How long before people start clamoring for Wi-Fi on public buses? If Bolt Bus can offer this and still keep prices low, surely it wouldn’t be hard to implement on a larger scale? In-flight Wi-Fi isn’t so rare anymore. The last bastion of connection-free space is underground, and even that’s not universally true.

Geeks like me (and Gizmodo’s Dan Nosowitz) dream of the day when wireless is as easy to find as a public bathroom. (Note that I did not say a clean bathroom.) When the connection at the bus stop smoothly transitions to the one on the bus then smoothly transitions to the one at the office. I’m willing to suffer a few dead spots – elevators, for instance, need not have a signal – but only a few. I can see myself, tablet tucked into the crook of my arm, working on documents or reading books or surfing the web or answering email without pause, without worry.

Also, if we can help it, without cost. Constant mobile broadband connectivity is a current reality as long as you live in or near urban areas and stay on street level. But the cost isn’t worth it for everyone. And since it’s been pointed out that U.S. cell phone users are paying up to five times what European consumers are, sooner or later something has to give. Will the tablet revolution make the carriers rub their hands in anticipation of more money or make consumers demand lower costs for services? It would only take one carrier and one tablet offering decent mobile broadband rates to shake things up. Or maybe mobile broadband providers will be caught by surprise when blanket Wi-Fi cuts them out of the picture altogether.

Who is going to change the game? CrunchPad, iPad, or some other yet-to-be-announced piece of mobile awesomeness? Mobile Broadband, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, or other? It’s too early to call it, but not too early to get excited. Right?

The Zune HD, as its name implies is all about the high-definition. It has a built-in HD Radio receiver and high-definition video output capabilities. Additionally it will have a HD output that lets you playback 720p video files from the device through a HDMI docking station directly to an HDTV. It also has an OLED touch screen, Wi-Fi and an Internet browser.

While we are a bit skeptical about the HD radio functionality (it just hasn’t really taken off), we are absolutely looking forward to seeing the new form factor. The OLED touch screen which will allow for fliping through music, movies and other content with multi-touch gestures sounds sweet.

Zune also annouced that it will be a premium partner in the Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace and will bring TV and film to the platform.

Today, though, the carrier announced plans to expand GoGo service to 318 planes, an ambitious plan that will cost $100,000 per aircraft. Although all of these flights will be domestic, you can at least hope to be on a Wi-Fi enabled flight if you’re not flying, say, from New York to California.

Currently, GoGo costs $7.95 for mobile devices, $9.95 for flights shorter than three hours, and $12.95 for flights longer than three hours. For the money, the connection isn’t fast: 3.1 megabits per second.

Don’t worry, though; this doesn’t mean planes will become as noisy as commuter rail: VoIP calls will still be prohibited. (Ed. note: Amen to that!)

For starters, T-Mobile is throwing in unlimited HotSpot usage with the $59.99 monthly data fee, which means you’ll be able to access any of T-Mobile’s 10,000+ national Wi-Fi networks, even in places like Starbucks where the carrier roams on AT&T to provide coverage. The dongle, made by Huawei Technologies, also supports  international roaming (although T-Mobile doesn’t yet offer international data plans).

The second feature that is somewhat unique is the T-Mobile’s bandwidth usage meter, which lets you view how much data you’ve already used throughout the month. Other carriers like AT&T offer similar solutions online, but T-Mobile’s meter is conveniently built directly into the Connection Manager. T-Mobile says a pending software update which will enable the meter and provide charts of data usage patterns.

The problem is that T-Mobile’s 3G footprint is nowhere near as deep as the other major U.S. carriers. T-Mobile’s HSDPA network is available in 130 cities covering 100 million people, and the carrier plans to reach 200 million people by the end of the year. By comparison, AT&T and Sprint cover 258 million and 250 million people, respectively. Verizon reaches 274 million people and counting. So it’s no suprise that T-Mobile is targeting what it calls “locally mobile” customers. In other words, the webConnect USB Laptop Stock is not the best solution for commuters who need to get coverage in the suburbs, or business travelers who frequent cities that aren’t covered by T-Mobile’s network.

