With just about every other US city shutting down any Muni-Fi project that managed to get off of the ground, we can’t help but have mixed feelings about this one. Oklahoma City is boasting of having the world’s largest municipal WiFi mesh network, but for whatever reason, it’s being reserved exclusively for “public safety and other City operations.” In other words, it’s not there to provide wireless internet access to the general public — yet, at least. The network itself covers 555 square miles with 95% service coverage in the city’s core, took two years to construct and was funded with $5 million from “public safety capital sales tax and City capital improvement funds.” Talk about a tease.

[Image courtesy of OKWebCenter]

Look out, Bluetooth — Ozmo Devices has its eyes set squarely on you. Okay, so maybe this whole thing isn’t as adversarial as advertised, but there’s no denying that the aforesaid company’s latest initiative will target the exact same devices that BT is embedded within now. Ozmo has announced a partnership with Intel at Computex that will extend the latter company’s Cliffside WiFi Personal Area Network (PAN) technology to “low-power devices.” Essentially, WiFi radios that suck less juice nowadays would take on dual roles — accessing WLAN networks and doing the duties typically reserved for Bluetooth — which would enable devices to have one less component stuffed within bulking things up. As of now, there’s been no takers on the design, but word on the street has Belkin already testing the approach out for kicks and giggles (or maybe something way more serious).

[Via DailyWireless]

Read - Ozmo Devices’ press release
Read - WiFI PAN explained

Soyntec is prepped to release their latest Wiffinder WiFi detecttion bag in February. The €43 / $63 nylon Wiffinder 400 Executive Case fits laptops up to 15.4-inches and features an integrated WiFi finder with signal strength indicator to tell you when the 802.11 airwaves are ready to leech. The integrated clock will remind you of the exact time the 5-0 arrived.

P.S. “Wiffinder” is not a typo. We agree, WiFinder would seem a more appropriate name.

[Via coolest-gadgets]