Listening to Bluetooth (Or at Least Trying to) -- If it's important to you to pace while you talk, you owe it to yourself to get a Bluetooth headset to use with iChat AV. If you don't have audio input to your Mac but you do have Bluetooth, this article by Dori Smith shows you what works, what almost works, and what to look out for. Dori is the coauthor of Mac OS X Unwired.
The
Trouble with RFID -- Radio Frequency Identification
(RFID) technology is already widely used to track pharmaceuticals, meat
shipments, and manufactured goods. It has the potential to save businesses
billions of dollars. It also has the potential to enable a police
surveillance state, further erode consumer privacy, and make identity theft
even easier. Writing for The Nation, Simson Garfinkel explains the
problem and a potential code of conduct that might help address it. Simson
is the author of Database
Nation.
Safari Gets Bigger and Better -- There are now more than 2,000 books from the industry's leading technical publishers available on Safari Bookshelf. As the library grows, so does its functionality: searches are powerfully precise and as broad or specific as you wish; and now, with a Safari Max subscription, you can download chapters to read offline. Safari will help you save time, reduce errors, keep current, and save more money than ever with up to 35% off print copies of your favorite books. If you haven't
yet gone on Safari, try a free trial subscription.
Linux Untethered -- Wireless Linux is great, if you can find a hotspot. If you can't, you might consider a cellular data connection. It may be neither as slow nor as expensive as you think. In this article, Brian Jepson explores the state of cellular networking with Linux. Brian is a coauthor of Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther.
Wireless Mesh Networking -- Tomas Krag and Sebastian Büttrich take a look at some of the principles of wireless mesh networking and they demostrate how to install and run a mesh network on a Linux-based computer. Tomas will discuss how wireless technologies can bring Internet and Intranet connectivity to the developing world at O'Reilly's upcoming ETech 2004.
Developing Smartphone Apps -- Microsoft recently announced support for the .NET CF in the new Smartphone 2003. Developing for the Smartphone is not the same as developing for the Pocket PC, so Wei-Meng Lee explains the UI differences between the two, and gives an overview of the controls supported in the Smartphone platform. Dig deeper with Wei-Meng in his tutorial at ETech 2004: Developing Smartphone Applications with the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework.
Control Your Mac with Your PDA -- Dori Smith shows how to install and use Salling Clicker, an application that allows your Bluetooth devices (phones and PDAs) to act as remote controls for your Mac. Using PowerPoint and iPhoto, she also gives examples of Clicker in action. Dori is a coauthor of Mac OS X Unwired.
Wireless Mail on the Road -- Free wireless hot spots, wireless-capable devices, unlimited GPRS data plans, and GPRS-capable handsets all make it easy for an enterprising hacker to keep in touch. But what, exactly, do they do to read and write mail on the road? O'Reilly's editors discuss it in the latest From the Editors List.
Improvising Your Own Wireless Router -- Wei-Meng Lee explains how to use the Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) feature available in Windows XP to improvise a wireless router, allowing you to wirelessly (and cheaply) share an Internet connection with multiple computers in your home. Wei-Meng is the author of Windows XP Unwired.
Sending SMS Messages Using Windows XP -- Wei-Meng Lee writes about the recent release of the free SMS Sender, which lets cell phone users send SMS messages from the comfort of their Windows XP computers. You need not envy Mac users anymore. Wei-Meng is the author of Windows XP Unwired.
Enabling BSS Master Mode on Hermes-Based Radios -- Rob Flickenger shows you what you'll need to do to operate a Hermes-based radio card--the kind found in the original AirPort AP--as BSS master, in this excerpt from his latest
book, Wireless Hacks.
All Software Should Be
Network Aware -- Apple's original Human Interface
Guidelines laid out the company's vision for a set of consistent approaches
for
GUI applications. Now that we're moving into the era of『software above the
level of a single device,』we need something similar for
network-aware applications. Here are some of the things Tim O'Reilly would like to see
universally supported.
Wireless Access Point Hardware -- For the do-it-yourselfers,
here are four PC-compatible hardware solutions you can buy--without
breaking the bank--to build and run your own custom access point. This hack
is excerpted from O'Reilly's Wireless Hacks.