hField Technologies announced on Wednesday the immediate availability of the Wi-Fire, a compact, long range USB Wi-Fi adapter for Macintosh and Windows. The antenna allows users to connect to a Wi-Fi network from as far as 1,000 ft. (~300 m.)
The Wi-Fire features an integrated, high-gain directional antenna and strong receive sensitivity plus proprietary software to achieve its long range capability.
The Wi-Fire is well suited to business travelers in hotels and airports, students and universities, municipal Wi-Fi centers, home and small office, and the enterprise where poor signal strength is a problem. The Wi-Fire was created by an engineering student who got fed up with not being able to connect to his universityis Wi-Fi from his off-campus apartment, their Website explained.
 hField Technologies Wi-Fire |
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It measures 4 x 3 x 3/8 inches. (10 x 7.6 x 1 cm.)
"The Wi-Fire draws very little power from your laptop battery. It comes complete with everything you need to connect wirelessly to the Internet. Just install the driver software, plug in the Wi-Fire to a USB port and youire ready to start. It can rest flat on any surface or clip securely to a laptop display or flat screen monitor," hFiled Technologies said.
The Wi-Fire is immediately available for Mac OS X and Windows XP. Vista and Linux versions are being developed, according to hField Technologies. It is priced at US$79.00.