Sharp will start selling the X-series of 37-, 42-, and 46-inch HDTV sets in Japan next month that include a paired set of wireless transmitters for high-definition video using technology from Amimon. Amimon uses unlicensed frequency in the 4.9 to 5.9 GHz range, varying by country, to pass uncompressed 1080i or 1080p signals (both video and audio) over as far as 30 meters or 100 feet indoors. These are the same ranges used by 802.11a and 802.11n Wi-Fi flavors worldwide. (A double-wide channel, or 40 MHz, is required for 1080p; 20 MHz for 1080i.)

Wireless high-def is currently in development in many forms, that includes using Draft N- Wi-Fi-like technology as Amimon is deploying; 60 GHz millimeter-wave micro-antenna arrays with SiBeam; and several firms working on incompatible overlays to the WiMedia ultrawideband (UWB) wireless technology.

Sharp's announcement marks the first time that an electronics company is offering a line of products with built-in hardware paired with an external transceiver, however. Most of the work to date has focused on cable-replacement paired transmitters that cost as much as $700 and eliminate the need for an HDMI cable. Sharp is offering the wireless transmitter that connects to the source as an optional accessory, but it's still a big step forward in reducing the clutter of home-entertainment cables.

The adapter supports EVDO Rev. A, which is nearly universal across Sprint's EVDO network now, and is advertised as supporting averages rates of 600 Kbps to 1.4 Mbps downstream and 500 to 800 Kbps upstream. The modem also handles 1xRTT, which works closer to dial-up modem speeds, outside of the 16,000 cities (encompassing 246 million people) and 1,500 airports that have EVDO service.

The software can be downloaded over the air by some phones, or downloaded separately.

Yoggie Security Systems has shrunk the computer, big time. Or should I say, little time? Their Gatekeeper Card Pro, shown for the first time today at the InfoSecurity Europe conference, is an extension of their current line of tiny systems that have embedded security suites. The $199 Linux-based system built into an ExpressCard form factor is designed to offload all tasks from its host computer related to viruses, phishing, spam, malware, spyware, and intrusion. It also handles filtering and parental control. This version also bundles a VPN client.

Hardware-based encryption in hard drives appears to be the next must-have feature for business laptops. Fujitsu has joined on-the-market efforts by Seagate and Hitachi today with its new MHZ2 CJ Series that pairs the AES-256 (256-bit Advanced Encrypted System) cipher with a 7200-rpm drive in capacities from 80 GB to 320 GB with support for 3.0 Gbps SATA. The 2.5-inch drives, suitable for medium- and full-sized laptops, will ship in May 2008.

Drives that have encryption chips and firmware need have no information accessible that's not efficiently scrambled. An encrypted chipset allows these drives to offer full performance alongside strong security. If a laptop or external drive is lost, a password is typically needed that, if not available, prevents any access to the drive; the key isn't stored on the drive.

A good set of front-end security tools integrated with the drive provides the best experience, however, unless you like fiddling with BIOS settings. Such software can help guide you through creating a secure backup for the key you create, too.

On-board hardware encryption provides the gold standard for protecting data, and AES-256 is one of the strongest crytographic options in wide use. Seagate, in contrast, uses AES-128 (128-bit keys), but don't hold it against them: while AES-128 is theoretically far easier to crack than AES-256, current research holds that it would take thousands of years. Some outside the U.S. suspect AES-128 of other weaknesses, however, because the U.S. government requires 192-bit or 256-bit AES encryption for its "top secret" designation.

Full-disk encryption has a very cool benefit for ensuring that a disk that needs to be disposed of or re-used by another individual - or even sold - has its data rendered fully irretrievable. Just change the key on the drive, and the drive's data is gone forever. Fujitisu says its secure erase option takes "less than a second." (Backing up critical data on these drives is a related, and complicated problem!)

The additional cost of hardware encryption tends to be rather low, ranging from $100 to $200, depending on the laptop maker, the drive's capacity, and the rotation speed. Expect that cost to drop rapidly in 2008. Some industry experts believe that hardware encryption will be a feature as ubiquitously requested as fingerprint recognition for business laptops by 2009.

They've developed an extensive list divided by region of e-Stewards who have signed on to a pledge about the lifecycle of products as they pass through recycling stages. InterConnection, noted above, is one of those firms.

Many computer and peripheral makers have stepped up and are in the process of stepping up to reduce toxic crud that goes into their products, and to take back items they made as well as those made by other companies at the end of their life.

A sharp-eyed blogger and PR man in San Antonio spotted what turned out to be the installation of the first AT&T networked Starbucks near the telecom giant's headquarters. Alan Weinkrantz, who has no business connection with AT&T, happened to notice the completion of the first conversion of a Starbucks from T-Mobile's HotSpot brand to AT&T Wi-Fi. Starbucks announced that they had opted to switch providers in February 2008, and that "second quarter" would see the first markets move over, with the network completed by the end of 2008.

