[Ti] What is this going to do to Apple, and its laptops?

[Mike Stanley]

On Thursday, March 13, 2003, at 08:02 AM, Massimo Marino wrote:

> Hi Mike,
>
> sorry but I do not see the point. I said: you have to change card. The 
> fact that in the PowerBook the card comes pre-installed does not 
> change the equation: I do not need to change the motherboard: I have 
> to change the card. The problem I think relies on the antenna: the one 
> in the Airport card is not enough for Airport Extreme, hence no simple 
> swap Airport card. Use an external one.

I have a TiBook 667 with built-in Airport 802.11b.  I *cannot* get an 
internal Airport 802.11g card - and it has nothing to do with the 
antenna - you can easily find out why, but the antenna isn't the reason.

If I want 802.11g in my TiBook 667 I will buy a Linksys or DLink or 
some other brand of 802.11g card.  If I want Airport Extreme I most 
certainly WILL have to change my laptop.

Alternately, if someone with a Centrino laptop (that has a PC Card 
slot) wants 802.11g, he will simply disable the internal wireless and 
use that.  No magic, no hardship - in fact nothing more than what I 
will do - other than the fact that if I do it with my TiBook 667 I will 
have an original Airport card I can sell for a few bucks.

> I do not think - but I accept to be corrected in that - you may tell 
> centrino - maybe - not to use its built-in the chip wireless. Does 
> Intel states explicitly that I could have that chip functioning the 
> same and providing the same services which are provided by this 
> technology with an external card after I told the system to disallow 
> its built-in device?

You're obviously not familiar with how a number of things work, so just 
trust me, you are being corrected.  I have PCs with built-in sound.  I 
can disable the built-in sound and use a Sound Blaster Audigy.  I have 
PCs with built-in nics, and yet I can disable them (or leave them 
active - makes no difference) and use a PCI nic of my choice.  Wireless 
won't be any different - people will be able to choose a separate PC 
Card for 802.11-whatever as long as it works with the slot.  At least 
the PC users don't have to worry about not being able to use faster 
wireless technology because the bus they're connecting to is too slow - 
which is why we can't put an 802.11g card in our older TiBooks.

> If the Intel-ligent thing is not to have to use a wireless card at all 
> (Airport, Lucent, etc,) then I do not see the point in all the buzz 
> and fuss around centrino.

Not sure what the point of this is.  Be as "anti" Intel or Microsoft as 
you want, but you said that as a Centrino user you would need to change 
your laptop - you're wrong.  It is more accurate, comparing Apples to 
apples (heh) to suggest that if *I* - as a TiBook owner, want to get an 
officially supported (no 3rd party drivers, no muss - just the normal 
"Its a Mac - it just works" experience we all know and love) Airport 
Extreme solution that I will have to buy a new TiBook - because that is 
correct.  PC users use 3rd party cards and install drivers (or XP just 
has them) all the time.  They'll add a card for 802.11g (as will I) - 
not get a new laptop.

> I might be wrong but I do not see it as *just* a wireless card 
> integration. Intel plans to build services around that wireless-chip. 
> I do not think a regular Dell laptop would access those same services 
> with a regular wireless card.

That may or may not be, but if a Centrino-enabled laptop owner wants 
802.11g they won't get a new laptop.  Heck, if anything, Intel might 
have been smart enough to make the chip flashable so it could be 
updated with software.  Intel isn't just a big old evil company bent on 
the destruction of Apple - they do some cool stuff too, as non-PC as it 
might be to suggest so around here.