If you're looking to throw some digital content around the house sans ugly wiring, then take a look at the Sitecom WL-355. A wireless media streaming hub, it's the latest addition to the company's Smart Living line and will set you back around £149.99.

A wireless dual-band USB adapter is plugged in to stream content from your home network straight to the device, while another USB port is available to plug a drive straight in and play your content if your internet speed isn't up to scratch. Using a 5GHz band should help to stream even 1080p video smoothly.

Sitecom are also introducing the WL-329 SL Wireless Media Adapter 300N. It adds wireless capabilities to the MD-270 TV Media Player, with a maximum streaming speed of 300Mbps.

Both items are available now. For more info, visit www.sitecom.com .

Kamikaze gear are launching the Wireless Charging Dock Duo for the Nintendo Wii console, allowing two controllers to be charged simultaneously via induction.

It's good news for clumsy Wii owners who cover their controllers in those rubbery casings to protect them; they're a nightmare to get on and off to change batteries, a bit like trying to dress an Action Man when you were a kid. No need here, thanks to the induction method, with the controllers just slipping into the dock to charge.

There are also battery packs for the unit available that are compatible with the Wii Balance board. Now you can use all those old charge cables as skipping ropes for your Wii Fit regime!

The Duo charger is in stores now and costs £29.99. If you game by yourself, don't let that extra dock mock your lonely heart; there's a cheaper, single remote charging option for £19.99. Take that happy couples!

The trend with notebooks and laptops right now is to make them smaller and smaller, so much so that they're nearly in danger of being dwarfed by DVD cases these days. But what if you need both the benefits of a portable machine and a larger screen? Intel may well have the solution.

Intel's Wireless HD Display technology (or WiDi) is one of the simplest wireless laptop streaming devices we've ever seen. It's virtually plug and play; after plugging the HD receiver into your TV via HDMI and performing a simple set-up wizard on your PC, a single button press can have up- or downscaled 720p video streamed straight to your flatscreen TV.

All compression is done on your PC, while the box does the decoding. Remarkably, the whole process rarely eats more than 5Mbps of your network speed when in use.

Artefacts once the video has hit your screen are kept to a minimum, and system resources only take about a 15% hit when on an average Core i5 set up.

Sony, Dell and Lenovo are already said to be looking into integrating the new technology into their machines. If you can't wait for that, you'll be able to pick the kit up yourself from the 17th of January from Best Buy if you're a US reader. No word on a UK launch date yet, but we'd expect to see this hit UK shores not long afterwards.

The FCC have picked up on a brand new "multimedia router" from Qisda, which looks to have some rather unique features for this sort of device.

Rather than just sorting out your broadband connection, the as-yet-unnamed router also has a touchscreen and built in speaker, allowing users to access widgets like YouTube and to tune into internet radio stations. If you happen to have your router in your bedroom, the Qisda box will also double up as a clock radio.

Users can store files on the router's built in memory, although there is no access to your local network, which seems a bit of an oversight for a device like this.

While it's good to see its regular router functions will handle 802.11n just fine, it's more than a little stingy on Ethernet connections, with just one spare port on the back.

It's certainly an intriguing proposition, though it's difficult to ascertain yet how well equipped the router is to deliver on its promised content. More news on this one when we have it.

Via: Engadget / FCC

Are you sick of having a different remote for every bit of kit in your house? Thanks to ThinkFlood's new RedEye device, you now only need your iPhone or iPod Touch to control nigh on every remote-controlled gadget in your house.

Using an app, your iPhone sends a Wi-Fi signal to the RedEye dock which then in turn turns your commands into an IR signal that your AV gear can understand.

You can customise the app to tailor controls to each room, or control multiple devices at once with the help of macro functions. There is even basic multi-touch functionality, like two-finger volume sliding.

A drop in price could make this a very popular add-on indeed.

If you're interested in getting a RedEye dock, visit https://thinkflood.com/buy/products/redeye/. The unit costs US$188 (circa £112) and ThinkFlood will happily ship the RedEye to UK homes.

UPDATE - I checked with the company about Sky+ boxes - they said

Yes, RedEye can control Sky+ boxes. However, we do not yet have the infrared codes for Sky in our database, so you would need to "learn" the commands from your existing remote.

We have all seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and how Mike Tevee gets teleported from one screen to another. Then of course our mates on the Enterprise, they knew a thing or two about teleporting.

So far though teleporting hasn't been a central plank of any consumer electronics company's visions - well not until know. Over at the Electrolux site you'll find details of the world's first teleport fridge.

Ok, so it is an entry in a competition, but Electrolux is certainly taking it seriously-ish. Ok so the advantages are pretty obvious. You don't have to waste hours in the supermarket/or online buying your food. And if you run out of milk you just press a couple of buttons and voila there is your semi-skimmed.

But teleporting? Well the fridge's designer, a Thai student called Dulyawat Wongnawa reckons 'In the next 90 years, we will see a lot of technologies that today we think are completely impossible. Even though my teleportation concept might sound far-fetched, scientists have already succeeded in teleporting small particles such as photons. So over the next 90 years, this technology will have time to develop and become part of our everyday lives.'

