“After much debate and a lot of contention among the overall IEEE membership, the all-important IEEE 802.11n working group has given its stamp of approval to the next draft version of the specification,” Ephraim Schwartz reports for InfoWorld.
Schwartz reports, “Temporarily dubbed draft version 1.10, it will go out as version 2.0 when it is released to the full IEEE 802.11n committee, about 400 strong, by the end of the month.”
“According to Bill McFarland, a member of the working group just back from the London meeting where version 1.10 was approved, all of the contending parties who caused the original delays appear to be satisfied,” Schwartz reports.
Schwartz reports, “This includes the handset and handheld manufacturers who wanted more consideration given to low power consumption and VoIP capabilities, consumer electronics manufacturers who wanted the standard to accommodate more than access points, and the major hardware network and chip manufacturers who wanted to put the 802.11n spec on a fast track to approval.”
Schwartz reports, “Manufacturers like Atheros, Intel, and Apple and their customers will be happy to hear that version 1.10 is compatible with the pre-802.11n products they have already created. ‘It will only require a minor firmware upgrade for complete compatibility,’ said McFarland.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Switcher ’05” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Note: Every Mac with Intel’s Core 2 Duo or Xeon processor has the 802.11n chip, except for the 17-inch iMac with the 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo chip, Apple announced last week at Macworld. Apple plans to charge a $1.99 “unlocking” fee for those Macs. Customers who purchase the new $179 Airport Extreme Base Station will get the software for free.
Related articles:
Apple: 802.11n unlocking fee just $1.99 – January 19, 2007
Apple to impose 802.11n ‘unlocking fee’ on Intel Mac owners – January 16, 2007
Apple’s new AirPort Extreme ‘AirPort Disk’ feature: cheap, simple network storage for home networks – January 15, 2007
Apple’s new AirPort Extreme supports 802.11n, enables wireless streaming of HD media – January 10, 2007
Apple introduces new AirPort Extreme with 802.11n – January 09, 2007
free!!!
IEEE: It’s pronounced AYE-EEEEEEEEEEE ! ! ! It’s a call to order that begins their committee meetings.
is there any chance that some sort of firmware update could make my Core Duo MacBook have 802.11n? I realize it’s compatible, but I want the real speed!!
I think 2 buckaroos is fair…it will not make them any extra profit, but will help them get close to break even on costs already spent. More important, when you pay, they get you in their database and reach more customers
and can target more directly.
Will this new base station offer greater coverage for systems prior to “n”? Higher speed? Better surfing experience via Safari?
Hard to tell from Apple’s explanation other than it will ‘work’ with older systems. If it makes the network better and faster, I’m all in but don’t want to buy something that won’t make any difference from my current Airport Extreme/Express experience with my Power Mac, iMac, and pre-intel portables. Thanks.
business 101 with Georgy Porgy. lol
Don’t Understand,
You will get little to no benefit from it unless you upgrade all you components to the n standard (one device of a lower rating brings down the speed of the network). Even, if you do, the speed advantage will not help you internet surfing any because your internet connection is probably slower than wireless g. If you have some computer that is far away from your base station, then you may see some benefits. To see, do a internet speed test from close to base station and far and see if there’s any difference. The advantage will be in transferring big files over your own network.
>I think 2 buckaroos is fair…it will not make them any extra profit, but will help them get close to break even on costs already spent.
You lollipops sure are forgiving when it comes to Apple. The $1.99 has nothing to do with costs already incurred. That was already paid for when you bought the Macs that have the “n” chip, otherwise they would be eating the loss on the books.
Apple wants to get customers used to more bend-over charges. $1.99 is just the tip of their spear.
I believe that Draft 3.0 is coming in October. either way its good news
“The $1.99 has nothing to do with costs already incurred. That was already paid for when you bought the Macs that have the “n” chip…”
Exactly true. The $1.99 nominally covers the cost of collecting the $1.99.
“…otherwise they would be eating the loss on the books.”
I’ll excuse your ignorance of Sarbanes-Oxley regulations. I work in an industry that is closely regulated by several government agencies. SOX is so draconian that I can’t let the person at the next desk hear some of my conversations or see some of my monitor screens. A competitor of ours was just fined $10M for disclosing information in error to a particular class of its own employees. SOX dictates how we, as software developers, authorize and log changes to our billing and customer management software. The simple transfer of a new build file to our test server requires logging and the approval of 3 people. Customer data corrections or updates require logging and supervisor authorization. If you don’t think that’s draconian try managing millions of pieces of customer data per day under those conditions. In many instances we are precluded from making a simple correction to a customer’s bill by SOX accounting rules which require the itemization of components of the bill and a pro-rated correction to each sub-category. SOX requirements are so convoluted and archane that the regulating agencies aren’t sure how it works in some instances. Of course, 5 years down the road they WILL be sure and they’ll want to prosecute those who did things incorrectly. Does this sound familiar? Don’t blame Apple. Blame the US Congress for your $1.99 fee.