NO WIRES: How the Apple Airport Changed Everything
Summary
TLDRThis video delves into the intricate history of wireless networking, highlighting the pioneering efforts of Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil in developing spread spectrum technology during WWII. It traces the evolution from military use to civilian applications, leading to the FCC's 1985 ruling that unlocked unlicensed frequency bands. The narrative focuses on Bruce Tuck's work at NCR, the creation of the Waveland wireless system, and the formation of the 802.11 standard under Vic Hayes. Apple's game-changing introduction of the AirPort, which made wireless technology accessible and affordable, is a key highlight, showcasing how it spurred a wireless revolution and transformed home networking.
Takeaways
- ๐ก The history of wireless communication dates back to the late 19th century, with early techniques like spread spectrum developed to minimize radio interference and avoid jamming.
- ๐ญ Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil patented a secret communication system using spread spectrum during World War II, which was later declassified and became the foundation for modern wireless networking.
- ๐ ๏ธ Spread spectrum technology was classified as military technology until 1981, and in 1985, the FCC allowed its use in the ISM bands without a license, paving the way for wireless networking.
- ๐ก Bruce Tuck, an electrical engineer at NCR, played a pivotal role in the development of wireless networking by creating a prototype wireless transceiver for retail stores, leading to the concept of a wireless local area network (WLAN).
- ๐ The Barker code, discovered by Hans Van de Lune, was key to achieving higher data rates in wireless transmissions, allowing for the development of faster wireless networks.
- ๐ข NCR's Vic Hayes was instrumental in the formation of the 802.11 working group, which was responsible for creating the first wireless networking standard, setting the stage for widespread adoption.
- ๐ผ The 802.11 standard faced initial challenges with interoperability and high costs, but the industry eventually rallied around a common standard, leading to the development of 802.11b.
- ๐ Apple's introduction of the iBook and the Airport, under Steve Jobs' leadership, marked a significant milestone in making wireless networking mainstream, with a focus on simplicity and affordability.
- ๐ง The collaboration between Apple, Lucent, and Doug Carl was crucial in developing the Airport's hardware and software, overcoming technical challenges to meet Apple's aggressive timeline.
- ๐ The success of the Airport and the subsequent widespread adoption of 802.11b demonstrated the power of taking bold risks in technology, as Apple's commitment to wireless networking reshaped the industry.
Q & A
What is the significance of spread spectrum technology in wireless communication?
-Spread spectrum technology is significant in wireless communication as it spreads the transmission of information over a wider range of frequencies, making it more resistant to interference and jamming, and also providing secrecy since the transmission appears as noise to outside observers.
Who are Hedy Lamar and George Antheil, and what is their contribution to wireless communication?
-Hedy Lamar and George Antheil were an actress and composer, respectively, who developed a patented secret communication system using spread spectrum technology during World War II. Their system was designed to minimize radio interference and avoid jamming.
Why was spread spectrum technology classified as military technology until 1981?
-Spread spectrum technology was classified as military technology due to its advantages in secrecy and resistance to jamming, which were crucial for military communications. It was declassified and allowed for civilian use after 1981.
What prompted NCR to explore wireless technology for their cash registers?
-NCR explored wireless technology to connect their cash registers and terminals to back office computers without cables, thus avoiding the need to drill holes in their clients' floors after redesigning store layouts.
What was the role of Bruce Tuck in the development of wireless networking at NCR?
-Bruce Tuck, an electrical engineer specializing in analog RF design, was hired by NCR to help design cost reduction for their wired internet system. He later contributed to the feasibility study and prototype development of a wireless transceiver using direct sequence spread spectrum for retail stores.
How did the Barker code contribute to the development of wireless networking?
-The Barker code was a method of encoding a single bit of data in a wireless transmission that allowed for higher data rates without sacrificing range and resistance to interference, which was crucial for the application in retail stores that NCR was developing.
What was the significance of the 802.11 working group and its formation?
-The 802.11 working group was significant as it was responsible for creating the 802.11 standard, which laid the foundation for modern wireless local area networks. The formation of this group marked the beginning of a standardized approach to wireless networking.
Why was the release of the first 802.11 standard considered 'too little, too late' by some?
-The first 802.11 standard was considered 'too little, too late' because by the time it was published in 1997, there were already many proprietary wireless products in the market, and the standard did not gain immediate popularity or widespread adoption.
