e70 – AirPort

Apple has officially discontinued its AirPort line of wireless products after nearly 20 years(!) We examine how our Wi-Fi has evolved from the original iBook until today.

Follow Up

• hire Ed!
• Douglas Adams’s DragThing feature request
  • e42
  • Frontier
  • coverage on Daring Fireball
• Cancel/OK sticky notes
• Apple Glyph a Day

AirPort

• Apple Abandons Development of Wireless Routers – Bloomberg
• final cancellation
• 802.11 standards
  • Wi-Fi Alliance
• AirPort intro at MacWorld NY 1999
  • iBook G3
  • Phil Schiller’s death drop
• AirPort website at launch
• Lucent WaveLAN

• ad for original AirPort Base Station
• AirPort Card
  • PDF manual
  • adapter for iMac G3
• AirPort Extreme
• AirPort Express
  • AirTunes (later AirPlay)
  • Wireless distribution system (WDS)
• 802.11n update announced via press release
• Time Capsule
• removal of “AirPort” references from Mac OS Lion
• teardown of tower AirPort Base Station