Netgear, we're here to tell you it's been far, far too long since you threw any new 802.11n gear our way, so we're pretty stoked to see a few new pieces roll out today. The outfit is formally introducing the WNR2000 Wireless-N router and DGN2000 Wireless-N router with built-in DSL modem this morning, both of which boast the company's own Push 'N' Connect with Wi-Fi Protected Setup to eliminate the need to remember those pesky network security passwords. Both units are available in kit form as well, which sees a USB wireless adapter bundled in just in case your rig is operating sans an 802.11n WiFi module. Everything is available now for anywhere between $89 and $129.

Aruba Networks already installed the "world's largest" WLAN network at The Ohio State University, but its latest deployment just seems strangely more, how do we say... patriotic. Tag-teaming with Babylon Telecommunications, the pair has rolled out a WiFi network that will provide internet access to over 20,000 US soldiers at Joint Base Balad in Iraq. Believe it or not, there was no existing authorized web access at the base before these two stepped in, but thanks to a contract awarded by the Army & Air Force Exchange Services (AAFES), troops at the largest US military base in the region can now e-mail loved ones with ease, test their ping times from the sandbox and join a few online poker tournaments during down time.

[Via InformationWeek, image courtesy of DefenseLink]

If you thought Verizon was taking its sweet time rolling out FiOS to your neighborhood, imagine how long it would take to connect the entire continent of Africa. Verizon wouldn't bother trying, but satellite company O3b, in partnership with Google, is doing just that. The pair plan to bathe that continent (and others) with soothing Internet waves via 16 medium-earth orbit (MEO) units. Latency is said to be only 120 milliseconds, with maximum download speeds at 1.25Gbps. That's seriously fast, about the same as Japan's Kizuna (set to cover disconnected Asian regions), but before you cancel your 1.5Mbps WildBlue account and go on a bandwidth safari know that these new orbital hotspots are destined to act as backbones for use by smaller ISPs. They'll in turn provide wireless access direct to customers over 3G or WiMax, throttling things appropriately.

[Via ZDNet Government]

We were all excited to stream Genius-generated playlists from iTunes 8 to our Airport Express last night when -- poof -- "-3256 Unknown Error Occurred." This cryptic error, along with another under the equally descriptive name "-15000," has been keeping iTunes 8 upgraders from using their Airtunes on remote speakers. Turns out the issue is one of Firewalls and Firmware. The solutions come from users at Apple's discussion boards. Basically, you need to either turn off your Firewall and / or allow iTunes to accept incoming requests or update your Airport Express to the latest (7.3.2 as of this post) firmware version via AirPort Utility 6.3. Meanwhile, Windows-based iPod touch users are seeing Blue Screens of Death when plugging in their players due to some other undocumented problem. The solution there looks to be a reboot with the touch plugged in to force the system to recognize the device, run a sync, and turn off photo syncing (not the most elegant solution, clearly). Let's hope Apple at least updates this with something more descriptive than "-3256" in the future. Customer service reps at Apple say they're aware of the problems and are working on a fix.

Read - iTunes 8 & Airtunes/Airport Express
Read - blue screen comes up when plugging in ipod

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

As we've seen, Microsoft's job postings can often be one of the best places to get early word of potential new products, and it looks like the company's recruiters have done it again, with a new ad offering a glimpse of what might be in store for the next version of Windows Home Server. Most interestingly, the posting includes the little tidbit that Microsoft is looking for someone to help it create a "Time Machine compete UI for backup and restore," as well as a Windows Media Center integration UI, and a Live Mesh integration UI. According to Microsoft, that will help it position Home Server as "THE backup and Media Server within the home" by the time this next release rolls around which, considering that they're still looking for people to help build it, likely won't be anytime soon.

[Via istartedsomething, thanks Anand]

Nintendo just announced a 5,800 Yen (about $54 US) WiFi router, built to take that pesky wired Ethernet internet and blast it across your home in a palatable WiFi fashion for use by your Wii or DS. Just like every other router ever. Only this one is cheap, cute and built by Nintendo, so watch out Linksys / Netgear / everybody. The "Nintendo WiFi Network Adapter," meant to supplement 2005's WiFi USB Connector, looks to be Japan-only at the moment, and is due for a September 18th release.

[Thanks, Sanimir]

We knew the US military was looking to hook up space with a WLAN router, and lo and behold, WiFi has finally launched well above the stratosphere. According to a status log from the International Space Station over the weekend, the Joint Station LAN network was transitioned to "new Netgear wireless APs, which provide the ISS with WiFi connectivity." The official report details the crew using it for very official and politically correct things (you know, testing and whatnot), but we're pretty darn sure a deathmatch or two went down as well. Or maybe those guys we saw yesterday just had some sort of gravity hack going on...