What was the role of Apple in popularizing wireless networking with the introduction of the Airport?
-Apple played a pivotal role in popularizing wireless networking by introducing the Airport, which was a user-friendly and affordable solution that came pre-installed in Apple devices. This move by Apple helped to accelerate the adoption of wireless technology in the mainstream market.
How did the collaboration between Apple, Lucent, and Doug Carl lead to the development of the Airport product line?
-The collaboration between Apple, Lucent, and Doug Carl led to the development of the Airport product line through a combination of Apple's vision for simplifying home networking, Lucent's wireless technology, and Doug Carl's efficient embedded software. This partnership resulted in a product that was both innovative and accessible to consumers.
Outlines
๐ก The Evolution of Wireless Networking
The script begins by challenging the notion that progress is driven by sudden breakthroughs, instead emphasizing the gradual process of trial and error. It delves into the history of wireless communication, dating back to the late 19th century, with a focus on the development of spread spectrum technology. This technology, which spreads transmissions over a wide frequency range to minimize interference and enhance secrecy, was famously used by Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil during World War II. The script then transitions to the 1980s, discussing the FCC's decision to allow unlicensed use of spread spectrum in certain frequency bands, paving the way for new wireless applications.
๐ ๏ธ The Pioneering Work of Bruce Tuck and the Birth of Wireless LAN
The narrative shifts to Bruce Tuck, an electrical engineer at NCR, who was tasked with exploring the use of direct sequence spread spectrum for retail applications. Tuck and his team developed a wireless transceiver prototype that operated in the 900 MHz band, capable of transmitting at 500 kilobits per second. The script highlights the discovery of the Barker code by Hans Von Drube, which allowed for higher data rates and resistance to interference. This breakthrough led Tuck to realize the potential of creating a wireless local area network (WLAN) that could work with existing protocols, setting the stage for the development of wireless standards.
๐ข The Corporate Journey Towards Wireless Standardization
This section discusses the formation of the 802.11 working group, led by Vic Hayes of NCR, which aimed to create a wireless standard based on NCR's Waveland design. The script outlines the challenges faced by the group, including the need for interoperability and the competition with other wireless technologies. It details the process of standardization, including the formation of the 802.11b standard, which was nearly derailed by a contentious vote between Harris Semiconductor and Microor. The script also touches on the impact of AT&T's acquisition of NCR and the subsequent creation of Lucent, which inherited the Waveland technology.
๐ Apple's Bold Leap into Wireless Technology
The script recounts Apple's entry into the wireless market with the iBook, which was code-named '$7.99' after the target cell price. Apple's vision for the iBook included home networking capabilities, and after considering various technologies, they settled on wireless as the best solution. The narrative follows the collaboration between Apple and Lucent, which was tasked with developing a wireless card and access point for the iBook. The story highlights the challenges faced, including the need to meet Steve Jobs' aggressive price point and the technical hurdles that had to be overcome, such as the metallic paint that interfered with the access point's functionality.
๐ The Launch of Apple Airport and Its Industry Impact
This section describes the development and launch of Apple's Airport product, which included both the wireless card and the base station. The script details the collaboration between Apple, Lucent, and Doug Carl, who provided the embedded software for the wireless card. It outlines the technical specifications of the Airport, including its use of the 802.11b standard and the inclusion of a 56k dialup modem. The narrative culminates in the successful unveiling of the Airport at Macworld, where Steve Jobs demonstrated its capabilities live on stage. The script also discusses the industry's reaction to Apple's move, with competitors like Michael Dell being caught off guard and the 802.11b standard's eventual approval, solidifying Apple's leadership in the wireless market.
๐ The Legacy of Wireless Networking and the Future Ahead
The final section of the script reflects on the legacy of wireless networking, from its early days of connecting cash registers to the widespread adoption of 802.11 technology in homes and businesses. It acknowledges the contributions of pioneers like Bruce Tuck and the visionaries at Apple, who took a bold risk in embedding wireless technology in their products. The script concludes by celebrating the innovation and perseverance that have made wireless networking an integral part of modern life, and it looks forward to the continued evolution of this technology.
