Although the approval of the 802.11n standard may be further delayed until 2008, Taiwan's network equipment makers are not worried that demand for pre-n products during the Christmas season will be weak, according to industry sources.
Chicago (IL) - Skype VoIP phones packaged in a traditional handset form factor have been making their way into the market since early this year. The first generation has been somewhat pricey with manufacturers testing the mass-market appeal of such devices. Now we are seeing the first signs of diversification - US Robotics just announced a simple $25 Skype phone and Logitech a higher-end speakerphone.
New York (NY) - Sprint Nextel aims to become the first nationwide WiMax provider in the U.S. The company today announced plans to deploy its next-generation "4G" network that will combine regular CDMA phone capability with EVDO services and WiMax wireless broadband with an anticipated launch date of Q4 2007 and an estimated reached of 100 million customers in 2008.
Taiwan-based Alpha Networks is ready to mass produce Google Talk-enabled WiFi phones, with commercial production set to begin in accordance with clients' product roadmaps, according to company CTO Tim Kang.
AirMagnet today said its VoFi Analyzer has started shipping. The company said that the Analyzer is the first solution to provide automatic analysis of encrypted voice-over-WLAN (VoWLAN) networks.
Taiwan-based Accton Technology is expected to begin volume shipments of its Skype-enabled Wi-Fi phones to two of its subsidiaries, Edge-Core and SMC Networks, as well as US-based Belkin in August, according to sources at Accton.
Ruckus Wireless today announced the commercial availability of a wireless home gateway designed for connection to city-wide Wi-Fi networks at "better than DSL speeds".
Linksys is rolling out two VPN routers aimed at the consumer/small office user. The RVS4000 and RVL200 are both four-port routers that give VPN security to up to five remote users.
Taipei (Taiwan) - New Wireless USB devices are coming, but will there be an operating system to welcome them? At the Certified Wireless USB Developers Conference, major hardware and software companies promised to start providing Certified Wireless USB devices by the end of the year. While this may sound hopeful, DigiTimes today cites Jeff Ravencraft, Intel's technology strategist, as saying Microsoft Vista will not natively support wireless USB devices.
Yahoo and Symantec unveiled a joint consumer Internet security service on Monday that will help the two companies compete against major rivals such as Google and Microsoft.
Despite its increasing popularity, it is no secret that VoIP phone calls cannot quite replace a regular phone, if reliability and call quality is important. A new study now indicates that voice quality has not improved over time; Brix Networks claims that VoIP quality has decreased "significantly and steadily over the last 18 months."
D-Link wants to end all of your virus and SPAM troubles with its new Securespot appliance. The palm-sized box, which fits in between your router and Cable/DSL modem, promises to stop viruses, spam, popups and other nasty malware coming into your network. Parents can even control their children's Internet access times through a web-based control panel.
Microsoft has released new beta versions of Exchange Server 2007 and Forefront Security for Exchange. IT administrators can test out beta version 2 of Microsoft's famous email server program and the new Exchange-specific security gateway, Forefront Security. Exchange 2007 supports 11 languages and has new features such as continuous database backup, enhanced web access and voice access.
San Diego (CA) - If you need to make an occasional phone call to another landline or mobile phone, there's a good chance that a basic service will be completely free: Sipphone, developer of the Gizmo Project, today said it would offer free calls in the U.S. and 60 countries around the globe.
Do you use AOL Instant Messenger, but want something a little more professional? Now AOL is releasing AIM Pro aimed at businesses and professionals. Most people are familiar with AIM's buddy lists and text chat functions, but AIM Pro adds business features like Outlook calendar integration along with desktop sharing through WebEx. AIM Pro also has a cleaner look because there are no more advertisements.
The generation Wi-Fi standard is still far from being finalized, but devices built according to the draft specification are becoming more and more available - not only from Wi-Fi hardware manufacturers.
