Apple may be killing its AirPort router family, but there are some great mesh networking replacements that promise just as much convenience but even more speed. Rather than focusing on a single box to which every WiFi device in your home is connected, mesh routers use two or more units in different locations, spreading coverage in the name of keeping performance at its best. Read on for our top four picks.
Apple will stop selling its AirPort routers soon, bringing an official end to the product line it hasn't updated in years. The discontinuation applies to the AirPort Express, Airport Extreme, and the AirPort Time Capsule models. Existing customers won't need to find an alternative in the near future, however, as Apple plans to continue supporting the products for a few more years.
There is very little these days that differentiate homes and small offices in terms of network needs. Multiple devices, increased Internet usage, and nontrivial room layouts leave simple home routers ineffective. Sometimes you even need more than just one router to cover all your bases. For those instances, you'd want a WiFi mesh instead and ASUS is positioning its Lyra Trio, first revealed at CES 2018, as the perfect mix of power, ease of use, and peace of mind.
There's a Hifi music player called HiBy R3 out in the wild this week, and it's made for Tidal alone. This is a mobile music player made by the folks at HiBy Music. It has a touchscreen and connects to Wi-Fi to play music specifically and solely through Tidal. It's not made by Tidal, but it works with its own version of the Tidal app - and that's it. This is the specificity you've been waiting for.
Google is perhaps best known for Search, the Chrome web browser, and the Android platform, and all three have one thing in common: the need for an Internet connection, preferably a good and always connected one. That is why Google has directly dived into the ISP industry, in one form or another, especially in emerging markets where Internet connectivity is still pretty much a luxury. The latter comes in the form of its Google Stations, free Wi-Fi hotspots for everyone, which is now adding Mexico as its third beneficiary and the first in Latin America.
Nokia announced plans to acquire mesh networking company Unium earlier this week, a business move that paves the way for it to get in on the home WiFi market in a big way. Unium, which is based out of Seattle, specializes in intelligent mesh technology to give customers a whole-home WiFi experience. Over the weekend, Nokia explained that it will use Unium's software to expand its home WiFi portfolio with mesh networking capabilities.
The days of slow, frustrating, patchy in-flight WiFi may finally be behind us, with a new push by Airbus, Delta and others to supercharge satellite connectivity. The Seamless Air Alliance is a new consortium hoping to not only remove the annoyance from getting online in the air, but actually make it "the best internet you ever experienced."
WiFi 11ax is headed to smartphones and laptops this year, with Qualcomm announcing its newest chip combining speedy WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0. The Qualcomm WCN3998 jumps the gun on 802.11ax, arriving well in advance of the new standard being finalized. However, the chip-maker says, it'll offer the key features - and probably those you'll get the most benefit from - for devices as soon as 2018.
Free public Wi-Fi is becoming ubiquitous (and sometimes dangerous) that there might be more than a handful to choose from at any given time. Not all Wi-Fi hotspots, however, are created equal. Some are good, some are bad, and some are just plain horrible. To help you decide which Wi-Fi access point to connect to, at least based on speed, Google is providing a new “Speed Label” in the Wi-Fi list for Android. At least, if you’re running Android 8.1.
In recent days, attention was drawn to Google Cast and its involvement in Wi-Fi issues for some users. Today Google has released a support page acknowledging the problem, saying that there's a bug where Chromecast devices could cause slow Wi-Fi performance. That bug originates from the Cast software for Android phones, Google explains, which could "incorrectly send a large amount of network traffic" that negatively impacts wireless networks.
Mesh networking is becoming an increasingly popular solution to extending the range of home and business WiFi networks over a large area. Getting started with mesh networking, however, can be a bit on the expensive side. Getting up and running with a mesh network can mean having to replace your old router and purchase a bundle that comes with a new router and the nodes that will form your mesh network.
Your Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner will soon have another job aside from tidying up, with iRobot set to turn the 'bots into roving WiFi analysts. The company has had connected robot vacuums in its line-up for some years now, but a new software update iRobot plans to trial will allow them to not only connect, but assess wireless signal strength.