Upon installing and booting into Windows Vista on his new 20-inch Core 2 Duo iMac, a forum poster known as Peace at Mac Rumors noticed that Vista identified the wireless card in the iMac as a Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter. Check out the Wikipedia's entry on 802.11n for some details, but it is essentially the next generation in wireless standards, offering increased range (reportedly up to 1/4 mile) and a much faster data thoroughput, up to 50x greater than 802.11b and 10x faster than 802.11a/g.If this is true, and Windows isn't simply mistaking the hardware it's reporting (like that's never happened before), this is quite an intriguing move for Apple, as the actual 802.11n protocol has quite a ways to go on its journey to becoming ratified as an industry standard. Further, this is dumping fuel on the rumor fire that Apple will be using 802.11n in the iTV to achieve HD streaming. After all, the upcoming device has all the fixins for handling HDTV, and Mac Rumors is also observant in pointing out that Mr. J said the device uses "802.11" on stage, without specifying which version.
That's about all we have for now. We'll keep our eyes out for iMac and Mac Pro dissections to see if anyone can find cold hard evidence.
[via digg]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-25-2006 @ 10:08AM
matthew said...
Nice move, Apple. If true, these iMacs will be among the first to be able to stream video to an iTV, as 802.11n will be necessary to do so (unless something changes).
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9-25-2006 @ 10:45AM
Paul said...
I'd buy that for a dollar!
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9-25-2006 @ 11:28AM
latrine said...
Very Good Idea...NOT!
Using a pre-n card can be hazardous to your health, as in the future if you do not have the equipment of the same supplier/version and as N isn't closed yet, you might end up with lot's of fast wireless equipment that do not communicate with each other... and you become madly enraged......very bad indeed...
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9-25-2006 @ 11:45AM
chief said...
@latrine: VERY GOOD IDEA!!!
They are selling the iMac right now. Would you rather want it with an 802.11g/b card or a backward compatible 802.11n card? If a different n standard emerges and the current iMac airport cards turn out to be not compatible you can still use any 802.11g/b equipment and access iTV. I don't see where your problem is. I'd rather have Apple built in connectivity to iTV into current macs NOW then in January.
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9-25-2006 @ 12:39PM
Scotty said...
As a new 24" iMac owner, I think this is great. I was worried about an older gen wireless card in such a new machine. Good work Apple ... bring on the iTV!
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9-25-2006 @ 3:15PM
Geoff said...
"If true, these iMacs will be among the first to be able to stream video to an iTV, as 802.11n will be necessary to do so"
... unless you count the dozens of earlier Macs you can connect to your router with an Ethernet cable.
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9-25-2006 @ 6:03PM
Patrick said...
Or like I do all the time with my 802.11b limited iBook from my wife's MacBook Pro - it's not like these will be sending uncompressed HD streams or anything.
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9-25-2006 @ 6:54PM
M. Rod Von Hugenstein said...
It's my understanding that the while the "n" standard has not been ratified, if there are changes to it you should be able to upgrade the firmware to make it "n" compliant.
Of course if someone out there knows better please let me know.
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9-25-2006 @ 7:35PM
James Huston said...
You know, according to the product's own developer's note it says: Note: Although the AirPort Extreme module contains 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11a radios, Apple supports only 802.11b and 802.11g.
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9-25-2006 @ 10:49PM
shaninho said...
Apple lists 802.11g for the Core 2 Duo iMacs, and you cannot add it knowingly in the BTO.
http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html
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9-26-2006 @ 2:31PM
John from Buffalo said...
What actually was interesting about the latest batch of MacBooks (1.83GHZ Core Duo, white) was when I loaded the BootCamp 1.1 stuff (updated drivers) I was able to login to my network with a 108MB signal. I'm running the NetGear WGT624 v.3 router... and was kind of freaked out by it. Is it just the Windows driver from Apple for the extreme card, or are the new cards actually pre-N/N standards? Wierd if you ask me.
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