Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 179

An "Airport" springboard would be cool and could have many uses...any thoughts?

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 159

Well, I can imagine quite a few things an 'airport' springboard might be made to do, but could you provide a little detail as to what you would expect from such a module?

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- Zippy
NEC/Smart Phone Forums
PDABuzz.com

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 179

With the Apple "Airport" technology and some specific apps you would always be "connected" in an office environment. For instance in meetings you could get up to the minute information or sync with your pc over the network.

Some of those might stretch current applications a little but I know variations of these already exist...

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 22

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't an always-on & everywhere wireless Internet connection be more preferable than a LAN, Airport type of technology? For a regular laptop/desktop the wireless LAN connection might be much more cost effective and faster, but for a PDA, where you only need to transmit short bursts of data, a wireless Internet connection seems like the way to go.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 179

For most cases a "wireless" connection would be best but I can see where a wireless-lan connection would be useful in others. In a large business setting it would be easy to give access to company databases and not have to worry about firewalls etc. This could be quite handy in meetings or simply just to save time and not have to plug-in all the time and sync. Also, in an academic setting it would be useful and I could imagine many uses especially in a campus setting.

Overall, I doubt any "springboard" would be a completely bad idea unless it was just something absolutely stupid. I'm sure something like an "airport" springboard would find a niche...

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 159

I'll tell you what I believe will be the next big communications/PDA technology for the business world:

First, you need to offer a wireless LAN component (hopefully the base unit would be inexpensive, but whatever). There is nothing that beats being in a meeting, having someone ask for a bit of information not at your fingertips, and calling it up wirelessly.

Second, it needs to handle paging (preferrably two-way). No matter what I feel about it, paging is not going away soon.

Third, it must include a mobile phone. There seems to be nothing more important nowadays to the business professional than to keep in touch by voice.

All these features plugged into a PDA -- you'll get a lot of wows. Now, if anyone wants to stuff all this into one springboard...

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 22

Why would anyone need both a pager AND a mobile phone in the same device?

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Lewisburg, PA
Posts: 56

not too sure about some of your comments rgardign pagers and cellphones; but I personally would love to see medium range wireless lan. I was talking at a meeting to a tech guru on campus and he said we may be experimenting with various lower speed wireless internet options; and I see this as awesome; since if you gave me a like 1 mile radius of the center of campus; i would NEVER go offline; except on bikerides :-)

to me; wireless will have it's reign, but limited wireless LAN will kick ass too...

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 159

Why would anyone want to carry both a pager AND a cell phone? Too many already do!

Both are used for business communications. Both will continue to be used in such a fashion. So many of the 'gadget' companies are starting to provide phone/pager solutions. Not much of a leap to see how they can be made to fit into a PDA format (and yep, some of these are starting to appear).

Wireless, whether short or long range LAN, or through eventual high speed mobile and satellite datalinks, are definitely where we'll see the communications boom reach some serious 'ass kicking' status. Too bad it's gonna take several years to implement

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 179

Most newer mobile phones support paging/messaging to some extent, the problem is the range. A simple motorola pager will out do the range of service on just about any phone. But, a springboard with a pop-up ear piece would make a slick communication device. Pagers and phones are so small (like that Timex watch and the Startac) now that there just might be enough room in a "not-to-bulky" springboard for everything.

The overall problem is battery power. Hopefully some advances in the near future will take care of this. See electrofuel.

As for medium range wireless lans I recently read (somewhere, looked but couldn't find it) that Microsoft is implementing a wireless lan on their campus in Redmond...

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: US Military in Germany
Posts: 46

The Airport idea may be good and with the idea of the medium range lan it would be great. Look up bluetooth on the web, it is a medium range wireless connection protocol using 2.4 ghz rf. With Erricson being a primary player with it, it is being developed with cell phones and pagers in mind. With a Bluetooth springboard, your Visor would be in touch with not only the wireless lan, but possibly the cell phone, pager and even watch and would allow wireless data transfers and even voice.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Sydney Australia
Posts: 1883

The airport would be a good idea, exept when you live in france...
The french army uses 2,4 GHz so therefore it's illegal to use that bandwith...ooops, aple wasn't thinking globally on that one...

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: US Military in Germany
Posts: 46

It isn't Apple using the 2.4 Ghz bandwidth but the Bluetooth technology. I am not sure what range Airport uses. But the 2.4 Ghz range gave them the most countries at the best frequency range. There is not a single portion of the frequency spectrum that is not in use by some country so you have to find one that gives the best performance in the most countries. And it was european companies that primarily designed Bluetooth most notably Ericcson.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 179

actually they both use the 2.4 GHz wave band. See :

Airport - http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/n...2343332,00.html
Bluetooth - http://www.bluetooth.com/document/d...p?page=overview

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: US Military in Germany
Posts: 46

Thanx for the info, I admittedly do not know much about the Apple world.