For business travelers, this move could save money. T-Mobile was the only hot-spot network of any scale in the U.S. that didn't have a roaming relationship with similar networks, and only worked with one domestic aggregator: iPass. This meant that frequent travelers needed to either have an iPass subscription through their company to use Starbucks without paying extra, or needed a T-Mobile HotSpot subscription, which ran from $20 to $40 per month depending on term of commitment and whether you had a voice plan. Their day rate is $10 and their hourly rate $6. (I wrote up iPass' new service plan for individuals a few weeks ago.)

AT&T's approach with Starbucks is somewhat different. First, all AT&T fiber customers and most DSL customers get free, unlimited use of the Starbucks locations in addition to about 10,000 other locations - mostly McDonald's - in AT&T's so-called home network. (DSL customers must have at least a 1.5 Mbps downstream connection to qualify for free Wi-Fi.) All remote business users also gain access at no cost above their current plans. That's 12 million home and 5 million business users right there. (Home users can pay $10 per month to get hotel and non-AT&T-operated airport access plus 53,000 hot spots outside the U.S.)

For those who aren't in AT&T's thrall already, you can get up to two hours of consecutive free access every day by putting value on a Starbucks stored-value card, and either using it or adding funds to its balance at least every 30 days.

AT&T already had liberal roaming agreements with other providers and aggregators, and they've extended that with this deal. T-Mobile signed a five-year roaming relationship, so existing T-Mobile customers just continue to use Starbucks, which is neat, and non-disruptive. Boingo Wireless users also gain access to Starbucks as part of their $22 per month unlimited U.S. and $39 per month worldwide plan.

Everyone else can pay $20 per month for acess to all 17,000 domestic locations and 53,000 international locations that AT&T aggregates into its Premium network.

We're still all waiting to see how AT&T extends this offer to its wireless subscribers; there were strong hints at the announcement two months ago that some offer would be provided, which makes especially good sense with the 2G/Wi-Fi iPhone. So far, though, no word.

With one Starbucks converted, that's 7,000 or so to go, but we'll likely see markets open up in the next few weeks, and I imagine the rest of San Antonio and all of Seattle--Starbucks' home--are lucky top of the list.

And here's one more tip: If you're an AT&T customer or roaming partner already, you can use your login at any current Starbucks hotspot. Look for an AT&T logo in the upper-right corner. Click it, then enter your login details. Very nice of Starbucks, T-Mobile, and AT&T to ease the transition from one provider to another.

The cell carriers continue their rush to the bottom, as the long-awaited real competition emerges for customers. AT&T introduced a new calling plan designed for small businesses that lets them pool their employees' phones and minutes, while Verizon Wireless dropped the price of smartphone use for those without an enterprise behind them.

The AT&T plan, called BusinessTalk, ports their family plan (cleverly named FamilyTalk) for small business use. Businesses can start with five users and 700 minutes at $60 per month, which is an incredibly low entry point. The BusinessTalk plan tops out at $1,075 per month with 40 users and 20,000 minutes. There are 10 plan levels with gradations of cost and service, and lines can be added for $9.99 per month (up to a total of 40 users) without increasing the minute pool, too. Extra minutes are 45 cents a piece for the low-end plans and 25 cents a pop at the high end.

BusinessTalk includes either unlimited Push to Talk (the walkie-talkie style intra-group communication) or Mobile to Mobile (calling other AT&T wireless lines) at no extra charge. Both services can be had, however, for $9.99 per month extra per user.

For many small businesses, this could be a huge savings over having to either reimburse people for their individual phone usage or plans, or having a variety of separate plans. Because each calling plan tends to start at $40 to $60, and heavy callers have to have big minute pools each month to avoid excessive charges.

AT&T and other carriers have now capped the heaviest callers by offering all-inclusive unlimited voice plans for $100 per month, but this pooled-minutes service for small businesses should provide a more flexible way to keep costs down.

Verizon, by contrast, dropped the price on service plans for several smartphones it offers, in order to better target consumers--"multi-tasking moms" as Verizon patronizingly notes in their press release's lead-in. (Dads either are naturally expected to multi-task, or are too busy wearing three-piece suits while golfing and drinking martinis to pay attention to a smartphone in this 1950s worldview.)

The new E-mail and Web for Smartphone plan is $29.99 (with a minimum voice plan), a drop from the nearly $45 per month charged for enterprise email plus unlimited smartphone email and browsing. The service includes access to as many as 10 email accounts at major online provides like Yahoo, AOL, Windows Live, and, of course, Verizon, but no access to Exchange servers. (That's what they're saying, but I have yet to see the interface; Exchange servers' email can often be accessed through a stripped-down mail client without the enterprise messaging/directory richness.)

Verizon is initially offering the SMT5800, XV6800 and MOTO Q9m. They already have a similar offering for Blackberrys, but I would be hard pressed to find someone without a corporation behind them that would be that interested in Blackberry features.

Nikon announced the Wi-Fi-enabled Coolpix S52c this week, and while it's the latest and greatest consumer-grade camera with embedded wireless networking--9 megapixels, 3x optical zoom, and image stabilization for $299 in June--the company still hasn't overcome the fundamental problem with embedded Wi-Fi. The camera makers feel the need to downsample us and lock us in.

