The Huawei E5 wireless mobile broadband modem is a nifty little device that lets you connect to the Internet on the move. If you have a separate data plan just for mobile broadband, simply slot in your SIM card and connect to the E5′s Wi-Fi access point on your laptop or tablet. …

Long before Apple and Samsung trotted out their tablets, the lesser-known Archos had been making what were known as portable multimedia players (PMPs), which worked sort of like tricked-up MP3 players with video playback.

Now, after being not particularly successful with early Android tablets, the French company is back with a couple of tablets you really have to check out before buying an iPad or Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Tab.

While buying some parts for a PC over the weekend, I found the Archos 70 and 101 tablets selling at Memory World and its other outlet Storage Studio at Sim Lim Square, and I joined a small crowd swiping our fingers over the screens of these two wonderfully portable machines.

Boy, was I pleasantly surprised after getting a quick hands-on with the gizmos.

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People sometimes slate Apple fanboys for living in a world of their world, not knowing and not wanting to know what’s going on outside of what Apple leader Steve Jobs tells them every year at one of his flashy presentations.

Well, the best proof of that during the iPhone 4 launch today, which you will not escape from reading on Facebook or news blogs because of the sheer amount of hype, is this funny launch video from Apple itself.

In it, an Apple marketing man goes through a list of achievements of previous iPhones, which are all legit. He then says that “for 2010, the iPhone 4 is the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone… and we’re bringing video calling to the world!”

Not sure which parallel universe he’s been on, but the rest of the world have been using video calls for years. And get this, Apple’s version works on Wi-Fi only (for now) and has been demo’d only for iPhone-to-iPhone calls!

The same criticism can be levelled at almost all the “new” features that Steve Jobs rolled out yesterday night (Singapore time)  at its much-hyped WWDC conference (Worldwide Developer Conference) in San Francisco.

Other than a high-res screen and an improved, slimmer design, the iPhone 4′s “new” features are nearly all  “me-too” ones that rivals have had for months now. …

From mobile broadband to the next big app on the small screen to augmented reality, the inaugural UNWIRED 2010 conference held on May 27, 2010 at the Singapore Management University discussed these topics and got a truly participatory attendance asking for more time for questions.

About 160 attendees, speakers and media thronged the halls on the eve of a long weekend, all eager to debate the latest issues as well as get in touch with peers from the industry. …

Hard to log in. Keep getting disconnected.

If those problems have kept you from surfing the Web with Wireless@SG, you’ll be happy to hear that the free Wi-Fi hotspot service islandwide is now going to be a breeze to use.

With a new secure sign-on system announced today, you will only need to sign in once on your PC or phone and never have to do it again when you next visit a Wireless@SG hotspot. …

It’s taken four years.

Four years to get the Wi-Fi 802.11n specifications finally agreed upon. Four years ago, Airgo Networks (now part of Qualcomm) was a trailblazer in MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output), which is the technology behind 802.11n. By using multiple antennas in MIMO, the data throughput and range can be increased.

I remember that 802.11n — then in its draft incarnation — was one of the freshest news to hit the scene four years back when I was still a trade journalist.

Fast forward to today. What was supposed to be a two-year ratification process took four, and 802.11n was finally officially ratified this year in September 2009. Ratification means that if your device is labeled 802.11n compliant, it will work with any other 802.11n device, regardless of vendor.

All of this is history. Except that I got reminded about this when I met Aruba Networks last week at a press event, where they were in town to tout their newest enterprise 802.11n access point device: The AP-105, which is going for US$695 (S$962).

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There’s nothing like a free lunch. But once in a while, you do get freebies without so much as firing up your laptop.

From today, users of Singapore’s Wireless@SG service will be getting a speed boost, as part of a handful of upgrades for the free Wi-Fi hotspot offering that were first announced at CommunicAsia 2009.

They will be able to surf at up to 1Mbps (instead of 512Mbps) at 7,500 hotspots islandwide. There is no need to re-configure their laptops or Wi-Fi-enabled cellphones, said the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) this morning, as it showed Techgoondu and other media a demo of the faster service at the Wi-Fi-enabled TCC cafe at NAFA. …

Even for the most hardcore users, you’d think that the ultimate router is one that has a gigabit WAN port and an OLED screen like D-Link’s Xtreme N Duo DIR-855.

Well, the company has just topped that by coming up with a router that also acts as a digital photo frame, as well as a network attached storage (NAS) device. Bar the kitchen sink, the new Xtreme N DIR-685 probably has almost all the features in a consumer router.

D-Link Singapore has just said that the S$399 “desktop-design” router will debut at the Comex computer show here next month.

So, what do you get for that sky-high price? …

Sweaty crowds, loudspeakers and lelong prices. What else would you expect from the latest quarterly IT bazaar happening at Suntec City from today to Sunday, right?

Crowds at the ongoing PC Show seem thinner than the previous IT Show in March, perhaps due to the fears over the H1N1 swine flu, or maybe the bleak economy is finally getting to some folks. Sony, noticeably, did not turn up with a bang as before – there were no Level 2 booths you’ve come to see at Suntec City.

Still, there are bargains to be had. And here are my own few Goondu recommendations.

1. LG 32-inch HD-ready TV (S$499)
With 37- and 40-inchers going for as low as $899, the smaller screens are obviously free-falling in price. One deal I saw at the LG booth was an HD-ready 32-incher with a built-in terrestial DTV tuner going for a mere S$499. …

It’s been a long wait, but Wi-Fi buffs here are finally going to get their hands on D-Link’s DIR-855 Xtreme N Duo Media Router at the IT Show, which runs from this Thursday to Sunday.

This is a simultaneous dual-band router, which means it runs both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands at the same time. This gives you both the compatibility of good, old 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and “freedom from unfriendly neighbours” with the less congested 5GHz airwaves.

So far, Wireless N routers have mostly not come with “simultaneous” dual-band operations, except for Linksys’ WRT610N, launched here some months back.

To be sure, I was tempted by Linksys’ “UFO router” at the last Sitex show in November. But being a D-Link DGL-4300 gaming router user for years now, my target was always the DIR-855 - even if I had to buy it from the United States, where it was launched last year. …