The Gryphon router manages to be both stylish and feature-rich
It helps that it was designed by the same guy who brought us the MiFi.
As a group of former raunchy young people, we grownups know all too well the sorts of shenanigans a youngster can get up to on the internet. There's no shortage of companies that want nothing more to protect those wee tykes from themselves, but Gryphon is special. The company has built a full-featured (not to mention stylish) wireless router that uses machine learning to help keep would-be intruders at bay. Throw in sophisticated parental controls, dead-simple management from an iOS or Android app and the ability to build a mesh network without having to break out a manual, and you have a seriously thoughtful piece of networking gear.
That the Gryphon works well as a wireless router was probably a matter of course. The company was co-founded by John Wu, a Novatel Wireless veteran who's responsible for creating (among other things) the MiFi hotspots that make possible this very post from the bowels of a hotel/casino/resort. That kind of wireless know-how explains the laundry list of crucial features. Namely: The Gryphon uses six antennas to maintain its connections, packs support for 802.11ac and leans on beamforming antennas to more intelligently direct data.
Really, though, the main draw for most people will be those parental controls. If your kids try to visit, say, cheaplingeriebyterry.com, you'll get a notification on your phone requesting access. You can easily accept or deny that request, but here's the really neat bit: If a particular website is accepted by 80 percent of parents who get the request, the Gryphon can be set up to automatically whitelist them. It's that sort of extra control that makes this router more palatable to parents than Google's own WiFi router, and the all-in-one networking chops obviate the need for external hardware like Circle by Disney. And did I mention it looks neat?
The Gryphon has already completed a Kickstarter campaign and is in the midst of a preorder campaign on Indiegogo, so parents wracked with paranoia can still nab an early unit.
Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.