Mindmap
Keywords
๐กWireless networking
๐กSpread Spectrum
๐กFCC
๐กNational Cash Register (NCR)
๐กDirect Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)
๐กBarker code
๐ก802.11
๐กLucent
๐กAirport
๐กSteve Jobs
Highlights
The history of wireless communication dates back to the late 19th century, with early techniques like spread Spectrum being developed to minimize radio interference and avoid jamming.
Hedy Lamar and George Antheil patented a secret communication system using spread Spectrum during World War II, which was classified as military technology until 1981.
In 1985, the FCC allowed spread Spectrum to be used without a license in certain frequency bands, paving the way for new wireless applications.
Bruce Tuck, an electrical engineer at NCR, developed a wireless transceiver prototype for retail stores, operating in the 900 MHz band.
The use of the Barker code allowed for higher data rates in wireless transmissions, reaching up to 2 megabits per second with good range and interference resistance.
NCR's Vic Hayes played a pivotal role in the formation of the 802.11 working group, which aimed to create a new wireless standard.
The first 802.11 standard was published in 1997, but it took time for the technology to gain widespread acceptance due to competing standards and high costs.
Apple's Steve Jobs envisioned a future where wireless networking was integral, leading to the development of the iBook with built-in wireless capabilities.
Lucent Technologies, which had acquired NCR, was approached by Apple to supply wireless networking technology for the iBook at a significantly reduced cost.
Doug Carl, a pioneer in wireless Ethernet bridges, was instrumental in developing the software for Apple's wireless products, ensuring high efficiency and performance.
The Apple Airport was introduced in 1999, featuring a user-friendly design and affordable pricing, which helped to popularize wireless networking.
The Airport's success demonstrated the potential of wireless technology, leading to rapid advancements and widespread adoption across the industry.
The 802.11 standard has evolved significantly, now supporting multi-gigabit data rates and playing a crucial role in how we use our devices today.
The story of wireless networking is one of innovation, collaboration, and the vision of pioneers like Steve Jobs, who recognized the potential of wireless technology early on.
The dedication of engineers and the bold decisions of companies like Apple and Lucent have shaped the wireless landscape we enjoy today.
Transcripts
[Music]
we often like to think of sudden
breakthroughs and Eureka moments as the
drivers of progress but these are really
the exception they obtain greater
Fidelity and stability more often there
is a long drawn out process of peac Mill
advances setbacks and struggles that
eventually add up to something greater
but even when something revolutionary
seems like it's within our grasp it
still requires a leap of
faith so today on the serial Port we're
exploring the surprisingly complicated
and contentious history of Wireless
networking we'll be looking at a device
that no one saw coming and talking to
the people that made it
[Music]
happen the history of wireless
communication goes back to the late 19th
century but even during these very early
days people were figuring out how to
both minimize radio interference and
avoid radio
jamming one of the techniques that
emerged is known as spread Spectrum this
was famously utilized by Hollywood
actress and inventor Hedy Lamar and
composer George antile in their
development of a patented secret
communication system in 1941 during the
height of World War II spread Spectrum
works as the name suggests by spreading
the transmission of information which
would normally be in a relatively narrow
band over a wider range of frequencies
the rece if they know the modulation
scheme can then despread the
transmission to extract the information
to an outside Observer the transmission
may look just like noise which has
obvious advantages for secrecy the
technique also helps avoid radio jamming
because the transmission is spread
across a wider bandwidth which can make
some radio jamming techniques
ineffective spread Spectrum was actually
classified as military technology until
1981 and in 1985 the FCC issued a
landmar Mark ruling allowing the
technique to be used without a license
in the ism or industrial scientific and
medical frequency bands these included
the frequencies around 9915 MHz 2.4 GHz
and 5.8 GHz and with the newly open
bands available for unlicensed activity
and spread Spectrum authorized for
civilian use it didn't take long for new
applications to
appear
in 1986 just a year after the FCC ruling
Bruce Tuck an electrical engineer that
specialized in analog RF design
responded to a job posting from a
company called National cash register or
NCR founded in Dayton Ohio in the late
19th century NCR manufactured the first
ever mechanical cash register invented
by James ridy and in the 1950s they got
their start in computers and electronics
and even jointly developed the scuzzy
interface in
1982 however tuck was hired for his RF
expertise at their utre facility in the
Netherlands first project I was doing
there was you know I I came because of
the carrot of Wireless research but uh
the first thing was actually a very
