Wireless N

Review of the Belkin N+ Wireless Router

To start off, the the Belkin N+ has quite a nice design. It is made to work in the vertical position, with its two antennas at the top of the router. The Belkin N+ comes with excellent instructions, so much so that even the most inexperienced of users should have no issues setting it up. You can use either the included CD or the router's web interface to completely setup and customize this router.

One very cook feature about this router is the ability to connect an external USB hard drive to the device, allowing you to access this drive from any computer on the network. The Belkin N+ comes with software to help you setup the external drive and begin using it.

Another excellent feature the N+ provides is Belkin's "Broadband Download Speedometer". It basically gives you a graphical representation of how much bandwidth you are currently using. It also provides the basic networking features of other wireless home routers including port forwarding, dhcp and address reserving. It supports WEP and WPA encryption as well as MAC address filtering.

The range of the Belkin N+ is probably the most noticeable performance aspect of this router. I was able to get a signal up to 350 ft., noticeably better than most other wireless routers. The throughput seemed to be solid as well. If you're in the market for a wireless n router, the Belkin N+ is an excellent value.

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Review of the Linksys WRT310N Gigabit Router

The design of the WRT-310 is very attractive. You'll immediately notice a lack of external antennas. As the name implies, the WRT-310 features a four port gigabit switch which is a nice addition if you have a computer that has a gigabit card. Setup is made easy with Linksys' EasyLink Advisor, which will walk you through the entire setup process.

The WRT-310 features all of the standar features including port forwarding and MAC filtering. It also includes WEP and WPA wireless encryption.

Throughput was very solid, although not quite the 300mbps that the technology claims. I was able to get to around the 280ft. mark before I lost connection, which is very solid for a wireless router. The Linksys WRT-310 makes a very good choice for those looking for a Wireless N router.

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Limited edition 90210 iPod nano surfaces, we hardly believe it’s real

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Man, it has been quite awhile since we've seen an iPod of any sort get dressed up in limited edition attire. Thinking back to those Harry Potter, Madonna and Tony Hawk editions, we can't help but wonder how this one missed the boat. Coincidentally (or not) enough, the CBS Store has decided to offer up a special run of 8GB Beverly Hills, 90210 iPod nanos just as The CW pushes the all new rendition of the show. Buyers can add up to 30 characters of text and choose black, pink, green, blue or silver hues, but you better hurry -- who knows how fast raving fans will be handing over their $269 in hopes of securing one.

[Via ChipChick]

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Sprint loses early termination lawsuit, ordered to pay $73M — but it’s not over yet

Filed under: Cellphones

Man, Sprint just can't catch a break lately -- the beleaguered wireless carrier was just told that it would have to pay some $73M in refunds to customers for improperly charging early-termination feeds. The ruling, from a California state court, will basically set off a flood of similar cases if it stands -- but Sprint still has two weeks to respond to the ruling before Judge Bonnie Sabraw, and you can bet Yellow Swoosh will appeal if it loses in the end. Interestingly, Verizon was facing a similar lawsuit earlier this year and chose to quickly settle -- a lesson Sprint, with far less revenue and shrinking profits might do well to learn from.

[Thanks, Roger A]

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Toshiba intros ’stylish’ line of hard drives to match your purse, coke habit

Filed under: Storage

Toshiba -- clearly feeling the heat from other fashionable external hard drive makers -- has introduced a new line of disks guaranteed to bring on a neon flashback from your disco days (or Eurotrash nightmares). The three new models come decked out in the 160GB "Gecko Green," 250GB "Hot Rod Red," and 320GB "Carbon Grey" variations, with USB 2.0 ports and 8MB buffers on-board. The drives are Mac and PC compatible, no word on price or release date -- but with looks like this, who cares how much it costs? Right? Yeah, no.

