With the integration of cameras, GPS receivers, and more into cellphones, many people take for granted the lightweight, energy efficient technology in their pockets. MIT ties all that tech together to a weather balloon in Project Icarus, where for $150 a prepaid cellphone becomes a high-altitude near-space camera.
posted by mccarty.tim on Sep 15, 2009 - 15 comments

Wireless electricity has been mentioned previously. A recent TED Talk actually shows it in action. The presenter, Eric Giler of WiTricity Corp (a startup founded by MIT researcher Marin Soljačić), mentions the first attempt at wireless electricity, the Wardenclyffe Tower, designed and built over a hundred years ago by Nikola Tesla. [more inside]
posted by Deathalicious on Aug 30, 2009 - 95 comments

According to the Wall Street Journal, coffee shops in New York are starting to cut back on laptops -- by reducing WiFi privileges, removing outlets, or banning the machines outright. This article has spawned a vast number of spin-off pieces and conversations across the Web. [more inside]
posted by Shepherd on Aug 7, 2009 - 100 comments

The FCC investigated a pirate radio station in Boulder, Colorado earlier this month and left a copy of their official inspection policy asserting that they have the authority to perform warrantless searches of private property if there is any FCC-licensed equipment on the property, including cordless phones, cell phones, wireless routers, intercom systems, and baby monitors. [more inside]
posted by notashroom on May 21, 2009 - 36 comments

FCC paves way for free use of vacant airwaves -- white space -- available in February as TV spectrum is cleared up by digital conversion. Apparently another vote for change will take place November 4. The FCC btw also recently backed a free (ad-supported) nationwide wireless broadband plan in another hunk of spectrum to be auctioned off in 2009.
posted by kliuless on Oct 18, 2008 - 19 comments

Google's Android goes live for demo. Lots of video and stills. Cache.
posted by loquacious on May 28, 2008 - 62 comments

"(Steve) Jobs, a notorious control freak himself, wasn't about to let a group of suits — whom he would later call "orifices" — tell him how to design his phone."
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Jan 10, 2008 - 203 comments

A tiny wireless spy earpiece is being marketed to students who want the cheat on exams, much to the chagrin of teacher/examiner organisations. The Examear website proclaims they are: "Helping students succeed. Worldwide!" The makers say the devices are also suitable for people such as TV reporter, TV game show contestants -- anyone who needs help remembering things. Remember, before the internet, when students didnt copy all their essays and actually did some work?
posted by domdom on Aug 19, 2007 - 73 comments

Recent discussion regarding the iPhone availability in Canada (Rogers says they'll carry it - Then denies doing so) has spurred ideas as to what it might cost. This tore open a nasty wound in the hearts of Canadians, having realized that their mobile data access is worse than that of third world countries. A petition has already been started.
posted by patr1ck on Apr 9, 2007 - 29 comments

Wii + MacBook Pro + Dome - Experiments using the Nintendo Wii as a wireless 3D interface device.
posted by Burhanistan on Apr 4, 2007 - 15 comments

"Google TiSP (BETA) is a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access by connecting your commode-based TiSP wireless router to one of thousands of TiSP Access Nodes via fiber-optic cable strung through your local municipal sewage lines." The free version offers 10x the speed of a normal DSL. Press release and FAQ (with features and prices).
posted by Memo on Mar 31, 2007 - 29 comments

Bridging the digital divide - The ubiquitious cellphone has been recognized as a key tool for the social and economic development for many at the bottom of the pyramid - Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr Yunus' GrameenPhone received an award in a category that didn't exist last year - "Best Use of Mobile for Social & Economic Development" for their Healthline project at the recently concluded 3GSM Congress in Barcelona last week. Another winner was the ultra low cost Motofone which was designed after two years of research into the needs of the rural and urban poor in India. We need many more such applications available for the "other 4 billion" if this bridge is to be built across the divide.
posted by infini on Feb 19, 2007 - 37 comments

