Apple prepping 3G laptops?
Job postings = entrails of doves
Updated Apple may be planning to add 3G wireless broadband capabilities to all or part of its laptop line - including possibly the oft-rumored tablet Mac.
The evidence supporting this rumor is tenuous at best - although intriguing.
A Computerworld blogger spotted a posting on Apple's Jop Opportunities site for a Communications QA Engineer (see 'Update,' below). The position's requirements include "in-depth knowledge of one or more Comms technologies, including Gigabit Ethernet for consumer and enterprise-class workstations, Bluetooth v2.0, 3G Wireless WAN, and Wi-Fi [802.11] a/b/g/n."
Notice the reference to 3G Wireless WAN. And know that this job is in neither the iPod nor iPhone engineering teams, but is specifically spelled out in the job description as being with the "Comms Software QA team within the Mac Hardware Group," with duties that include "quality assurance testing for new Apple CPU Products."
Meaning Macs. (Yes, Apple does still manufacture computers).
While it's possible that Apple may be merely seeking a QA engineer who can ensure that third-party 3G cards work in the ExpressCard/34 slots of MacBook Pros, it may also be possible that Cupertino is looking to add 3G capability directly into its laptops.
And piling speculation upon speculation, we can also speculate that the speculated Mac tablet may include 3G capability - thinking speculatively, that is.
It would make sense. Any Mac tablet - which, by the way, is now morphing into a "media pad" - would benefit greatly from not needing to be tied to Wi-Fi for basic communications services.
But would such a media pad be produced by the Mac Hardware Group? We can't know.
What we do know is that Apple's tight control over its plans leads to media flurries such as this one, with we ink-stained wretches trying to build coherent theories out of such wispy evidence as a few words tucked into a job posting. ®
Update
So much for hints of Apple's plans to be divined from the company's Job Opportunities site. The link to the Communications QA Engineer job posting that we cited above has been pulled from the website, and now leads to a page that announces "This job is no longer posted!!"
Either that QA job was quickly snapped up by an eager Meltdown-booted engineer or someone at Apple was just spanked.
COMMENTS
@ Periquet dels Palots Fool / Price Everything / Value Nothing
Seriously, do you believe that an internet-centric device needs to be paired after start-up, or don't you think it should be WWAN connected within 30 secondsor less of being brought out of standby?
Why not use dial-up instead for that 'instant-on' experience? Perhaps you don't remember the days of evolving from a 14.4 PC card to a 36.6 and ooooohhhing at th experience.
Your phone is unlikely to have a decent HSPA connectivity (if we take the iPhone as 'typical' it's 3.6Mbps downlink and only 384 R99 uplink) whereas an embedded module will be at least 7.2 DL and 2.0/5.8UL. Plus it has decent gain diversity antennas (not a poxy strip antenna that's actually shielded by your hand as it's at the bottom of the (i)phone). If you think none of that makes a difference you should post on good housekeeping instead.
More bills? AAAAAAARRRGH!
They can take the data card and stuff it. What's wrong with making it easy to use your cellphone as a 3G modem, using Bluetooth or Wifi? Why tie your WAN access to one device? Why carry on two devices with separately billed WAN connections?
The artificial limitations imposed by the network operators pretend you pay three, four or even five times for the same service: mobile voice, cellphone data, laptop data, home data, and home voice!
With the economy in total disarray, pretending that customers sign up for yet another contract for a service they are already enjoying is beyond ludicrous, it is abusive. What I would like to see is some consolidation and lower prices, not more bills.
(Paris, because she does like to pay)
Yes but, no but
It will overpriced and locked in like every other bit of crap Apple has churned out in the past few years.
Makes sense really...
Looking at the market now for portable computers, nearly every major player has built-in 3G/3.5G capability in some device they sell, and some have had one for some time (a year is a LONG time in tech-blurb).
The technology seems here to stay - next-gen-wise it's LTE vs 4G, and Apple may know something we don't about who is likely to come out tops (read an article somewhere about 4G likely to boss LTE in most of Apple's major markets), so again it makes sense to integrate.
Finally, and most importantly, user experience. I've used mobile broadband devices from three of the 5 major uk providers on my mac in the last 3 years, and i can safely say that the user experience sucks because it's not consistent.. Guess who would take grim offence to Mac users being put through such pains :)..
Go Jobsey Go Jobsey Go!
We can't stop the rhythm baby,
Go Jobsey Go Jobsey Go!
We can't stop the rhyyyythhhmm!
Is it?
Is this the "big" iPhone that has been speculated upon?
