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January 12, 2007

people

MW07: Glenn Fleishman schools us, Wi-Fi style

Posted Jan. 12, ’07, 2:43 PM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Apple » People

Glenn FleishmanApple gave short shrift to the new AirPort Extreme, but the upgraded model was on display at the show. We snapped a few pics of it at the Apple booth, but we couldn’t find an Apple spokesperson willing to talk with us about it, so instead we turned to Wi-Fi Net News proprietor and expert on all things sans wires, Glenn Fleishman.

We quizzed Glenn on the AirPort Extreme, 802.11n, and the wireless capabilities of the iPhone, and he more than ably dished the dirt for you, our valued readers. The full text is a bit long, so hit the jump for more, along with pictures of the AirPort Extreme in the flesh (er, white plastic?).

Dan Moren: I wanted to get your thoughts on the new AirPort Extreme. What do you think about the capabilities as described?

Glenn Fleishman: Well first, I’m really pissed off that they didn’t change the name.

DM: You didn’t think it would be an AirPort Extremer?

GF: Well, “AirPort and Robin,” that was mine. “AirPort Beyond?” I am mad because it’s so hard to talk to users already who ask questions about it: “Well, do you have an AirPort Extreme? Yeah? Is it square or is it a spaceship?” The AirPort Extreme Square. But the capabilities are really interesting. For one, they finally put multiple Ethernet ports in the back, which is great. I mean, every other device you buy that costs thirty bucks has a five port 10/100 switch.

DM: But why no Gigabit?

AirPort Extreme FrontGF: Cost. I think Apple’s trying to shave it and they don’t think there’s enough need for it in the home yet, and I don’t think there’s enough demand in the offices to go to Gigabit yet. Although there should be, and I think they’re just being cheesy. I think it’ll be a few months and they’ll put Gigabit in. There are integrated 802.11 b/g plus Gigabit chipsets that cost very little money, and for ‘N’ there’s been a delay where other manufacturers have been waiting to add Gigabit because it’s added a price premium of like fifty or seventy-five dollars to the router. So there’s a real non-illusory cost in adding Gigabit, but it’s going to change,. I was hearing from manufacturers that a new wave of chips will come out in the next month or two, with the Draft 2.0 version of ‘N’ in it. Draft 2.0 may be approved this week, in fact.

DM: This is IEEE or Wi-Fi Alliance?

GF: IEEE. I shouldn’t say approved; it may be that they actually agree that the Draft 2.0 should go to a letter ballot, and the letter ballot will actually be voted on in March. But if they agree it goes to a letter ballot this week, then basically it’s a fait accompli.

DM: When we start to see Draft 2.0 stuff, is that going to be where the vendors are finally going to start hitting interoperability? Because that’s been a big problem with the first draft.

AirPort Extreme backGF: That’s right. The Wi-Fi Alliance has said they’re going to have a certification program for interoperability for Draft 2.0. And they said either Draft 2.0 or whatever state the spec is in in March, because they believe it’ll be close enough at that point, they’ll have an interim version. They don’t have a name for it yet, but they’ll be calling it something like “Baseline N.” So, like the basics, and the things that are already agreed on; and then the ratified version will come in March or May of 2008 and by the time it’s ratified, everybody will be pretty clear on the details. There’s not very much that’s supposed to change between Draft 2.0 and the ratified version, just minor things, but the other part is that there will be much faster due. Like the first wave of ‘N’ products are all 150Mbps, and if you use optional parts of the ‘N’ spec, you can get up to 600Mbps—with all the stars aligned. You have to have a lot of free spectrum, and you have to have multiple antennas, and your air space has to be clear, but you can really achieve speeds of over 400Mbps of real throughput, so those devices aren’t expected until late this year or early 2008, but for Apple’s market they may never sell anything like that either, they may only sell this baseline thing because that’s what most people need and it’s going to be affordable.

DM: Thoughts on the wireless capabilities of the iPhone?

GF: It’s telling that they only put EDGE in it and it’s also telling that they’re saying that you can’t make phone calls over Wi-Fi, because obviously both of those things relate to Cingular’s strengths and weaknesses and where they make their money. It’s well known that Cingular’s HSDPA network is behind schedule, so they have nowhere near enough coverage, even at lower speeds. Their UMTS network is in a number of cities and HSDPA is in a small number; UMTS is like 200-300kbps and HSDPA competes with EVDO for speed, so they don’t even have UMTS coverage that’s like Sprint or Verizon’s EVDO coverage. They need to beef that up; now that AT&T owns a hundred percent of Cingular, I’m not going to be surprised if they just devote a billion dollars to HSDPA deployment—we’ve got the money, we’ve got the equipment, let’s just do it. They may have been held back by a lack of coordination from Bell South and AT&T.

And the other problem, because HSDPA is so new, just getting chips that could possibly fit inside the iPhone. Even if they wanted to do HSDPA, I don’t think you could actually put together the chips necessary by June and make it work. The chips are in the works, they’ll be smaller and smaller and they’ll integrate it, and you’ll get a GSM/HSDPA chip that’s eight band and it’ll all work. I’d be surprised if they didn’t add 3G by the end of the year, but I would be very surprised if it was introduced in June. Even if the chips they want are available, they’re not going to be low-power and low-profile and worthwhile enough.

DM: But are you going to buy an iPhone?

GF: I’m going to buy an iPhone. Absolutely. I’m a Cingular user already. I was looking for another smartphone. I tested out all the smartphones and I hate them all.

DM: Well, now you’ve finally got one you can get.

GF: Yes, I was all ready: “When can I buy this thing? Six months! Argh!”


3 Comments

BruceS said:

Now that I won't need the 100MB wired ports to perform backups across the network, they add them. Go figure.

January 12, 2007 4:25 PM
BruceS said:

A couple of questions that I still have. It was said that the USB port could be used for a printer or storage. Do you think a hub can be added to that it can do both? With a hub could it handle multiple hard drives? Memory sticks?

January 12, 2007 4:27 PM
George Horner said:

Bruce, the Apple site for the new Airport Extreme states clearly that you can add a hub and use multiple hard drives and printers.

January 12, 2007 5:52 PM

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