Apple's new Mac Pro will have a new AirPort card. For those who aren't familiar with it, the AirPort is a wireless networking card. There's already been an AirPort and an AirPort Extreme. The new card is the "AirPort Express."

Dang it! I keep typing "Airport" instead of "AirPort" ... what the heck is up with naming GadGets and ProgRams with CaPital LetTers StuCk in the MidDle of words! Anyway, back to the AirPort Express.

What will this mean for Apple users?
Apple has chosen to go with Broadcom's 802.11a/g BCM4311 chip for the new AirPort Express. This might be a sign that Apple's gearing up to start supporting the 802.11a WiFi standard. You see, 802.11a operates at around 5GHz, and some people report that the WWDC had a 5.8GHz network up during the keynote. But not everybody likes the faster 802.11a because even though 802.11a is faster, it's not compatible with the already popular 802.11b and 802.11g.

Will Apple use the faster 802.11n?
Not yet. The IEEE (the global Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) has scheduled the 802.11n WiFi standard to come out sometime in the middle of 2007. While many believe that Apple will be among the first to try it out, you all just have to learn to wait.

If 802.11a is faster, why doesn't everyone want Apple to fully switch to it?
Both b and g work at 2.4GHz, and this is also the frequency of many cordless phones, so you interference messing up your WiFi. The 802.11a works at around 5GHz so there's no problem with interference, and it also sends and receives more data (usually five times faster than 802.11b).

So if 802.11a is faster, shouldn't it be common sense to adopt it? Not really. For those who are not familiar with the ways of WiFi communication, 802.11b was the standard before 802.11a and 802.11g (we know; it's weird that the version after "b" is called "a," but that's how they did it). The 802.11a is not backwards compatible with the already popular 802.11b, although a lot of new technology has come out that smoothes over the compatibility problems.

The new AirPort Express has Broadcom's 802.11a/g BCM4311 chip, and 802.11g is backwards compatible with the existing 802.11b/g setup that many people have.