Tom's Networking reports that NetGear adds Touchless Wi-Fi Security, Linksys upgrades firmware with SecureEasySetup: NetGear's technology is new to me; it's almost certainly JumpStart from Atheros branded under their own name. With JumpStart, a phrase is used on the gateway and an adapter to create a secured transaction in which a shared encryption key (WEP or WPA-PSK, the story says) are exchanged. This allows a robust key to be exchanged without risk of interception or denial of service harassment. NetGear has included this in its WGT624 router, but will extend it to more devices.
Linksys has pushed out firmware upgrades for a host of their routers, including the popular WRT54G that uses Broadcom's SecureEasySetup. With SES, there's no strong out-of-band element: a software or hardware button is pressed on the gateway and then on the adapter. They negotiate to exchange a key securely. If another device leaps in after the gateway button is pressed--a DoS that could be automated, I argue--then the devices all need to be reset. This is an edge case unless someone chooses to write and release irritating software, basically.
I wrote extensively about JumpStart and SecureEasySetup along with interviews with Atheros and Broadcom about security back at the announcement of both technologies in January. Here's the overview article, followed by a deeper look at its security implications.