Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Sputnik AP 120 Released!. Today's a big day for the Sputnik team - we have officially released the Sputnik AP 120 and Sputnik Central Control, which combine to create a simple, manageable, and secure WiFi installation. Just set up a Sputnik Central Control installation anywhere within your network, and then start plugging in Sputnik AP 120s right into your LAN.  The AP 120s autoconfigure themselves, seek out Central Control, and automatically implement a wide range of security and management features, like dynamic firewalling, SSL-based user authentication, usage tracking, and policy routing.  Central control allows administrators to easily set up and configure the captive portal, manage users, monitor AP usage, and generate reports.   .... It's easy to buy: For the Limited Availability release program, each AP 120 costs $185 and Central Control is offered at a 50% discount for people who sign up now ($895 retail to manage up to 20 APs).  Compared to other companies offering enterprise-class solutions, Sputnik is an order of magnitude less expensive. We're also signing up more hardware OEMs.  Our pitch to them is, "put us out of the AP business!"  We built the AP 120 on a set of standard reference hardware designs, and we're making our software available to OEMs at no charge.  This allows OEMs to quickly build additional value around the software package and call themselves "Sputnik Powered"... We haven't left out the community networking folks either - each Sputnik-powered AP can be easily configured to become a community gateway. In order to run as a community gateway, you don't even need to purchase Central Control - all you need is an AP 120 or other Sputnik-powered AP. We'll be detailing more of these features after the Limited Availability program is completed, but the idea is that you can bring an AP 120 over to a friend's house, plug it into his/her LAN, and it will immediately become a community gateway, allowing others authenticated access to the Internet. [Sifry's Alerts] comments? [] 7:49:30 PM     Physicians Cut Loose. For years people have talked about how various technologies could help make the doctor-patient relationship better from PCs to email. The latest, though, is a new focus on everyone's favorite topic: wireless. Tests are now being run on a WiFi-based system that lets doctors handle information much more efficiently using wirelessly-enabled Palm handhelds. They get all the patient info they need, and can tap in all the specifics for the records. It's more efficient, and gets rid of the "doctor's messy scrawl" problems. It also makes it easier to provide detailed billing information which patients like. [Techdirt Corporate Intelligence: Techdirt Wireless] The compny is MD everywhere in Durham NC http://www.mdeverywhere.com/Home/index.aspx comments? [] 7:44:46 PM     City Scan: Connecticut's Civic Smart Mobs. Connecticut's City Scan project puts wireless, GPS-equipped, PDAs in the hands of citizens,converts their findings about city needs into GIS databases, and sponsors discussions of policy alternatives. Cities can't be "planned" from the top down any more. Some cities have powerful information tools that could be turned to the service of civic self-organization. Not every smart mob is a wise mob. But some are. [Smart Mobs] They received a TOP grant to Work with neighborhood groups to identify priority issues; Employ local high school students to collect data for each neighborhood using mobile computing technology: Pocket PCs, digital cameras, global positioning satellite receivers (GPS), wireless modems and custom-designed software; rain neighborhood residents to create powerful reports and maps using the visual database created from the field data Synchronize the data from each neighborhood to create a citywide database of city problems housed at CPEC; Assist groups to advocate for neighborhood improvements using the data. http://www.city-scan.com/ comments? [] 9:52:43 AM

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