Archive | April 19, 2003

BusinessWeek Blowout on Wi-Fi. BusinessWeek devotes huge section to Wi-Fi: BusinessWeek devoted a whole host of articles to the subject of Wi-Fi, most circling around hot spots and cellular. One of the most succinct and excellent comments on the relationship of 3G cellular to Wi-Fi was in an interview with Nicholas Negroponte: If you give me broadband…[2-5 Mbp+]…I cannot really use it without devoting my fullest attention (which means my hands and eyes, not just my ears)…many of the issues that face cell-phone operators aren’t present (like hand-off). The problem is different. There really is room to cohabitate. Exactly! Oddly, Andy Reinhardt’s commentary in the same section ignores that critical difference. Wi-Fi can provide a virtual desktop experience: you can act not too far off from being in your office. 3G, even in its best possible incarnation in the next zero to two years, will be a slow data interchange format for making quick email retrievals and spooling, or for queuing data through slow pull (i.e., grab my email over the next 30 minutes as I drive to my destination). Some other good remarks– A T-Mobile exec on how Wi-Fi and cell differs: With cell phones we had to give people devices to use it. Here [with Wi-Fi], people already have the devices. We just give them new areas where they can log on…. [Wi-Fi Networking News]

Microsoft details compliance progress in antitrust case. “The company said in a filing that it has established an antitrust compliance committee, appointed a compliance officer, provided antitrust training for officers and established a Web site for third-party complaints.” [Computerworld News]