Word: wi
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...World Economic Forum's 2005 Technology Pioneers who are helping the next generation of broadband and portable communications conquer the world. Along with other upstarts like Britain's Frontier Silicon, Israel's Wisair and Cornice from the U.S., ArrayComm is working to improve technologies already in use - like wi-fi and 3G - in order to give people wire-free access to e-mail and the Internet, and to provide them with cheap phone calls in the U.S., Europe, China and Korea, among other places. Between the four of them, they're pretty much covering the globe...
...Wi-fi (wireless fidelity) is the cable-free technology that lets people surf websites and check e-mail while sitting in a Starbucks, an airport lounge, a hotel lobby, a city park or anywhere close to an antenna. The technology has grown dramatically in recent years: French research firm IDATE counts 130,000 hot spots in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, and U.K. research group Analysys predicts that by 2009 there will be over 38 million wi-fi subscribers in the U.S. and Western Europe alone. Most observers believe that its next big step will be the introduction...
...Another wireless challenge is in the home. Although households, especially in the U.S. and Asia, are increasingly popular places for wireless networks, wi-fi has difficulty handling large video files. That's because its speed is not always fast enough to transport movies without glitches; you may have noticed the problem when trying to beam Bridget Jones's Diary from the computer in your living room to your TV in the corner. Several companies are working to develop another wireless technology called UWB (ultra wide band) that provides 10 times the bandwidth of wi-fi. Although UWB signals...
...wireless connectivity between all consumer electronic devices in their homes and offices. This is the new reality." Of course, the biggest test for all the Pioneers is: Will people actually use their technology? There are, for instance, at least half a dozen technologies vying to become the next-gen wi-fi, and only one will win. Take it from Cooper, the grand old man of ArrayComm, who says, "everything takes longer than you think, because people take time to change.'' But then, he notes, people balked at the PC and the cell phone...
Last spring Intel commissioned a surfboard shaper in North Devon, England, to design a board with an embedded tablet PC. Why? So Intel could tout its Centrino processor at beach festivals around the globe. Equipped with wi-fi, the Wireless Technology Surfboard enables the surfer to send e-mail, shoot videos (using the built-in webcam) and, yes, surf...