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NETGEAR led off it’s new product introductions this morning with the RangeMax Dual Band Router, and with good reason.  Much of what the company is focusing on is their proprietary antenna arrangement and their manufacture from metamaterials, giving their products stronger signal across the network.

The RangeMax supports 802.11g devices as well as clients based on 2.4 and 5 GHz Wireless-N along with 802.11n draft 2.0 single and dual band.  The 8 antennas and support for 5 GHz utilize 23 non-overlapping channels allowing the unit to avoid interference from household appliances.  The unit also features QoS to prioritize network traffic.

$129.99 (WNDR3300).

Another version featuring the same 8 internal antennas is the RangeMax Wireless N Gigabit Router.  This five port unit costs $159.

The NETGEAR RangeMax Wireless-N Gigabit Router (WNR3500) incorporates an ultra-fast five-port 10/100/1000 Mbps switch (one Gigabit Ethernet WAN and four Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports), to deliver the fastest possible wireless-to-wired network performance, and an array of eight internal Antennas to reduce the effects of RF interference and maximize wireless performance and range. 

Company site [NETGEAR]

Fresh from seeing the ReadyNAS Duo unveiled at this mornings press conference, I got the chance to touch the unit and sift through the data sheet to bring you more details.  NETGEAR is going after us lazy folk who have converted all our content gathering devices like digital cameras, digital music, digital video but have not done anything about storage except filling up our PCs.  The ReadyNas Duo looks to make it real easy and affordable to upgrade our storage.

The ReadyNas Duo features a graphical web browser to guide you through set up.  Since the unit is not machine dependent, multiple users can gain access to it’s data stores.  Best of all, if you’ve been looking into a storage solution, you know that the way to go is dual redundancy or RAID.  RAID anticipates one drive dying at some point and therefore has a full backup on the other drive, it is a Duo remember, keeping all your data safe.

The ReadyNas Duo is designed to be a self-maintaining solution, capable of monitoring itself and alerting you if it encounters an error.

The base version, 500 GB can hold boatloads of data.  If boatloads isn’t descriptive enough:
How much does it store?
-232,000 photos
-116,000 songs
-145 hours of DVD-quality video1.

Included in the box is the 2-disc ReadyNas device, power cord, EMC backup software, and an installation guide and CD.  Price is said to be less than $500.

Company site [NETGEAR]

We are about to enter the hall where NETGEAR will be giving its CES 2008 Press Conference.  There is a pretty big crowd already here expecting something new from NETGEAR to drop.

Hit CTRL R or F5 key to refresh as we live blog this event..

MORE »

Check out the gallery: CES 2008 Press Conference: NETGEAR

At the Netgear Press Conference this year at the Consumer Electronics Show, the company released the new Digital Entertainer HD.  The product’s aim is to make all of the media files on your home network accessible via your TV.  The unit hits practically every popular media format including but not limited to - MP3, WAV, WMA, unprotected AAC, and FLAC for audio - as well as MPEG 1, MPEG 2, MPEG 4, AVI, WMV, and XVID for video.  It will also display your digital photos in the following formats: JPEG, BMP, PNG, and TIFF in the photo formats.

One revolutionary thing that I was impressed with was that this device will even bring YouTube videos to your home theater.  When asked if they had a content partnership with YouTube, they gave a shady answser - which pretty much revealed there was no partnerhip at this time.  The engineer said that they are patching into YouTube’s publically available API.  I’m not going to go through the rest of the details, because this this is truely specced out.  I’m hoping to see some adoption, because THIS is the type of device that “breaks the Digital Divide.” Got that Bill Gates?

The Digital Entertainer HD is expected to hit online retailers and stores in Q1 2007 for $349.

Netgear Press Conference [Gadgetell]

Like Skype? Well, Netgear has released a dual-mode cordless phone that works with a standard land line and - yep, you guessed it - Skype. The Netgear SPH200D Dual-Mode DECT Cordless Phone With Skype allows you to switch between your network router for Skype calling and your landline for good ol’ regular calls. Of course, if you are super keen on Skyping, who knows why you’d want the landline, too. Anyway, it lets you switch between landline and Skype for each call and will support up to four handsets. The 1.9GHz SPH200D is currently available for $200. One site says your computer needs to be on for the phone to work but the Netgear site doesn’t say anything about it. Let us know if you have tried it. The Netgear Dual-Mode Cordless Phone With Skype is currently available for $200.

Read [Crave] Site [Netgear] Product [Netgear SPH200D]

Netgear started out with Vivek Pathela, the VP of Product Marketing.  He is quite the character.  The company will be launching three new products this week at CES.

