Free, pervasive wi-fi is a pretty big goal for this generation to figure out. Thanks to Virgin Media, one UK town gets to experience what it’s like to have free high-speed wireless under their feet and at their fingertips at all times. The conglomerate partnered with Chiltern District Council to outfit the town center in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, with Smart Pavement.

The Smart Pavement modules are waterproof resin squares that rest in the sidewalk alongside the regular concrete squares. They connect directly to Virgin’s fiber network, providing free wireless to the homes, businesses, and visitors in the area. According to Virgin, people are seeing speeds of up to 166 Mbps – or about seven times the average UK broadband speed.

The concept of integrating wireless technology into the cityscape is being considered all around the world. As internet access grows in importance, it seems that many are turning their eye toward treating it like a municipal utility – just like water or natural gas. Chesham is a grand experiment in keeping people connected even when away from home and cutting down on their mobile data usage. Installing little wifi modules could (and probably will) become a matter of routine in cities of the future.

The post High Tech on the High Street: UK’s First WiFi Sidewalks first appeared on Gajitz.

Enabling ordinary objects to become extraordinary tools via an internet connection is the next frontier of high technology. The Internet of Things keeps growing and expanding with the introduction of Knocki, a stick-on sensor that lets you – you guessed it – knock to initiate programmed actions. It eliminates the need for switches, buttons, and remote controls.

As long as it’s within wi-fi range, the Knocki can be stuck to just about any solid surface and activated with a pattern of knocks and taps on that surface. One knock on the dresser can tell the device and its app to turn on your sound system in the morning to get you up and moving. Three spaced-out knocks on the bedside table could tell Knocki to start the coffee brewing.

The system works by detecting vibrational patterns on a surface via an accelerometer. There’s no chance of the Knocki “hearing” environmental sounds like clapping and mistaking them for commands because it doesn’t operate on acoustic cues. The internal software can analyze knocks or taps to determine if they were intentional or if they were, for example, just you knocking over a coffee mug.

In addition to activating various gadgets around the house, the Knocki can be programmed for home security. You can tell it to text you if someone knocks on your front door or to call an ambulance if you tap out a specific pattern. The Knocki doesn’t even have to be in plain sight to work; you can mount it under a table or inside a cabinet. It has a range of up to six feet when mounted on wood and 3-4 feet when mounted on stone or other very hard surfaces – meaning you don’t have to knock directly beside or on top of it.

The creators of the system envision it being used outside the home environment, as well. They say it could be helpful in restaurants to let diners knock on the table to get their server’s attention. That would probably be the most annoying possible use (for the servers, anyway), but it’s a cool idea nonetheless. Knocki is available for pre-order on the company’s site.

The post Knock, Knock: This Module Wants to Smarten Your House first appeared on Gajitz.

A startup is turning New York City waste receptacles into sources of free street-level, solar-powered internet in addition to their current capabilities, which include signalling for a pickup when the garbage is filling up or starting to smell.

The city already has over 100 smart bins from Bigbelly waste management that are each able to relay information about their status wirelessly, so adding this functionality is a natural next step, particularly in dense areas where signals have limited range (as they can’t pass through tall buildings).

The connected system has all kinds of potential growth paths, including public alerts and data collection for the city government. If a waste space seems like a strange place to find such things, consider the necessary ubiquity of such systems – it is really only natural to turn something on every street corner more functional.

Another initiative to turn pay phones into Wi-Fi hubs is also underway. Meanwhile, Bigbelly is glad to be pushing in new directions: “We are a smart solar-powered, connected technology platform that is literally sitting in the streets of New York. We are exactly where the people are.”

The post Smart Garbage: NYC Trash Bins Now Free Wi-Fi Hotspots first appeared on Gajitz.

It may not seem like it when you’re scrolling through thousands of pithy comments on Reddit, but a full two-thirds of Earth’s population does not have access to the Internet. That might change dramatically in a few years thanks to an ambitious collaboration between Facebook, Qualcomm, and Nokia. They formed Internet.org, an organization dedicated to bringing affordable internet access to the entire world.

In March 2014, Facebook acquired Ascenta, a company that builds solar-powered drones. The plan, according to Internet.org, is to create and launch unmanned high altitude, long-running solar powered aircraft that can stay aloft for months and deliver reliable internet connectivity anywhere in the world. The UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) will fly at 20 kilometers above the planet’s surface – high enough that they are above high winds and bad weather, but low enough that they can beam down a reliable internet connection. It’s basically exactly the same as Google’s plan to beam internet access down from balloons, but with planes.

The aircraft will be pretty big: around the size of a 747, according to Facebook’s Connectivity Lab. They are calling them “planes” due to their size and, understandably, to avoid the negative connotations associated with flying “drones.” If all goes according to plan, the planes will have their first American trials in 2015 and could be providing wi-fi to currently unconnected places within three to five years. It seems a bit self-serving for several telecommunications giants, and particularly Facebook, to be involved in a plan to connect more people to the internet. But the folks behind the plan claim that the overall goal is to empower the world through the strength of global communication.

The group is also working on larger-scale connectivity solutions for areas of low population density. Their lofty goal is to create a series of connected satellites that will beam down continuous wi-fi signals from space. This is understandably quite a bit more difficult than putting a few planes in the air, so don’t expect to see those satellites launching in the next few years.

The post Sky-High Ambition: Facebook’s Solar Planes + Global Wi-Fi first appeared on Gajitz.

The Internet of Things is real, and it’s already started to slowly change the way we do things at home and in the workplace. You can control your thermostat, lights, and even your door locks from a remote location via mobile apps, and other home functions will definitely join up in the near future. Bttn is a simple but brilliant design meant to make controlling the Internet of Things a bit simpler.

Bttn is programmable through the IFTTT platform, which lets you program actions based on triggers. In the case of bttn, the trigger is pushing that little button. The action could be calling a taxi, turning off all of the lights in your house, texting you when your kid gets home from school, or even a string of commands. For example: when you wake up in the morning, you could press the bttnto turn on the hallway and kitchen lights, turn the thermostat up or down, and start the coffee maker.

The bttn is connected to the internet via wifi or 3G (if a microSIM card is installed). It runs on four AA batteries which are said to keep the device going for an entire year, but if you don’t mind wires you can also plug it into a MicroUSB adapter. You get visual and aural feedback when you push it, which lets you know that your action has been registered, but quite frankly is just really satisfying.

Actions for the bttn are programmed through any web browser. The setup is simple enough that even tech novices can use it, but robust and customizable enough that it feels fun and satisfying to the hardcore tech junkies. A number of actions are already created and can be activated through the bttn website with a single click (after you activate and register your bttn).

Although we think that pushing a big red button is probably the coolest option, bttn also comes in blue, yellow, and green. As of the time of publication they are available for pre-order for a $99 pledge on Indiegogo.

The post My Finger is on the Bttn: Single Control For All Your Stuff first appeared on Gajitz.