The free wireless internet startup FreedomPop is targeting the likes of Comcast and Cablevision with its Hub Burst home router, which is now available for purchase.

First announced back in December, the $89 Hub Burst brings FreedomPop’s free wireless service beyond mobile devices. It comes with 1 gigabyte of free WiMax 4G, and you can also purchase additional bandwidth starting at $10 a month.

Like all of FreedomPop’s devices, there’s a big social component with the Hub Burst — you can earn additional bandwidth by referring family and friends. FreedomPop also offers a variety of special promotions that grant more bandwidth when completed.

While routers for cellular connections aren’t anything new, FreedomPop’s strategy certainly offers something new for home broadband users. For many people, it doesn’t really make sense for them to subscribe to home broadband connections, so a solution like the Burst Router could be ideal. (It sounds like the best way to get your non-techy grandma online.)

Unfortunately, since FreedomPop relies on WiMax 4G, you won’t see speeds anywhere near typical home broadband connections. The company’s next wave of devices will run on Sprint’s LTE connection, which has the potential to reach or surpass home broadband speeds.

Plenty of startups made a splash at CES 2013, signaling the start of a new era.

They weren’t all killer ideas, but the ever-growing presence of consumer tech startups foretells the new shape of CES — and perhaps even the gadget world in general. Major tech companies may not have had many big announcements, but these emerging companies are where the future lies.

For the most part, I found the ideas from startups to be far more intriguing than those from big firms. These aren’t companies that are trying to maintain any sort of corporate status quo, so they’re free to innovate and experiment as necessary. And with the rise of Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sources, they’re even less beholden to investors and traditional business paths. This leads to some pretty cool stuff.

Almond+: A touchscreen router with fast wireless and home automation

Who needs a touchscreen on their router? Actually, everyone (except maybe geeks). Instead of dealing with clunky router configuration screens, Securifi’s Almond routers let you deal with the entire setup process right on the router. Its original router has been a hot seller on Amazon since it debuted six months ago, but that’s not stopping it from raising the bar yet again with the Almond+.

The new router supports the 802.11AC wireless standard, which offers theoretical speeds of more than 1.1 gigabits, as well as gigabit ethernet. That’s about three times the wireless speed of the old Almond router. The Almond+ also offers more than double the range of its predecessor, and it also supports home automation standards Z-wave and Zigbee.

Securifi is going to launch a Kickstarter campaign for the Almond+ soon, and it intends to sell the router for around $99. Considering that a good 802.11N router costs around $150, I have a feeling that the company has another potential hit with the Almond+.

Dhama Innovations: Instant contrast heat therapy

Seemingly going against several laws of physics*, Dhama Innovations has developed technology that can instantly offer icing and heating therapy in a variety of wearable wraps. In a brief demonstration at its Eureka Park booth, I felt one of Dhama’s wraps go from freezing cold to incredibly hot within seconds. Dhama says that it’s the first to develop instant cooling, and consequently, it’s the only company offering instant hot/cold therapy.

Founder Kranthi Kiran Vistakula developed the technology while at MIT, and MIT’s Technology Review named him as the Innovator of the Year in 2010 by  (among many other awards he has earned).

Dhama offers a knee, back, universal, and migraine wraps from between $142 and $188. The wraps are light, between .3 and 1 pound, and their batteries offer up to four hours of runtime.

For athletes, or anyone suffering from chronic body aches, Dhama’s technology could be incredibly useful.

* Note: I am not a physicist.

Mauz: Use your iPhone as a wireless gesture mouse

What if you could use all of the great motion sensors in your iPhone to replace your mouse? The folks at Spicebox have developed Mauz, a tiny device that plugs into the bottom of your iPhone that turns motion gestures into typical mousing tasks. But it also uses your iPhone’s front camera for Minority Report-esque visual gestures.

Spicebox launched a Kickstarter campaign for the Mauz on Jan. 7, and it’s already reached more than $8,000 of its $150,000 goal. Check out a short demo below.

