Yes, whether you’re a cute young thing or her less cute mom, if you’re into Wi-Fi, you’re going to love the Wi-Fire. I know I do. It’s about a billion times better than a Pringles can and coat hanger for extending your Wi-Fi “borrowing” range. You may remember we reviewed the first generation of Wi-Fire a year or two back, and were pretty much blown away by its performance. The only thing that wasn’t incredibly awesome about it was the somewhat flaky software, which apparently has been rewritten from the ground up. (In fact, if you win, you should download the even newer software from the website, just skip the disc).

The Wi-Fire is a compact, range-extending USB device that enables you to access a wireless Internet connection from up to 1,000 feet away–three times the range of your internal wireless adapter.

The Wi-Fire uses a powerful directional antenna, highly sensitive receiver and proprietary software to find and enhance normal WiFi signals. With it, you can connect wirelessly to the Internet–even at low signal strengths–faster, more reliably and with a more consistently strong connection–than you are able to with an internal wireless adapter.

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 Wi-Fire Connection Manager, plug the Wi-Fire into an available USB port and you’re ready to start. It can rest on any flat surface, laptop display or flat screen monitor.

To enter: Speaking of stealing things, if you could steal any one item in the world (that you could physically carry), without getting caught, what would you steal? Winners will be picked randomly 7 days later and notified (kind of like in The Ring, only with less killing… we hope). Open to ALL READERS WORLD-WIDE. Good luck, and thanks for reading Macenstein! (Oh, and be sure to enter ALL our “12 Days AFTER Christmas” Giveaways!)
Please note: Comments may take a while to show up, please do not double-post. Thanks!

Macenstein’s second annual “The 12 Days AFTER Christmas” Giveaway!

Well, the holidays have once again come and gone, and odds are you didn’t get anything you wanted. Well, cheer up! While your family and friends may hate you, we here at Macenstein appreciate your loyal readership, and have come up with our biggest giveaway yet to help spread some of that missing holiday cheer. Announcing Macenstein’s second annual “The 12 Days AFTER Christmas” Giveaway!

That’s right, for the next 12 Days (and perhaps even longer) we’ll be giving away a sleigh-load of gadgets and software that will be sure to erase the memory of any sweater-vests or Zunes you may have gotten from your senile aunt. We’ve gotten generous donations from Epson, Roxio, Wacom, JBL, Parallels, Alsoft, Belkin, MIMOBOT, Pixelmator, Speck, and many others, as well as some of the hottest iPhone developers out there to help fill up your new iPod and iPhones! So check back each day starting December 26th for the latest giveaways, and thanks for supporting Macenstein this year!

DAY 1: OVER 50 apps and games for your iPhone and iPod touch!! (CONTEST CLOSED)
DAY 2: OVER 50 apps and games for your iPhone and iPod touch!! (CONTEST CLOSED)
DAY 3: A Hello Kitty MIMOBOT! (CONTEST CLOSED)
DAY 4: Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 5: Realmac Software bundle (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 6: Pixelmator! (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 7: AKG K 309 Earbuds (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 8: Any Speck iPod case you want (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 9: Disk Warrior (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 10: Aerobics Pack+ NW for Nintendo Wii (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 11: iLuv iMM173 Dual Dock Alarm Clock for iPod/iPhone (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 12: AKG K 309 Earbuds (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 13: Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 14 Toast 10 Titanium Pro (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 15: Pixelmator (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 16: AKG K 313 Earbuds (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 17:Radioshift (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 18: Belkin Grip Ergo iPhone case (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 19: Any Speck laptop case you want (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 20: Mophie Juice Pack Air (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 22: A DIY delight: USB Drive enclosure and Tools (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 23: Pixelmator (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 24: Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 25: Booq’s MAMBA SLING bag (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 26: Darth Vader Unmasked Mimobot (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 27: – AKG K 313 Earbuds (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 28: NewerTech’s Charge & Sync (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 29: Scosche kickBACK iPhone 3G case (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 30: Jobi Gorillamobile for iPhone 3G/s (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 31: Any Speck laptop bag you want (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 32: AKG K 311 Earbuds (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 33: An OWC Elite quad-interface mini 320GB hard drive (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 34: A Technocel PowerPak (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 35: A Konnet Reflex Dock (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 36: A Finis XtreaMP3 (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 37: A Finis SwiMP3 (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 38: A Wi-Fire by hField Technology (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 39: A trio of iLuv 5th gen iPod nano cases (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 40: A JBL ON STAGE 400P (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 41: A Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen and Touch tablet (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 42: An Epson Workforce 610 All-in-One Printer (CONTEST CLOSED!)
DAY 43: – A set of Audioengine 5N Bamboo speaker!(CONTEST CLOSED!)

