wifi

Boxee TV: Walmart Wants You to See It; Your Cable Guy Doesn't

Starting Thursday, Boxee TV will be sold exclusively at 3,000 U.S. Walmart stores. The $98 device features a built-in antenna to grab free over-the-air broadcast TV, and it also tethers to the Internet to stream YouTube, Netflix, and Pandora. Is this a way for you to ditch your cable bill for good?

NFL Live Games Go High Tech

How do you keep fans paying top dollar to attend live gridiron contests in an era when DIRECTV's NFL Sunday Ticket broadcasts every single game into living rooms? Make attendance more entertaining, that's how.

Unlimited Data Plan Isn't as Unlimited as You Think

Active smartphone users better get used to an ugly buzzword: throttling. AT&T has begun slowing down the most voracious 5% of its data users. And while cell carriers may feel they have to push back against the bandwidth hogs, the customer response may be more than they bargained for.

CES 2012 Preview: Fast, Connected, and Ultra-Thin

The motto of this year's Consumer Electronics Show: You can't be too fast, too skinny or too connected. Beginning Tuesday, anorexic HDTVs and super-skinny laptops will vie for attention with accelerated WiFi devices and TVs that smartly connect to multiple devices simultaneously.

MLB Soars to 30,000 Feet with In-Flight Live Streaming

Take me up to the ball game -- thanks to a new offering from broadband provider Row 44, baseball fanatics won't have to miss one tobacco spit or big hit while flying, because Major League Baseball will stream games to airline passengers' WiFi devices.

Obama Wants to Use WiFi to Cut the U.S. Budget Deficit

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday proposed that the government auction off its portion of the wireless spectrum to private companies to boost access to high-speed Internet and cut the federal budget deficit.

Google Gets FCC Approval for White Space Internet

The Federal Communications Commission has granted permission for nine companies, including Google, to turn unused broadcast frequencies -- also known as "white spaces" -- into wireless broadband.

At Least These Extra Airline Fees Come With Little Luxuries

Those irritating fees aren't going away, but over the next few years, some of them will be attached to new a la carte services that travelers may be happier to pay for. Think personal concierge services, intercity rail ticket sales -- and even in-flight spa treatments.

Qualcomm Targets Tablets with Bid for Atheros

In a move to help it target tablet computers, cell-phone-chip designer Qualcomm has reportedly offered $3.5 billion to buy Atheros Communications, which has developed chips that connect wireless computers to the Internet.

2011's Stealth Trend: Wireless Web Remakes the Rural World

If you want to know how the rural developing world could get cheap, easy wireless Internet access, just follow the money: Remittances to those regions total tens of billions each year, and the money flow isn't very efficient. The profits from micro-telcos taking over the business could prime the pump for an information revolution in the hinterlands.

The Year in Tech: Top 10 Highlights of 2010

A broad array of technology news helped define 2010, from the launch of Apple's iPad to the arrival of the app to a supernova of Internet stock gains. Here's a look back at those major stories -- and a glimpse of some highlights you can expect next year.