[Ti] future 'books: with WiMax cards ?

[Dennis Fazio]

--On Friday, December 17, 2004 04:50:26 PM CST +0300 "Dr. Trevor J. Hutley" 
<hutley at geneva-link.ch> wrote:

> Since Airport Extreme is now standard in Mac laptops, I am wondering if
> there is any view or rumour on the Apple thinking about WiMax (next version
> of the 802.11 standard).
> Will there be a new Airport to handle this?

WiMax is different. It's based on IEEE 802.16. Products are just starting to 
come out and the WiMax forum (the industry group that certifies 
inter-operability of 802.16-based equipment) is only starting to test.

To contrast the two, WiFi (802.11) is designed for LANs; short distances 
indoors.
WiMax (802.16) is designed for WANs; longer distances with many more clients 
outdoors in open space. 802.16 is specified to work on a wide range of 
frequencies, some licensed, some unlicensed. When service providers build out 
infrastructure and services, it can provide you the ability to wander around 
town with your notebook computer and stay connected.

Intel will be building 802.16 transceivers into its motherboards soon. What 
Apple will do is not yet visible. Whether there are chip sets that have dual 
functionality (802.11 AND 802.16) is not known to me and may not be 
practical. It might be necessary to have an Airport card for WiFi and an 
"Spaceport" card for WiMax
-- 
Dennis Fazio
dfz at mac.com