standardized wir based internet you know
NCR had cash registers connected so you
could call it their sort of inra net I
guess and it was done over wire and I
was there to help design some of the
cost reduction ship report it was like 1
megabit per second over twist the P
that's when NCR began a feasibility
study to determine if something called
direct sequence spread Spectrum which is
a spread Spectrum modulation technique
could be used in retail department
stores their clients wanted to connect
their Terminals and cash registers to
the back office computers without cables
so that they did not need to drill holes
in their shiny marble floors after
redesigning store layouts so so tuck and
his colleagues created a prototype
wireless transceiver as a result of the
study it operated in the 900 MHz band
and transmitted at 500 kilobits a second
but even higher data rates were possible
a colleague of tux Hans Von D found that
using something called The Barker code
was the key to higher data rates without
delving into too much technical detail
here this was a method of encoding a
single bit of data in a wireless
transmission that allowed data rates to
reach upward of 2 megabits per second
with excellent range and resistance to
interference exactly what they needed
for their application at the time and
after this breakthrough tuck had a
realization you know this this is really
really a wireless local area network
right the prospect of creating a
wireless land was enticing but tuck knew
that whatever they built it had to work
with existing protocols that was for me
interesting to look at to make
strategically whenever we do we have to
make sure that we build something that
doesn't require tcpip to be changed uh
you know how does bridging work and
could we do something that's a wireless
bridge and make it look like any other
Bridge so on people plug this in
eventually they just think hey I know
how to do this on ethernet and I could
do it on wessy theet but to get this
kind of interoperability a standard
would be needed so how do you do that
and and and try to do that in a
propriatary way we thought wasn't the
way to go because one of the things with
wireless connectivity is you need you
need to either own the whole system
right to have things communicate or or
make sure the ego system is there so if
you're building a radio and someone else
is building a different radio if they
don't communicate with each other then
you get in these feef Stones right and
all of a sudden there's not
interoperability then you have to be the
biggest player to make sure that this
becomes a big system so I would say no
you know this will be better to have uh
this as a standard that's when ncr's Vic
Hayes got involved with the 8024 L
working group of the i e standards
organization the same place where the
ethernet standards were formulated 82.4
L was formed to investigate whether the
token bus standard could be extended to
include Wireless but after determining
that neither token bus nor the existing
ethernet standard would be a good fit
Hast submitted a request to create a new
one and on September 10th of 1990 at a
GM plan in ashaa Canada the 802.11
working group was formed with Vic Hayes
as the elected chairman the meetings
that week included dozens of
participants from NCR Toshiba Motorola
IBM and many other companies wanting to
be involved in the formation of the new
wireless standard and amazingly the
handwritten diagrams and notes are still
available to see from this first meeting
the working group would use ncr's design
now coined Waveland as a basis for the
emerging standard but their work was
just getting
started in 1990 NCR released their first
Waveland products at networld interop in
Dallas Texas Waveland operated at 9915
MHz over one Wireless Channel with a
maximum data rate of 2 megabits per
second and in 1991 NCR was acquired by
AT&T and they continued to developed the
Waveland range throughout the
9s with the technology now out in the
wild but still no official standard the
next few years produced a bevy of new
wireless products these include products
like the deck rout access point a design
licensed from NCR then there was aeronet
AR land with both 915 MHz and 2.4 GHz
versions proxim developed their
rangeland line starting in 1991 and
symol Technologies had their own
Spectrum 24 system as well but there was
a problem many of these systems were not
interoperable with one another despite
all of these companies having a presence
in the 802.11 working
group and the prices were
astronomical while there were some
successful applications of these early
Wireless Solutions PC manufacturers were
apprehensive and few showed any interest
due to the sheer number of proprietary
Solutions in the market and the high
price points and in 1996 AT&T
restructured and created Lucent which
The Wire less land groups now fell under
and among these setbacks and changes the
first 802.11 standard was finally
published on November 18th of 1997 with
little to no Fanfare and was some saying
it was too little too
[Music]
late in over the years the 82.1 working
group had grown tremendously in size and
scope there were competing standards
like home RF and hyperland supported by
different camps of Manufacturers which
were vying to gain control on the
marketplace and claim wiress superiority
8021 at that time was getting a little
