Most likely you’ve never heard of the WiGig wireless standard created by the Wireless Gigabit Alliance. If you haven’t, that’s OK because today the group is announcing the WiGig version 1.0 specification, which they hope will become implemented in home networking gear as early as the first quarter of 2010. So why should you care? We’ve got dual-band 802.11n now, right? Well, because WiGig is 10 times faster than 802.11n, with transfer rates up to 7Gbps, and is backwards compatible with 802.11b/g/n. What’s more, WiGig has been designed for HD media streaming to multiple devices at once, can transfer the contents of a Blu-ray disc in under a minute, and already has the blessing of 15 technology leaders within the CE, PC, semiconductor, and handheld industries. You in…? I am. MORE »

It’s been a while since we’ve talked about FON and its Fonera routers. Luckily, a couple of recent video clips of the Fonera 2.0n in action has prompted me to revisit the current offering. MORE »

Logitech today is introducting two new products that may find their way into your home. The Squeezebox Radio is a $200 table-top radio which features a color screen (capable of displaying album cover art, song data, Flickr photos), is able to send music recommendation updates to Facebook, is equipped with a built-in speaker/sub-woofer, and can connect to free Internet radio stations and online music subscription services like Rhapsody and Slacker (no AM/FM radio). The $300 Squeezebox Touch on the other hand can do the same tasks (though with more style via its 4.3-inch touchscreen and better UI), but needs to be connected to a set of powered speakers or a home theater system. The Squeezebox Touch can also play music from an SD card or USB drive. A separate IR remote is also included so you can manage your music from across the room. MORE »

NETGEAR has obviously done their homework and has topped the competition with their new RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router (WNDR3700). Adding every conceivable feature a demanding Digital Home enthusiast would expect, the new 802.11n router offers both Gigabit Ethernet (4 ports) and dual-band 2.5 Ghz / 5 Ghz Wi-Fi via 8 internal antennas, a 680 Mhz processor, “ReadyShare” network USB storage access with DLNA / UPnP streaming support, auto-sensing “green” switch power consumption throttling, separate guest network functionality, browser-based admin / remote access, and bandwidth monitoring so you keep tabs on your usage for the month (helpful if your provider has caps in place). MSRP is $189.99 [Amazon] and is available now along with accompanying RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N USB 2.0 Adapter (WNDA3100) and HD Access Point / Bridge (WNHDE111). MORE »

If you’ve been holding out on buying a Blu-ray disc player until something utterly cool comes out, then Sony’s ES Series player just might fit the bill. The BDP-S1000ES (MSRP $699) offers full HD 1080p (60/24fps) True Cinema video output, Blu-ray BD-Live support (includes a 4GB USB flash drive for download file storage), 7.1 channel audio out, DVD movie upscaling to Cinema HD quality, built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi, and DLNA/UPnP support so users can playback audio, video, and photo content stored on a network PC or media server. Install PlayOn on your PC (for Hulu, Netflix, YouTube content) and you’ve got yourself a nice setup — but then again… Sony may later add Internet Video Link technology to the player at some point via a firmware upgrade. MORE »

Sure things are tough with the economy right now, but Kogan just might have a product to wrangle $169 out of your pocket with little resistance. The company’s new 8-inch Wi-Fi Digital Photo Frame offers all the features a cutting-edge device like this should have and then some (with emphasis on the then some). Cool features include: RSS photo feed support, photos via email (and even group email), photos from your iPhone using the FREE seeFrame app, photos from a USB flash drive or memory card, and access to online photos from sites like Photobucket, Picasa, Flickr, and Facebook. But here’s the clincher, this digital photo frame can also display your Twitter feed so you can see friends’ updates in real-time (more on that here). MORE »

Sure, we’ve all seen Wi-Fi radios that make use of Reciva’s 11,000+ collection of Internet radio stations. But now we’re getting a new twist. A company called Livio is announcing the availability of the first Wi-Fi radio to incorporate Pandora’s signature “thumbs up, thumbs down” controls on both the radio itself and its remote, thus helping Pandora fine tune the music it serves to you. So, if you’re already a big fan of Pandora, the $150 Livio Radio is going to be must have. MORE »

The team at FON are getting dangerously close to releasing the La Fonera 2.0 Wi-Fi router to a community beyond developers. The La Fonera 2.0 is no average router taking on many tasks normally handled by your computer. In the YouTube video above Martin Varsavsky, The CEO of FON, gives us a demo of many of the new 2.0 tricks. [via] MORE »

More news from the DLNA today. First, we heard that MoCA became an approved networking standard (as well as 802.11n) for future DLNA certified products. Now, the Digital Living Network Alliance is announcing new features like improved photo, video, audio synchronization, WPA2 support for wireless security, “Play To” & “Print To” functionality for sending media files to from one DLNA connected devices to another via a new device type called a “Digital Media Controller”, and lastly Menu Sharing “allowing menu control of other network devices.” Unfortunately, the attached press releases below don’t go into much detail into how exactly the Digital Media Controller and Media Sharing work, but I’m guessing we’ll be seeing a preview next month at CES 2009. MORE »

Sweetness. Popcorn Hour has just added a $37 802.11n (draft 2.0) USB 2.0 Wi-Fi adapter to their product line up that supports all Networked Media Tank models (A-100, A-110, B-110). The WN-100 features support for WEP / WPA / WPA1 and WPA-PSK / WPA2-PSK encryptions and mechanisms, leverages MIMO and CCA technology for outstanding performance, and is capable of providing ad-hoc and infrastructure modes. [via]