...more recent posts
Texas Instruments joins Broadcom, Atheros, and Philips in announcing a wi-fi chip aimed at the cellphone market. TI's chip will support 802.11a and g in addition to the older (and most widely deployed) b variant. Looks like we will definitely be seeing combo cellular / wi-fi mobile phones next year.
But it's hard for me to understand why telco's would offer such a product. Seems to me like it will be the beginning of the end for them. Do they figure they'll get the backhaul business? Are they just scared that the competition will offer this and steal their business? Do they really want to give us something cool? (Yeah, I don't believe that last one either.)
Maybe they'll incorporate wifi but still charge you minutes for using it? They could have the phones "call home" and report on your wifi usage. But that would be insane...
iRider is a new web browser (for windows) that looks really interesting. It's described as "visual hierarchical tabbed browsing." There's a long flash movie that demonstrates how it works. Worth a look. I'm jealous.
Apple finally releases new 15 inch Powerbooks.
$1999 for 1 ghz, 256 megs RAM, 60 gig hard drive, CD burner / DVD player
$2599 for 1.25 ghz, 512 megs RAM, 80 gig hard drive, CD/DVD burner
Posting will be sparse to nonexistent, as opposed to merely intermittent, for the next week.
Mimi Smartypants makes my life much much better. Congratulations on the adoption if that is not some sophisticated joke I am missing.
The Handspring Treo 600 (previous mentions,) which is probably my next phone / pda / camera combo device, goes on sale through Orange in Europe next week. This is sooner than I expected. No word on when it will hit these shores, but you'd think it wouldn't be too much longer. Right? Right?
Wow. Mobile device concept designs galore! Click on the company logos to see their mock ups. I cannot wait for the future. (via gizmodo)
Excellent. Broadcom announces a single chip 802.11b WiFi solution.
The AirForce One BCM4317 integrates the broadband and MAC components customarily offered on one chip with the radio and power amplification units built into current WLAN adaptors on a second chip.Power reduction is reported (by Broadcom) to be up to 97%! If true (or even mostly true) this will be huge. Presently WiFi is too power hungry for most portable devices. Also this will hopefully crush Bluetooth, as the only reason for that technology was the power savings over 802.11x.
Come on WiFi equipped mobile phone / PDA / camera uber convergence device! You can do it!
I put up a page for questions since I sometimes get asked things in random comment threads here that might do better as threads of their own. And also, you know, since I am like a world expert in several areas and need to share this abundant knowledge with the world.
If I know how to work my own software anyone (signed in or not) should be able to post.
Website being served from a MacPlus! I had the model right before that one (the one pictured actually, which isn't a Plus, but looks basically the same.)
And check out the picture of Jobs at the top of the images page. Who wouldn't buy a computer from that young man? (thanks, mimi)