bit more popular it was still not there
but we realized we had to break the 10
megabit barrier and it all came to a
head in May of
1998 the working group met for their buy
annual interim meeting at a Holiday Inn
in utre Netherlands part of the agenda
was to vote on ad
211b an extension of the original
standard which would support an 11
megabits per second data rate proposals
of how to achieve this higher speed were
put forth by several companies
represented in the working group
lucent's proposal had been voted down so
two contenders were left one from Harris
semiconductor and another from micore a
relative newcomer to the
scene the voting was split almost evenly
with microor edging out Harris by a
single vote vote this was thrown into
chaos though as a product manager from
3com stood up and contested the entire
voting procedure claiming that members
had voted along quote party or in this
case manufacturer lines this was against
the spirit of the I rules which state
that votes must be for what the voter
considers to be the best technical
proposal regardless of who put it forth
and according to the 3com product
manager this was undoubtedly Harris's
solution after this the meeting erupted
in conflict and went quote down in
flames and the working group itself was
nearly torn apart by these events
however cooler heads prevailed as
representatives from both Lucent and
Harris set down to reach a compromise
solution and actually the compromise
technology turned out to be I think
better than either one so that's doesn't
necessarily it's not necessarily the
case usually that when you compromise it
comes out better the end result was
something called complim lary code
keying or cck this was a new modulation
scheme that not only improved
performance over Harris's original
proposal but decreased complexity in the
original Lucent scheme with the solution
now in hand what
802.11b really needed was the right
company one willing to be bold to take a
risk and introduce Wireless to a wired
world
there has been so much that's happened
in terms
of network computing as an example that
Apple's completely missed out on Steve
Jobs had been back at Apple as interim
CEO since September of
1997 his mission was to bring the
company back from the brink of
bankruptcy and part of that plan was
resting on simplifying their product
lineup jobs devised a new product road
map consisting of four
quadrants a desktop and portable meant
for
consumers and a desktop and portable for
professionals these would be the four
new systems that would help reinvent
Apple for the 21st
century around this time Les vogle a
software engineer who had been working
on the recently shuttered Apple Newton
project moved to the new group
responsible for the consumer portable
this would eventually become the iBook
but internally it had a different
moniker the original code name was
$7.99 which was the target cell
price now we couldn't figure out how to
build it for $799 let alone sell it for
$7.99 vogle had known Steve Jobs and
Steve wnc since he was a teenager having
met them through Alex camad who ran call
computer in the early '70s both Bogle
actually started working at call
computer at the age of 15 and later
attended meetings of The Homebrew
Computer Club Bogle eventually became an
early customer of wnc was upgraded my HP
35 to an HP
55 I believe I gave him money for that
vogle had originally been tasked to work
on implementing the CPU on the iBook
which was now internally referred to as
P1 however Apple wanted something to
differentiate the new system we wanted
to have home
networking so we looked at uh every
technology we could we looked at uh
infrared we looked at power line and we
looked at uh Wireless but these other
Technologies all had insurmountable
shortcomings so it came to wireless but
I had been doing the research for uh
Wireless and it kind of got to the point
where
if we were going to do it someone had to
be leading this project and so I asked
to lead it and
Mantia
CPU which people told me was crazy but
uh I'm like Wireless is more
important Fogle then recommended that
Apple rehire Dick Allen who he knew from
Apple's Advanced Technology Group Allan
had a presence on the 802.11 working
group and jobs asked him to find the
best inclass Wireless solution for the
iBook Allan then brought on Art Astron
to help with the hardware engineering
and
Manufacturing Allan knew that the
802.11b standard was close to being
completed he also knew Bruce tuck and
had the confidence in loosen that their
wireless radio development was the most
advanced with apple involved what
happened there is you know Apple was
talking to us that sometime before I got
a call from uh Dick Allen he used to be
uh in California he had a startup
phonics and he was doing Wireless
infrared and so then he called me up and
goes Bruce you know I like your models
and stuff and I know you're doing a chip
are do are you doing the new standard
chip for 11 megabit that's going to fit
the standard I go yeah we're we're going
to do that right so I morphed thought
our technology we were doing our own
chip that got changed and we're now
doing the standard chip and he said okay
are you almost done yes are you going to
you know sell that product to other
people yet not yet we're not ready good
so he says you know cuz got hired by by
Steve to uh look at Wireless and I says