[Via Pocket Lint]

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Pentax rolls out another yawner: the 10MP M60 point-and-shoot

Filed under: Digital Cameras

If the E60 had you dozing last night, you'll be conked out in no time by the time you finish reading this. Pentax is at it again, proving that point-and-shoot cameras can still be boring this day and age. The M60 tries to be fancy with a 10-megapixel sensor, 5x optical zoom, 2.5-inch LCD monitor, "approximately 36.5MB of built-in memory," movie / panorama modes, a variety of scene modes and smile detection capabilities to boot. Expect this one to arrive late next month in blue, pink and silver for around £90 ($179).

[Via PhotographyPress]

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VIA Nano and Intel’s Atom benchmarked head-to-head

Filed under: Laptops

Netbooks based on VIA's Nano mobile processor aren't nearly as common as those based on Intel's Atom, but based on the benchmarking that's been going on recently, that's a shame, since the Nano appears to be much faster than the Atom 230. PC Perspective, Eee PC News, and Hot Hardware all ran some tests recently, and a 1.8GHz Nano L2100 with Chrome9 graphics was usually able to outperform a 1.6GHz Atom 230 with GMA950 graphics at everything from MP3 ripping to 3D benchmarking. Of course, that's not without a tradeoff -- the Nano was a bit more power-hungry, and the Atom's memory and graphics systems were occasionally faster than the Nano's. Still, it seems like the Nano has more raw horsepower than the Atom -- and it's pin-compatible with VIA's popular C7M, so hopefully we'll be seeing machines like HP's Mini-Note make the jump relatively soon.

Read - PC Perspective results
Read - Hot Hardware results
Read - Eee PC News results

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Martin Jetpack officially unveiled, lifts off on video

Filed under: Transportation

One of mankind's most adored gadgets (yes, the jetpack) is moving one step closer to mainstream today with the unveiling of the Martin Jetpack. Revealed in front of a crowd in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, this human transporter is technically defined by the FAA as an "experimental ultralight airplane, equipped with a gas-powered, V-4 piston engine and two ducted fans that provide the lift." Currently, the $100,000 machine can only hover for around 30 minutes and rise to 8,000 feet, and those who sign up to purchase one will first have to complete 15 hours of flight training as well as a "safety screening." Check out an all-too-short video after the jump to see the device lift off, float around and land -- totally underwhelming, but the optimistic few will surely see promise.

Read - Martin Jetpack unveiling, video
Read - Details on Martin Jetpack
Read - More photos from EAA AirVenture

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Nintendo files suit against five DS hacking firms

Filed under: Gaming

"Touching is good," but hacking? Not so much. Nintendo has gone on the war path against five Japanese companies that make their living helping users rip off DS games. Of course, a primary use for such hardware -- such as the R4 Revolution, pictured -- is homebrew and emulation, but good luck convincing Nintendo (or any large console manufacturer) of that. Details of the actual lawsuit are slim, but Nintendo has brought along with it 54 Japanese software makers to lend a bit of gravitas to the suit. If you haven't managed to hack your DS yet, now might be a good time to score the requisite hardware -- we might be facing a scarcity before too long.

[Thanks, Michael]

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Sprint’s Airave signal booster goes on sale nationwide

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Just as July began, we heard that Sprint would finally begin shipping its Airave signal booster nationwide before the month ended. It cut things close, but we can't deny that the rumor proved true. Starting right now, Sprint users with horrendous service in their own homes can begrudgingly cough up $99.99 to have the base station sent directly to you. From there, you'll have to throw down $4.99 per month for extending your coverage but still using your plan minutes, $10 per month if you're looking to make unlimited calls (through the Airave) with a single Sprint phone or $20 per month for unlimited calling for multiple lines. Critics have already harshed on the $50 increase in price from when it launched in Denver and Indy last year, not to mention the relatively high monthly fees, but we suppose you can take it or leave it depending on how regularly you drop calls from your couch. Oh, and don't even think of using this overseas -- the required GPS module makes sure you're in the US before enabling calls.