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Engadget giveaway: Win an Athena router and range extender courtesy of Amped Wireless!
Even if you're in a tiny studio apartment that keeps you in arm's reach of your router at all times, you could probably do with a high-powered upgrade. Amped Wireless' Athena AC2600 dual-band gigabit router packs 16 amplifiers and four antennas, delivering 800mW of output power, enough to cover your whole home. It also includes multi-user MIMO support so you can cross the streams all you want using multiple devices concurrently. Amped Wireless has handed off a pair of these routers for two lucky Engadget readers this week, as well as some AC1750 range extenders that include a built-in touchscreen interface for ease of use. When used together, you should be able to blanket up to an additional 12,000SF in WiFi, making it ideal for buildings or adding connectivity to outdoor areas. All you need to do is head to the Rafflecopter widget below for up to three chances at winning this powerful, long-range WiFi package.
Linksys unveils networked storage and its fastest WiFi router yet
You knew that Linksys wouldn't sit idly by while competitors like ASUS and Netgear rolled out extra-fast WiFi routers -- sure enough, the Belkin-owned networking giant is coming to CES 2015 with some speedy wireless of its own. The company's EA8500 promises brisk, interruption-free 802.11ac at 1.73 Gbps thanks to both multi-user antennas (which keeps the speed up when the network is crowded) and a relatively quick 1.4GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor. It's also loaded with frills, such as four Gigabit Ethernet jacks as well as ports to share your eSATA and USB 3.0 storage. The EA8500 will be expensive at $280 when it ships in the spring, but it'll be accompanied by the $180 WRT1200AC if you're willing to settle for "just" 1.3 Gbps while maintaining similar features and hackable firmware.