I know you're Bruce and I think your
stuff is good so let's see what happens
and then he hung up you know and then
all a sudden Ripple fact you know art
Astron then went to utre to meet with
the Lucent team I remember flying their
first month to Holland and meeting with
the whole team and they were also very
depressed
demoralized cuz they already been at it
for like 10 years and uh they had a
product line called Waveland which was a
PC
board and an
access uh point which was basically a
PC like a rack moded PC with hard drives
and two slots for PCM CIA
cards and he was offered offered to sell
it to us for
$1,500 not exactly an apple price point
and Steve just
went okay we'll talk to you later
despite this high price point a meeting
was scheduled with apple and Lucent on
April 20th in
1998 prior to the meeting the Lucent
group gathered together at the
Peppermill Lounge in copertino just
across from Apple's headquarters to
formulate a plan for Success the CEO of
Lucent Rich mcin had shown little
interest in Wireless networking and was
mainly concentrated on multi-billion
dollar deals with OS at the time but he
was a quick student and after a brief
briefing he was able to talk about
Wireless technology like a seasoned Pro
and they headed across the street to
Apple
HQ the difference between the two groups
could not have been more Stark with the
formal business attire of Lucent
contrasted against the California style
Birkenstock wearing Apple crew there was
one notable person missing though Steve
Jobs the room fell into an awkward
silence but thankfully jobs finally
walked in needing no introduction jobs
immediately took over the meeting laying
out his vision for the iBook and why it
was the right time for wireless as case
links a manager at Lucent pointed out
presenting to jobs was easy as he would
often do the talking and explanation for
you and that's when jobs dropped the
bomb Lucent would Supply the wireless
Nick to Apple for
$50 the room fell silent jobs stood up
and
left this was a Monumental challenge for
Lucent they had to deliver not only the
new 802.11b Nick but the access point as
well and both of these had to be done by
the spring of
1999 but luckily for Lucent they had an
ace up their sleeve in the form of Doug
Carl
okay
Carl was a pioneer of Wireless to
ethernet Bridges first developing them
at Ohio State University to help link
buildings across campus using early NCR
Wireless Nicks exactly like the one we
saw earlier this later morphed into his
own company called carlet which provided
Wireless Bridges firewalls and
specialized in outdoor Wireless
technology so because of that work that
we've been doing with the NCR card
somehow we got the attention of the NCR
uh corporation which was in uh Holland
in the Netherlands and um got a call or
something email I don't know that a
couple NCR guys were going to stop by
OSU and see what we're doing after
attempting their own in-house software
development NCR turned to Carl who ended
up developing the embedded software for
many of their Wireless products
throughout the 90s the secret to Carl's
success was his embedded software which
was extremely efficient and the the Reon
reason that it worked which was a pro
and a con for for the software package
at the time was the curl was written in
highly optimized assembler 386 assembler
and the reason that that was is because
the project that it came out of had to
do full wire speed uh ethernet to
ethernet and with without fail that it
supported it it fronted all of the labs
and buildings that we had at the
University because we had a need for
that of of packet filtering a bridging
you know firewall thing at the at the
border of each building and so we had to
handle a lot of traffic and the only way
I could get that to happen is by re I
had an oscilloscope on the motherboard
watching the timing of every one of the
instructions and how long it took from
one packet to another to actually
process that and where I mean it was fun
but it was it was very detailed and in
1998 NCR then loosened asked him if he
could help on a project for a consumer
device but little did he know at the
time it was for Apple so we negotiated
price for that which I they they never
told me who it was they just said well
we'll probably get our volume up and I
was like great if the volume goes up
that's great so we got a little bit of a
one-time development cost and then well
then they said oh okay well that's fine
we signed the contract and they said
well it's for Apple it's a consumer item
it's they're shipping all around the
World there'll be hundreds of thousands
of them and I'm like oh you know crap
with the cat out of the bag Carl
provided Lucent with a list of required
components necessary to implement his
software the Lucent developed access
point was powered by a single board
computer with the AMD Elon SC 400 a
processor based on the
486 and Lucent used their newly
developed 802.11b compliant PC mcia
wireless card as the radio the access
point could be connected to an ex
existing wired land but with Broadband
still Out Of Reach for most households
an apple developed 56k dialup modem was
included as well and then there was the
product design itself Astron worked with
Johnny IV Apple's legendary design Chief
to come up with the physical design of
the access point which was actually
inspired by a mushroom shaped lamp in