A Call to Free the Cell Phones. Law professor and Net Neutrality activist Tim Wu throws down the gauntlet to wireless industry. Building on the Carterphone ruling, he makes the argument for Wireless Net Neutrality: that consumers, not wireless carriers, should choose how they connect to the wireless networks, what devices they use, and what they do with the bandwidth.
posted by alms on Feb 11, 2007 - 37 comments

wireless electricity is said to be possible by some researchers. the only question is: what will become of this industry?
posted by localhuman on Nov 15, 2006 - 45 comments

PSA: Want to get out of your Sprint - Nextel wireless contract without paying a penalty? Thanks to the fine print in their contracts, Sprint must give many that option— but only until Oct. 31st. (USAfilter)
posted by spock on Oct 10, 2006 - 16 comments

The Boston Wi-Fi Network may be constructed within the year by a non-profit corporation. An appointed task force has produced a report (pdf) which recommends building the network on the cheap and allowing providers to compete over the chance to provide service. It won't be free though. Can this possibly work?
posted by cubby on Aug 1, 2006 - 15 comments

iSPOTS is a project that maps the dynamics of the wireless network on the MIT Campus in real-time. The Intensities map is very nice indeed.
posted by tellurian on Jul 19, 2006 - 7 comments

How to make your own wireless camera remote. Man buys Minolta 5-D, can't find a remote for less than $30 on eBay; can't find any that are wireless; goes to an electronics store, buys the parts; makes his own wireless remote; then takes pictures of himself skating, using the remote!
I love diy stories like this. (Warning: popups at the linked site.)
posted by Lynsey on Jul 9, 2006 - 22 comments

Collective global wireless network mapping via high-traffic automobile networks
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Jun 27, 2006 - 9 comments

Another wifi-related arrest was publicized today. In the past, the only case readily available to researchers involved additional seedy activities that are what really drew the arrest. The coffeeshop and other open hotspots show up on several sites such as jiwire and wifinder which are devoted to helping people find wireless hotspots.

In this case, a coffeeshop noticed someone leeching their WiFi parked in his truck -- over the course of 3 months, without ever entering the coffeehouse and making a purchase. While not yet convicted of anything, he has been arrested for "theft of services," and this could mean the first precedent set for whether or not "wireless piggybacking" is illegal. The case becomes especially interesting for both sides of the ethical debate on "borrowing" wireless. One one side of the judge's opinion will be the fact that the coffeehouse is a public place, not a private home. On the other side, it turns out the man who was arrested just so happens to be a registered sex offender, though this coincidental fact is not technically relevant to the case.
posted by twiggy on Jun 22, 2006 - 259 comments

Retrobrick sells those old giant clunky cell phones we still called "car phones." To anyone old enough to remember them, it's a little scary to think they are desirable antiques now. Too bad they aren't as sweet as these photoshop fantasies. For a little history, Martin Cooper's account of making the first cell phone call, 33 years ago, on the streets of NYC (to his rival at Bell Labs.)
posted by CunningLinguist on Jun 22, 2006 - 18 comments

Cool (windows only) bit of software to allow those reading (with Windows pcs, wireless networks, itunes & a PSP) to stream their mp3 libraries over their wireless network to their PSP. I know this probably doesn't apply to too many people here, but hopefully those to whom it does find it useful.
posted by jonson on Apr 22, 2006 - 18 comments

The Next Generation Rabbit Pearl Wireless Vibrator is just one of a range of products in Amazon's sex shop.
posted by bobbyelliott on Aug 20, 2005 - 47 comments

Wireless bluetooth headset. Now you can listen to your tunes wireless and with oddly colored teeth! Bonuses including pushing your ears to change songs, like that guy in Empire Strikes Back.
posted by Bugbread on Aug 2, 2005 - 14 comments

Republican Congressman Pete Sessions from Texas introduced a bill that would make all free, public, municipal WiFi illegal. Sessions, as it turns out, is a big fat recipient of SBC funds. Why stop there? Should we privatize highways as well? How about subways? Glad the liberal media is all over this one. Here are a couple of links: Original post on DailyKos, An informative editorial from the Fort Wayne paper
posted by mountainmambo on Jun 9, 2005 - 48 comments

Robot planes may make phone towers obsolete "...it's a "Stratellite", and its makers believe it will revolutionise the broadband and wireless industry; if it ever gets off the ground.

