This proliferation of connected devices is awesome, but poses a couple of problems – firstly, if you want to stream high definition video, that’s a lot of data to push over the network, so you need to ensure you have the highest quality, fastest network connection available. Secondly, you need to ensure that connection works just as well across multiple devices hooked up in your TV cabinet.

If you haven’t dropped Ethernet cable into the lounge yet, and love the neatness of Wi-Fi then check out Netgear’s brand new 3DHD Wireless Home Theater Networking Kit. It comes with two high-spec wireless adaptors, one to connect to your router and a second to drop into your TV cabinet. With 4 Ethernet ports, the receiver acts just like a switch, allowing multiple devices to plug in and connect up to the wireless network at high speed.

Networking geeks will love the four internal MIMO transmitters and receivers built into each adaptor, which should blast through multiple walls and provide a decent signal range and quality, dynamic digital beam forming which steers the Wi-Fi signal towards the receiver rather than in all directions, and Space Time Block Coding, which sounds like it was invented by Doctor Emmett Brown, but in fact  sends multiple and redundant copies of the same data across different paths, minimizing packet loss and improving video reliability.

If you need to transform those living room AV devices into connected devices, then check it out.

Wi-Fi Direct will allow devices to share, show, print and play content from one device to another, enabling your digital camera to send photos directly to your printer, portable consoles to connect for competitive gaming with friends and contacts to be swapped between smartphones in a snap.

So far, So Bluetooth, I hear you say. Perhaps in spirit, but in speed? No. Wi-Fi Direct is set to transfer content at speeds up to 300 Mbps over distances similar to the Wi-Fi networks you use at home and at work. Fingers crossed pairing devices is a lot more reliable than my personal experience with Bluetooth.

 Wi-Fi Direct cards are expected from a range of manufacturers including Atheros, Broadcom, Intel, Ralink, Realtek, and Cisco. 

 I first saw TransferJet at CES in 2009 where I spent an awesome 20 minutes with Toshiba holding a PDA over a compatible notebook to wirelessly transfer digital photos back and forth. No buttons to push, no dialogs to look after, just hover and zap! Yes, I did this for 20 minutes - it's that cool. Check out the video of TransferJet in action, and you’ll see why.

TransferJet devices have been slow to hit the market, with only a few digital cameras and USB docks released in Japan to date. But that may be set to change in 2011, thanks to a second generation chip which is due to be released by Sony. Hot Hardware reports that the new transceiver increases transfer speed to up to 300 Mbps and reduces power consumption, improving its fit for mobile devices.

I’m hoping the cost will come down to get this tech into my mobile life next year and my tickets are already booked for CES 2011, where we’ll hear more about TransferJet v2. Who needs USB cables and complex Wi-Fi transfers anyway?

The software also lets you keep a list of favorites, like the hotspots you use at home, a friend’s house, work, or your favorite coffee shop, for example.

Another new feature in WeFi 4.0 is Facebook integration. With this, you can now login via your Facebook account and see how many hotspots you’ve mapped out. All the Wi-Fi hotspots in your area can be seen by clicking the “Wi-Fi Maps” tab.

WeFi 4.0 introduces WeFi Premium, too, a subscription service that provides access to over 90,000 hotspots in the world (mostly U.S., though).

You can grab the latest version of WeFi for free from here.

There’s no additional hardware required to use this service but you will need to have a Windows 7 PC (32 or 64-bit) – older versions of Windows are not supported.

Connectify is still in beta, so all the typical disclaimers apply. However, those that have tested it so far have not reported issues. You can sign up to join the beta yourself by clicking here.

The nice thing about AT&T’s Wi-Fi is that it offers auto-authentication. That means as long as you have Wi-Fi turned on, it will automatically connect you. The service will kick off with Samsung smartphones on the 14th and then, over the coming weeks, other phones will follow including all 6.5 devices.