HitsGarden

Here’s a wireless utility with a difference. The Xirrus Wi-Fi Monitor generates a radar-like display to show all of the wireless networks in range of your laptop. By translating relative signal strength into range it shows, in a rather eye-catching way, which ones are likely to give you the best connection. For obvious reasons – unless you have a rotating and highly directional Wi-Fi antenna on your PC the display cannot tell you which direction the access point actually is, but it looks great. Versions of Wi-Fi monitor are available for Windows Mac and Linux, and the only catch is the XP version requires that you install Yahoo Widget Framework, which adds another 15Mb to the download, (the Vista version installs as a sidebar Gadget)

If you’re a gadget fan and have nothing better to do for a few minutes head over to the Chinavision website, where you’ll find some of the coolest-looking, and cheapest electronic gizmos on the planet. Actually this is a wholesale website, offering some of the best (and worst) of what China’s electronics industries have to offer, and if you want the best prices you have to buy in bulk (and don’t forget the import duty) but it looks like they’ll sell one-offs if you’re willing to take a punt. Read the rest of this entry »