Hmm. Still it is well worth watching the video as Henrik Otto, senior VP of Global design at Electrolux, just about manages to explain the concept without cracking up. I bet it took a few takes.

Anyhow click on the Teleport Fridge below to see a range of other Electrolux innovations including the very sensible wall mounted dishwasher and the slightly more ambitious waterless washing machine.

Goodbye expensive HDMI cables, hello even more expensive TVs. Ofcom has agreed to free up some of the UK electromagentic spectrum to allow us to stream high definition content wirelessly in our homes.

What this means for you and I is that we'll no longer have to have cables between our TVs and BD players/set top boxes. Instead there'll be really expense transmitters and receivers buried in our already expensive hardware and, although I'm not willing to pay to rid my house of a few short ties, I do like the idea of streaming downloaded HD content straight from my PC. Plus any system that allows me to use the Asus Keyboard would make me a very happy mangeek. Oh, and just in case you're worried, there's no compression involved.

What I like best about this story, though, is how Ofcom has done it. They've basically just made an announcement and then said they'll free up the small 57GHz-66GHz part of the spectrum by the end of the week. Seems pretty quick. I wonder if I could get myself a couple of GHz of airwave real estate? Sounds like Ofcom might have some down the back of the sofa.

(via Digital Spy)

Okay, 'all over the web' is perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but just the other day, we spotted the Soundbulb over at Yanko Design. Today, I spotted this concept Bulb-Sound-Speaker over at Crunchgear. Two lamp-speakers in a week? I'm calling that a trend. Before the end of the month, we'll be swimming in the things.

Silliness aside, it's quite a cool concept, and could prove useful in public places - restaurants, elevators, etc. Of the two, only the Soundbulb works as a light as well, but they both rely on Bluetooth to ferry the music around the place wirelessly. Would I use one of these? No. Do I think they'd sell? Most definitely.

(via Yanko Design and Crunchgear)

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The full, bewildering explanation of that headline is as follows. A 1997 documentary entitled Area 51: Alien Interview featured the sketch reproduced below, which some people on the internet on a slow news day like today, have taken to be a representation of the Xbox 360 logo (inset).

The sketch portrays the supposed events of November 4, 1697, when the people of Hamburg saw "two glowing wheels" in the sky and, presumably, got a bit annoyed because they were hoping to get a Wii for Christmas not an Xbox 360.

We don't believe this to be a true version of events. The Xbox 360 logo was actually dreamed up in a series of laboured meetings in a Seattle marketing office some time during the winter of 2004, then focus-grouped down into its current inoffensively-bland form the following spring.

(It was actually designed by poncy agency JDK which may or may not be staffed by UFO-obsessed conspiracy theorists)

(Via Kotaku)

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Betting that within a few years every appliance we own will be hooked up to the internet, Nokia has announced plans for something called Home Control Centre. It's basically software that will let you control everything in your home from your mobile device, from the heating to the toaster.

I know, we've all been there - gone out with some toast in the toaster, and forgotten that you actually wanted it on browning level three, rather than browning level five.

A Dutch coffee shop has come up with a clever ruse to try and drum up business from the freeloaders who nurse one drink all day in order to leach off of the free internet: they've started slagging off customers by using their WiFi network names as a passive aggressive outlet.

The CoffeeCompany have been changing their network name to things like "OrderAnotherCoffeeAlready", and have even been promoting drinks and special offers and the like. For example, apparently another one of the SSIDs used was "TodaysSpecialExpresso1.60Euro".

I think this is a great idea - I've already renamed my home network "IHateYouMrPostman", so if I don't receive any post ever again, I'll know that I've been successful.

(via AdRants)

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Researchers at the University of Boston have managed to come up with a way of transferring data through lightbulbs. It's not quite as crazy as it sounds - fibre-optics uses light to transmit data, but in a much more focused way. The researchers propose to use LEDs flickering at imperceptible speeds to communicate with network-enabled devices at speeds between one and ten megabits per second.

Although that's not very fast for video streaming or online gaming, it's more than enough for an internet enabled fridge, photoframe or printer. Those kinds of devices are the target that the researchers are going after - bringing the digital home one step closer to reality.

That deformed beast which looks like the remains of three microwaved mobile phones is an AiGuru SV1, the product of an alliance between globally beloved tech-maker Asus and quite loved chat-enabler Skype.

The SV1 is a self-contained video phone, using Skype software and its own little webcam to let users broadcast video calls from wherever there's a wi-fi signal. In your bathroom, for example. There's also an Ethernet socket, microphone and speaker, plus that screen's a whopping seven inches - and it'll take care of multiple users at once, should you fancy living the 1980s "video conferencing" vision of the future.

It's another entry in our occasional Future Made Real series, this time concerning fantasy sci-fi invention #261 - wireless electricity.

