Assignment 4-1

For this week, the current pop culture topic I chose is the New iPod Touch. According to Chris Brandrick, writer of this article,"A recent tear down of the new third generation iPod Touch reveals that the device is sporting an 802.11n Broadcom chip." This chip is an incredibly fast wireless network chip. But, how much faster is the wireless network than the one that is accessible now? I will direct your attention to another article written by Jared Newman, writer for PC World. According to Newman,"Theoretically, 802.11n can reach speeds of 600 Mbps, and even that assumes you're using wireless n's maximum four spatial streams. For now, the Wi-Fi alliance will be testing products with three streams, putting the maximum at 450 Mbps. By comparison, the old 802.11b/g standard reached 64 Mbps, and the wireless "a" maxed out at 11 Mbps, so wireless n is considerably faster."
With this new, faster chip available to the market by the holidays, wireless networks will be more reliable, and faster to gain access to the internet even faster.

References:

Brandrick, Chris. New iPod Touch Holds Secret 802.11n Wi-Fi And Camera Slot. Accessed on September 12, 2009, at http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20090912/tc_pcworld/newipodtouchholdssecret80211nwifiandcameraslot.

Newman, Jared. Superfast Wi-Fi Standard 'n' Official: Consumer FAQ. Accessed on September 12, 2009, at http://www.pcworld.com/article/171859/superfast_wifi_standard_n_official_consumer_faq.htmlhttp://www.pcworld.com/article/171859/superfast_wifi_standard_n_official_consumer_faq.htmlhttp://www.pcworld.com/article/171859/superfast_wifi_standard_n_official_consumer_faq.html