A year and a half after Google admitted that it had inadvertently collected unsuspecting people's personal information sent over the Internet via their wireless routers, the company has implemented a way for people to opt-out of having their routers tracked in the first place.
You can now use Skype credit to pay for Wi-Fi access on your iPhone or iPad.
Apple, Google and Microsoft have finally cleared up most of the mysteries about how and why the smartphones their software runs track and store your location.
Once again, there are rumblings that the third- and fourth-largest U.S. wireless carriers may merge to form a larger combined No. 3. But would this be enough to keep the U.S. wireless market competitive for consumers?
There were dozens of Wi-Fi networks at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. But with more than 60,000 people in attendance, the systems were so overloaded that there may as well have been one landline connection with a 56k modem.
I'm sitting in a coffee shop. At a table against the opposite wall is a guy named Michael C. I've never seen him before. However, I know his name (including his last name, which I'm deliberately not saying here) because right now we're using the same Wi-Fi network and he's logged in to his Facebook and Google accounts.
Google has no plans to resume using its Street View cars to collect information about the location of Wi-Fi networks, a practice that led to a flurry of privacy probes after the company said it unintentionally captured fragments of unencrypted data.
It's more powerful than your current home network -- able to leap through tall buildings from a single port.
Just after Apple CEO Steve Jobs debuted the next version of his company's iPhone to the world, the tech luminary had a bit of technical trouble.
updated: Tue Jun 08 2010 11:38:00
Apple CEO Steve Jobs faces an unexpected technical glitch during a demo of the new iPhone 4.
AT&T is offering free public Wi-Fi hot spots to help it deal with increasing congestion on its wireless network.
Apple is acknowledging complaints that its new iPad computer has trouble connecting to the Internet.
Users who rushed to snap up Apple's iPad are complaining within days of the slate computer's highly anticipated release that they're having trouble connecting it to the Internet.
updated: Tue Aug 11 2009 13:33:00
CNN's Phil Black sees just how easy it is for hackers to dupe unwary Wi-Fi users into logging onto rogue access points.
You're sitting in an airport lounge and seize the chance to check your e-mails before your flight departs. You log on and are tempted by a wireless Internet provider offering free Internet access. So, do you take it?
Verizon Communications has had a change of heart about using Wi-Fi to extend its wireless broadband offering as the company announces free access to Wi-Fi hot spots for its Fios and DSL Internet customers.
I use a wireless router at home, but it seems that other people on my block do as well! I can see their access point IDs show up in my list. Can they see mine, too -- and is this a problem? What are some things I need to keep in mind when it comes to wireless home network security?
Move over, Korea and Japan. Australia may soon be the envy of the world when it comes to advanced wireless networks and services.
Plenty of big companies - from Google to Earthlink - have tried setting up citywide Wi-Fi networks and failed. San Francisco-based Meraki, a wireless company spun off of a research project at MIT, is taking a different tack.
updated: Tue Aug 05 2008 14:41:00
Delta will become one of the first airlines to let passengers surf the Internet. CNN's Rusty Dornin reports.
JetBlue Airways Corp. will start offering limited e-mail and instant messaging services for free on one of its planes next week as airlines renew efforts to offer in-flight Internet access
Forget the price cut on the iPhone. The potentially big deal for the wireless industry was Apple's announcement Wednesday of the iPod touch, a music player that also can access the Internet over Wi-Fi networks.
An ambitious plan to blanket Chicago with wireless broadband Internet will be shelved because it is too costly and too few residents would use it
An ambitious plan to blanket the city with wireless broadband Internet will be shelved because it is too costly and too few residents would use it, Chicago officials said Tuesday.
Apple Inc.'s flashy new iPhones may be jamming parts of the wireless network at Duke University, where technology officials worked with the company Wednesday to fix problems before classes begin next month
Bad call reception at home? A new mobile service allows you to seamlessly place calls on both your cellular network and on any open Wi-Fi hotspot cell phones, which are supposed to let you call from anywhere, often work worst in your own home; signals can't penetrate walls as well as they travel urban canyons and the great outdoors.