T-Mobile claims that customers can expect downlink speeds in the range of 600Kbps to 1Mbps with the webConnect, which is fast enough for browsing Web sites or streaming videos, so we decided to plug it in and give the device a quick test run.

While the dongle itself is a bit large compared to others we’ve tested, it doesn’t have an overly annoying blinking signal-status light; instead it’s just a small quick flash every now and then to let you know it’s connected. When we first plugged the webConnect USB stick in, it started automatically installing the T-Mobile Connection manager (built by Smith Micro). That means you don’t have to use a CD to install the device on other computers.

After the software installation finished, we were greeted by the home screen, which alerted us of all available networks, including Wi-Fi and T-Mobile’s 3G network. The software even has a T-Mobile HotSpot locator, which you can use to find T-Mobile’s available Wi-Fi networks; it lets you search by City, State, Country, or Zip/Area codes. The connection manager also lets you SMS friends or family directly from your computer.

We fired up a connection in our office with service fluctuating around 3-4 bars (out of 5)  and were able to load ESPN in 23 seconds, NYT.com in 21 seconds, and CNN’s homepage in 19 seconds. However, we were able to read most of the text on all of these sites after 11 or 12 seconds and the additional time was spent download media on the page.

We uploaded a 6MB image to Flickr in 3 minutes and 15 seconds, which meant we had an upload speed of 242Kbps during that test.  We downloaded a 7.2MB installation file from Firefox.com in 1 minute and 50 seconds, which meant our average download speed was 536Kbps. Not bad for having 3-4 bars in our office, but still on the slower side. Using SpeedTest.net to confirm our results, we saw download throughput speed in the area of 594Kbps and upload speeds at a somewhat faster 323Kbps.

We look forward to putting the webConnect USB through our full gamut of testing in three different locations over the next few days, but so far the mediocre speeds in our offices and T-Mobile’s limited footprint are major drawbacks.

Actually, according to AT&T, the sales of this subsidized Aspire One are exceeding its expectations (though its unclear what those were). The carrier argues that buyers of that netbook think of it more as a cell phone than a PC and are willing to spend more to have anytime, anywhere mobile broadband.

Still, there’s no question that AT&T would be able to attract many more subsidized netbook buyers if it offered a wider array of 3G pricing options. Glenn Lurie, president of emerging devices and resale for AT&T Mobility and consumer markets, talked to us about this topic and more. Here are the highlights:

• Netbooks need to offer even longer battery life, as well as instant-on access across the board, to be more compelling wireless devices.
• We’ll likely see at least one smart phone maker jump into the netbook game. (Who knows, maybe HTC will produce a better device than the Shift next time around.)
• AT&T is looking at all sorts of payment options for 3G data, including prepaid, day passes, capped plans (similar to voice minute plans), and even family plans for households with multiple devices.
• The carrier envisions a not-too-distant future in which it will sell not only netbooks in its stores but all sorts of connected gadgets, including e-books and GPS navigators.

How does AT&T view netbooks right now?
Netbooks are really interesting right now, but the real exciting thing about these devices is how they will be used a year from now. They need to have longer battery life, where you can use it for most of the day. And they have to allow for instant-on; they can’t have a five-minute boot up that you have today on a big notebook. They have to have intelligent connection managers where customers don’t have to hunt for Wi-Fi. We are excited to get all these devices on our network, and from our perspective, the growth in this area is fantastic.

You mentioned instant-on technologies and customers being able to get online right away. Is there a particular solution, like Splashtop or Hyperspace, that AT&T is backing?
We are merely just saying that customers want to get to their e-mail and to the Web right away. I think there are a lot of people and OEMs looking at that right now.

Is there a certain netbook manufacturer that AT&T feels is doing the best job?
I can’t say. We are seeing a lot more companies dive into the netbook space that don’t even build computers. There are companies that build smart phones that think they can build computers, and you are also seeing smart phone companies trying to build computers. It going to create more divergent types of devices. We will support all of them.

Can you tell us how good the sales have been for the subsidized $99 Acer Aspire One being offered at Radioshack?
Anecdotally we are very pleased with the initial results. We see how many are sold and activated and the usage with them. The numbers have exceeded our expectations.

