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Wires strung from pole to pole across the landscape are being retired as most of us migrate to a world without wires. We can click up to 500 channels on a television. Some receive those TV signals through a satel- lite dish; drivers unlock car doors yards away; and children of all ages play with remote controlled toy cars and airplanes. Not all the news is good. Too many pests talk too loud on their cellular telephones right next to us on trains, in restaurants, in parks, and even in theaters. The wire-free world surrounds us.
In the computing world, wireless is fast replacing wired connections. Universal mobility requires more processing to serve us anywhere we may roam. The most obvious expansion of computing technology focuses on creating a world of wireless activities from telephone to email to internet searches to TV viewing - the world in your hands. The new all-in-one computers have everything you need to connect with an overflowing cornucopia of resources.
Today's laptops range in weight from 3 pounds to 8 to 9 pounds for heavy, game-support computing. Find a place to sit, open the laptop's clamshell case, and compute. However, if you want to access the internet, send or receive email, or share data with a friend, you need a connection wired or wireless.
Wireless in the computing world works similarly to the cellular signal in the telephone world. A fully charged battery enables very long phone conversations, but wireless service in the computing world is not just for conversations. Wireless computing service enables the user to connect through an internet service provider (ISP) to wherever one wants to go. This includes checking news, doing research, sending and receiving email, updating MySpace profiles, and more.
First, let's clarify the difference between wireless and cordless. In the telephone world, there are lots of cordless telephones. Cordless technology enables a telephone handset to send and receive telephone signals from a base station involving a wire connected to the telephone jack entering your home or office. Typical distance between phone and base extends 100 feet; newer models can extend the range to a few miles for a lot more dollars. The telephone signal is transmitted on a common frequency between base station...