On Jan 10, 2006, at 3:43 PM, Tim Sherburne wrote:
Apple used to use the marketing phrase "Airport ready" which confused
the heck out of folks, in a sense suggesting that the computer was
ready for
wireless networking out of the box. This, of course, wasn't the
case unless
the buyer had explicitly asked for the Airport card or purchased a
model
with the card already installed.
"Airport Ready" means that the system unit has the connection
circuitry and antennae for an Airport or Airport extreme wireless
card built in. "Airport Equipped" means that it has everything
required for wireless installed. I never found that confusing,
personally.
What differs between fitting a wireless card in the PC Card slot and
the way Apple designed wireless into their laptop systems is that a)
when you are equipped with Airport you still have a PC Card slot to
use for other things (on systems that offer a PC Card slot), and b)
the integrated antennae are generally better for reception than the
antenna in a one-piece card, and you don't have that antenna
vulnerably hanging out of the side of your laptop.
Godfrey