Wouldn't it be great to have your own cellular tower at home? You'd always have a strong signal on your mobile phone, and you wouldn't be paying to use the carrier's network
Wireless Internet service works great - so long as you're in a Wi-Fi hotspot. But what if you could have wireless Internet everywhere you go, available on your laptop and cell phone, at speeds that can leave both DSL and 3G data networks in the dust?
Top-of-the-line cell phones may offer Internet access, but not even the do-it-all Apple iPhone comes with the ability to make calls over Wi-Fi.
You'd think that people already watch enough television in their homes and offices. But no: increasingly companies, especially outside the United States, are trying to find ways to pipe television to us wherever we are.
I tried to resist the giddiness with which the world greeted Apple's latest bauble this week.
"What use could this company make of an electrical toy?"
AT&T's bid to acquire BellSouth has run into a few snags lately, but make no mistake: The $81 billion deal will happen - and when it does, the impact will be far bigger on corporate America than on consumers.
To airline industry insiders, the hours spent idling in airport terminals because of delays or extended layovers are known as "dwell time." To millions of time-constrained business travelers, the e...
Wi-Fi phones were the talk of the town this week.
The Disruptor: Clearwire
Niklas Zennstrom is a populist Web hero. The 40-year-old Swede has twice co-founded companies that rattled powerful industries by giving away important things to consumers.
For a man who doesn't own a wireless laptop, Nandoor Sala spends a lot of time looking for Wi-Fi signals. One clear morning this spring, Sala is driving stick-shift around Midtown Manhattan with an...
Think your computer is secure when you log onto a Wi-Fi network at a major hotel?
Municipal wireless is still in its infancy, but new technology from Israel could give budding citywide networks the growth spurt they've been waiting for.
Want to get a sense of where wireless technology is headed? Think back to where the Internet stood at a similar point in its development - say, sometime around 1998. Back then the computer had alre...
(Business 2.0 Magazine) - Want to get a sense of where wireless technology is headed? Think back to where the Internet stood at a similar point in its development -- say, sometime around 1998. Back then the computer had already become a fixture in a majority of American homes, while the Web and e-mail were just beginning to reshape the way people interact, socialize, and shop.
There's a long line of mayors hankering to get their cities wireless broadband. Garry Betty knows how to give them what they want. EarthLink, the nation's biggest independent ISP, is rolling out wi...
SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0 Magazine) - The first-quarter earnings that EarthLink announced today illustrate its plight. While the Internet service provider is still profitable, dial-up revenues dropped 18 percent from the same period last year, broadband revenues increased a mere 6 percent, and earnings-per-share dropped nearly 50 percent to 12 cents per share.
Amid much fanfare, several big cities have announced plans to build wireless broadband networks using Wi-Fi to provide fast Internet access broadband services for free, or at deep discounts to those offered by cable operators or phone companies.
When Friendster started deleting profiles it deemed risque or otherwise objectionable, users bolted for the exits, helping to boost rival social networks like MySpace. Could MySpace be making the same mistake? Author Nicholas Carr characterized a recent move to close 200,000 accounts as a "purge." Ross Levinsohn, head of MySpace parent News Corp.'s Internet division, said the move was motivated by concerns for teen safety. That's certainly credible given the spate or recent incidents in which adults have been arrested for soliciting sex from minors met on the site. But mainstream marketers' concerns about questionable content may just go just as far in explaining its recent reform campaign. And with 250,000 new accounts opened daily, the closures hardly seem large enough to slow MySpace's momentum.
More evidence has emerged that Google is getting ready to blanket the U.S. with free Wi-Fi, as Business 2.0 senior writer Om Malik reported last year. Now, the company has filed for three patents related to offering wireless Internet access. Search Engine Roundtable points out that the patents all have to do with serving up advertising through a wireless Internet connection maintained by a third party, whose brand Google would include in the presentation of those ads. Sounds a lot like Google's latest plan to unwire San Francisco, where it has teamed up with EarthLink. By teaming up with partners who would build the actual Wi-Fi infrastructure, Google could complete a nationwide Wi-Fi network much more quickly than if it had to build it itself.
