Plume
Latest
Plume launches SuperPod, its second-generation mesh WiFi puck
Plume is a WiFi company that offers a collection of wall socket-mounted nodes designed to sit in every room of your home. Don't worry if you haven't heard of it, as you're more likely to recognize Plume's rebranded hardware as Comcast's XFI gear. And a couple of years after launching its first-generation technology, Plume is back with an updated wall plug, and a whole new way to buy it.
Comcast is now selling mesh WiFi 'pods' to its internet customers
It's been about a year since Comcast started revamping its Xfinity home internet services under the xFi brand. As part of the changes the company has been making, it started testing a simple way to build an in-home mesh network. After partnering with Plume, Xfinity started offering "xFi Pods" -- little nodes that plug into a power outlet that extend your WiFi network -- in three test markets. As of today, though, they're available nationwide to all Xfinity customers at the price of $120 for three pods or $200 for six.
The best Wi-Fi mesh networking kits for most people
By Jim Salter This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer's guide to the best technology. When readers choose to buy The Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here. Mesh-networking kits, which use multiple access points spread around your house, are a great alternative to traditional routers for large and troublesome homes where a single powerful router won't cut it. After spending over 50 hours testing nine mesh Wi-Fi networking kits in a large, complicated, multilevel home, we're confident the Netgear Orbi kit is the best choice for most people. Our testing, however, also showed that most people will still be fine with our current router pick instead of mesh.
Plume's WiFi extending pods are now available
If you're having WiFi issues in certain rooms and range extenders or powerline plugs aren't doing the trick, there's another option on the market. Plume's mesh-based "pod" WiFi system is now on sale following a pre-order campaign earlier this year. Like Eero or Google WiFi, you place a pod in rooms where you want internet, and they'll intelligently connect over multiple 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, providing uniform coverage around your home.
Daily iPhone App: Plume is a simple and charming social network-powered reader
Plume was recommended to me a while back by fellow TUAWer Brett Terpstra, and while it does look lovely on first site, it's one of those apps that really only shows its usefulness after a while. Plume is a reading app (currently for iPhone only) that pulls links and content automatically from your social networking timelines, so when your friends and follows link to blog posts and other content, Plume will pull out those links and re-organize them for you in an easy-to-read form. The functionality is similar to Flipbook on the iPad, but again -- this is an iPhone app, and it rolls up this content in a way that's so unique you kind of have to get used to it at first. Once you do figure it out, though, it's very impressive. The views are well-designed and very simple, and Plume makes it very easy to turn just a few free minutes out with your phone into a very productive catch-up session on what your friends are sharing around. I do still prefer to consume most of my content through an RSS reader on my couch with the iPad, but Plume is a great way to just pull up an app and have some popular content shown to you right away. Plume has been updated for the iPhone 5 already, and it's available now for $2.99.
Researchers catch a whiff of "aroma fingerprints"
While we've already seen just how savvy dogs are at scouting out cellphones, researchers around the globe have teamed up to find out how pups distinguish the aromas that each individual emits, and the result is a highly influential electronic nose. Now if the boys in blue can't track you down via fingerprint, EEG signatures, or just looking at those guilt-filled eyes, it looks like your "aroma fingerprint" just might find you out anyway. The team has uncovered that each human has at least 44 chemical compounds in their odors that can be distinguished, and aside from assisting in identification, can be used in forensic studies to determine true causes behind crimes, deaths, or other misdemeanors. It's even stated that this new technique can assist officials in learning about one's "gender, lifestyle, whether or not they smoke, recent meals, and stress levels." Of course, criminals could be shaking in their boots, but until the scientists find a way to sniff through "deodorant and perfume," we can't exactly count on this being reliable.[Via Spluch]
Newman MoMo media player measures up at 10mm thick
While we're running thin on details about this new Newman MoMo media player, we can tell you that the word on the street in China is that it's quite slim at 10mm (0.39 inches) for a player with 320 x 240 resolution, plus support for AVI, ASF, MPEG, VOB, WMV, MTV, DAT, MP4, MPG, and the normal group of still formats. Not even our buddies at Engadget Chinese were able to locate a price nor availability for this one, but we hope that no matter what, it comes wrapped in bear fur, as shown in this photo.[Via Engadget Chinese]
