Securifi rocks the traditionally rough world of Wi-Fi routers in releasing its new Almond wireless router. The original Almond brought the speed of modern routers together with the design and ease of use of an Apple product, prompting many Apple devotees to abandon their Apple AirPort routers.
The most innovative feature in the Almond was the touchscreen on the side, which allowed users to go through the usually difficult process of setting up their wireless networks without having to connect by ethernet cables or navigate local IP address admin pages. You just enter all of the information on the side of the device.
The design was simple, colorful and attractive, and the team made all of the ports for the various cables to plug into, recessed in the body of the router to make it even more elegant.
And all on an $80 price tag, pricing it well below less capable routers on the market.
Now Securifi is back with a Kickstarter project, seeking funding to produce the next level of router that takes the beauty and simplicity of the original Almond and adds in a few excellent new features.
The Almond+ has more powerful broadcast bands for stronger, faster Wi-Fi connections, a wall mount option and, most interestingly, the capability to manage emerging Zigbee and Z-wave home automation devices.
Zigbee and Z-wave are protocols used in household products such as smart lightbulbs, home theater systems and appliances like washing machines.
The Almond+ will allow these devices to interact with each other and be controlled remotely by smartphone or tablet devices.
The Kickstarter project ends later this week, but it's already gotten three times the amount it needs, so it should be entering production soon.
The Almond+ will retail for $99.