Wisconsin communications company Sanswire on Tuesday unveiled its almost-finished prototype of a hard-framed, unmanned airship designed to fly in the stratosphere 21km above the earth and send broadband and cellphone signals to an area the size of Texas."

This in my opinion is an example of truly innovative technology.
posted by jaydedx on Apr 13, 2005 - 25 comments

2 GB of data per second, piggybacking on your skin's electrical field. You == organic lan for small electronic devices. And it's a little more secure than bluetooth. via kottke, like everything else.
posted by Tlogmer on Mar 23, 2005 - 24 comments

FutureIsNowFilter "TengoInternet and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department announced a pilot program to offer wireless Internet service at five Texas state parks... The wireless service will allow park guests while visiting the park to access the Internet to gain park information, send e-mail or pictures, or just surf the Web, without cords having to physically plug into a network."
Shouldn't be camping be more about nature than technology?
posted by Doohickie on Dec 16, 2004 - 31 comments

Urballoon: "a balloon equipped with a projector and wireless connection to the web that enables people to submit content online and broadcast it in public spaces." Today's the last day to submit for projection in NY.
posted by dobbs on Oct 3, 2004 - 4 comments

If you're ever looking for free wireless in the Bay Area, and you've got an iPod with you, a project from Bay Area Wireless called wiPod has you covered. It's a listing of all known free points in the region, sorted by city and location, and can be viewed on any iPod (screenshot, direct download).
posted by mathowie on Jul 21, 2004 - 5 comments

USB adaptors & a Spider Skimmer = Poor Man's Wifi!
posted by X-00 on May 16, 2004 - 7 comments

Catch some waves... for free! Wi-Fi Freespot will help. Via my roommate's co-workers, who keep sending this round e-mail circuits. I don't know why they include me. I hate technology.
posted by WolfDaddy on Feb 5, 2004 - 7 comments

Neoroscience and wireless communication An apparently non-hysterical warning from scientist Leif Salford, who cautions that by using hand-held cellular devices we're conducting "the largest human biological experiment ever."

According to the Independent (UK) article, it's been proven that microwave radiation opens 'the blood-brain barrier, allowing a protein called albumin to pass into the brain.' Lund's latest work 'goes a step further, showing the process is linked to serious brain damage.'

That in turn causes ... uh, what was I writing about? I forget.

Sorry. Seriously, is there anyone in the room competent to comment on the validity of this warning? (Via Gizmodo)
posted by mojohand on Sep 14, 2003 - 15 comments

Free Wireless through the end of August in Cometa's wireless installations in McDonald's stores in and around New York. Supposedly there's a list of the installations here, but not for the Flash-less. Anyone care to post a review of the service?
posted by j.edwards on Jul 30, 2003 - 6 comments

McD Wireless Beginning today, many McDonald’s restaurants around the Bay area will provide Wi-Fi with a side of fries... Previously discussed in March.
posted by sparky on Jul 9, 2003 - 18 comments

Is Google God? "While you were sleeping after 9/11, not only has the process of technological integration continued, it has actually intensified — and this will have profound implications." "...Google, combined with Wi-Fi, is a little bit like God. God is wireless, God is everywhere and God sees and knows everything. Throughout history, people connected to God without wires. Now, for many questions in the world, you ask Google, and increasingly, you can do it without wires, too." [NYTimes]
posted by jacknose on Jun 30, 2003 - 23 comments

McDonald's restaurants in three U.S. cities will offer one hour of free high-speed access to anyone who buys a combination meal. Bookstores, Hotels and Airports are also planning to offer Wireless access to customers.
posted by Stuart_R on Mar 11, 2003 - 26 comments

The ever popular WiFi systems are the latest threat to National Security according to this story.
posted by thedailygrowl on Dec 17, 2002 - 5 comments

802.11b Survey Map of NYC Following the NYC Bloggers Map, what else should mapped in NYC, smoking rooms?
posted by Voyageman on Dec 12, 2002 - 17 comments