Netgear Digital Entertainer HD

According to the company, this device makes the most of your home high-speed network. It connects to your Windows PC with a built-in TV tuner.  The big news is that it integrates with YouTube (via their API - they couldn’t comment on the “announcement here") as well as iTunes on your desktop.  You can watch the YouTube content on your shiny new flat-screen.  They played a viral video of the exploding coke bottles which I’ve seen before via YouTube.  With the device, you can watch HD movies downloaded via Bit Torrent - which is the first I’ve seen of this technology - and can stream 1080p content as well.  It outputs everything from 480i to 1080p.  You can even output YouTube videos via any of the conversions for your Tube TV or your Plasma alike.

Also with the Digital Entertainer, you can attach USB storage, MP3 players, and iPods, via USB for playback on your home-theater.

They also announced two new features.  “Follow Me” allows you to pause and turn off the TV in one room, then resume it on another TV in another room.  Essentially it follows you from room to room.  The second is “Party Mode” - which turns on the Everywhere feature (all networked devices in your home), and plays across multipe devices with synchronized playback of video and audio.  Great for parties!.

The Digital Entertainer HD will be available in Early 2007 for $249.

Netgear Storage Central Turbo

This is an upgrade to their existing Storage Central and really just speeds up everything beyond belief.  With the unit, you can have Terabytes of HD streaming thoughout your house.  It will be available in early 2007 as well for MSRP of $199.

Netgear Dual-Mode cordless phone

This new Skype/traditional phone is one handset that integrates with both Skype and your home landline.  Vivek called the big boss, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Netgear Patrick Lo, on the phone.  Sounded grand to me. 

The Dual-Mode cordless phone is available NOW for MSRP of $199.

Stay tuned to Gadgetell for more.

For those of you that need to find a tech stocking stuffer this year, there is the newly released Netgear SPH101 Wifi Skype 802.11g phone.

Nearly a year after the handset was announced, Netgear has released the SPH101 this week that would allow free calls to be made anywhere with wireless services using the Skype service. Measuring a slim and trendy 4.33x1.81x0.83 inches, the SPH101 can be charged through your USB connection, with the capability to store up to 200 contacts and to forward Skype calls to any landline or cell phone. Prices are starting at a little more than $200 from major retailers.

Read [Netgear] Via [TheTechPlanet]

What do you do if you don’t want to pay the royalty for using someone else’s patented technology? File a court action to deny inventor’s claim over the patent.

Yes...that is what has happened to a Wi-Fi technology patented by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), an Australian government-owned research organization.

A court in Texas ruled yesterday that Australia’s national science agency has a patent on some of the core technologies used in some versions of Wi-Fi. This means a hundred or so companies that make products that include this wireless networking technology now face the possibility of patent infringement lawsuits.

But before a lawsuit is served against them, a group of wireless-related technology big names, Microsoft, Dell, HP, Intel, Apple and Netgear, is filing their own court action to nullify the patent owned by CSIRO.

Would this hold water? Only time will tell as this kind of lawsuit normally takes years to be settled. However, there are no details on the basis of the claim filed by the wireless companies. Stay tuned for more news.

Read Brighthand
Read Techworld

Netgear’s finally stepping into the wireless media streaming space with their announcement of the EVA700.  The Intel Viiv-based set-top-box will stream just about any media file (audio and video) from your computer - straight to your TV.  It will not only play standard def content like others in this space, but will even hit 1080p (down-converted).  The device seems to be very similar to Apple’s plans for iTV, except for iTV’s HDMI support out of the box.  Included connectors are Ethernet, WiFi, RCA, S-Video, S/PDIF, and SCART (European).  It looks like in order to put the box in a different room than your computer, you will need to spend the extra bucks on Netgear’s Powerline HD Ethernet Adapter.  With the included remote, you can even access all of your media on your TV screen without getting off the couch.  Now all Netgear has to do is hook up with one of those infamous video sharing sites and get us some content for the living room.  YouTube?  Amazon Unbox?  No takers?

The EVA700 will run you $229.99.

Read [Netgear] Via [Engadget]

Philips has been coming out with quite a few Skype phones as of late.  Their new VOIP841, which was developed with NETGEAR, seems to be the first that will allow you to make/receive Skype phone calls free of a computer.  That’s right, plug the slick new phone directly into your broadband connection and calls can be made through DECT without even turning on your computer.

“We are broadening our reach to mass consumers by offering them the opportunity to communicate via Skype without having to be tied to the computer,” said Stefan Oberg, general manager, desktop and hardware at Skype. “Skype has already introduced Wi-Fi phones and Skype for PocketPC wireless. Now Skype is taking the next step and working together with Philips and NETGEAR, to introduce PC-free cordless phones. The cordless phones for Skype launched today, give Skype users the flexibility to enjoy free Skype to Skype calls and inexpensive calls to ordinary and mobile phones anywhere in the house, at any time without a running computer.”

Via [Tech Digest]
Read [Press Release]