“With the exception of the iPhone, Apple’s products largely lack technology to provide ubiquitous access to the outside world while on the go. However, a new proposal from the company would attempt to solve this problem, and provide ever-present access to the Internet, through a series of tiny RF modules that can be toted or place just about anywhere,” Sam Oliver reports for AppleInsider.
“In a 36-page filing published for the first time Thursday and titled ‘Personal area network systems and devices and methods for use thereof,’ the electronics maker outlines a system for allowing products with only short-range communications circuitry, such as iPods and MacBooks, to connect to and leverage those equipped with long-range technology, such as the iPhone or specially designed RF modules,” Oliver reports.
“These special RF modules would be ‘constructed to be a high efficiency, low cost, devices’ that may lack a direct user interface, like the company’s AirPort base stations. They’d package short-range circuity — such as WiFi, Bluetooth and other high frequency systems (2.4 GHz, and 5.6 GHz communication systems) — for connecting to devices that lack long-range circuitry, in addition to long-range circuitry that those host devices can tap into, such as GSM, GPRS, EDGE, and CDMA,” Oliver reports.
Oliver reports, “The tiny RF modules would be ‘ubiquitous in that they permeate every aspect of a person’s life,’ Apple says.”
Much more in the full article, including illustrations, here.
Interesting to note that there is no requirement for the device to be physically connected to your computer, iPhone, etc.
Very simple and Apple-like.
Interesting. One wonders if this is what was referred to a few months back as the technology that competitors can’t offer…
The reason they named it ‘MobileMe’…..
i love it. i also want the RDF field generator stevie uses. it would help on a sat night. gimme an iphone with RDF please apple!
Eff that. I don’t want to be always on or always connected. I am not the Borg. I want freedom and anonymity and privacy. Free from potentially harmful EM fields.
Here you go, Chris
http://zapatopi.net/afdb/
TT – Priceless
The illustrations seem to show me something like a tablet-like device being able to go online by using your iPhone via these RDF thingys. This would be on par with Apple in that in order to go online while on the go, the tablet itself would not connect directly to the internet via 3G but via your iPhone, which means that you’d have to buy both the tablet and the iPhone in order to be able to do this (other than through WiFi of course). I smell something tablety announced Jan 5th.
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“I smell something tablety announced Jan 5th.”
It will be Alka-Seltzer day number 5,
so be careful on New Years Eve…..
Maconymous,
Obviously it would also work with laptops, but I understand the gist of your post.
I am absolutely certain, for my own reasons (to be published soon at http://splodge47.tk/ ) that Apple is due to release a Mac mini or similar in November, and… wait for it… a tablet or netbook in January. The latter could find this technology extremely useful.
why not just put the RF thing inside the laptop?
Why not make the whole plain out of the black box??
Why not make the whole plane out of the black box??
ceec:
cause it would never be able to take off (it would be ten times as heavy)…
Great! Then Apple could drop USB and ethernet (and any remaining firewire) from ALL of their computers and we could ALL experience of the joy of throwing away our perfectly-working peripherals and replacing them. Then in another couple of years, when Apple change the RF specs, we could do it all again!!! =8-)
These are simply repeaters, right?