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Roland's Wireless Connect lets your iPhone and electronic instruments play nice sans cords
As if there weren't already enough devices out there for connecting musical instruments to iDevices, Roland's unveiled its latest entrant to the fray over at this year's Musikmesse. Combining a duo of iOS apps and a Netgear-sourced USB dongle, the company's created what's dubbed as the Wireless Connect system. Essentially, by plugging the USB stick into a select number of the company's electronic instruments, you'll be able to jam out using your iDevice as a cord-free aid. With its updated app version of V-Drums Friend Jam, drummers can work on their chops and share the results over the web (alternatively, the current computer variant requires a wired connection). Additionally, the Air Recorder app allows you to hook up with its Synths and V-Accordions to record your playing, jam along with songs from your iPhone or both at the same time. Notably, you likely won't get much use out of Wireless Connect at your next gig, though, as it requires a LAN connection with access to the internet for full functionality. While there's not word on a pricing just yet, Roland plans to have the system on store shelves by the end of spring. Interested musicians can glance at the press release and instrument compatibility details planted just past the break.
Eye-Fi CEO slams SD Association's eerily similar Wireless SD card standard, says his IP is being violated
Yuval Koren is not pleased. For those unaware, he's the CEO of Eye-Fi, the company that has practically written the rules on embedding WiFi into SD cards. If you blinked last week, you probably missed the SD Association's announcement that it had created a new Wireless LAN SD standard that would effectively give just about anyone the ability to add Eye-Fi abilities to their SD cards. As it turns out, Eye-Fi's none too pleased about it, and Koren has gone so far as to publicly admit that the standard is seriously infringing upon highly valuable Eye-Fi technology. To quote: "As [the SDA's standard is] currently written, essential Eye-Fi patented technology would be violated by anyone implementing this draft specification." Bold.He goes on to explain that his company has invested "tens of millions of dollars and several years to create unique technology that lets people wirelessly transfer photos and videos directly from their camera and mobile devices," and calls the SDA protocol "flat out misrepresentation." He's effectively calling for the SD Association to either pony up and license Eye-Fi's tech, or scrap the "standard" and rewrite it using something else altogether. The full letter is posted up after the break, with absolutely no elation to be found.
Toshiba FlashAir wireless LAN SD card hands-on (video)
The first card using the SD association's Wireless LAN standard is Toshiba's FlashAir and we've just spent some time with it here at CES. It's much like Eye-Fi's Direct Mode insofar that it also can sling pics to devices over WiFi from a diminutive SD card, but instead of requiring pairing and an app download the FlashAir requires just a browser. The 8GB class six card broadcasts an 802.11b/g/n hotspot, replete with its own web server onboard, which means its contents -- like say pictures you've previously snapped in your camera -- can be accessed in a browser by any connected device.Despite some false starts (CES is where WiFi networks go to die...) pictures from a point and shoot appeared as quickly as we could refresh http://flashair/ -- the address from where one accesses its contents. Once there, you can browse individual folders, splaying pics (and we'll assume other contents) for your perusal. As previously planned, it'll start shipping in February at around $70 and we were told more capacious units will follow at a later date. Video demo of the tech awaits in the video after the break.
Wireless LAN SD standard aims to give every SD card that Eye-Fi flair
Here's a novel thought -- what if every Secure Digital card had wireless? Eye-Fi's been doing a fine job on its own, but here in Las Vegas, it's the SD Association making it easier for everyone else to grab a slice of the pie. Unveiled today is the Wireless LAN SD standard, which marries storage and wireless inside a form factor you're familiar with. The wireless aspect relies on the typical 802.11a/b/g/n, and it's applicable to full size SD / SDHC / SDXC and microSD / SDHC / SDXC memory cards. Naturally, future cards that have WiFi embedded will be able to easily share and upload shots sans a PC middleman, but there's no word yet on when memory makers will start shipping products with the standard enabled. We're reaching out for more on precisely that and will update should we hear anything back.
NTT showcases next-gen 802.11ac wireless LAN solution, hopes for near-term commercialization
NTT DoCoMo's never been one to back down from the future, and some might say this carrier is actually already living in 2012. You know -- Land of the Rising Sun and all. At any rate, its latest foray into what's next came at the Wireless Technology Park in Yokohama, where it demonstrated a fully-functional 802.11ac prototype wireless system. For those unaware, that's what is scheduled to make 802.11n look like the 101 at lunchtime, with an effective throughput of 1Gbps per system. If all goes well, NTT will be commercializing the system "within a few years," and based on a demonstrated throughout of 120Mbps (as in, real-world results), we're hoping "few" becomes "one."
