Denver International Airport is the biggest airport in the world to offer free Wi-Fi. Problem is, now a Denver newspaper reports that the connection is being censored. The airport is blocking certain blogs like BoingBoing.net, perezhilton.com and other “potentially racy sites.” The airport’s position is that they would rather deal with complaints about censorship, than complaints about people viewing objectionable content on their laptops. What now? Why not censor radio broadcasts while you’re at it?

The Seattle Times quite correctly points out that Denver International Airport stores sell hard-core porn magazines, but they block the Sports Illustrated swimsuit site online. Word is they have also blocked the Vanity Fair magazine web site.

The University of Melbourne announced on Friday a new technology they are calling “GiFi”, which promises some serious game-changing wireless transfer speeds for all types of consumer gadgets. The tiny silicon chip invented by professor Stan Skafidas is able to move data through the air as fast as 5 gigabits per second at a distance of just over 30 feet.

This short-range wireless technology would potentially be a competitor or more than likely a replacement for WiFi, and things like Bluetooth might want to look out as well. The transfer speeds combined with the constantly increased storage capacities of small handheld devices could really take media down some new avenues as well. The Age newspaper uses an example of transferring a high-definition movie from a kiosk at a store to your mobile phone in seconds. Then that same movie can be transferred just as quickly from the phone to your home computer or entertainment system to watch.

AT&T notched a huge feather in its Wi-Fi cap today as it announced a partnership to add its wireless network as an access option at Starbucks locations. This in effect brings over 7,000 new locations into the AT&T network.

Under the terms of the partnership AT&T and Starbucks will offer two hours of free wireless Internet access per day for Starbucks Card holders. This offering, which will kick in beginning this spring, will also be offered to over 12 million AT&T Internet customers in the more broad form of unlimited access. A similar offering will also soon be made to AT&T Wireless customers.

Revo, a British radio maker, launched the Blik Wi-Fi clock radio late last year providing a clock radio that can pick up local FM stations or over 6,000 internet radio stations around the world. The device connects wirelessly to your home Wi-Fi connection and will list the internet radio stations alphabetically organized by country or music genre.

The Blik can also stream in audio content from the digital audio stored on a PC or Mac through the Wi-Fi network, and can connect directly to an iPod providing simple speakers for your player through the Blik M-port. And of course it works as a clock radio with an alarm, waking you up to your favorite local or internet radio station. It also features a wireless infra-red remote, a jack for headphones and an interesting design that comes in black or white.

Denon Electronics has introduced two new audio systems which use wireless connectivity to access digital audio. The new S-32 and S-52 systems are priced at around $500 and $700 respectively.

The Denon S-32 and S-52 are part of the company’s new S-Series Networked Audio Systems. They use 802.11 wireless technology to let you access music on other home networked devices as well as pay-for streaming audio from Rhapsody digital music service. Both models also include a built-in iPod dock, with S-52 offering additional entertainment options like a built-in HD Radio tuner, slot loading CD player and XM Satellite Radio.

As the launch of the second generation Zune, or Zune 2, from Microsoft nears the rumors are flying at full steam regarding pricing and the features that the new media players will house. From what we’ve ascertained the launch is scheduled for October 3rd at midnight and will bring three new models of the Microsoft Zune player along with new features and content on the Zune Marketplace (iTunes for Zunes).

Along with some FCC leaks showing 4GB and 8GB flashed-based Zunes (codenamed “draco”), ZuneScene has the skinny on pricing along with some additional juicy details. These are still in the rumor stages mind you, but it looks like a new 80GB version will be going for $249 with an 8GB model going for $199 and a 4GB model for $149. The 8GB and 4GB models are expected to come in black, red, green or pink but the thinner 80GB will come in only black.

Nokia launched a pretty cool product yesterday with the Nokia 6301 mobile phone. The device features a thin, sleek design and looks similar to many other mobile phones that are released these days, but it has a more unique feature you’ll probably be seeing more of going forward.

The 6301 phone is able to seamlessly switch between GSM cellular connections and Wi-Fi connections, allowing voice connectivity through each when needed. The phone can pick up standard cell coverage when you’re out and about like any other cell phone. When your indoors where you might not get the best cell coverage it can switch over and start utilizing your Wi-Fi network instead through Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology.

Tivoli Audio seems to be coming out of their shell some by breaking from their traditional, mostly-AM/FM radio products into integrating digital music and internet radio with two new devices coming to the market this fall. The two new network-enabled radios will be called the NetWorksGo, and the NetWorks Table Radio, which both look to be upgrades of existing products with the new networking capabilities added in.

Both radios will drop the AM tuner, retaining only the FM radio and add in the ability to stream in MP3, WMA and Real Audio internet radio to playback through the device with no computer required. They can also optionally connect to a networked computer or through a USB connection to play music from a PC or other device.

The internet …

According to a recent report from DigiTimes, Apple has plans to launch a WiFi enabled iPod that could be available to ship by Q3 of this year.

The report states that as soon as this month Universal Scientific Industrial (USI) will be shipping the components that will make the WiFi capabilities possible to Foxconn, who will then assemble the new device. Foxconn would then have enough of the devices assembled and ready to go by the 3rd quarter of this year, which would mean that these new WiFi iPods would be ready to go in plenty of time for the holiday rush.

This seems to makes sense for Apple to do in order to stay competitive with the Zune and its WiFi capabilities. There has also been rumors that Sony and Samsung are preparing a WiFi enabled DAP, and Sandisk has already shown offer a similar device. One …

A recent report by Unstrung Insider shows that 3G home base stations “Femto cells” could pose a market challenge for WiFi VoIP phones in homes and businesses. According to the report, “Ultra-low-cost home base stations that allow wireless users to communicate across any IP access network using a standard mobile handset will challenge WiFi VOIP for dominance in the consumer fixed/mobile convergence (FMC) market. ”

What this report is referring to is a challenge between phones such as the WiFiFone from Samsung, or one of the iPhone’s from Linksys (not Apple) and mobile phones that utilize a more traditional 3G technology which has a much broader coverage area.

The Femto cells are basically home base stations, much like a WiFi base station, which are connected to a broadband internet service. Instead of being hotspots for WiFi connections, Femto cells …