Apple Reportedly Strikes Deal with Broadcom to Add 802.11ac Gigabit Wi-Fi to 2013 Macs

[sfrancis928]

My network hard drive likes this post.

[KnightWRX]

Originally Posted by Woodcrest64

Yeah you are correct. Its going to be a while till that standard is picked up by the majority. Heck, even wireless N is rarely seen where I am in terms of cafes and etc. Its usually 802.11G in most cases that I see used in public places.

What does it matter ? If their outgoing pipe to the ISP is less than 54 mbps, there is no value in investing in 802.11n equipement as no one really uses the local wireless to do local things in a restaurant or cafe.

You're getting bottlenecked at their Internet uplink anyhow.

[iMikeT]

What, 802.11n isn't fast enough now?

[KnightWRX]

Originally Posted by iMikeT

What, 802.11n isn't fast enough now?

600 mbps if you have a proper multi-channel router and a client radio that supports it (150/300 mbps if you don't). And you're lucky to achieve those speeds at all anyway.

Anyway, with growing media files and reliance on bandwidth, I don't know why anyone would want to stop progress. If 802.11n is fine for you, then no one forces you to upgrade really.

[Sodner]

There you have it. The 2012 iMac I have yet to receive is now antiquated.

[Quu]

Originally Posted by iMikeT

What, 802.11n isn't fast enough now?

In my opinion, no. On 802.11n you got what, 450Mb on the high end stuff? Some manufacturers offered 600Mb but I'd say 300Mb and 450Mb were most popular for 5GHz 802.11n operation.

But that is their theoretical speeds, in reality even with only being 2-3 meters from my router with direct line of sight I'd get about 112Mb/s in file transfers. Keep in mind that is Mb not MB. For doing Time Machine backups that's about 14MB/s

This is slow to me and it's the reason I do initial Time Machine backups over Gigabit ethernet because you get a constant 120MB/s with that. And that is actual reality and not just theoretical.

So if they are quoting 1.3Gb/s on 802.11ac maybe we will actually get closer to 300Mb/s - 500Mb/s and that would be nice.

[JHankwitz]

Originally Posted by KramRevilo

I believe the 5G in the original quote refers to 5 GHz ... which is the only spectrum where 802.11ac operates (as opposed to 2.4 & 5 GHz for 802.11n). Comments about G meaning 'generation' are meaningless (but fun to read).

Not to be confused with a 5G iMac, or 5G rocket launches, or Kinetic 5G, or a John Deere 5G tractor, or the Red Bull 5G games.

[carlgo]

Apple's entire future seems to be dependent on hoping, evidently, that the carriers get with it and provide us with decent internet speeds.

Hope that Apple has a secret plan that truly will be the Truly Big Thing that deals with this infrastructure problem. Our devices are very capable, 90% of us really don't require more power or speed, but the internet is really lagging far, far behind and is limiting everything.

[potatis]

Why not 802.11ad?

[KdParker]

I will just hold off on the upgrade until this is finalized.

[MikhailT]

Originally Posted by Sjhonny

Don't get your hopes up. That 1.3 Gb/s is only theoretical. Real life ~ 150 Mb/s (18 MB/s)

comparison to n: Netgear promo video

That's probably an epic fail on Netgear and the video for not explaining the details correctly, not the standard.

You can get ~18MB from current N routers now with the MIMO antenna technologies, which is what 802.11ad will include by default.

My guess is that video is showing off the working early drafts of the 802.11ad standard at an expo to show the technology work now and not a performance review. The video is from early '12, they were still developing and optimizing 802.11ad technologies.

To get the best speed from 802.11ad, you have to have three antennas in both ways to get 1.3Gbps, which is ~160MBps theoretical. Considering you lose 20-40% for overhead from the wireless side and another 20% from the computer's side, expect about 65MBps transfer speed at high quality stuff.

For most people, that'll be as fast as they can transmit from their hard drives nowadays.

[TallManNY]

Isn't N already fast enough to stream live HD video? It seems to be working just fine for me. I'm happy for more speed and reliability, especially since this will presumably be at no extra cost. But will this produce any real difference for the average consumer? Isn't the real bottleneck now the internet itself and the servers hosting the site's we visit?

Anyway, to take advantage of this I'd need a new time capsule router and a new Apple TV. And since I'm years from getting new computer. I guess I won't see this in my home for a long time.

[Nanasaki]

Originally Posted by adrian.h

Macbook Air Retina with super fast Wifi? Yes please!

I am wondering how much would that cost? Current 13 inch Macbook Air with 1400x900 screen already good enough... At least I don't see how retina gonna make big different. I do hope Apple retains non-retina option for their laptop line up... I am not going to pay extra $$ for non-essential stuffs.

