Wi-Fi from the Desert

By some reports, this year’s Comdex Fall in Las Vegas, NV, is the smallest
in memory, and could even be the last of it’s kind if some rumors are to be
believed. But even if Comdex isn’t what it used to be, it’s still the hotspot
for pre-holiday product announcements in the tech industry. And wireless LAN
vendors are no exception. Here’s a look at announcements for new 802.11-based
products coming out of the desert (and elsewhere, because even those who don’t
go to Comdex take advantage of the hype machine).

CLIENTS

The latest Palm PDAs might stand a chance of going online wirelessly, now that
SyChip has finally introduced — at least
in a test phase — the 6060 SDIO (secure digital input/output) card.
This 802.11b NIC client is the smallest yet, able to fit into the chewing-gum
sized slot found in many modern PDAs. The card will come with drivers for Windows
2000/XP/CE, Pocket PC and PalmOS 4.x and up. SyChip has already announced that
the embedded version of the card, the WLAN6060EB, will be built into the new
Cyberbank POZ, a PDA to be released in early 2003 from Korea’s Cyberbank Corp.
that will also incorporate CMDA services.