Macenstein turns 3 and we’re giving YOU presents!

[Thank you, we have our winners! Congrats to faithful Macenstein readers Linda, Erik, and Scott!]

My goodness, where does the time go!? It seems like only yesterday we decided to stop wasting our time reading Mac sites and instead waste our time running one, and now here we are, celebrating our three year anniversary. And yes, like most three-year-olds, we are still growing, still saying stupid things, and still wetting the bed. But one thing we have that most 3-year-olds do NOT is our loyal fan base of faithful Macenstein readers (that’d be you). And lucky for you, because we have the typical abandonment issues common to most toddlers, we are willing to bribe you to stay around by giving away some free stuff!

These days with iPhones and iPod touches being all the rage, we figured you kids might like some iTunes gift cards, and we have three $30 ones to give away. Now be warned, this is not your average contest – those of you who remember our Wii giveaway from last Christmas may remember our code breaking challenge, and we’re back for round 2. In order to win these you will have to jump through a series of (relatively easy) hoops.
Read more

Review: Wi-Fire more than delivers on its 3x Wi-Fi boost claim

When I read hField Technology’s claim that their new Wi-Fire could extend the range of your current computer’s Wi-Fi reception by up to 3 times, I had to check it out for myself. Long story short, we got an almost 5x boost, so read on if you want the details, or just go to hField’s site now and buy the damn thing!

The Story

My interest in supercharging my Mac’s Wi-Fi came after a recent vacation to the Jersey Shore. We had brought along our Mac mini, hoping its Wi-Fi antennae might be able to pick us up some free internet access while we were down there. Unfortunately, the mini had no luck acquiring a signal. However, my sister-in-law happened to bring down her MacBook, and she was able to pick up 3 bars of glorious, unencrypted Wi-Fi goodness sitting not a foot from the mini (plus it saw an additional two password-protected networks the mini missed). I hooked her MacBook to our mini via FireWire and shared her connection, more or less using her MacBook as a modem for the week.

This disparity in reception between the mini and the MacBook baffled me. I mean, I know the MacBook’s have antennas built into their screens, so maybe they should get a slightly better signal, but to go from seeing nothing to seeing 3 networks, that was just downright sad for the mini.

Boosting the reception

The Wi-Fire is more or less a standalone, directional (meaning you point it towards your Wi-Fi source) 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi antenna and Wi-Fi card rolled into one. For not that much more than the price of an Airport Extreme card (with installation), you can add the USB powered Wi-Fire to ANY Mac with USB. That’s right, an old iMac, G4 tower, whatever. Your computer does not have to have Wi-Fi in order to use the Wi-Fire, simply install the driver, reboot, plug in the Wi-Fire via USB, and follow the instructions. The initial setup takes about 5 minutes and requires a restart.

Say good-bye to the “bars of reception” AirPort uses to measure signal strength. The Wi-Fire give you real-time feedback of signal strength as you rotate the antennae. (Notice the 10 networks the Wi-Fire picks up compared to the usual 2 or 3 my AirPort finds – nice to see another Mac User apparently lives nearby!).

Results: Test 1 (work)

To test the Wi-Fire, we used a G4 PowerBook and our office internet connection, which is powered by a gen 2 AirPort Extreme Base Station. We went as far as we could from Macenstein Labs’ base station – the loading dock in the back – and we were able to get only a single bar of reception via the PowerBook’s built-in AirPort card. However, once outside, on the other side of the loading dock’s steel door, we got zilch, and AirPort could find no other networks to glom off of. This was a little surprising, as Macenstein is located in a rather heaviy populated industrial park.

So, we plugged in the Wi-Fire, turned off the Airport, and set the Wi-Fire to scanning. Immediately, up popped our network with a 39% signal strength (more on that in a minute) but along with it no fewer than NINE other networks, 4 of which were not password protected! We joined those networks, verifying that indeed we could connect to them, and then switched back to our network to begin testing our range.

Don’t be fooled by this picture, a slight breeze will send the Wi-Fire toppling, as the “clip” aspect of the stand is pretty much useless.

We first made a circle around the building, and were surprised to find that the strongest reception we could get from our network was 40%. Feeling a little let down, we began walking down the street, stopping every 20 feet or so to see how our reception was. After 100 feet, it was still 40%. 200 feet – 39%. 300 feet – back up to 41%. It appeared as though the 40% or so Wi-Fi signal was all that was able to make its way out of Macenstein’s HQ, but the Wi-Fi was able to keep that 40% connection no matter the distance. We kept walking. 400 feet – 38%. 500 feet (we were now sitting across from a Car Wash, looking like tools) 35%. We got an estimated 700 feet from our office before losing the signal, and we feel this was do more to line of site issues than to the Wi-Fire not being up to the 1000-foot challenge. There were just too many other buildings and trees in the way, and we couldn’t aim the Wi-Fire at our office any longer.