astron's office and with all three
companies rushing to meet the deadline
there were a number of challenges close
to production tuck received a phone call
from Allan complaining that the access
point was not working what do you mean
it's not working well I turned it on and
it doesn't work and it turns out that
the the paint they used was metallic so
it didn't work because he had a faraday
cage with our antenna inside there I say
he go I go hey this is not going to work
dick you know and it was a secret I
couldn't see what the casing was right
that was why he says yeah I know I know
but the that we can't I said you have to
tell you go we can't change it because
you know Steve you know he he accepted
it if you tell them something as reality
Distortion field he'll tell you to
change the little Wars of Nature and so
so so what what they did eventually they
found their paint guys and they found a
paint that was plastic in the
composition that had the same glossy
look so that was able to be done so
let's just show you the development
scenarios going on there with that
crisis averted the airport was ready to
debut but Apple had gone one step
further they had so much faith in
Wireless that they built antennas into
every single device from that point
forward they were betting big on
wireless and this could be either apple
and Steve Jobs next world changing
Innovation or a Monumental
fumble so on July 21st of 1999 the
airport was ready to be unveiled at
macworld except there was a last minute
problem just before doors for the
announcement we couldn't get anything to
work Steve was like well we'll just not
announce it then at the last minute I
noticed that the router the lights on it
were going crazy I'm
like who's using it and we finally found
in the Green Room that um Frank
covo had been streaming QuickTime movies
be called doors and we figured out we're
just going to go with it live and hope
that it works
and we stopped Frank from
streaming and it did work with job
signature flare after debuting the new
iBook to the crowd he said well but
there is one more thing there is one
more thing Let me just show this to you
for a minute okay I'm going to go to CNN
interactive here and uh see what's on
CNN oh there's CNN you can see uh and uh
maybe I'll go to Disney here you know I
can I can come over here let me show
them the uh show show these guys how
work come on over here you want to skip
behind me then yeah uh so uh I can just
go to disney.com
[Applause]
here oh you notice
something thank
you you notic
uh
no
wires no
why the airport card would sell for a
near unbelievable $99 in the base
station for
$299 far lower than anyone in the
industry thought possible and it sold in
huge numbers their first day saw
150,000 units sold another 150k that
second day and again on the third day
the demand was so high that they had to
shut down online orders on the fourth
day after launch the question of whether
the public was ready for wireless had
been answered and it was a resounding
affirmation of Apple's big betat the
airport kickstarted the next generation
of Wireless into overdrive and the PC
industry was scrambling to play catchup
Michael Dell was reportedly Furious that
apple had beaten Dell and in fact the
enti higher PC market to the punch and
shortly after the airport's release
802.11b was finally approved on
September 16th
1999 the 80211 working group now at
nearly 100 members celebrated this
achievement in Santa Rosa California
with Vic Hayes still at the helm as
working group
chairman the history of Wireless is
complicated with twists and turns
successes and failur years but here we
are today where 802.11 signals are
nearly as ubiquitous as sunlight from
its meager Beginnings at 2 megabits per
second and now supporting multi- gigabit
data rates 802.11 completely transformed
how we use our devices and freed the
local area network from the confines of
the wire but so much of its success is
due to the airport and the company that
took a bold risk embedding it all on
wireless that whole saying I'm going to
come out first a company like apple was
willing to take that risk of saying I'm
going to put it as you know in every PC
it has to be this price and uh and we're
going to create the market but I would
say that was a important Reflection
Point where Apple you know launched and
it was it and then everyone else got on
the bang wagon right I think Apple was
the right company because we worked hard
to simplify it our goal was to solve
home networking we just wanted it to be
easy so to celebrate this incredible
device we're setting up our very own
Apple airport to dial in the serial Port
ISP so that we can recreate the magic of
discovering Wireless for the first
time all right let's try to connect
wireless
graphite
connect
C
and we did it we're online and connected
to the internet with the
airport it's incredible that this really
all started with wanting to wirelessly
connect cash registers back in the80s
and all of these devices that are in
millions of households today can trace
their routs back to the airport and it's
thanks to the dedication and passion of
the pioneers of wireless and the
audacity of people like Steve Jobs that
were willing to take a leap of
faith to change our
world thanks for watching the serial
port and we'll see you next
time
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