Tag: Commentary

Is Wi-Fi shedding its blue jeans for pin stripes as 802.11 looks to go commercial? Analysts and those in the trenches of fee-based hotspots see an inevitable trend as Wi-Fi availability goes nationwide. Via [wi-fiplanet.com]

Nicholas Negroponte explains why Wi-Fi "lily pads and frogs" will transform the future of telecom. Via [wired.com]

Announced rather quietly earlier in the summer, it looks like Toshiba's Computer Systems Group (CSG) hotspot initiative is ready for phase two. The company seems poised to give the push toward increasing the number of public hotspots in the U.S. Via [wi-fiplanet.com]

Despite my feelings about who will find Tablet PCs to be really useful, I've decided to try using one as my main system. The Tablet PC I'll be testing is a prototype of Acer's 700MHz mobile Pentium III-based TravelMate 100. But the fact that it has built-in support for 802.11b-based wireless Ethernet--as all tablets should--means...

The success in the US of public wireless local area network (PWLAN) "hotspot" services is causing a rethink among wireless network operators, which are beginning to see hotspot growth as another reason to delay the roll-out of 3G services. Via [theregister.co.uk]

Barnet in North London has much to recommend it but few would associate it with the history of UK technology. Via [news.bbc.co.uk]

It's a national phenomenon: All over the United States, small-town and rural Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) are springing up, often because wireless is the only practical way to bring broadband Internet access to the areas they serve. These are not hobbyists using consumer-grade 802.11b equipment, but professionals hoping to make substantial money providing professional-level...

Wireless technology is a little bit like wind power, electric cars and voice recognition -- for several years, it's been "just about" to be huge. Via [cnn.com]

Ultra-Wideband technology has been used by the Government for close to 50 years for military radar and applications such as radar surveillance systems that can look right through walls and precision location equipment.

Wireless Fidelity, or Wi-Fi has obviously generated headlines for months with its rapid growth into homes, businesses, and public hotspots. Few innovations have struck a nerve as much as the CyberShuttle, a Wi-Fi-equipped bus originating from the University of California San Diego (UCSD). Via [wi-fiplanet.com]

Wi-Fi, it seems, is finally getting something else to do other than move files from place to place. Via [zdnet.com.com]

The dream of some in the 802.11 community is to replace the hodge-podge scheme of disconnected wireless LANs with a floating system of self-forming, self-healing networks. And they think they can make that dream a reality in a few years. Via [internetnews.com]

Non-line-of-sight wireless systems promise strong signals for high-speed Internet access. Via [spectrum.ieee.org]

More high-profile retail chains are being fingered for not fully securing wireless LANs installed in their stores. But several retailers said they're not exposing any sensitive data, and some security analysts agreed that the risks don't appear to be great. Via [computerworld.com]

The rapid growth of wireless networks in homes and offices across the country shows that businesses and consumers are willing to unplug from their hard-wired networks in order to roam free. And evidence from computer security professionals indicates that most of those have not taken the steps necessary to protect their networks from intrusion by...