Take off every 'zig'... for great justice! ZigBee is a promising entry into the field of personal area networks (PAN) -- the technology that will soon enable low data rate two-way wireless connectivity for everything in your house (e.g. keyboard, thermostat). For those keeping score, it's exactly '4.4' sweeter than Wi-Fi (ZigBee is aligning with the IEEE802.15.4 standard) and is designed to live up to two years on battery power (unlike Bluetooth, it's 802.15 brother currently fighting with deployment issues). The protocol supports authentication and public-key encryption, so no "All your toaster are belong to us" or (gasp!) wartoasting.
posted by eddydamascene on Oct 25, 2002 - 11 comments

WarChalkers are thieves Phone maker Nokia has come down strongly against warchalking. "This is theft, plain and simple."
posted by Mwongozi on Sep 19, 2002 - 27 comments

Starbucks announces wireless Internet access in stores and plans to charge customers for it: $29.99/month for access in one store, or $49.99/month for access in all equipped stores nationwide. Seems a little pricey to me. And besides, don't cool coffeehouses offer free wireless Internet access? They're sure getting lots of coverage of the announcement in any case.
posted by tippiedog on Aug 22, 2002 - 21 comments

Log onto an unsecured wireless LAN, go to jail. This frightening story involves a computer security expert doing a bit of war driving. The fact that he didn't access any of their files, and that they shut down the network instead of simply reading the manual on basic WEP security didn't stop them from claiming $5,000 in damages and bringing charges, with possible fines up to $250k and up to 5 years jail time.
posted by mathowie on Aug 1, 2002 - 12 comments

Don't let child pornographers share your connection! Now that sharing your Wi-Fi connection with the unwashed masses has become so popular - the BigCo's are trying to shut it down. We've talked about this here and here but I was blown away by this marketing speak from a AOL Time Warner VP


"By having an open transmission, it leaves you really vulnerable," Digeso said. "If you have a Wi-Fi connection in a public park, what would stop, God forbid, a child pornographer or, God forbid, a terrorist using that network?"

Are terroists using your Wi-Fi connection?
posted by dhacker on Jul 9, 2002 - 34 comments

Warchalking Collaboratively creating a hobo-language for free wireless networking. Here is the first draft of a warchalking symbol card. [via Boing Boing]
posted by srboisvert on Jun 24, 2002 - 26 comments

Some organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area are dedicated to setting up public wireless access points, avaliable free of charge, which people can connect to with either their exisiting 802.11 NICs in close proximity or with modified wi-fi cards with external antenna connections over distances up to 5 miles away. While these ideas are all fun and exciting, I was reading the SF Bay Guradian's recent article about these networks, I was struck by Tim Pozar's notion of creating these networks without internet connections, just for community lans. I had almost the same idea about a month ago, concerning a kind of mainstream internet alternative with personally run severs and access points, completely off of big ISP pipes, and have been thinking quite a bit about it lately. Now that I've found all this information on it, my only question is: How do we get started and who's up for it?
posted by Hackworth on Jun 14, 2002 - 16 comments

Pringles now with more crisp signals. Empty cans of Pringles could be helping malicious hackers spot wireless networks that are open to attack. Just goes to show that wafer thin security is a big problem.
posted by riffola on Mar 8, 2002 - 20 comments

Attack of the Luddites? A group from my high school visited Mendocino High School in the early 1990's to see how they were implementing internet access, as we were getting ready to do the same. We were, frankly, jealous of their "fat pipe," their all-wired classrooms and their much-vaunted community support. Things are apparently much different now. "Wireless Free Mendocino has been instrumental in defeating attempts to bring cell phone and a high-speed Internet service to the town's 1,000-odd residents. Now the group is trying to force the high school radio station to remove its antenna from the school roof -- a move that could sound the death knell for the struggling student outfit."
posted by Lynsey on Jan 23, 2002 - 15 comments

AirSnort. The dangerous app with the unlikely name allows users to snatch data being passed over wireless networks, eventually capturing passwords to the network.
posted by o2b on Nov 29, 2001 - 7 comments

The Tech Effect. I'm curious what you all think about how this attack will affect the world of technology, and business. Will office applications become more decentralized and will we see more workers and small businesses become "free agents" or work at home? And will cell phones become even more ubiquitous (even cell-luddites like myself may be reconsidering)?
posted by owillis on Sep 16, 2001 - 9 comments