It's yet another case of Texas-filed lawsuits being slapped at large companies: Wi-LAN, an Ottawa-based company that provides and licenses patents for telecommunications equipment, has sued about 22 companies including Sony, Apple, Best Buy, Netgear, Belkin, HP, and Intel among many others.

Wi-LAN claims that the 22 companies have infringed on their WiFi and DSL patents, and that they are illegally using Wi-LAN's Wi-Fi and DSL technology in their devices such as wireless routers and modems. The company currently claims ownership on about 280 issued and pending patents.

Will this lawsuit hold water? Do check this space for more updates!

Here's a nifty gadget for gamers out there who need more control over their gaming: the n52te SpeedPad from Belkin. The device features streamlined features; a combination keypad, joypad and toggle switch all within reach of five fingers. That is, one hand.

The device operates on a plug and play system and features 15 programmable keys in a square layout, and an 8-way thumbpad built with a detachable joystick. It also has a toggle to switch between 3 keymap states. The SpeedPad also has a wristpad to relieve stress.

The device will be available for US$ 69.99 on November for the US, Europe, Australia and Korea, and on February next year for Asia, Canada and Latin America.

UPDATE: Reading your comments, you sure do have a lot of questions about Fanjita and harleyg's piKey. Anyhow, going over the noobz site, Fanjita posted some clarifications regarding piKey. First off, he mentioned that right now, an IR keyboard is your best option since USB keyboard support will likely be impossible.

He also divulged that the list of supported IR keyboards is limited by Monsti's IR library (which is used by piKey). The following keyboards were the only ones that have been fully tested so far:

• Nova ETS - may have issues with keyrelease events
• Targus Universal Wireless - one of the best options so far according to Fanjita

And here are the IR keyboards that are known to not work properly:

• Belkin IR -needs an updated keymap
• Palm Universal Wireless - has issues with current keymap
• IRWave IR620K PS/2 to IR adapter - needs a new keymap

Aside from that, he mentions that for now, no directly connected serial keyboard is supported and at the moment, serial connection is for terminal-style connections. Fanjita also shared that supporting new keyboard hardware is expensive and time-consuming, so if you want support for a not-fully supported keyboard, you either have to write the driver for it or donate funds so that they can buy the hardware and do the hard work for you.

On a final note, Fanjita said that piKey is definitely not yet finished but it should work, provided that you have one of the supported keyboards.

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Fanjita (you know, the BBC star) and harleyg (of downgrader fame) have just finished piKey, a sophisticated homebrew application for the Sony PSP: it's a keyboard driver that lets you use almost any keyboard (or similar input device) as a natural method of input on your PSP.

For the rest, we turn to the documentation included in the ZIP file.

Imagine being able to use your keyboard to control any PSP game or homebrew, and even the PSP's XMB menu and on-screen keyboard, automatically and without needing any changes to the other software. This is what piKey aims to give you. This is an early release, demonstrating just some of the possibilities. The open, extensible framework allows piKey to be extended with new plugins, to allow support for different types of input hardware, and different input environments on the PSP.

• Use with Dark_Alex custom firmware. piKey runs best as a plugin for Dark_AleX's custom firmwares.
• Use as a standalone by homebrew. piKey can also be run standalone by homebrew that needs to use keyboard input.

That's basically it. Now, for the usual PSP homebrew warning. WARNING: piKey comes with an "installer." The installer will ask you if you wish to copy the pikey prx to flash0 and if you want it to auto run in 1.50 game mode. Writing to flash0 will seriously damage or brick your PSP if you don't know what you're doing. BE SURE TO READ THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE user_guide.html LOCATED IN THE docs FOLDER IN THE ZIP FILE if you don't like bricked PSPs.

More details about piKey after the jump!

Download:piKey keyboard driver for PSP

This just goes to show that no matter how high and mighty we view astronauts, at the end of the day, they are human too. This image was taken from NASA and yup, it is the inside of the International Space Station. European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, Thomas Reiter (who'll be heading home soon), is going about with his work. Seems like a pretty ordinary picture, right?

So what do you do for fun while you're in space? You could listen to your favorite music tracks. This photo is getting popular over at Digg because of a fifth generation iPod sighting. The Apple creation is neatly attached to a Belkin external battery pack on the equipment rack in front of Thomas Reiter. (Reminds me of a scene in the movie Apollo 13 wherein Lovell and his crew brought a transistor radio on board, times have really changed).

Heck if I get sent to space, I would bring my mp3 player too. And a couple of other gaming thingamajigs of course.

In a recent press release, Belkin has once again amped its already wide-selection of iPod accessories. They recently introduced  eight new cases for the updated iPod 5G (fifth generation) and the new iPod nano. The new iPods were released about a week ago at a special Apple event. They're a bunch of new and standard types of cases, namely acrylic, flip-top hard, neoprene, armband, kickstand and slider. If that doesn't ring a bell, it's basically anything you need.

Belkin also revealed the pricing. Most of the cases cost around 20 dollars, but they start at $14.99. Here is the list:

• Acrylic Case for iPod nano (F8Z116) - $29.99; video (F8Z115) - $29.99
• Flip-Top Hard Case for iPod nano (F8Z124) - $14.99; video (F8Z123) - $19.99
• Neoprene Holster for iPod nano (F8Z124) - $14.99; video (F8Z123) - $19.99
• Canvas Flip Case for iPod nano (F8Z120 and F8Z117) - $19.99
• Canvas Holster Case for iPod nano (F8Z119) - $19.99; video (F8Z118) - $24.99
• Sports Armband for iPod nano (F8Z105) - $24.99; video (F8Z095) - $29.99
• Slider Case for iPod nano (F8Z084) - $29.99
• Kickstand II (F8Z112) - $29.99

The Kickstand had the following description: "The Kickstand II integrates a convenient stand display so you can comfortably and easily watch video from your iPod video. Enjoy hands free viewing at adjustable angles. Its versatile, detachable belt clip lets you safely carry your iPod anywhere, and the ports remain easily accessible to you."

If you're looking to boost your notebook or desktop computer's data transfer speed to Gigabit territory via a USB device, Belkin's Gigabit USB 2.0 Network Adapter is for you. Speed is just one of its virtues. It is also easy to install - simply insert the Adapter into a USB 2.0 port to start transferring large video, audio, and graphics files between the workstation and the network.

The Belkin Gigabit USB 2.0 Network Adapter also makes connection worry-free by auto-negotiating for a 10-, 100-, or 1000Mbps network as well as adjusting straight-through or crossover cables automatically. The device is backward-compatible with existing 10/100 Ethernet networks and comes with extensive driver support for PCs and Macs. The Gigabit USB 2.0 Network Adapter retails for $44.99 and comes with a Belkin Limited Lifetime Warranty.

Necessity is the mother of invention. This quotation would pretty much sum up how Glynne, came up with this extra cooling solution for his overheating Belkin router. All he wanted was to hear MP3s all the way to his backyard without any interruption. But unfortunately for him his router has other plans. So he searched the web for possible solutions, configurations or firmware upgrades/downgrades. If you're one of the many Belkin router users that apparently had returned their purchases because of overheating, then you might want to give this one a go.

The full instructions await after the jump!