BRCK - Claims To Be Internet Backup Generator

KickStarter Friday - BRCK, Internet connection when it is missing.

There are times for all of us when you are not able to get a connection to the Internet. Whether it be because there is no WiFi available or your actual connection to the web is just down, it has happened to each of us at one time or another. Now, think about being in the wilderness where there are no connections available. You could use a device from you mobile carrier which lets you make a connection over 3G. But, what if you did not have any power as well to make that connection. The BRCK claims to provide all of that for you in a compact package.

This week's KickStarter project is the BRCK which is your backup generator for the internet. Now that is a big claim and is sure to get your attention. It looks like the shape of a brick and probably explains the name. And, it claims to contain both a power source and modem so that you can make a connection no matter where you are. The company, Ushadi, has developed a number of open source items to share information.

But, back to the BRCK. The BRCK is an interesting idea and since the people behind it are pretty much located in Africa, it provides the perfect setting to develop and test the idea of giving you a self contained unit to connect to the web. The BRCK contains power for times when there is none, contains a modem to do dial up connections and it acts as a WiFi device to share the connection. Some of the specifics include an Ethernet connection, WiFi b/g/n, 3G HSPA+ modem, USB 2.0, microUSB charging port and a 4,000 mAh battery. These are just a few of the items in the list and everything is potentially subject to change as their move towards providing the BRCK to the public.


The current claims for the BRCK is that the battery in this will provide 8 hours of power when being actively being used. And considering all the items contained in this, the name may also provide an indication of the weight to go along with this. This looks to be a mini computer with everything in it along with 10 expansion slots they are planning to include. The BRCK is going to be a great product in countries where there is not reliable power or Internet connections. Think about the disasters we have here in the US and just how valuable this kind of a product would be.

The BRCK still has 18 days to go as they close in on their project goal of $125,000. And you can help them meet that goal and get a BRCK for yourself. They are running out of the lower end pledges to get your own device. $150 is gone and the $200 level is close to being gone with a delivery of November this year. The amount of $200 will get the 2nd version of the BRCK which would come out in May of 2014. If you must have one in November, then you will need to pledge $300 or more.

This is a great idea and looks like they are going to be successful. If you find the BRCK to be a worthwhile endeavor, head on over and pledge funds to help them exceed their goal.

Gigabit WiFi Coming For Increased Speed In 2013

Using WiFi as an access method to the Web has been a common and accept access point for millions of people. With smartphones, having WiFi access instead of using your 3G or 4G LTE connection for downloading saves on the potential overage charges as you exceed your data plans. At the moment, the speeds we are seeing over WiFi are adequate as they have become saturated over the years due to the explosion of technology taking advantage of the bandwidth. So, any coming changes which will remove the bottlenecks and significantly increase speed is something we can all get behind. And that change is Gigabit WiFi.

The current speeds that we are seeing for 802.11g is 54 Mbps and 802.11n is 150 Mbps with 802.11n being the current standard coming with all new devices capable of WiFi connectivity. These are the accepted theoretical values for delivering content for a WiFi device. We do not see that for a various reasons even when standing next to the WiFi device. What is currently in the works and is expected to be available this year is Gigabit WiFi for newer devices. This is to provide for up to 1.3 Gbps throughput, though this is the theoretical maximum and we are not going to be seeing a number that high. But even if you only get to see half that number with your mobile device, it is a huge improvement over 802.11n. This is to be called 802.11ac which will give those mobile devices with the necessary chips the speed necessary to move data far faster than today and may be at 1 Gbps speeds getting devices to see rapid screen displays and file downloads.

With anything having to do with technology, such as WiFi, there is an organizational body which rules over them and that is the case with the 802.11 standards which WiFi falls under. The 802.11 standards are ruled over by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) here in the US. And while this will be approved soon, many companies are preparing WiFi devices based on what the adopted standard is expected to be. WiFi devices based on 802.11ac are coming from companies like NetGear, D-Link and Cisco/LinkSys.

In order to achieve these much higher speeds for WiFi, they are leveraging something called Quadrature amplitude modulation. With this methodology, each stream of data can deliver up to 433 Mbps. That is less than the theoretical 1.3 Gbps and makes one wonder why there is a difference. Since they are delivering a stream of data, then what if they could deliver multiple streams of data which when added together provide for much higher performance? That is exactly how they are going to achieve much higher speeds in delivering things over WiFi.

There are going to be WiFi devices which will be able to handle 3 streams of data giving you the expected great delivery of information. And future 802.11 standards will expand the number of streams of data giving us even faster speeds over WiFi. While we have should have Gigibit WiFi approved by the FCC in the next few months and the associated bandwidth, others are starting to work on the next standard coming which is 802.11an with theoretical speeds of up to 7 Gbps. The future for WiFi performance is looking bright.