Microsoft has long set its sights on the living room. But the Xbox 360 could be the Trojan Horse that carries out its invasion plans into the world of entertainment. Take last week's announcement that pop star Natasha Bedingfield would release her next music video exclusively on the Xbox 360, the first in a year-long deal with music label Epic Records. Then, at this week's Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, the software giant announced that it would open up its Xbox Live online service to independent game developers so that they can program multiplayer online games for the new Xbox 360 console. With Xbox Live now offering online chat, video downloads and multiplayer games, Microsoft just needs one more thing to complete its hold on the Xbox's young, mostly male audience: the long-rumored Xbox Portable.
Much to the telephone company's chagrin, there are now plenty of ways to get phone service for a fraction of the price you're used to. The cable industry is one new competitor, but the cheapest alt...
One year and more than 13 million units later, Nintendo remains the king of the hand-held gaming market with its acclaimed Nintendo DS device, ahead of Sony's PlayStation Portable, which sold a little more than 10 million units.
Wireless home connections can make life more comfortable. After all, who wouldn't want to surf the Web on the couch? But the risks to your privacy and security are right outside your door.
If you're looking for access to a public wireless network, you'll have the best luck finding one in Seoul, according to a company that tracks locations where Wi-Fi service is available.
For those in the technology industry, the real holiday season starts on January 5, when the annual Consumer Electronics Show kicks off in Las Vegas.
Home is where the Wi-Fi is. and the more Wi-Fi you get in your home, the bigger the business opportunity becomes. With a raft of new Wi-Fi-hungry devices arriving for the holiday season, consumers ...
WHAT IS A CITY OBLIGATED TO PROVIDE for its citizens? Well-maintained streets, traffic lights, sewer and water, police and fire--okay, sure. As for taverns, gas stations, and peep shows, most folks...
Nintendo game enthusiasts now have a new hangout.
Computer users in many urban and university areas have come to expect connectivity 24/7. There's a cable modem or DSL at home, a high-speed connection in the office and Wi-Fi for the places in between, from the commute to the coffeehouse.
It's 2008, and a tattooed barista is sitting in the back room at Starbucks tapping on her laptop. Live video feeds from high-res webcams spread around the store are carried on a secure Wi-Fi networ...
Despite the growing availability of wireless computer access in airports, hotels, airplanes, cafes and public spaces, the technology has failed to attract business travelers.
What if Google wanted to give Wi-Fi access to everyone in America? And what if it had technology capable of targeting advertising to a user's precise location? The gatekeeper of the world's informa...
Evidently, stealing your neighbor's Internet connection is on a lot of people's minds.
When a new technology becomes a commodity, margins fall and profits drop, driving all but the biggest producers out of business.
United Airlines Monday said it received government approval to install equipment on planes that eventually will give passengers wireless Internet access on flights.
Nokia Wednesday introduced a hand-sized portable device for browsing the Web and checking e-mail over wireless Internet connections.
For more than a decade, no matter how you've wanted to connect, Sky Dayton has been there with the hookup. The coffee shop owner turned Net entrepreneur started EarthLink and built the Internet ser...
WiMax is finally ready for prime time.
It's always on your mind: the next business trip. But what you're thinking about is closing the next deal--not the mundane details of your travel arrangements. So we've done that for you. Our down-...
More business people around the globe are freeing themselves up from the shackles of dialup and wired Internet access.
"Evil twins" are the latest menace to threaten the security of Internet users, experts in the UK are warning.
HOTSPOT FINDER WiFi Seeker Locates a signal before you boot up your laptop. $30; www.pctel.com.
Is your Wi-Fi's WEP turned on? What's the difference between bluejacking and bluesnarfing? Do you know your SSID? Get a handle on the details behind the acronyms and jargon that is wireless technology with this Wi-Fi glossary.
When SBC Communications reports its third-quarter earnings tomorrow, the results of its new pricing plan for DSL subscribers won't be included.
