Live from Netgear's CES press conference
8:47AM PT - We're sitting down. It's awesome.
8:52AM PT - The vibe in the room is thick. There's an overwhelming feeling of pure love here.
9:01AM PT - The intro begins -- they're claiming we'll be glued to our seats for a solid 45 mins. Patrick Lo, the founder of the company is on the stage, letting us know the company's mission in the world -- high speed broadband for everyone, cheaply. He says they're the most "global" company in home networking.
9:06AM PT - He says this CES will be an all time high -- 18 new products featured. He's also explaining the CES innovation awards they've been given. Now he's discussing the company's 2008 mission -- the "all-access home."
9:08AM PT - He's going to focus on three new technologies today -- we're on the edge of our collective seats. Patrick says that the company's new antenna technology will produce higher bandwidth, and longer ranges for WiFi, including products that allow HD over wireless. Also, Netgear is introducing new NAS which will be used for media server and backup duties.
9:10AM PT - Vivek Pathela takes the stage. He's talking about the challenges of the all-access home concept. Big-upping the Rangemax line now. He's going through common network issues -- lack of bandwidth, compatibility, etc.
9:13AM PT - New technologies: Metamaterial antennas -- employing them in all new wireless products. "Push n Connect," a simplified WiFi security protocol. Whoa -- a new RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N Router! 8 Metamaterial antennas are built in, it has concurrent dual-band 5 GHz / 2.4 Ghz, and uses the new security protocol.
9:18AM PT - Now he's demoing the lit up dome on the top of the router. If you hold it down, it goes into security mode -- all you have to do is hold it, and then other products can connect to it -- so it has to be physically accessed.
He just announced the HD/Gaming 5GHz Wireless-N Networking Kit. You can stream lag-free games and HD via the router, which has 6 Metamaterial antennas, and the "less congested" 5GHz band.
9:18AM PT - The third product... the ReadyNAS Duo! Heyo! People are cheering, we're not kidding. The two-bay drive uses X-RAID technology.
9:24AM PT - The drive is Mac and PC compatible -- offers remote access via the internet, and is "ready to use out of the box" -- not sure how that's different from a regular hard drive or NAS. Now he's saying you can use it to save your pictures in the event of a fire. Nice.
He's demoing a "home setup" now.
9:27AM PT - He's showing how all of the new product integrate with the company's Digital Entertainer HD. Streaming HD video to an HDTV right now. Now he's added Halo 3 to the network being streamed to a separate TV. Now, while all this is going on, some live BitTorrent downloads heading to the NAS.
Now he's pulling a drive out of the ReadyNAS, to show how it won't fail if you lose one drive. It's all very Drobo. He's claiming no glitches will occur in our stream here.
Go figure -- no glitch! This guy is pulling some Ballmer-style screaming. Things are getting interactive with the crowd here.
9:32AM PT - Patrick is back for the recap. He's wrapping it up with a feel good message about connecting the home. Question and answer time! Of note -- Patrick is being hammered by a man asking if the Digital Entertainer outsold Apple TV -- he wouldn't say. He really got needled! That's all, folks.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
stephen Mortensen @ Jan 6th 2008 11:56AM
Netgear presser... how exciting!
Senor_Tom @ Jan 6th 2008 11:58AM
I see a Belkin KO coming up, cmon Netgear!
clay @ Jan 6th 2008 12:03PM
Ask them about how they plan to fix their support issues(i.e. support tech's refusing to escalate issues). do they ever plan to fix the memory leaks in their high end routers (Fxx-n38's) so they don't have to be rebooted once a day?
Senor_Tom @ Jan 6th 2008 12:15PM
we bought one of their top end routers...without gigabit ethernet cos we dont need ethernet, and we have no problems with it, ever.
Clay @ Jan 6th 2008 4:02PM
try connecting two or more of them in a vpn, they will quit in a few days to a week, depending on the amount of traffic on the vpn.
mattclarkie @ Jan 6th 2008 12:48PM
I am a Netgear fanboy. But I haven't been impressed with the Rangemax.
I have a Rangemax 108 with 7 antenna, and the range, even with the Rangemax dongle is less than my 54g DG834G with the Centrino card, in fact I have the Rangemax in a box and use the DG834G as I type.
The bandwidth maybe better, but if you can't get a signal, then it really doesn't make a difference.
TheWakeUpCall @ Jan 6th 2008 1:54PM
"This guy is pulling some Ballmer-style screaming. Things are getting interactive with the crowd here."
haha this is sounding hilarious!
Don Park @ Jan 6th 2008 3:01PM
what about IPv6 support??
electroglyph @ Jan 6th 2008 3:55PM
Netgear makes the cheapest crap. If somebody gave me Netgear junk I would throw it in the trash.
Clay @ Jan 6th 2008 4:12PM
agreed!, it costs more to support than it's worth. i only recommend for home users with very little traffic, a high tolerance for rebooting/reseting equipment and of course users that can do their own support. netgear appears to pay it's support contracts (bonuses) based on the number of calls that do NOT get sent back to the company (netgear) and of course, the support company would never lie to a customer about software issues or a lack of escalation procedures. have i mentioned i believe this is the worst company making any tech? bad products, worse support, they shouldn't even be allowed to give it away.
akatsuki @ Jan 6th 2008 6:35PM
Is it really worth liveblogging a Netgear press conference? Really?
Ian Woodcock @ Jan 7th 2008 8:22AM
"Netgear makes the cheapest crap. If somebody gave me Netgear junk I would throw it in the trash"
Sorry guys but i am a Netgear fan and felt the need to respond to the above comment. Its very easy to say someone makes cheap crap if you have had a bad experience with a product, which i assume you have electroglyph? Just to give you some hard facts though......
unlike alot of Networking companies (D-Link, Dynamode to name a couple) Netgear are committed to supplying quality products hence their number 1 position in Europe and them pushing for No 1 in the US.
Their HQ is in Silicon Valley which is also where they source all components for their products therefore giving people the quality they need instead of using cheap and unreliable components from say the far east.
Also it is interesting to know that their RMA's only account for 0.8% of all products sold which proves they make quality GEAR!
thats my opinion anyway!
Jeremiah Biggs @ Jan 7th 2008 8:45AM
Dont give me that rubbish about quality. Obviously they arent quality enough! Look on the internet rating sites and Dlinks wireless n routers still have better reviews than Netgears. Their wireless n gigabit router has won almost every award under the sun and done it in less than a year. But im happy to confirm and agree with your Dynamode comment. Rubbish.