When I told my colleague Stacey that I was going on a tour of Netgear’s home of the future setup, she asked if I would grab her a jet pack. Much to her (and my) disappointment neither Netgear nor HP’s “house of tomorrow”-type setups included personal flying transportation. What they did offer, however, was a glimpse into the future of home entertainment.

Brian Burch, HP’s director of marketing for connected entertainment, took me on a tour of the HP Smart Home, an actual 2,000-square-foot, fully functional house built on the company’s HQ. It’s pretty cool, and packed with gadgets like the MediaSmart TV and Connect, control display for home functions and a teched-out kid’s room that would bring a smile to even the most angst-ridden teenager. Here’s a video walk-through of the house (or as I called it “Cribs: HP”).

Netgear’s set up wasn’t as impressive. For one, it’s really just a big room in an office building, not an actual house, and while HP’s looks like it’s furnished by Pottery Barn, Netgear’s is all IKEA. But, it too was packed with networking gear and gizmos. Phil Pyo, Netgear’s director of product marketing, showed off the room and demoed the company’s TV set-top box, powerline connectivity, as well as some of its storage devices. Take the video tour here:

Sadly, no jet packs this time around. Perhaps if I visit the Pentagon’s home of tomorrow…

If Ruckus Wireless wins a recently filed lawsuit against Netgear, the Wi-Fi tech developer might want to send a thank-you note to the Patent and Trademark Office. Ruckus sued Netgear and another wireless network developer, Rayspan, in federal court this week, claiming that Netgear infringed on two of its patents. The PTO issued Ruckus one of those patents last year; the second patent was issued just three weeks ago.

Ruckus says in a legal filing that both patents hold innovative technologies that helped make Ruckus “the success that it is today.” If the federal court finds that Netgear and Rayspan infringed on either one, the court could halt sales of a new Netgear wireless router. So the issuance of the second patent could really help Ruckus in court, the same way a second big gun could help a warrior on the battlefield.

Did the issuance of the second patent persuade Ruckus to take Netgear to court? Not according to one of Ruckus’ lawyers, Colby Springer. The timing was “pure coincidence,” he said. It just “happened to issue at a very convenient time.” Springer said he’s seen patents issued in as short as nine months and as long as seven years. This one took just under two years.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Ruckus is betting its smart Wi-Fi technology will deliver reliable signal quality over an extended range while automatically adapting to environmental changes in real time. With a more predictable Wi-Fi signal, the technology would support applications like streaming voice and multicast Internet Protocol video. In the suit, Ruckus says its distributors and resellers have shipped over half a million Wi-Fi systems to date.

Pursuant to a license agreement, Netgear has paid Ruckus royalties on sales of its WPN 824 line of RangeMax wireless routers. Ruckus claims it’s received royalties on nearly 2 million routers. Late last year, Ruckus discovered in an FCC filing that Netgear was developing a new RangeMax router.

In February, Ruckus’ president and CEO Selina Lo met with Netgear’s chairman and CEO, Patrick Lo, to discuss the new model. According to the suit, Netgear informed Ruckus it had begun selling the newest model in place of the ones that generated royalties for Ruckus. Netgear also indicated it would discontinue the manufacture and sale of its earlier RangeMax models by end of 2008, and Ruckus would not receive any licensing royalty revenue from sales of latest model.

Ruckus is seeking injunctions barring Netgear and Rayspan from infringing on its patents. It’s also seeking a “reasonable royalty” for existing patent infringements and other monetary damages.

More and more, hardware vendors are finding that Web 2.0 technologies can be a good way to improve the end user experience of their devices. For example, Netgear (NTGR) said today it’s inked a deal with San Jose, Calif.-based Pramati to bundle ReadyNAS Photos, an adapted version of Pramati’s Dekoh Photos, that allows people to share photos right off their NAS device. (see screenshot.) Although I need to take a closer look at this before passing any judgment, the demo that the guys behind Dekoh gave me when I met with them last year was impressive.

Netgear isn’t the first hardware company to get on the Web 2.0 bandwagon. Maxtor back in 2006 teamed up with Fabrik and bundled MyFabrik service and software with its drives. Fabrik has since bought Simpletech, a drive and peripherals company. And last year, RCA teamed up with Box.net for its Small Wonder video camera. Of course, the company that has embraced Web 2.0 more than any other is GPS/Internet navigation device maker Dash.

Given that Web 2.0 technologies are well-suited for improving user experience, I hope this trend catches on and makes some of today’s digital devices even easier to use. I wonder what gadget gurus David Pogue, Walt Mossberg and my former boss, Josh Quittner, now a columnist for Time Magazine, have to say about it.

PS: If there are any more examples, let me know and I can add them to the list.