Originally Posted by hleewell

The Best News Ever !!!

I am wondering if we can put this wifi card into older Macs... If yes, then it is best news!

[puckhead193]

this will fit nicely in a new mac pro...

[pimentoLoaf]

Excellent news!

Now... I'm wondering when AT&T will upgrade my DSL service to 450mbps for the same thing I'm now paying for 6mbps, which is about $20/month?

[absurdamerica]

Originally Posted by iMikeT

What, 802.11n isn't fast enough now?

No, I'd like to easily stream 1080 content from once device to another.

----------

Originally Posted by carlgo

Apple's entire future seems to be dependent on hoping, evidently, that the carriers get with it and provide us with decent internet speeds.

Hope that Apple has a secret plan that truly will be the Truly Big Thing that deals with this infrastructure problem. Our devices are very capable, 90% of us really don't require more power or speed, but the internet is really lagging far, far behind and is limiting everything.

There is no infrastructure problem, it's a marketplace problem, at least in the United States. The lack of a competitive telecom market in the United States alongside the fact that most of Europe and Asia has partially or wholly nationalized their telecom infrastructure means the US lags way behind everybody else speed wise

Now I'm all for being able to stream and sync wirelessly as fast as humanly possible. it would be nice to see more symmetrical fiber type services offered on a widespread basis, but I'm not holding my breath...

[kjs862]

Nice but if you really need the speed just hard wire your computer. Otherwise, 802.11n should be fast enough.

[dBeats]

Originally Posted by ifij775

What about LTE for the laptops? I think this seems likely but not guaranteed.

Not with Samsung claiming they own LTE and only people they like can use it....

[adrian.h]

Originally Posted by Nanasaki

I am wondering how much would that cost? Current 13 inch Macbook Air with 1400x900 screen already good enough... At least I don't see how retina gonna make big different. I do hope Apple retains non-retina option for their laptop line up... I am not going to pay extra $$ for non-essential stuffs.



I am wondering if we can put this wifi card into older Macs... If yes, then it is best news!

Well, when I look at the 13 inch Macbook Pro retina and non retina i see a big different. It´s like the ipad, when you get used to the amazing retina display going back to non retina isn´t an option.

[cclloyd]

I was hoping that 802.11ac would be in the mac I get for when I go off to college, since my first choice uses that for their routers. I'd have top priority wifi on campus

[heisetax]

Originally Posted by coolspot18

Yeah, I won't be surprised if Apple did... but it would reinforce once again the iMac is turning into an iToy...

I've been repeatedly told at the Apple Store that Apple is a "consumer electronics store' & not a "professional computer store" that many of us want. This would mean that the iMac is the high end iToy.

My local Apple Store doesn't have a Mac Pro on display. This makes the Mac Mini the new Mac Pro that is to come out in 2013 as the rumors say that is promised by Mr Cook. Compared to the full sized Mac Pro, which is over 2.5 years old design & processor wise, the Mac Mini with its sometimes 1 or 2 generation old processor & at best the current generation with a much slower processor than in the iToy iMac, is a weak computer to be called a Mac Pro model. But in an otherwise iToy market the Mac Mini could stand out. Apple has done all that it can to make the Mac Mini Pro a weak computer.Thus further confirming that Apple is just an iToy company. No wonder they had to take computer out of their name.

[bearda]

Originally Posted by unplugme71

Apple needs to update their Airport Extreme with this and USB 3.0 so transfers are faster. Time Machine backups are just so slow with the USB 2.0 interface.

Backups with a Time Capsule are about the same speed with it's internal non-USB drive. The problem isn't the USB interface. The USB 2.0 bus should be able to just about saturate an 802.11n link, but don't come close on an Airport Extreme/Time Capsule. I don't know if the protocol stack needs work, or if the processor in the router just can't keep up but switching to USB 3.0 alone isn't going to help.

[newdeal]

I hope its actually good and doesn't drop to N speeds as soon as you are behind a wall or further than 10 feet from the router or something

[bearda]

Originally Posted by cclloyd9785

I was hoping that 802.11ac would be in the mac I get for when I go off to college, since my first choice uses that for their routers. I'd have top priority wifi on campus

Really? That's kind of surprising. I haven't heard of any wide scale 802.11ac deployments yet. Everyone I know of has stuck with 802.11n (and in 2 cases, g) rather than risking buying draft spec ac hardware. A campus wide ac deployment seems kind of silly, at this point.

[petsounds]

The biggest problem with 802.11n is the short functional range and susceptibility to interference indoors, as compared to 802.11g. I hope 802.11ac operates at longer ranges and is more robust indoors.