Code in OS X 10.8.4 Suggests Future Macs Will Offer 802.11ac Gigabit Wi-Fi Support

[Crzyrio]

Once one buys a new WAP, which will be pricey at first for sure. And new computers to get the newer standard. Oh and then a few months later once a dozen neighbors are using it too, the interference will shoot it all to hell anyway.

150$ on newegg for an ac wap, which is not bad for the features included. I have been using my service providers until now so it is about time I get one.

What is the point you are trying to make? Cause you arent making it. Even if half of my neighbors get wifiac I will still get MUCH faster speeds than if I were using a/b/g/n. The other 4 frequencies are already crowded as hell anyways.

 

[Lesser Evets]

I was about to buy a new AirPort Basestation to replace the aging one I have from circa 2006... seems time to wait for the update coming in the summer.

 

[mus0r]

Does anyone here have a connection faster than 300mbps?

Ever consider that people use wireless in the workplace, not just at home? If you've ever had to watch 30-ish Macbooks using PHDs log in over 802.11g you would understand why this would be nice.

 

[rmwebs]

Does anyone here have a connection faster than 300mbps?

In the last 3 years, we've gone from a maximum (if you lived in a good area) of about 10meg, to 100 meg. So give it another 3 years and it wont really be all that unrealistic.

Cable based broadband has the ability to go upto, and over 1Gbps.

So put the rolleyes away and use them where they actually make sense

I'm currently on 120meg in the UK, and my provider has been trailing 500Mbps and 1Gbps in a few areas of the country. How anyone could be obtuse enough not to think faster wireless is a good thing is crazy, especially since it will be using an area of the spectrum that should mean less interference with 802.11b/g and n devices.

 

[Quu]

Does anyone here have a connection faster than 300mbps?

Ever consider home streaming? I have a NAS, I store video on it. I access that on all different computers in my home including iPads. Some of that video is 1080p and takes up lots of bandwidth.

There is also Time Machine backups. They take ages over 802.11n but are very fast over 1Gb Ethernet. Any speed improvement in this regard is welcome by me.

I also find issues with Remote Desktop / VNC, these are decent over 802.11n (300Mb/s 5GHz on my Mac) but if the resolution is too high, such as 2560x1600 like on my display on my desktop the performance goes down the pan. The 1.3Gb/s would help out a lot here.

And the final thing to consider is performance as written and performance in the real world. I connect to my router via 802.11n 5GHz. Right now that is 300Mb/s on my Mac as mine doesn't have a 450Mb/s capable radio.

300Mb should be 37.5MB/s - Quite speedy. But in reality I only get 100Mb/s aka 12.5MB/s. This is pitifully slow for Time Machine backups. And this is while I'm in the same room as the router. If I move to another room in my house the performance drops further to around 56Mb/s aka 7MB/s.

So although they say it is 1.3Gb/s in my home I can generally assume that to be closer to 400Mb. And that would be a nice improvement for my home network. This is all outside of the scope of my internet connection and no I don't have a connection over 300Mb/s I have a 120Mb connection and as noted above is capped already by 802.11n in my home. Next year however I can get FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) at 330Mb/s from British Telecom. Just in time for an 802.11ac enabled Mac. And I do already have an 802.11ac router (Asus AC66U).

 

[smithrh]

Does anyone here have a connection faster than 300mbps?

I'll join in on the dogpile on Sam. That was a dumb post.

However, I'm also going to offer some advice for Sam.

In the future, if you don't see where something may be interesting or attractive to someone, instead of writing and posting something snarky, why don't you just go ahead and ask why people might see value in it?

This way, you'll actually add to the conversation and people won't beat the snot out of you.

Or, of course, the other alternative is not posting anything at all.

Edit - oh yeah, this goes out to the folks that up-voted his post too. You make it look like he had something insightful to say, which he didn't.