[Via Slashdot, image courtesy of LowPings]

Maybe we suck at WiFi, maybe the internet hates us, but for whatever reason we've always found our wireless home internet connection to be one of the most consistently unreliable aspects of our digital life. Luxul hopes to help with that with its new Pro-WAV 100, a ceiling-mounted signal booster that works with your existing router to extend coverage by a promised 400% or more. The device can apparently cover an area up to 10,000 square feet, using "patented WiFi signal boosting technology" and some "advanced circular polarity signal capability" called Clear-WAV. We're pretty sure they made that second one up in the press release just to sound fancy, and there's no word on price or availability, but we're intrigued.

[Via eHomeUpgrade]

D-Link's been sipping power of late with its newish DWA-643 and DWA-556 desktop "Green Ethernet" switches, and now it's shipping those power savings upstream to its DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit router and DIR-855 dual channel routers with freely downloadable firmware updates. We'd scoff, but that's a power savings of 32 percent and 41 percent, respectively. It might only shave a few cents off those electric bills, but hey, you can always melt that copper down to make arrows for the coming apocalypse.

[Via TrustedReviews]

Rumor has it that a large quantity of genetically-superior human beings are amassing in Beijing at the moment and attempting to squeeze into spandex-like outfits for your entertainment. Those interested in watching such tight-outfitted goings on are going to find themselves faced with even tighter internet restrictions when they get back to their hotel room or local internet cafe, thanks to that handy dandy Great Firewall of China. Lucky for them, the Chaos Computer Club has prepped a solution called the "Freedom Stick" which when plugged into a computer redirects its internet traffic over The Onion Router, a worldwide network of anonymous computers designed to hide your steps. Naturally, you can just download the software yourself, but the $30 USB dongle could come in handy if you're not on your own PC, or just want to leave behind material evidence of your indiscretion. The Freedom Stick will only be available through the duration of the Olympics, so get one while you can.

[Via Wired]

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

The past few years have seen a wide range of wireless technologies proposed to substitute for the now nearly ubiquitous (at least in terms of new HDTVs) HDMI connectors, but the dust is just starting to settle. Some proposals involve squeezing more juice out of 802.11n. Others rely on ultrawideband technology. Yet another that has many in the industry excited is from SiBeam, which intends to use the 60GHz band to deliver uncompressed 1080p video at 4Gbps. That technology, embraced by a group called WirelessHD, had received the most public support among major consumer electronics companies, with Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, Toshiba and LG listed on its site as promoters (and others listed as adopters).

But WirelessHD is still a ways from consumer availability and recently another wireless high-definition technology has attracted some heavy hitters of its own, including Sony, Samsung, Sharp and the cable set-top division of Motorola. Amimon's WHDI (Wireless Home Digital Interface) is different from many of its emerging competitors because it is designed, like WiFi, to be a technology that blankets the home, whereas most competitors focus on an in-room solution. WHDI even operates in the 5GHz band (like 802.11a and 802.11n), but sheds the costly bandwidth overhead WiFi utilizes to correct transmission errors. In contrast, WHDI is a "video modem" technology that attaches to a device's video output to send uncompressed 1080p video. After that, it's survival of the fittest for the bits.

According to a report, Microsoft isn't just looking at the next version of Windows (no, not Mojave) for future OS possibilities, but is looking beyond the Windows architecture altogether with a project known as Midori. The new OS is still in the "incubation" phase (which puts it slightly closer to market than R&D projects), but Microsoft has admitted to its existence, and the Software Daily Times says at least one team in Redmond is actively working on the new architecture.

The basis for the platform centers around research related to Microsoft's Singularity project, and envisions a distributed environment where applications, documents, and connectivity are blurred in a cloud-computing phantasmagoria which can be run natively or hosted across multiple systems. The researchers are working to create a concurrent / parallel distribution of resources, as well as a method of handling applications across separate machines -- religiously-dubbed the Asynchronous Promise Architecture -- which will set the stage for a backwards-compatible operating system built from the ground up, with networks of varying size in mind. Says the SD Times, "The Midori documents foresee applications running across a multitude of topologies, ranging from client-server and multi-tier deployments to peer-to-peer at the edge, and in the cloud data center. Those topologies form a heterogeneous mesh where capabilities can exist at separate places." Like it technical? Hit the read link for an in-depth look at the possible shape of Microsoft's future.

[Via Yahoo!]

It's no secret that HP MediaSmart Server owners have been having an awful time getting their device to operate correctly, er, at all since HP loosed its most recent software update on July 21st. In order to make sure owners have a solution implement its best damage control tactics, HP's own Director of Marketing for the Connected Entertainment group has put out a statement informing users that the problems (slow console shown above) are more than a figment of their imagination. Furthermore, the so-called solution is to simply "install each update one at a time, independently," because clearly HP cannot be bothered to fix a problem it helped create. Oh, it gets better. HP is also aware that PacketVideo (bundled with the update) "no longer supports media streaming to Sony's PlayStation 3," so it simply encourages owners to surf on over to a third-party website and hack up the PV database in order to get things back to normal. Jump on past the break for the patently ridiculous letter in its entirety.

[Image courtesy of Within Windows]