For some reason it's chip-maker Intel that's the latest company to show off some wireless electric kit, managing to power a 60 Watt light bulb (how energy inefficient of it) from a distance of three feet. That's 90cm, if you're reading this in the Benelux regions or France.

"That is potentially a world changing event. This is the closest we've had to something being commercially available in this class," said analyst Rob Enderle, while Intel was content to modestly say it was "transmitting energy using the magnetic field not the electric field" to make it safe for humans to be around.

Ultimately, this technology will be used to allow captive travellers to pay £11.99 for an hour of electricity to charge up their laptops while waiting for flights at airports. So don't get too excited. It's all about taking your money off you.

(Via AFP)

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Experts from the computer retailer PC World have created this concept of a new breed sun longer; one designed for the modern gadget-dependent consumer.

On the outside it looks like nothing more than an ordinary chair, although its occupant is probably far too attractive to be found sun-bathing on your cluttered patio. Inside however, it is packed full of enough gizmos, sockets, wireless connectors and general tech to force any true geek to make a dash for the cold shower.

The concept design packs in long-range WiFi, Bluetooth, camera docks, MP3 docks, a games console holder, a laptop holder, USB ports, headphone sockets, speakers, an LCD screen and solar panels. And with just one short rainstorm, it will instantly revert to being a plain old deck chair again! Incredible!

Finally. The battery-free wireless solution we've been... not really demanding, but sort of half-hoping might arrive, has arrived.

Instead of worrying about docking stations, battery chargers and the like to keep your desk/workstation/lap wire free, Buffalo's BSKBW01SB has a small solar panel above its numeric keypad for capturing electric out of the sky. Swivel it so it points at the nearest window, and you're hopefully all set for free typing via the 2.4GHz wireless spectrum.

Only it's not that free - freedom from batteries requires the spending of around $120 on the thing first. Plus there's an AAA battery slot on it as well, which makes us worry that it's not going to work particularly well in a damp British basement flat for the months between September and May.

(Buffalo via CG)

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Goodmans has just launched a clock radio alarm to end all clock radio alarms - the GWF101IP.

I can only assume that Goodmans' designers loath getting out of bed. I can sometimes last a good five minutes listening to the minor inconsistencies in my alarm clock buzzer before dragging myself out of bed to shut it up. About the best thing to ruin any chances of me actually shuddering in a vertical poise is if there were something entertaining to listen to.

However, Goodmans is bending over backwards to give you more choice than can be reasonably considered safe. For starters you can play tunes direct from your iPod. But maybe you're saving them so you don't get bored on the bus to work. That's okay, use the Wi-Fi connectivity to hook straight up to the internet and over 6000 internet radio stations from across the globe.

If you are looking to upgrade your router, the Quadband DIR-855 and its adapter from D-Link should be worth a look when it hits the shelves in May.

It's designed to boost speed, range and performance of a wireless network when running multiple devices including high-definition media players and it can support concurrent 802.11n transmission over both 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels at the same time. The latter is less crowded, making it ideal for streaming more weighty HD. The DIR-855 is optimised to work with the DWA-160 Wireless N USB adapter, with its selectable dualband (2.4GHz or 5GHz) wireless signals and both products are backward compatible, able to be used in existing 802.11g and 802.11a networks.

Other features include five Ethernet Gigabit ports, Dual Active Firewalls for security, three dual external antennae for best coverage and an OLED network activity display. Expect it in May for £169.99.

D-Link

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Games consoles, TVs, media centrer PCs – they all have one thing in common. They want TOTAL DOMINANCE of your lounging space. Well so does iriver and it will soon be using its UNIT2 to get it. It’s calling itself an all-in-one multimedia home networking device, which is a lot easier than calling it what it really is: an MP3 / MPEG4 player, SMS messager, video streamer, DVD player, TV viewer, text messaging system instant messenger, portable video chatter, web browser, news reader, emailer and phone.

The main body of it is a (roughly) 7” screen that detaches from the main body – which also hooks up to the TV – holding the speakers, USB ports, SIM card port and various video inputs. You can carry this around your house within a 60 feet range. It is a touchscreen device running a Linux operating system that hooks up to the net, so there’s full web browsing and all manner of widgets to use. I’m guessing it will be a homebrewer’s dream come true. The built-in camera also lets you make video calls and chat to people. Or you can use it watch DVDs or DivX videos and listen to MP3’s streamed straight from the base station.

Motorola has a number of decent stereo Bluetooth devices on the market and I went to check out what it’ll be launching later in the year. I was disappointed to find that there aren’t any new sets of DJ style headphones, which I prefer for their ear heating properties over the winter months. There was, however, a revamped version of the Motorola S9, excitingly named the Motorola S9-HD.

These are going to blow their predecessor out of the water because they have added the letters ‘HD’ to the title introduced noise reduction technology so people will be able to hear what your saying when you’re chatting on a busy street. The internal audio system has had a redesign too, so that the set now offers SRS-WOW rather than direct audio, which should make for a more comfortable long-term listening experience.

The headset is A2DP and AVRCP enabled, water-resistant and will give you about 6 hours listening time from a single charge.