Gefen has released a new kit called the Wireless for HDMI 60GHz, an extender that’s able to stream uncompressed HDMI 1.3 audio and video to any remote display wirelessly. In other words, it’s a kit that’ll let you place your Blu-ray player up to 30 feet away from your HDTV and connect them without having to string out 30 feet of cables.
As promised last month, McDonald’s restaurants have begun dropping their $2.95 Wi-fi charge (yes!), offering the free service to a significant number of their US-based locations. According to the report, 11,500 out of McDonald’s 14,000 locations in the US now offer free Wifi. If you need a quick meal and free internet access, just look for signs of overweight geeks then follow the trail of greasy laptop keyboards and iPhone screens. That means you’re pretty close to one.
Netgear’s CES lineup involves the usual network devices–media servers, 3G routers, and Powerline AV plugs–sprinkled with interesting features. Really, you never thought you needed so much networking equipment, but these things do make living in a digital world easier (but that’s just us. We’re a bunch of nerds). The lineup is headlined by the Digital Entertainer Express EVA9100, a media receiver that streams content from multiple sources (including the internet) to an HDTV. Seen as a stripped-down version of the company’s existing streamer (the Digital Entertainer Elite EVA9150), but without an internal hard drive and Wi-fi connection to keep the price down to $230.
Sprint has come out with an update to their U300 USB 3G/4G modem that’s decked out in a more compact black shell. Tagged as the U301, the new wireless modem now adds Mac OS X support that gives Mac users running either Leopard or Snow Leopard operating systems the ability to connect to the network’s mobile broadband service. Other than the new look and the added support for Apple’s operating systems, the U301 is pretty much identical to the original U300; it offers 3-6Mb/s speeds within Sprint’s WiMAX-covered areas, 600Kb/s on a typical mobile 3G connection and a built-in GPS receiver.
The U301 is currently offered to business users for $50 with a 2-year contract.
McDonald’s has just announced that they’ll be dropping their Wi-fi fees next year, and will be offering the service for free by January 2010. Previously priced at $3 for two hours, McD’s now gives you another reason to stay longer for coffee and cakes other than to wait for your kids tire themselves out at the Playplace. See that, everyone-else-who-still-charges-for-Wifi? Now we all think you’re just being greedy.
