Trendnet AP Ups the Ante with 450Mbp/s Hotness

A couple of days ago I ran into this little gem at Engadget.com. They got their hands on a press release from Trendnet regarding the TEW-690AP. I believe the below quote speaks for itself.

TRENDnet® Launches First to Market 450Mbps Wireless Access Point

Trendnet (12/20/2010)

TORRANCE, Calif. –December 20, 2011–TRENDnet, a best-in-class wired and wireless networking hardware brand today announces the launch of the first to market 450Mbps Wireless N Access Point, model TEW-690AP, which supports Access Point, Wireless Distribution System (WDS), and Repeater mode functionality.

Advanced Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna technology with three spatial streams per antenna, generates a maximum theoretical wireless throughput of 450Mbps and exceptional wireless coverage.

A Gigabit Ethernet port maintains high performance wired connections. Advanced features include 4 SSIDs per wireless band, unique encryption for each SSID, WMM Quality of Service (QoS) data prioritization, WPA2-RADIUS encryption, and a convenient on/off power switch.

Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) integrates other WPS supported wireless adapters at the touch of a button. Gone are the days of entering complicated encryption codes; simply press the WPS button on the TEW-690AP, and then press the WPS button on a compatible wireless adapter-the devices automatically exchange information and connect.

"TRENDnet will be the first brand to bring a full portfolio of 450Mbps solutions to market," stated Zak Wood, Director of Global Marketing for TRENDnet. "Expect more first to market announcements in the coming New Year at CES."

The 450Mbps Wireless N Access Point, model TEW-690AP, comes with a three year limited warranty and is currently shipping to TRENDnet's online and retail partners.

The MSRP for the TEW-690AP is U.S. $ 199.99.

Change Your Internet Account Passwords

Lets be honest, no one uses "strong" passwords on personal Internet based resources. Following some basic rules to creating strong passwords can help keep your accounts safe. A recent post at Slashdot.org states that 26% of users use the same password for multiple important web based resources. Recently Gawker based websites were hacked by the Anonymous group associated with 4chan. If you had an account with Lifehacker or Gizmodo and used the same password for your email or banking site, then you may have a big problem.

Here are some simple guidelines for creating a strong password:

1. Use 8 characters with one capital, at least one number, and one special character. IE: Netw0rk!
2. Do not include personal information such as a name or address.
3. Do not use the same password on multiple resources such as email, social network, or bank website.
4. Try not to use the same password or variants when resetting the password on a web resource
5. If you have any suspicious activity on a resource be safe and change the password quickly. Also, if you share that password with other web based resources like mentioned above change them as well.

Steam Gears Up For the Holidays, Discounts 1000+ Games

Valve's Steam platform is an immensely popular way to deliver digital content to a PC. Using Steam is much like that of Xbox Live, but for the PC rather than the console. You get many of the same features, friends lists, voice chat, and online gaming. What sets Steam apart besides being geared for the PC is that their store prices are super competitive. Also, using Steam one can "gift" a title to a friend. The store is constantly putting titles on sale especially around the holidays and this Christmas is no different. Tomshardware.com reports that the Steam Holiday Sale is offering up to 80% off of selected games. Trust me it is easy to go a little crazy and gobble up more games than you can play at these prices.

The sale does have an interesting twist. Each day of the sale has a special bonus on one selected title. Valve says, "The twist: Players must qualify for the Holiday Bonus by owning another Steam game. For example, the first Holiday Bonus is Portal--save an extra 10-percent if you own Half-Life 2. If you already own the title, Steam will automatically detect this and offer you the 10-percent savings during check out."

So, follow the link to the Steam site to see what gaming goodness you can get your hands off. Remember it is the season of giving....so feel free to gift me something nice ;-).

Chrome for a Cause

The folks at Google are trying to save the world one Chrome tab at a time. I have always been impressed with the work at Google as they strive to make solutions to improve our daily lives, or just to show off what the human imagination can come up with. Recently they have earned my respect a second time. Today they posted the results for a project titled Chrome for a Cause.