Pebble

Pebble’s already received a ton of buzz over its wildly successful Kickstarter campaign, in which it raised more than $10 million from almost 69,000 backers. But it chose to debut the final version of its smartwatch, which connects to your smartphone wirelessly to show you messages, calendar notifications, and control music, at CES. Pebble was likely hoping to target the attention of the gadget hounds that roam the show, but it also faced the danger of being overshadowed by a ton of other tech news.

And yet, despite being Pebble’s very first press conference (and the first press conference creator Eric Migicovsky ever attended), it still managed to make an impact. Looking back at CES 2013, it was Migicovsky’s nervous energy during his press conference, and his sheer enthusiasm for finally getting the Pebble out the door, that resonated with me the most throughout the show.

Popchillas World: Autism therapy with games and a robot

It may look like a Furby, but Popchillas World from Interbots is trying to do much more. It has developed an iPad app, as well as a companion stuffed robot, to help autistic kids learn social skills and daily routines. It covers basic tasks like brushing your teeth or complex scenarios like managing emotions. Interbots head of software David Culyba pointed out that autistic kids tend to interact well with touchscreens and robots, so Popchillas World has a shot at being a big help to their parents.

Re-Timer: Goofy glasses that can solve your sleep problems

VentureBeat’s Sean Ludwig fell for these trippy glasses from Re-Timer, which use green lights to help your body reconfigure your sleep patterns.

You wear the glasses in the morning when you first wake up for 50 minutes four days in a row. Or if you wake up too early, you wear the glasses at night before you go to bed for the same duration.

“You’re training your body to a different rhythm,” Re-Timer operating manager Claire Hoban told us. “The green light activates the photoreceptors in your eyes and makes you more alert.”

The glasses are based on more than years of scientific research, and Hoban noted that they also helped her deal with jet lag when travelling to CES from Australia. The Re-Timer glasses cost $274 and are available online.

Zboard: The electric skateboard rolls on

We were big fans of Zboard’s weight-sensing electric skateboard back at DEMO Spring last year, and it ended up making waves at CES as well. Zboard won the top prize from Showstoppers and Launch.it’s CES startup competition, beating out several strong Eureka Park contenders (including Dhama Innovations and Liquipel).

Zboard also announced that it’s now seeking $750,000 in funding (on top of the more than $278,000 it raised on Kickstarter last year.)

So far, Intuitive Motion has sold hundreds of Zboards, founder Ben Forman said during the competition. It offers two models: The Zboard Classic for $649, which has around 5 miles of range and a top speed of 15 miles per hour; and the Zboard Pro for $949. The Pro version uses lithium ion batteries, so it’s lighter and offers double the range.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Netgear knows that while you occasionally want to check work email at home, what you really want a fast home network for is watching HD shows that you’re streaming wirelessly from the internet.

To that end, the company will be extending its line of home networking devices this year, making it simpler for consumers to connect their computers, TVs and devices to the internet for file storage, streaming media and basic connectivity.

The company also promised to deliver new routers this year based on the emerging 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, which will deliver wireless speeds of up to 1.35Gbps. That’s about 4 times faster than 802.11n and 25 times faster than 802.11g.

The company announced eight new products at the Consumer Electronics Show today, several of which are aimed at simplifying people’s access to streaming media.

“The PC is not dead. It’s evolving into something new,” said David Henry, a vice president at Netgear, pointing to the wide variety of devices in typical homes that depend on internet connections: tablets, streaming media boxes, smart TVs, smartphones as well as laptops and desktops.

“Whether it’s a post-PC era or not, the demands on the network are new.”

The proportion of homes with more than six devices connected to the internet has grown 70 percent from 2010 to 2011, according to a Netgear survey. For the first time, more than 50 percent of home internet traffic is based on real-time entertainment.

