Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Wi-Fi changes virtually everything

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 04:41:08 -0500

Wi-Fi changes virtually everything

By Michelle Kessler, USA TODAY

February 19, 2004

Watching football on TV doesn't cut it
anymore for John Furrier and his son, Alec, 8.
Broadcasters can't spew enough statistics to satisfy the two.
So the Furriers rely on a laptop with wireless Internet, called
Wi-Fi, to get the latest data from the living room couch while
watching the game.

Wi-Fi sends Web pages and other information through the air via radio
waves.
The Furriers' Wi-Fi laptop receives up-to-the-minute scores and trivia
from
ESPN.com, though it's not plugged into a phone line. That allows father
and
son to swap stats without missing a minute of the game.

Hankering for some nachos? They can take the laptop with them to the
kitchen
and not miss a play. John Furrier, 38, even admits to surfing the Web
from
the bathroom.

Wi-Fi is catching on fast - and changing the way people use the
Internet.
Fans say it leads them to do more things online: They pay bills from the
living room, search recipes from the kitchen and check e-mail on the go.
Tech analysts say that's just the beginning of what Wi-Fi can do. In the
future, it will connect all kinds of devices - lamps, stereos, computers
-
and, for the first time, truly integrate the Internet into daily life.

"It's going to connect all kinds of things that need to be connected
together," says Matt Peterson, co-founder of a San Francisco-area Wi-Fi
users group. "It could really make your life easier."

Wi-Fi has been in the mainstream only about four years, but it's already
causing a rise in laptop computer sales. Laptops made up 22% of PCs sold
in
the USA in late 2002. By the end of 2003, they made up 30%, says
researcher
Gartner.

Now, Wi-Fi is starting to appear in consumer electronics. Gateway,
Microsoft, Samsung and others are building TVs, DVD players, stereos and
other gadgets that can talk to one another - and to nearby PCs. That
makes
it possible to download a movie or song from the Internet and send it
wirelessly to your home entertainment system.

That's just the beginning. Researchers are working on a tiny version of
Wi-Fi that can be used to send very simple commands to household
appliances.
You could use it, say, if you wanted to turn on your lights remotely,
via
the Internet. Or adjust your thermostat. Or check whether you left the
iron
on. There are thousands of possibilities, Peterson says.

That means big opportunities for enterprising companies, says
Nielsen/NetRatings analyst Charles Buchwalter. Six million people buy
something online each day, and millions more use the Web for research
and
reservations, according to the Pew Research Center's Internet & American
Life Project. As Wi-Fi makes the Web more convenient, those numbers will
rise, he says. Companies that sell online goods and services - and adapt
quickly to Wi-Fi - could have a huge, new customer base, he says.

Wi-Fi will prompt companies "to take the Internet much more seriously,"
Buchwalter says. "It's revolutionary."

>From couch to kitchen

Wi-Fi is taking off fast. More than 64 million Wi-Fi systems are
expected to
be sold this year, up from 24 million in 2002, says researcher IDC.

Already, Internet companies such as ESPN.com are tailoring features to
customers with Wi-Fi. In September, ESPN.com launched a host of
features.
Among them: live chats with sports experts, more video clips of big
plays
and tools to help fantasy football fans track their teams.

It's a big change from ESPN.com's initial design, based on targeted
users
who watched the game in the living room and dashed to an office PC to
check
scores or stats. ESPN launched the redesign after focus groups said they
were using Wi-Fi to take the site into the living room.

The new interactive features "give a little bit of a sports bar feel,
even
though you're sitting alone on your sofa watching the game," says
General
Manager John Kosner. ESPN.com is considering additional interactive
features, such as instant messaging during games, he says.

Cooking Web site Allrecipes.com underwent a similar overhaul. The site's
original users were people who browsed recipes at a desk and printed
them to
take to the kitchen. Now, anecdotal evidence suggests, users are sorting
recipes in the kitchen on a laptop with Wi-Fi, says marketing director
Esmee
Williams.

In November, Allrecipes redesigned its site, in part to make it easier
for
Wi-Fi users. They've simplified navigation and made it easier to view a
whole recipe on one screen, without a flood of ads.

Epicurious, another cooking site, boosted its offerings of how-to videos
that users can watch while cooking. It also enhanced its online "recipe
box"
feature, which stores favorites for users, and is continually adding
recipes
to the site.

Entertainment portal Yahoo TV caters to Wi-Fi users, too. Customers are
starting to use a Wi-Fi-equipped laptop while watching TV for
interactive
viewing, says Director Doug Hirsch. When a big show is on, traffic on
the
Yahoo site jumps, he says.

To capitalize on the trend, Yahoo TV recently signed a partnership with
Television Without Pity, a TV gossip site that features real-time chats
about shows as they air. "This is convergence. You're talking about your
show while you're watching," Hirsch says.

And customers keep coming up with ways to use Wi-Fi. Rajesh Vasireddy, a
graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
hates
using his remote to navigate program listings that come with cable TV.
So he
uses a Wi-Fi laptop to breeze through the listings online. Anna-Marie
Claassen, who works for a Wi-Fi company, likes to do crossword puzzles
online from her couch. Tim Pozar, another co-founder of the San
Francisco
Wi-Fi group, uses it to check his e-mail from a personal digital
assistant
while following his 4-year-old son around the house. "It's handy," he
says.

Wi-Fi in the warehouse

Wi-Fi is also transforming the way businesses use the Internet. The
technology first was used by business travelers, who needed an easy way
to
go online while on the road. Some businesses use Wi-Fi to replace costly
wires or provide connectivity in hard-to-reach places, such as
warehouses.
By making it easier for employees to work wherever, whenever, Wi-Fi
often
boosts productivity and provides a return on investment of 200% or more,
says Bill Clark, a wireless analyst with researcher Gartner.

Myrtis Smith, who runs a career-coaching service from her Cincinnati
home,
worried that a new baby would make working tough. She installed a Wi-Fi
network just before her son was born. Now, Smith, 30, can check e-mail
while
watching her 8-month-old son play. "I'm free from my desk," she says.

Unique ways to use Wi-Fi are expected to flourish as it gets cheaper and
easier to use. Two years ago, a home Wi-Fi antenna, sometimes called an
access point, cost $300. Now it's less than $100, says IDC technology
analyst Abner Germanow.

Wi-Fi fans say they'll never go back. "I'm addicted to it," John Furrier
says. "I can't imagine life without it."

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2004-02-18-wifi_x.htm

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