Basically users could install an extension in their Chrome browser for Chrome for a Cause which would "donate" each opened tab to charity. Each person can choose which causes their tabs would support. At the end Google made a donation to the charities using the results of the Chrome for a Cause project. Mashable.com calls the project Innovative Charity and I could not agree more. One million dollars has been donated and allocated to the causes based on the results from the browser extension. Innovative Charity indeed.

Google went on to say at the end of their blog post that they are already thinking of more Chrome for a Cause projects in the future. Is this the future of charitable works?

Android Gets More Swype Love

Swype has become a verb associated with Android phones as a way to type that is not your traditional method. Since its appearance in 2009 Swype has made headlines as being a revolution to how we text or email on our Android phones. Even the world texting record was made on a Swype keyboard by Melissa Thompson, a 27 year old woman from Britain. The problem is that Swype was not made available for all Android platforms and had to be installed from hacks or ports that other more advanced users had created.

Swype allows the user to draw words across the keyboard without the requirement of lifting a finger. The keyboard then inserts the word you drew, if for some reason it is not able to get the correct word you would be greeted bya popup box with selections that closest match the drawn word. The system has been ported to other android phones such as my original DROID, but has not been developed to much, that is until today. An announcement was made that the Swype Beta has opened up on Swype.com. The sign up process is ridiculously simple. You register at the website they will automatically detect your screen size and send you an email with installation instructions. If there is a problem with the installation follow the step-by-step install details link.

I have been using the new Swype keyboard for a couple hours and based off my initial tests, I like it. The keyboard "feels" a little more responsive and more forgiving on errors. Also, the pop up menu for suggested words has been tweaked which I find easier to interface with. Before when I would tilt my phone for a landscape mode the keyboard would not display correctly which I assume was a resolution issue. At this current time I find the new Swype Beta improved from the previous version and not "nerfed" in any way.

*Note* If you already have Swype installed you will need to uninstall the old version before installing the new beta.

Absolutely Incredible Video Editing

I found this amazing video this morning on Gizmodo.com. The tagline from the video on Vimeo.com says, "Made with no money, just a little time and a lot of passion." After watching this short video a few times, yes i agree it has a lot of passion. This is the kind of video editing that can be done with tools like Final Cut Pro HD, HD cameras, and the right skilled people. Hats off to BC2010 for his work.

MODERN TIMES from BC2010 on Vimeo.

When the Battery Vampire Strikes

For me it was last week. I own an original Droid that has served me well for about a year now. I was happy to get the latest Android update, which is 2.2.1. Everything had been working fine until last week when I noticed that my phone was a little warm. Having learned the qwerks of this phone I know that if the phone is warm then it is doing a lot of processing. So, I checked the battery level and the processes that were running. The battery was already down to 50 percent and the day wasn't even half over which is odd for this phone. The running processes looked a little odd to me also. Near the top of the list was "Android OS" and "Email" which is usually closer to the bottom of the list.

Now I'm not saying that the update is the cause of this but it did come to mind. So, over the weekend I did a little research. I found that there are some other people that started having a problem with this also. Nothing that I read clued me into what was going on until I came across this post on the Android Forums. I gave the suggestion a try and I disable syncing for just the calendar on my Exchange account. It worked! I was excited but still baffled as to why this would have happened. The next day everything was good until the evening and I noticed that my phone was a little warm again. I checked and my phone was at it again. This time I decided to disable automatic syncing and it stopped the constant data flow. Phew. I started to think back to when I noticed this problem and what it was that I had done in my Exchange account. I remembered on the two days that this had happened I entered a couple of appointments into my calendar through Outlook 2007. It didn't make any sense that my phone would still be acting up without the calendar being syncronized.

I decided after playing with a few more settings to just remove my exchange account off of my phone and then recreate it. When I added the account back in I left the boxes unchecked for syncronizing the calendar and contacts just to see what would happen. For now everything is working as normal but I can't continue without my calendar and contacts being synchronized. I will continue diagnosing this problem and update this post when I learn more. If anybody else may know what caused this or how to fix it please leave a comment.