You may think the 802.11n Wi-Fi networking standard is already here. The fact is, equipment manufacturers have been relying on drafts. At last, the final draft is on its way, and an Interop panel discussed its implications Wednesday.

The now emerging IEEE 802.11n Wi-Fi standard will add some major new twists to Wi-Fi, or in many cases, finalize some of the twists manufacturers have already begun implementing while waiting for the finalized draft. Some of the most important of these changes will include three modes of operation and two frequency ranges, speakers said at the Interop conference here Wednesday.

Although the IEEE has not yet approved the final 802.11n standard, some wireless devices, such as routers, are already available that comply with the emerging specification.

The three modes of operation encompass "802.11n only, 802.11b/g only, and mixed mode," noted Paul DeBeasi, a senior analyst at the Burton Group. The standard also supports both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency ranges.

Source: BetaNews

That huge bundle of emails and documents Microsoft produced as part of the Vista-capable lawsuit is full of fascinating information about how the company developed, planned, and launched Vista, but the latest juicy nugget to come out if it suggests that a lot of problems faced by the troubled operating system are actually NVIDIA's fault -- nearly 30% of logged Vista crashes were due to NVIDIA driver problems, according to Microsoft data included in the bundle. That's some 479,326 hung systems, if you're keeping score at home, and it's in first place by a large margin -- Microsoft clocks in at number two at 17.9 percent, and ATI is fourth with 9.3 percent. Now, the chart doesn't contain a ton of additional information that would help put it in context -- a specific time period in 2007 would be nice, as would and driver and OS versions -- but we've been hearing about NVIDIA issues with Vista from the start, and this seems to confirm it. So that's pressure by Intel to support incompatible chipsets, outrage by Dell and Wal-Mart that the Vista Capable program was confusing customers, Microsoft executives saying they had been "personally burnt" by Vista, and now what looks like a huge NVIDIA driver problem -- who knows what else is going to come out of this lawsuit? At this point we're half expecting a photo of Gates signing a Save XP petition.

Source: engadget

The company admitted Wednesday that it sales for its flagship game console were in fact so strong that it hasn't been able to maintain inventory levels.

Redmond may be playing the expectations game as NPD data listing monthly console sales is due shortly, and may show some weakness due to these supply problems. Microsoft's game marketing chief Jeff Bell said it could have an impact on its sales.

"We're literally out of stock in many stores," Bell told Reuters. January and February numbers are expected to be affected most, but the company is ramping up production and will likely be able to meet demand by spring.

Source: BetaNews