The reason people are buying netbooks to begin with is because they are low-cost. Isn’t adding a $60 monthly data fee on top of that a turn-off for prospective buyers, especially now?
The reason people are buying these is because of an overall value proposition, not the cost of the computer or the cost of service. It is the same model we have had in the cell phone business for years. A customer walks in and buys a smart phone and they are going to buy a plan; they are looking for the right device and AT&T is going to subsidize the device.

But you are still talking about twice the monthly investment of a smart phone. What other sorts of other pricing plans might AT&T be looking at to make subsidized netbooks more palatable for consumers?
First of all, today with the current pricing models, customers are willing to pay, because we are adding customers at record numbers. The people are seeing the value proposition, whether they buy an embedded solution from Dell or Acer or a PC dongle. We are breaking monthly records even in a down economy because customers see the value proposition and are willing to invest, because they want to be connected anytime, anywhere.

Your point is valid is that we have to have other flexible choices for the customer. We have to be able to give customers a choice like we have in the voice business. You might want to do a prepaid offering where you buy a card, you might want to do a day pass like you have seen in the Wi-Fi business. I think we may have to go there, too. You may want to see a capped plan that gives you something similar to your minute plan. All these things may come to fruition as the market matures. My group is focused on looking at these options and testing them.

Acer mentioned to us the possibility of giving customers an allotment of hours per month to use mobile broadband, where you would have a countdown timer embedded in the connection manager utility. Does this seem like something that could work for AT&T?
A connection manager’s job is to make sure you are on the right network, not counting how much you use. The manager determines whether you are on Wi-Fi or on a 3G network. We love Wi-Fi, and that is why we have over 20,000 hotspots and 15 million customers with our broadband service in the home. For us the connection manager makes sure the customer is on the best network for them and for us at that particular time. The cost structure for us is good and we deliver effective cost rate plans because of the less usage on the 3G network.

Right now the customer could do a lot in an hour and push a lot of megabytes. You could do a ton in an hour or nothing. For us it is really about the actual data that gets transferred over the network.

AT&T has done a good job spreading the message about mobile broadband when it comes to connection cards, but are there any plans to make a similar marketing push for embedded netbooks?
I can’t speak to direct commercials or marketing efforts, but that is my whole job. The reason you haven’t seen it yet is because there aren’t that many of them being offered yet. AT&T sees this as a whole new business for us. This is going to be, without question, an area where we are going to grow.

Will people be able to buy a netbook in an AT&T store at some point?
Yes, at some point we will carry them and many types of devices in our stores. I see us including netbooks, MIDs, e-books, portable navigation, and all types of connected devices. I also see these devices being in the traditional big-box retailers and their Web sites.

Will AT&T offer a plan that allows customers to share a mobile broadband subscription among different devices?
We are looking at the whole customer experience, and we are looking heavily at the situation where the customer has five devices that are connected. We aren’t there yet, but like when the family plan was born, we will have to evolve to make sure that we give our customers a fair value. Is there potential for a bucket of bits and bytes that multiple SIMs could use? We do see the opportunity.

The Wave internet phone lets you place phone calls through VoIP accounts like Skype to regular handsets wherever there’s an available Wi-Fi hotspot. We like the white coloring and the overall industrial design of the device, including its sensitive touch screen, but it still feels a bit late to the market. Skype phones were a bit popular a few years ago, and they weren’t all that popular, but iRiver builds on the idea by adding additional features like the 7-inch LCD display, support for SMS messaging, a music and video player, an e-dictionary, an FM radio, and more. The device was lighter than we thought it would be, and it’s a novel idea to take a device that can stand alone as a fully dedicated PMP and add in native VoIP support.

The Wave Home Communication Multimedia Communication device, as we suspected, is perfect as a bedside accessory or a secondary computer for the kitchen. You can place video calls through its built-in Web cam and add up to three people in a conference call. If you want to walk away from the device and stay on the line, you can pick up a headset that’s stowed in the rear of the device and wander around the house. It also neatly displays the weather on the home screen, and you can use it as a photo viewer as well. We liked the accurate touch screen, but were disapointed to learn that it’s only scheduled to launch in Asia right now, with a potential U.S. launch later.

It’s intelligent too; if you have two copies of a specific CD across your network, it will only display one so that you’re not stumbling through duplicate listings while trying to choose a song.

