mac geekery

One of the coolest announcements out of today is a long awaited upgrade to Apple’s rapidly aging AirPort hardware. 802.11g has been out for quite a while and, other than AirTunes, very little has been changed since the advent of AirPort Extreme.

Consistent with the recent twiddling with names Apple has been playing with as it turns PowerBook to MacBook and PowerMac to simply Macintosh, Apple dropped the “Extreme” and went right back to calling its wireless technology “AirPort.” But this upgrade is more than just a name. The Base Station form factor has been retired, leaving us with only the Express-styled access point. Not wishing to compromise, the long facing of the square is used for ports instead of the prior orientation.

The good stuff, though, is on the inside. Still sporting compatibility with 802.11b/g and AirTunes, the little guy packs in the coolest wireless technology I think I’ve ever seen – AirPower. Similar to Power over Ethernet, AirPower is Apple’s implementation of IEEE 802.12c, allowing AirPort to actually charge wireless devices in range. Steve demonstrated how an iPod in range could not only be synced wirelessly, but also charged.

No one would say it, but the huge implication here is that this could eventually be expanded to charging – and perhaps running – future MacBook Pros. Probably with the next revision of the line, possibly with the introduction of 12- and 17-inch models, the MacBook Pro will likely save battery power by actually running off of the power provided by AirPower.

A recent paper by the IEEE Wireless Power working group cautions about increased cancer risk, but Apple downplays the risk, claiming it produces no more radiation than astronauts absorb in a normal day.

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