(Man, I miss down-voting )

 

[Taz Mangus]

Release of a new Airport Extreme basestation with 802.11b/g/n/ac could be soon. Maybe the new Mac Pro will feature the 802.11ac hardware first. Could be part of the reason why the new Mac Pro has been delayed.

 

[koppie644]

Apple was always one of the first few who used the latest WiFi technology, back in the days of iBook when Steve showed it on stage with the hula hoop

Thank goodness for this article.

I thought Apple was never going to use 802.11ac.

The question isn't if, but when. Of course they're going to use it, it's not even a consideration. It's like 'Future computers will be faster'. Duh.



I can name quite a few actually.

Also *obligatory*, you might not likely need all the bandwidth to access the internet but you would need more bandwidth if you were copying stuff to another WiFi connected device.

Wireless is a shared medium, and half-duplex. Meaning, if two people are copying stuff over WiFi at the same time, the maximum theoretical speed is only half for each (in simple terms).

 

[jb510]

Remember, this AC iteration has not been ratified, and so far the specifications are only up to Draft 5.0, will full ratification not till about 2015 - "IEEE 802.11ac is a wireless computer networking standard of 802.11, currently under development (Draft 5.0), providing high-throughput wireless local area networks on the 5 GHz band. Standard finalisation is in late 2012, with final 802.11 Working Group approval in early 2014. According to a study, devices with the 802.11ac specification are expected to be common by 2015 with an estimated one billion spread around the world"

Therefore I would not be rushing out to buy AC hardware when the specification has not been ratified. Remember, 802.11n took 7 years to be ratified and many customers got peeved because they bought draft hardware which was not compatible with future versions. I thought we all would have learnt from this by now. Therefore, I will hold off until full ratification.

Do you have a source for your claim of peeved customers?

As a purchaser of a early Belkim pre-n router I never had a problem with it over the course of several years. Eventually I replaced it with the wrt600n I use now, but only because the Belkin was a POS as a router, not because of any problems with 11n compatability.

Cautioning people off buying draft 11ac routers seems silly. Waiting 2 years to buy an 11ac router also seems silly if one could actually benifit from the speed for the next 2 years... Obviously those who wouldn't benifit from the speed (and beam forming helps speed at range, so same thing) shouldn't be buying it, but that's a different issue.

 

[DrWeevil]

Does anyone here have a connection faster than 300mbps?

Will soon-ish. Google Fiber is coming to Austin (downtown) Mid-2014!!!

 

[Michael CM1]

Wow, big surprise, Apple is continuing to support advancing 802.11 standards.

This is newsworthy.

:: yawn ::

In other news, Apple to at some point support 8-core processors and 128GB of RAM in iMacs!

 

[garbeth]

Bring back the down vote button!

 

[Yukonhawk]

Will Apple....

Upgrade the Apple Extreme router with the new AC protocol and make way for a new 6th generation model? That's the real question. Hope they do.

I see someone else covered this question in another post. It would be great to see an AEBS 6th Gen soon. I would like to see it tested to see how it performs. Small Net Builder usually tests the new hardware either on or before it hits the market. Time will tell.

 

[gullySn0wCat]

Does anyone here have a connection faster than 300mbps?

 

[mrmarts]

Another reason to hang onto my 2010 iMac for a bit longer.

 

[twoodcc]

really looking forward to this. of course that means i gotta update router, macs, phones and ipads

 

[PorterRocks]

Here's a serious question that I honestly don't know the answer to.

Will I be able to add a dongle of some kind (via USB?) to give my late-2012 iMac 802.11ac? I already know I'll be able to buy a new Airport Extreme when the time comes, I'm just not sure about adding the functionality to a computer that doesn't already have it.

 

[FrancoisC]

It's doable, but unless your Mac and the adapter are both USB 3.0 (or even thunderbolt, who knows!) there would be no point because wireless AC is faster than USB 2.0.

Edit: your 2012 iMac would be fine if they make such an adapter. Probably won't come from apple, but some company including asus already make one. No drivers for os x as of last time i checked.