Read on for a gallery of the new Linksys devices and more on the Media Hub.

The Media Hub also has a small LCD display, a 6-in-1 card reader, and two USB ports for adding additional storage to the device for sharing over your home network.

The 500GB version is available for $349 and the 1TB is available for $429. These products work with Linksys’ other new announcements which included a home media controller and the Director, a wireless-N music player which can access the Media Hub, and has its own LCD and speakers attached.

With the help of EyeStage software, users can stream Web content like weather and photo feeds. Most other wireless frames do this, too, but many of them use FrameChannel’s service, which makes it hard to tell some of these models apart. We’ll be curious to see if this new software is truly a breath of fresh air.

New Routers
The first announcement was its 802.11a/b/g/n RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N Modem Router (DGND3300) which operates using both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies, to help prevent interference. This ADSL2+ router (it’s for DSL users) offers a unique Push ‘N’ Connect feature for easy and secure installation and setup. The router uses 8 internal antennas to help maintain a strong signal range. We like that it also automatically upgrades to the latest firmware, and its sleek design; it looks just like prior generations of Netgear routers, but it’s black.

Netgear also announced the RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router Premium Edition (WNDR3700), a sleek piano black device that packs 4 gigabit ethernet ports, the same Push ‘N’ Connect setup technology which uses Wi-Fi Protected Setup security (WPS), and a 680MHz processor. Netgear claims the router will help prioritize different traffic, whether it’s streaming media, gaming, or making a VoIP call to ensure the best quality of service. The device also has adjustable power and range settings, so you can reduce power consumption by up to 75 percent; you can also power the device down with just a press of a button.

Forget buying a secondary broadband card: Netgear released a 3G broadband router called the MBR624GU. This router takes the broadband connection from a broadband card and creates an 802.11g wireless access point which can deliver throughput up to 54Mbps.  You can also connect up to four computers using its 10/100 Ethernet jacks. This is perfect for frequent travelers, that may try to avoid paying a hotel Wi-Fi bill by using broadband, but are limited to using just their computer. With the MBR624GU, any Wi-Fi enabled device can take advantage of your 3G connection. The technology is limited to USB cards, including the Sprint Compass 597, 595U, Ovation U727, Ovation U720, AT&T AirCard 880U, Compass 885, and Verizon Wireless Compass 595U, Ovation USB727 and Ovation USB720.

Internet Connected Devices
The Internet TV Player ITV2000 lets users connect their TV to the internet. It’s a small box with a remote that lets you easily stream content from news and sports sites like CNN or ESPN and evens teram video content from YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Videos, and MetaCafe. You can also use it to purchase multimedia from BitTorrent. We like that it lets you plug in and browse your own USB devices, so you can watch your home video content on the device as well. To get online, you either have to plug in an Ethernet cable or attach a wireless USB dongle.

Finally, Netgear announced its Digital Entertainer Elite (EVA9150) a 500GB digital media player (upgradable) that lets you stream 1080p video, music, photos, and other content directly from your PC or network attached storage device to your TV. Like the ITV2000, it lets you stream videos from the likes of YouTube, but it also throws in Flickr support and an RSS reader for keeping up to date on your favorite Web sites. It one ups the ITV2000 by tossing in a second USB port for extra storage, or playback from personal media devices like an iPod.

In-Home Access and Networking Connectivity
Netgear’s new Powerline AV Adapter with 4-Port Ethernet Switch lets you achieve 200Mbps of throughput by simply plugging the adapter into your powerline. That means, if you have a room that doesn’t get a good wireless signal and you don’t want to drill holes in the walls, you simply have to plug this in to an existing outlet, and then plug your Ethernet cables into it for a quick internet connection.

The Netgear MoCA Coax-Ethernet Adapter Kit (MCAB1001) lets you stream high defintion video and games by using your TV outlets. As long as your home is wired for cable, you can use it to stream multimedia at a max rate of 270Mbps, which Netgear claims is satisfactory for uninterrupted HD streaming from consoles like Xbox 360s andPlayStation 3, direct to a TV.

The converter has four Ethernet ports, so it can work with that many devices simultaneously. As for speed, Buffalo claims throughput as high as 300 Mbps when paired with an N router.