Wi-Fi

It seems that the "Neverstop" nanme to the unlimited data plan for Karma Go's Wi-Fi hotspot service may not be so appropriate anymore. Within just two months of launching the subscription option, the service provider is actually stopping one of the main features of the service. Karma will be substantially throttling the data transfer speed of subscribers. The reason? The human desire to overcome boundaries. That and hogging up all the bandwidth to use the data plan for things deemed inappropriate and beyond Neverstop's true intentions.

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CES 2016 kicked off this week and one of the big announcements comes from the Wi-Fi Alliance with the introduction of Wi-Fi HaLow. HaLow is the designation for the latest low-power Wi-Fi solution and products that use IEEE 802.11 ah technology inside. Wi-Fi HaLow is designed to use frequency bands below 1GHz.

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The rate of use of the Internet has ballooned in the past years thanks to the prevalence of mobile devices lie smartphones. These phones in particular connect to licensed bands of the radio spectrum that envelopes our air and those bands are quickly getting congested. The solution proposed by carriers like Verizon and chip makers like Qualcomm is to utilize the unlicensed spectrum used by other wireless connections like Wi-Fi and garage door openers. But according to some tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and Comcast, such a solution would come at the expense of wrecking havock on Wi-Fi.

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Li-Fi stands for Light Fidelity, and it's being presented at this time as an eventual replacement for Wi-Fi-transmitted internet. While the term Li-Fi actually does stem from the term Light Fidelity, the word Wi-Fi stems from Hi-Fi, or High Fidelity, from the audio term for home audio, high-quality sound production. The people presenting Li-Fi have taken the concept of the Signal Lamp (aka the Aldis Lamp), sending morse code between ships at sea, instead sending data to your phone. Li-Fi is also known as visible light communications (VLC) technology.

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Ever wondered what those invisible radio waves would look like if they weren't, well, invisible? Or maybe you fancied having some high tech sci-fi cyborg eyes that would let you see those radio waves. If so, then maybe you'd be interested in this new app called Architecture of Radio, now available for purchase on iOS. The app is really simple in its function but beautiful in its execution, creating a visual representation of cell towers, Wi-Fi, and satellite locations as well as the waves of communication that happens between them.

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Like any other major iOS release, iOS 9 brought a new set of features to delight users and make their lives more comfortable. Or at least that's the goal. We've seen multi-window multitasking on iPads and the space saving app slicing, for example. But like any other release as well, there are some features that may not always work to the user's benefit, depending on how you see it. One of those is the Wi-Fi Assist feature, and Apple has now put up a support page to clarify what it does and does not do.

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The writing has been on the wall for almost a year now, but it doesn't make this latest development any less disconcerting. Karma will be shutting down its WiMAX network come November 6, as it had already hinted last year. Understandably, that will require existing users to upgrade their devices to the new LTE-enabled Karma Go. But if that weren't inconvenient enough, they will practically be paying for it with the same price tag that they paid for when they bought the original Karma little less than 2 years ago.

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The Wi-Fi Alliance reveals their next Wi-Fi CERTIFIED service - Wi-Fi Aware. This certification program from the Wi-Fi Alliance is for a technology that works with your smartphone's built-in Wi-Fi sensing capabilities, allowing Wi-Fi Aware devices to discover one-another before they even make a Wi-Fi connection. In one sense this technology is similar to Bluetooth Beacons, sending your smartphone information when you get close enough to them to speak with them wirelessly. While Bluetooth beacons have been in testing for several years, Wi-fi Aware is brand new.

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Imagine reaching the end of an exhilarating but also tiring mountain climb. You reach for your phone to take a selfie or tweet to the world about your accomplishment. But alas, you have no Internet connection. Big problem, right? Well, not if you're on top of Japan's highest peak. That's right, the iconic Mount Fuji is going to have free Wi-Fi hotspots, eight of them, in fact, and they are being placed exactly so that you can share to the world your wonderful hiking experience.

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The Internet has become so ingrained in our digital culture that people have started to look for it, and in massive doses, even in places that, until a few years ago, you'd never imagine would offer the service. But while in-flight Wi-Fi is no longer rare as a unicorn, airlines are still in a race to advertise the fastest and best speeds on can offers miles up in the air. The latest to boast of this is Virgin America, whose partnership with ViaSat means that, theoretically, their planes' Wi-Fi will be good enough for video streaming.

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Sharing a Wi-Fi password in a room or office isn't exactly a herculean task. One can write it down, for example. It can, however, certainly be made easier. And by easier, Microsoft means automagical. That's why it invented Wi-Fi Sense as a way to easily share Wi-Fi credentials with friends so that they can easily connect to the same network you're on. Sounds convenient? Probably, but considering the way things are going right now, it might also be a security nightmare waiting to happen.

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The almost ridiculous extents which government agencies go through to get otherwise private data is sometimes being matched by equally almost ridiculous extents to protect it. Since Tor and VPNs no longer seem to be enough to protect user privacy, for good or for ill, some have taken seemingly drastic countermeasures. Like this Proxyham for example, which combines a Wi-Fi proxy with the concept of a HAM radio. Not only does it let users anonymously connect to Wi-Fi using almost unidentifiable low frequency radio channels, it also lets them connect from about 2.5 miles away.

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