Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

Didn't you see the price of the wireless adapters in Frys? $149 was about the going rate for the low-end (D>Link or 3Com) 802.11b Base stations. I know this because I nearly bought one and Zen said "I have an Airport, you can have that instead". I picked up a pair of Xircom PC cards for $49 each so no, I do not think MS is bringing anything new to market -- nor is it particulalrly competitive. Had it been 56Kbps Wireless then yes, It would be something to get excited about (after a fashion). Also, the Intel brand isn't a good example as I've long since held this feeling that Intel likes to keep things difficult to appeal to the IT departments who want to keep their jobs safe. I used the Intel base station hardware last year at home and the software was only difficult because it didn't shroud unecessary details from the user (Which is all the Airport does -- with all the optional configurable stuff and DHCP leasing options, firewall and so on revealed under options): Have a look at the 3Com software or the new installation wizard for the Xircom base stations -- those in particular are all about as simple as the Airport.

I think its also dangerous to make comments about the software in terms of usability and ease-to-configure before having actually tried it.
This is just yet another example of Microsoft putting its name to some box made for them cheaply enough in China... there is nothing new or innovative here (which is to be expected we are talking about Microsoft here). Similarly Apple's only "real" innovation in Airport is the reasonably dumb-ass software and burying the hardware into the machine architecture so deep that people feel its integrated. Microsoft have chosen to enter the market based on price point is merely the point at which 802.11b saturation kicked in at a price point the big players felt was necessary to branch out into the 56Mps market -- leaving things a bit clearer for them to mop up a "stragglers market" which MS believes is out there.

Anyway, rumour has it that Oracle is outsourcing several thousand 802.11b base stations for retail now (I assume this is overspill from stuff they won't be using themselves)... Maybe someday we'll all be able to pick up a base stations when we buy a full tank of gas?

Bloody Microsoft. If they farted some people would call this an innovation.

The price pointing isn't that good. Looking at the PC card prices, they feel higher than other vendors...

The lack of an 802.11a offering or upgrade path is conspicuous by its absence.