PC World Senior Writer Darren Gladstone runs the HP through its paces in this video.

As the U.S. moves closer to in-flight broadband, accompanied by a sense of horror about the idea of in-flight cell calls or VoIP, the European Union inches closer to outright support for calls made above 3000 meters. Two moves today by the European Commission (EC) bring in-flight calls quite close.

With no harmonized air-to-ground frequencies available in European or even in the works, we won't see the kind of broadband effort that Aircell purchased the rights to and is launching across the U.S. Aircell can cheaply achieve high-speed broadband (a few Mbps in each direction) because they won't need to pay what are typically very high rates to satellite operators for bandwidth. (A satellite-backed U.S. competitor, Row 44, disagrees about satellite costs; they're launching a trial with Alaska Airlines, while Aircell has a fleet agreement with Virgin America, and a trial agreement with American Airlines.)

Rather, the Europeans are obsessed by "mobile" calling in the air. The EC today recommended to European spectrum regulators that they allow a license issued in one member country to allow use over all EU nations. Likewise, they did some technical work to assure that ground-based operators won't suffer from airborne interference. European aviation authorities previously approved the notion of mobile use in the air, and some specific equipment has been certified, too.

In-flight calling relies on a picocell, a small cell base station that cell phones recognize and associate with. The picocell can be backhauled to a voice and data network by satellite or ground; European service will launch with OnAir, a very patient operator (it's delayed its launch by about four years by the current count), which uses satellite for backhaul. Up to 12 calls can be made at the same time on a flight. The EC approved only the 1800 MHz band for calling, which means that U.S. travelers will need a quad-band GSM phone. Verizon and Sprint Nextel users need not apply, nor owners of GSM phones that have only U.S. bands built in. (The iPhone, before you ask, is only available as a quad-band phone.)

Your own mobile operator will set the price you pay for a call, and needs a roaming relationship with OnAir. The cost was estimated at about $2.50 before the huge drop in the dollar; it's unclear whether that's what the debut price will be. EC regulators have made a huge push in the last year to ensure lower pan-European roaming prices, and are taking a flinty-eyed view of in-flight tariffs.

Just a few days ago, Air France started an experimental trial of voice in the air, which extends three months unless complaints intrude. The voice trial is the second half of a mobile test, the first three months of which were devoted to text messaging and cell email.

RyanAir has committed to turning its entire fleet of aircrafts into telephone booths as soon as all the regulatory hurdles are covered. RyanAir offers flights as cheap as 1 euro or 1 pound, and makes much of its money from selling food and other goods in flight, as well from two of the three ancient vices: drink and gambling. The third vice, while legal in the UK and parts of Europe, is still not offered in air.

The Express is small, hangs directly off a power outlet (a separate A/V kit with an extender plug is available), and is designed to be portable. It has a single Ethernet jack, a USB slot, and a combo analog/optical digital audio output port. The USB slot can share a single printer. The idea is that you can use the Express as your main base station in a wirelessly enabled home, where the Express plugs into a broadband modem; or as an extension to a network elsewhere.

The U.S. has a cell data standards problem that Qualcomm aims to bridge for business travelers who want mobile broadband around the U.S. and around the world. The three 3G (third-generation) cell carriers in the U.S. use two different standards. AT&T backs the GSM-evolved UMTS and HSPA; Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel use EVDO, which comes out of Qualcomm's labs as an evolution of CDMA. (T-Mobile has no 3G service deployed yet, but it's coming soon, and will be GSM-flavored.)

Qualcomm's Gobi system is hardware that can reconfigure itself through software control to switch between EVDO and UMTS/HSPA. This makes Gobi a great piece of technology for a traveler who subscribes to either flavor in the U.S., and travels regularly outside its borders; as well as for laptop makers who can build Gobi in and let customers decide which U.S. network to choose.

The missing pieces for the Gobi picture announced last October were which carriers would support the technology, and which laptop makers would incorporate it. On April 1, Qualcomm announced that the five largest laptop makers, including HP, Dell, and Lenovo, would support the technology (a few had previously been announced), while T-Mobile and verizon Wireless had certified the use of their modem. Further carriers and makers are on the way. The first laptops featuring Gobi will appear in second quarter 2008.

Gobi overcomes a critical problem with purchasing a laptop with integrated mobile broadband: having to choose and stick with a specific flavor for the lifetime of the laptop. With Gobi, a buyer can sign up for AT&T and later switch to Verizon, or be a Sprint Nextel customer and travel to France, moving over to UMTS/HSPA for use there.

International roaming fees are a still a huge issue, of course, but the capability to use most fast networks in the world is clearly worth it for many travelers.

I'd like to refer you to read more about Gobi at Qualcomm's site, but the company has been on the losing end of a number of court decisions and trade commission orders in the last year. Qualcomm is moving full steam ahead with Gobi, but on its Web pages related to the technology--exclusive of press releases--the firm notes, "Out of an abundance of caution, due to the December 31st, 2007 injunction ordered against certain Qualcomm products, Qualcomm has temporarily removed certain web content until it can be reviewed and modified if necessary to ensure compliance with the injunction." The injunction was upheld in late March.