Hitachi, Panasonic and Toshiba to deliver 60GHz wireless products in 2H 2010
The year's 2010, yet we're still leering at the dusty pile of cables behind our AV equipment and wondering, "O UWB, where art thou?" Well, the folks at Tech-On have got a little update for us: Hitachi, Panasonic and Toshiba are reported to be delivering products donning 60GHz wireless chips -- which sip little juice but churn out 7GHz of colossal bandwidth and 1.5Gbps of data rate -- in the second half of this year. While none of the manufacturers are directly pimping either WirelessHD or WiGig, it appears that Hitachi and Panasonic are siding with WiGig's extra functionalities like media access control (MAC), and the latter even envisions "embedding the functionality into portable gear" for downloading digital content from kiosks. Either way, it's nice to see some progress here -- we don't want things to drag on any longer, do we?
Nokia's Kamppi Trial succeeds at indoor positioning, gets shelved anyway (video)
Sure, GPS can get you to the mall, but can it route you from the Bon Ton down to Penney's? Not so much. Indoor navigation is still generally a paper map reliant affair, something Nokia attempted to do away with at the Kamppi Shopping Center in Helsinki. The service, also called Kamppi, relied on wireless LAN to position people within the complex, meaning anyone with an S60 handset with WiFi could simply browse to kamppi.nokia.mobi, see their current position, locate their friends, and find their way around as shown after the break. 15,000 people tried it out successfully over the summer and so the service is receiving a fitting send-off: it's been "archived." Nokia is pledging to use the tech in future products, but we expect to be reliant on those giant, obelisk-mounted maps for many years to come.
WiGig Alliance completes multi-gigabit 60GHz wireless specification: let the streaming begin
The WiGig Alliance captured our imaginations back in May, but now it seems that the world of multi-gigabit streaming is so close, we can taste the data slipping over our tongues on their way to the next access point. Put simply, the specification that the group has been toiling on over the past few months is finally complete, and while some of its members have been prototyping wares along the way, this 1.0 announcement effectively opens the flood gates for partnering outfits to implement it into their gear. In case you're curious as to how 60GHz will help you, have a listen: WiGig enables wireless transfer rates more than ten times faster than today's fastest wireless LAN, and it's completely backward compatible with existing WiFi devices. As we've already seen with those totally bodacious dual-band (2.4GHz / 5GHz) routers, having another band with this kind of speed potential can only mean great things for the future. We had a talk with Dr. Ali Sadri (the group's chairman and president) as well as Mark Grodzinsky (board director and marketing work group chair) in order to get a better idea of what's at play here, and frankly, we're anxious to see this get implemented into... well, just about anything. WiGig v1.0 supports data transmission rates up to 7Gbps, and if living in a house full of WiGig-enabled devices, you could finally envision streaming HD content from a bedroom PC to an HDTV and a living room netbook without any wires whatsoever. In the case of the netbook, there's even a chance that the embedded WiGig module could support faster transfer rates than the sockets around the edges, which would simultaneously enable wireless to be faster than the wired (at least in this scenario) and your brain to melt. Finally, the group has picked up four new members -- NVIDIA, AMD, SK Telecom and TMC -- though unfortunately, WiGig wouldn't comment on the future availability of 60GHz products. We were told that they would be shocked if anyone had a prototype 60GHz device on the CES show floor, but you can bet that won't stop us from looking. Oh, and if we had to take a wild guess, we'd surmise that companies interested in speeding up their own offerings will be jumping on this quick, so hopefully you'll be ditching 2.4GHz once and for all come next summer(ish).
Aruba Networks to install "world's largest" WLAN at OSU
We all know how sketchy these "world's largest" claims can be, but Aruba Networks is dubbing its ongoing deployment of WiFi coverage across the gargantuous campus of The Ohio State University just that. While numerous cities (and even the entire country of Singapore) are moving forward with far-reaching wireless access plans, Aruba's "Mobile Edge solution" will reportedly be the most expansive WLAN by the time it's complete. Although the installation is only partially finished, 1,700 access points in over 28 buildings have already been lit, and Ohio State's IT department has plans to cover all 25 million square feet of the main campus with WiFi. Once complete, over 77,000 students and staff will have "ubiquitous wireless access to the university's networks" thanks to the "nearly 10,000" APs that will beam 802.11a/b/g all across OSU. Although the entire rollout won't be finalized until 2011, the 31 Buckeye residence halls will supposedly get blanketed within the next month, but we aren't sure if the 101,568 fans in The 'Shoe can expect unadulterated WiFi access to collegiate message boards or Facebook when Michigan comes to town later this year.
