re: gcn - for jongray wifi marches on Convergence of Wi-Fi and...

re: gcn - for jongray wifi marches on Convergence of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth arrives: 2 integrated circuit manufacturers - Agere and Texas Instrumetns - announce hardware solutions
June 17, 2003
We are slowly approaching times, when mobile phones and PDAs will have integrated (pre-installed) both major wireless non-cellular technologies: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. By now usually mobile devices had either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, not both. It is hardly any coincidence, that Agere and Texas Instruments announced at the same time hardware solutions that implement both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in one combined Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module.

The modules are intended to support multiple operating systems for handheld devices, including Windows 2000, XP, CE, Pocket PC

Staff Writer, CNET News.com
June 11, 2003, 12:12 PM PT


Microsoft later this month will unveil the next version of its handheld operating system, as hardware partners new and old line up with devices using the OS.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant will debut Pocket PC 2003--code-named Ozone--on June 23, according to sources close to the company. The operating system is not expected to be a major revision of Pocket PC 2002, but it will include new features such as built-in support for wireless technologies Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The OS overhaul will occur in the next version of the operating system, code-named Magneto, due out next year.

Vietnam sets up first wireless hotspot

HANOI (AFP) Jun 13, 2003
Vietnam Data Communications Co. (VDC) said Friday it has launched the country's first wireless hotspot enabling surfers to access the Internet on their computer laptops or mobile devices.
The subsidiary of the state-owned Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Corp. set up a WiFi (wireless fidelity) hotspot at a Hanoi university on Thursday to test the technology.

Users of laptops and handheld mobile gadgets are able to surf the web within 300 metres of the hotspot.

"If this proves to be popular over the next few weeks of this trial period then we will roll out the network elsewhere," said Nghiem Xuan Tinh, deputy director of VDC.

Tinh said the company had drawn up plans to establish as many as 100 other hotspots across Vietnam, including at Hanoi's Noi Bai airport and Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City, before December's Southeast Asian Games.

He declined to say how much VDC had earmarked for the network.

About a million Vietnamese are estimated to have regular access to the web, mainly through Internet cafes. VDC is the largest of the five operating Internet service providers with around 56 percent of all subscribers.

WiFi technology has taken the IT world by storm, with the relative cheapness of setting up a hotspot making it a viable option for airports, coffee shops and other public places.