Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Odds and ends, iPod touch
The iPod touch has 802.11n, so what?
Author and blogger Glenn Fleishman over at TidBITS has some great insights into iFixit's discovery that the 3rd generation iPod touch has an 802.11n-capable wireless chip. We mentioned this in our initial analysis of iFixit's teardown, but we still had a few comments asking what it could really do and some who claimed it could do nothing. With the help of Glenn's article, I'll put a few of those thoughts to rest and probably fuel more conspiracies with these highlights:
- Until recently, 802.11n-capable devices required two antennas. That has changed with the introduction of Single-Stream 802.11n, thus making it possible for manufacturers to put wireless-n into handheld devices.
- Part of the Single-Stream endeavor was a desire for better battery life. If Apple enables wireless-n in the future, it's very likely that you'll see the battery life improve when doing anything on WiFi because these chips should consume less power than wireless-g.
- Wireless-n could allow the iPod touch to send 50 percent more data across the network. That would give it a theoretical throughput of 30Mbps or more instead of its current 20Mbps.
- It's also possible that Single-Stream wireless-n technology will be more efficient on wireless networks. In order for that to happen, Apple will have to update their wireless routers to contain space-time block coding (STBC), but that could be as simple as a firmware update.
[via TidBITS]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DJFriar said 5:48PM on 9-13-2009
I can't wait for the iPod touch/iPhone to go to n so I can finally turn off g access on my AEBS thus making the network faster as a whole and also slightly more secure.
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Scott Russell said 11:24PM on 9-13-2009
Amen. My iPhone is the only G device on my wireless network, and I can't wait to go pure N.
Tom said 5:51PM on 9-13-2009
I'd like to see Apple move to N mostly to get off the crowded 2.4ghz band. Their newer base stations are nice for running both 2.4 and 5 at the same time, but it's a shame I can't just make a clean break to N due to products from Apple still holding on to older standards.
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ryan said 6:02PM on 9-13-2009
I believe the most likely explanation for the 802.11n chipset is that the "n" spec, though only recently ratified, has been in wide use for more than 2 years now. Broadcom probably has found it simply more economically viable to include it instead of leaving it out, as it's not a novelty any more and will be the de-facto standard very soon.
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Owl said 6:52PM on 9-13-2009
Given the large amount of compression Apple employs on their standard def and high def videos, I would think g would be all you really need for video streaming. Even if you are creating your own videos, if they are created with Touch compatibility in mind, g is plenty.
I will say it would be a nice feature to have though. Simply being able to turn off g compatibility in my wireless router and go strictly with n mode would have some benefits.
-Owl
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Yoshi1080 said 6:12PM on 9-13-2009
My PS3 still only works with 802.11g and my Time Capsule does both, so I don't really care anyway. But 30Mbps doesn't sound much, even g could theoretically reach 54Mbps. Are the chips on mobile devices so limited in signal strength that they can't reach their specifications' full speeds?
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David Frantz said 6:56PM on 9-13-2009
A couple of considerations:
When was the last time anybody got 20Mbps out of a Touch? As far as I can see the transfer rate is throttled, most likely to save power.
The new N stream tech is nice but does this new chip support along with the antenna?
I'm still of the opinion that this is simply the latest low power solution that Apple could find. Like the FM tech built into the chip I'd be surprsed if Apple where to use it in the future. Let's face it there is a lot of tech in Apples selection of chips that it doesn't use.
Dave
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Vimy said 6:52PM on 9-13-2009
"If Apple enabled 802.11n in the iPod touch, we could see a lot of new uses come to the device, including video streaming, wireless sync/home sharing, on-device video rental, and many other possibilities."
I can't see why all those thing aren't possible with the current wifi speed.
It's fast enough as it is for all the things you mentioned.
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Steffo said 7:05PM on 9-13-2009
Pretty much Yoshi. Small aerials get a lower reception which means that you have to drop to a lower data rate.
Not that it matters, even at 20Mbps, video streaming, rental etc. etc. is all very possible. A DVD is only about 7 Mbps, and iTunes rentals dont hit anywhere near that, they're about 4Mbps for a "HD" video.
So the main advantage of 'n' on a Touch or iPhone is going to be reliability, and the ability to use the 5Ghz spectrum.
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umijin said 8:57PM on 9-13-2009
With the battery life, whatever streaming you might do would not be terribly long.
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huth.sebastian said 5:31AM on 9-14-2009
Yes, it COULD become all reality, but this is Apple, it simply won't. Don't get me wrong, I love Apple, but as much as I like their products, it usually takes them forever to do things other companies just do.
For example, I set up Windows 7 yesterday on my mini, and while going through the media center setup, it asked me on which display I want it to show up. The simplest of all things, yet, it can't be done with Front Row.
Apple just has a habit of making people think their way, and their way only, they tell people to think different, when they really want them to think Apple. They don't include an option to display FR on a secondary display because it's so hard to do, they don't do it because THEY don't think it's necessary, and if they don't think so, nobody else will.
That's the only thing that bothers me about Apple, but I'm willing to live with it, sometimes there's great 3rd party alternatives or hacks.
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depyou said 8:57AM on 9-23-2009
With the battery life, whatever streaming you might do would not be terribly long.
yes, I agree it . I had a ipod touch like he said.
kreesurgeon said 3:04PM on 9-14-2009
I'd like to point poster towards AirVideo Server and AirVideo for the iPhone, this solution i've be using quite happily on my 1st gen iPod touch for months without any problems.
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depyou said 9:01AM on 9-23-2009
I bought it on this website: http://www.trademic.com/iPod%20Touch_1__.htm
I'm doubtful of it is a bad quality's.
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