Innovation of the week: A stylish, interactive internet router

For most people, their wireless internet router is something that's out of sight, out of mind, said Katherine Boehret at The Verge​. Starry Station, a sleek, white triangular router, is "meant to be seen rather than buried behind the couch or tucked under a desk." And its appeal isn't just aesthetic: The router gives users an at-a-glance picture of how their Wi-Fi network is performing, showing how many devices are online and how much data they're eating up, represented by floating, color-coded dots (blue for healthy, red for problematic).

Multiple built-in antennas also give the router a longer, more powerful range. In tests, download speeds were 20 times faster than with a standard cable-company-provided router. Retailing for $350, the router also comes with a built-in microphone and speaker, so in the future it could work with voice-activated systems like Amazon's Alexa.

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