We ran another test inside Macenstein Labs, this time with the Wi-Fire connected to a dual G5 PowerMac. The G5 normally was connected to the internet via Ethernet, and in our test using the Wi-Fire, we got an identical download time for a 120MB file as with a wired connection. Needless to say, we were impressed.

Results: Test 2 (home)

At home I decided to test the Wi-Fire with that same troublesome Mac mini that delivered such poor Wi-Fi reception on vacation. Despite being about 20 feet from my home base station (and 4 feet from an AirPort Express), occasionally the mini will lose its AirPort connection, causing me to have to turn its AirPort off and back on to reconnect.

I had a little trouble setting up the Wi-Fire to work on my home AirPort. Where our work network is not password protected (don’t ask), my home network is, and while I thought I was entering my correct network password, the Wi-Fire didn’t agree. Long story short, I ended up having to enter the Hexidecimal password, not my standard ASCII one I use when connecting normally via AirPort. To get this, simply open up your AirPort setup utility, and choose “BASE STATION” from the main menu. There you will see an option for EQUIVALENT NETWORK PASSWORD, which will show you your 26 character string (assuming you are using 128-bit WEP) and that worked just fine in the Wi-Fire.

Not overly pretty, but at least you won’t mistake which end you are supposed to point where.

After setting it up, I was up and running with a 90% signal that has not been dropped once in the last 2 weeks. Additionally, I now see 10 other networks from neighbors of mine, 5 of which are unprotected. It’s nice to know that in theory, I could stop paying for internet access at any point and just use one of their networks for free (not that I would ever do that.) I felt especially dirty connecting the the network MSHOME. It’s also nice to know I have a choice of 3 new IP addresses to use, should I choose to.

Issues

Ok, so the Wi-Fire is awesome, but there’s gotta be a catch, right? Well, yes, actually, there is. Two catches, in fact. First, the thing ain’t small. It is designed with a sort of dual stand/monitor clip, but the clip aspect of it is pretty much useless, so don’t kid yourself into thinking it will clip to the lid of your Mac laptop (or cinema display, for that matter). You’ll find you’ll want to leave it free-standing on a desk next to you for the most part, or on top of your tower, if you use it thusly. It’s not beautiful, either. The gray antenna with the directional arrow sticker on top is rather PC-ish (and yes, it works fine on Windows machines too) but we forgive it. The stand folds flat, so while it is a little on the large side, you should have no problem putting it in your computer bag when traveling.

The retractable USB cable is a nice touch that will be appreciated by travelers.

The second problem is a problem we encountered with the driver on certain Macs, mainly PowerPC-based Macs. Once set up, the Wi-Fire worked great, but if you unplugged it while using the connection, then plugged it back in, the connection would not resume, requiring a restart. Not the end of the world, and hField claims they are aware of the problem, but something to keep in mind.

Conclusion

The Wi-Fire by hField is awesome. While not the prettiest girl at the dance, this one puts out, and should be popular with just about everyone who is disappointed with their current Wi-Fi reception. For only $79, you can hook the Wi-Fire to ANY Mac (or PC) and get instant internet access with nearly 5 times the range of your current Wi-Fi card (MacBook owners may see less dramatic results than Mac mini owners such as myself). Additionally, the Wi-Fire allows you to glom off the non-password protected networks of neighbors, meaning for $79, you could theoretically never have to pay for internet access again.

[UPDATE]: In answer to readers questions (see below in the comments) about whether the same piece of Wi-Fire hardware will work on both Macs and PCs, or whether you need to purchase a platform-specific version, Wi-Fire had this to say:

With the present units, the XP and Mac units are different hardware platforms. In development, hField worked with several different hardware platforms and our first objective was optimizing performance with each OS. Different chipsets happen to have different strengths and weaknesses and this was something we wanted to characterize first.

The Wi-Fire for Vista will be introduced to the market near the end of October and this will be on the same chipset as the Mac, just different software as you were surmising. In fact, any Wi-Fire for Mac owner that plugs his Wi-Fire into a Vista machine will discover that it runs plug and play with no software installed. And it can be used that way now just by using the internal Vista WiFi controls. However, with the end of October release, they’ll also be able to get our new software which will take a totally different approach than seen on the market today and fully integrate with Vista but provide better info for the more techie user.

After that Vista release, we’ll continue consolidating on one platform but are not ready to release a schedule for that yet.

The Wi-Fire by hField Technologies

Price: $79

Pros: Adds amazing Wi-Fi range to any Mac (or PC), very reasonably priced, retractable USB chord for travel

Cons: A bit bulky, not overly beautiful, slightly flaky drive on PowerPC Macs (being worked on)