NetGear’s Media Storage Router (shown above) addresses many homes’ growing need for storage as well as wireless. With 2 terabytes of internal storage, it stores data as well as providing network connectivity. It’s compatible with Apple Time Machine as well as Windows backup software, so it can be used to back up any computer on your network. It’s also DLNA compatible, so it can be connected with compatible devices (such as televisions) on your network. It offers dual-band, N900 2.4 and 5GHz Wi-Fi. It also offers two USB 3.0 ports for connecting additional storage, gives you remote access to your files and comes with a firewall for protecting your personal data.

The NeoTV Streaming Player, announced last year, now supports Hulu Plus (as well as previously-supported services, such as NetFlix, YouTube and dozens more). A future version will also support Intel Wireless Display (WiDi), so you can project your laptop screen onto your television in full HD.

“Because your laptop can access the entire internet, we can get the entire internet right there on your television with NeoTV,” said Henry.

The company’s new N900 Video and Gaming 4-Port WiFi Adapter provides wireless and Ethernet connections, optimized for gaming.

Netgear also announced a new Powerline 500 Nano power line adapter to provide 500 Mbps data connections over power lines.

To address those annoying “dead zones” in your home Wi-Fi network, Netgear offers the Universal Dual Band WiFi Range Extender. It can be used to extend 2.4 and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands simultaneously and has four Ethernet ports for wired connections.

Last year’s Netgear Genie software monitors and helps you manage your home network. This year, the company will also offer a Netgear Genie app, so you can manage your network from an iPhone or Android phone. It provides access to wireless network controls, parental controls, and access control so you can boot off neighbors “borrowing” your bandwidth. If you’ve got media on your network (such as files stored on the Media Storage Router) you can select videos and direct them to DLNA-compatible devices on your network. You can also play media directly on your smartphone.

“The content can be on any DLNA share, and the player can be any DLNA player,” said Henry. In effect, it makes your phone into a basic remote control for accessing videos and music stored on your network.

The future includes 802.11ac, which will provide 1.35Gbps speeds. Products based on that standard will be available this year, Henry said. Also, next-generation power line standards will exceed 1Gbps, up from the 200Mbps capable with the current standard, HomePlug AV, or the 14Mbps possible with the previous version, HomePlug 1.0.

The company’s new Netgear Smart Network includes Netgear devices, an “Intelligent Cloud App Server,” and a development platform for creating apps that run on Netgear’s system. Developers can sign up for the Smart Network now. In the coming months, Netgear will be announcing devices that support the Smart Network.

For more gadget news, be sure to check out VentureBeat’s live coverage from CES 2012.

Photos: Dylan Tweney/VentureBeat

Like the previous version, the updated AirPort Extreme allows up to 50 simultaneous users to access dual-band Wi-Fi networking. Apple didn’t change any notable specifications and still labels the AirPort Extreme as “new.” It’s possible the device has been changed under the hood and tweaked to offer better performance, but if so Apple isn’t saying anything.

The AirPort Extreme base station, priced at $179, connects users to Wi-Fi and allows a USB-connected drive to act as a shared drive over the network. Additionally, the device lets connected users print to any central printer.

The last time Apple refreshed AirPort Extreme was in November 2009 with an updated antenna that bumped up networking speed and range.

Earlier Tuesday, Apple just as quietly updated its Time Capsule devices.

The device, dubbed the Universal WiFi Range Extender, plugs in directly to any wall socket and works as wireless bridge to extend wireless connectivity. Wisely, Netgear didn’t limit its functionality to the company’s own wireless routers — the Extender will work across any brand of router. It even sports an ethernet port to connect wired devices.

While there are other devices out there that can extend wireless range, Netgear’s Range Extender is by far the simplest solution I’ve seen.

The company also unveiled its powerful N600 wireless dual band gigabit router, which seems built specifically to broadcast large high-definition files. Netgear built-in some features that aren’t found on any other router — it can find the clearest wireless channel in your neighborhood, speed up and smooth out the streaming of HD files, and even share media from storage devices attached to the router.

A Netgear Genie feature lets you easily manage your wireless network. It can diagnose (and sometimes fix) issues with your network, and it offers an easy interface for parental and guest access control.