The Internet is about to take its next big leap. Imagine being instantly connected anytime you opened the lid of your laptop, anywhere.
It's not Silicon Valley, but Chaska, Minnesota, may be moving to the leading edge of Wi-Fi technology as it begins offering the service for all city residents.
Chris Hurley is a man with a mission. He wants you to know how to steer clear of people like him. People with his equipment, anyway.
CHRIS ROULAND, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER of Internet Security Systems, recently visited a big telecom company that bans employees from putting up their own antennas for wireless Internet access, or ...
In a perfect world, we could carry one mobile device--a universal communicator. This device would combine the abilities of a mobile phone, a notebook computer, a contact book, a calendar, a notepad...
Redwood Shores, Calif. Founded 1996
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) Tuesday is expected to announce plans to make wireless Internet access available in more of its restaurants, Tuesday's Wall Street Journal reported.
The proliferation of wireless broadband has made life easier in the past couple of years. But it's also been a nuisance. Just when you come to rely on it, there's no wireless signal anywhere around...
When Verizon Wireless announced on Jan. 8 that it would invest $1 billion to build out its wireless broadband networks, tech mavens like me gave a shout.
At a meeting with his board of directors this summer, Airespace CEO Brett Galloway told those gathered that just three months into selling its products, the company wouldn't make its projected sale...
In a home recording studio near San Francisco, Del The Funky Homosapien's chart-busting rap tune "Phoney Phranchise" comes pumping out of a silver Kyocera 3225 cell phone lying on a cramped desk. T...
Not so long ago there was handwringing among technology gurus about the unexpectedly slow rollout of broadband. With the recent rush to install wireless Internet access, popularly known as Wi-Fi, i...
It's an ordinary Saturday afternoon: You're in the bedroom sending e-mails from your laptop when your wife, who's in the kitchen, picks up her Pocket PC and swoops into your hard drive to copy the ...
High-speed wireless Internet access, better known as Wi-Fi, keeps cropping up in the most unexpected places. At Group Dekko, a private 1,600-employee manufacturing conglomerate in Kendallville, Ind...
It was a pristine morning last August in San Francisco, and the Starbucks on Mariposa Street near Franklin Square was abuzz. Smiling executives from the coffee giant and from wireless telco T-Mobil...
The blessings were bouncing off the walls of New York's Carnegie Hall. It was a late February evening, and the banquet crowd of 350, dressed in everything from jeans to suits, sat silently as six T...
So much for consumer choice. The Federal Communications Commission has turned its back on the public by abandoning rules that require the Baby Bells to accommodate competition in broadband services...
Wireless is the best thing ever to happen to Internet access, say the experts. Sure, and the Corvair revolutionized the sporty compact car. Spinning out of control was a mere side effect to be endu...
Wi-Fi is already huge--and it's only going to get bigger. Wireless hotspots are sprouting up in airports, hotels, and cafes, while many new laptops come straight from the factory with Wi-Fi capabil...
I keep looking for killer business models built around location-based services, simply because so many companies are throwing money into technologies that tell the network where you are. One thing ...
In spring 2000, as the Nasdaq plunged 2,000 points, two vastly different companies quietly embarked on programs to offer their employees a whiz-bang new technology called 802.11b, or Wi-Fi--wireles...
In the great Wi-Fi future, linking wirelessly to the Net at near T-1 speeds will be no more remarkable than calling home on your cell phone. Exactly who will control all this connectivity remains t...
It's just a fact of life That no ones cares to mention She wasn't good But she had good intentions. --Lyle Lovett
Turn the clock to zero, boss The river's wide, we'll swim across We're starting up a brand new day --Sting, "Brand New Day"
The poor slob is sitting cross-legged on the floor of the airport waiting lounge, still sweating from his dash through the triple-digit Texas heat. He's balancing his laptop on one knee, and a phon...
There's an old saying at the poker table that if you don't know who the sucker is, it's you. Well, there are more than a few suckers out there betting on broadband, you can be sure. The world is ju...
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