Technology@intel

The Second Wi-Fi RevolutionBy now you take for granted that any notebook (or Netbook) you purchase has Wi-Fi built-in. The essential need for flexible connectivity that made Wi-Fi ubiquitous on notebooks is becoming a must-have feature in consumer electronic (CE) devices. In the near future printers, smartphones, digital cameras, personal media players, digital photo frames, game consoles, even televisions, DVD players and speakers will include Wi-Fi. By 2012, In-Stat estimates a whopping 1 billion new devices will ship with Wi-Fi with notebooks comprising less than one third of the total.

Sounds great, right! Here’s the catch. Once you purchase these devices, you have to go through the frustrating task of connecting them to your Wi-Fi Access Point (AP) to link up to your notebook and the Internet. Connecting a notebook to the Wi-Fi network is straightforward because utilities like Intel® PROSet/Wireless software and a full size keyboard and display ease the configuration process. However, this simple task is daunting on a CE device that often has no display or keyboard, not to mention configuring security. Even if you are able to connect your digital camera to your home AP, what do you do after that? Map a drive to your notebook from the digital camera so you can copy pictures directly from the camera to the notebook. Wait, there’s no Microsoft Windows Explorer on the camera. And so on.