in, and a coffee bar. The one thing that I’ve always disliked is that while they do offer Wi-Fi access, you have to pay for it. I’m not a fan of Starbucks, but I have thought about sitting in a book store and doing a bit of work, and that would be the perfect place. Well thanks to a partnership with AT&T, Barnes & Noble has announced that all 777 locations will now have free Wi-Fi for all.

This is no doubt a result of their push into the e-book realm, what with their new e-reader application (for your PC, Mac and iPhone) and all. While I don’t see book stores going the way of the dodo, I to think that they will need to innovate in order to stay on top of things. It’s good to see that my favorite one is doing their part to keep up (even if the whole free Wi-Fi access has been a long time coming).

[ Barnes & Noble ] VIA [ GearLog ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Thanks to companies like Eye-Fi, WiFi equipped SD cards are readily available allowing you to upload photos or videos from a digital camera to your PC or online sharing service as you take them. But KDDI has just shown off the first WiFi equipped microSD cards at Wireless Japan 2009, which is currently running until the 24th.

The company actually showed off two different cards, one manufactured by Mitsumi Electric Co. Ltd. and one by Renesas Technology Corp. and while both used different wireless hardware, they were each IEEE802.11 b&g compliant. And while there aren’t any digital cameras that use microSD cards, non-smartphones that don’t feature built-in WiFi should benefit from the new cards, though pricing, availability and even storage capacities have yet to be determined.

[ Tech-On! - KDDI Exhibits microSD Card with WLAN function ] VIA [ SlashGear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

You know what I like most about this wifi-detecting baseball cap that’s powered by a couple of CR2032 batteries and displays the strength of any 802.11b or g networks in your vicinity? The fact that it’s pretty much completely useless to the person actually wearing it! I mean the whole point of a wifi detector is so you can find an available hotspot and get yourself some free wireless internet, but unless you’re taking this thing off every 5 minutes to check the light-up panel on the front, you’ll be oblivious as to when you actually find a network. At least it’s just $21 from Thumbs Up.

[ Thumbs Up Wifi Cap ]

By Colin Ackerman

Now that wireless routers are cheap and ubiquitous, there’s one way that a router can separate itself from the rest of the pack: features. The D-Link DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router takes this concept to the Xtreme (okay, sorry, no more of that) by including a 3.2″ LCD, room for a hard drive, and a whole bunch more. We’ve got a full review for you, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

As we’ve mentioned to you before, the Eye-Fi card is really a pretty brilliant idea. Digital cameras are neat little gadgets, but getting all your awesome pics from your camera to the computer and to the internet is still a stone age process that involves plugging cables into things and taking cards out of things and running software and pushing buttons and waiting around. It’s utterly ridiculous. Eye-Fi has the solution to this, with an SD card that includes a WiFi antenna that automatically sends pictures and video that you take directly to the internet and your computer, no cables necessary.

We’ve got a full review of the Eye-Fi Explore Video for you, right after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Liszewski

It seems the product designers at Parrot, or in this case designer Martin Szekely, haven’t gotten around to reading any of the reviews of the new MacBook or MacBook Pro. If they had, they would have discovered that consumers (or reviewers at least) aren’t that into highly reflective glossy displays that make it easy to see yourself, but not necessarily what’s on the LCD. And claiming that the digital photo frame can also double as a mirror just doesn’t cut it.

It’s too bad though because the SPECCHIO includes wifi (b & g) and bluetooth and can receive photos directly from a cell phone or via email, an RSS feed or your Picasa/Flickr account. There’s no pricing or availability info for the SPECCHIO frame at this point, but a similar ‘designer’ frame in the Parrot online store runs $449.99, and I don’t expect this one will be any cheaper.

[ SPECCHIO - Parrot By Martin Szekely ] VIA [ DVICE ]

By Evan Ackerman

Whether it involves computers or printers or anything else, accessing hardware over a network can be a real headache. D-Link is introducing some new software that should make it a bit easier to attach your computer to a remote USB device. And hey, guess what, it’s free!* Specific details are somewhat sketchy, but according to D-Link, “SharePort turns the local USB port located on the back of the 802.11n family of Wi-Fi routers into a fast and responsive virtual port so users can access a range of USB devices, by utilizing a new technology of USB over TCP/IP.”

An important thing to keep in mind is that this won’t transform your USB devices into network devices. In other words, only one computer on your network can access the USB device attached to the router at a time. Even so, this is an easy way to network a printer or drive without paying the premium for one with networking hardware built in. If you have a D-Link DIR-655, DIR-825, DIR-855, DGL-4500, or DIR-628, you can get the SharePort software (and some other energy management and HD optimization software) for free simply by updating your router’s firmware.

[ D-Link ] VIA [ Crave ]

*As long as you own an expensive D-Link router, that is.

By Jonathan Kimak

I’ve never been a big fan of scooters, I prefer the little extras that a car offers, stereo, power windows and not having to eat flies while driving. This one little scooter has changed my mind on the subject.

You can’t buy this scooter, you’d have to make it yourself and it could cost you some serious money depending on how much spare cash you have lying around.

With a scooter, $1300 for materials and 23 hours of working time a regular scooter was converted into a war machine. The improved scooter was created for a promotional campaign and has features such as: GPS Navigation, Skype calling on the road, low power pirate radio broadcast ability, and its own WiFi hot spot.

It also has an 8 inch LCD touchscreen, a web cam, TV antenna, laser keyboard and bluetooth headset and a small system status updater that monitors the computer(housed under the seat) and can alert you to incoming emails and the local weather.

Truly you would never want to drive anything else after riding this.

[ Inventgeek ] VIA [ DVICE ]

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 ]