Tim Higgins
CES is almost upon us and the WiMedia / “Certified Wireless USB” forces will once again attempt to whip us into a frenzy about a technology that was one of the biggest no-shows of 2006.
Even though it’s one manufacturer’s point of view, I found this DigiTimes Q&A with Roberto Aiello, CTO and co-founder of Staccato Communications, an interesting read.
Those of you who have been following me since I hit the web back in 1997 know that I seem to change sites every few years or so. This might be due to some deep-seated personality flaw, but I think it's more just the nature of the webor at least my approach to it.
This is actually the second time around for SmallNetBuilder, which first went up after my adventures with PracticallyNetworked and internet.com finally wound down. SNB was a fresh start from PracticallyNetworked and ran on what became a highly-modified version of PostNuke. It wasn't long after SNB was launched that my association with Omid Rahmat and TG Publishing begana great partnership that continues today.
The final standard is still over a year in the future and the Wi-Fi certification process for draft 11n products is about 3-5 months away. But companies are continuing to put this Beta-test-in-progress (which you, the consumer, are paying to participate in) into end-products beyond wireless routers and adapters. We've already seen draft 11n integrated into notebooks, and now Apple and D-Link have integrated it into networked media players.
The AppleTV announcement revealed that draft 11n capable hardware (from Atheros, it turns out) had already been integrated into existing Core 2 Duo MacBooks, MacBook Pros and Core 2 Duo iMacs (except the 17-inch, 1.83GHz iMac). All you need to do is run an "enabler" app, buy a new version of the Airport Extreme (in new Mac mini form factor) and voila, you have an interference generator for your 11b/g network. But something that Apple has done right is to put concurrent (or simultaneous) dual-band capability into its draft 11n products. This raises the cost, but also the flexibility since connections in both bands can be made at the same time.
SmallNetBuilder is fortunate to have a talented and faithful audience. Our best contributors have always come from our readers, and I'm always looking to tap that vast wealth of experience.
But good people also tend to be busy people who don't have the hours that it takes to research and prepare they kind of in-depth articles and reviews that we do. On the other hand, you do have the time to visit SmallNetBuilder regularly and I'd like to have fresh stuff for you to read each time you visit.
