Next on the list of winning products from Popular Science is the meraki mini. (What is it with lower case letter for proper names? First, midomi.com, now this… Didn’t any of these start-up people make it through the capitalization lesson in their 3rd grade English classes?)

meraki, which in Greek means “doing something with soul, creativity or love,” has a nifty idea. Take an ordinary wired connection to the Internet and expand it with wireless routers. The first router creates a wi-fi network in the immediate area of the Internet connection. The second one, if added within 150 feet of the first, amplifies the signal. Keep adding minis and the network grows.

Want proof? meraki has been building up a wi-fi community in San Francisco. In fact, it’s making routers available for free to people who can place their mini in a location that expands the network. (In other words, they can see the “Free the Net” signal when they check available wireless access points in their operating system.) When I checked today, 26,286 users were connected in neighborhoods all over the city. There’s no charge for people who use the San Francisco network, and the company said it plans to keep it that way.

Right now, the only place to buy the mini is directly from meraki, but no doubt that’ll change with time. A standard mini costs $49, and the outdoor standard is $99. Pro editions that offer advanced user management and support for paid networks are slightly more.

Posted on November 16th, 2007 by dian