Apple plans to roll out new Macs with faster wireless capabilities

Apr 10, 2013 07:09 GMT  ·  By

Apple is set to include support for super-fast 802.11ac Gigabit wireless in the next major release of its Mountain Lion operating system, according to a well-hidden code string in OS X 10.8.4.

One of the many developers who have downloaded Apple’s new Mountain Lion test build (12E30) has discovered that the Cupertino giant plans to release new Macintosh computers supporting faster Wi-Fi speeds.

A new code string located in the Wi-Fi frameworks folder reveals that OS X 10.8.4 is the first Mac OS version to support 802.11ac, a wireless standard also referred to as 5G Wi-Fi.

Apple has been rumored to adopt new chips from Broadcom to upgrade the wireless performance of its future Macs.

According to Broadcom itself, “5G WiFi dramatically improves the wireless range in the home, allowing consumers to watch HD-quality video from more devices, in more places, simultaneously.”

“The increased speed enables consumers to download web content from a mobile device faster and quickly synch large files, such as videos, in a fraction of the time it would take on a similar 802.11n device,” the American chip maker said in a press statement.

The 5G Wi-Fi will not only achieve faster wireless transfers, but it is also expected to help preserve battery life.

“Since 5G WiFi transfers the same volume of data at a much faster rate, devices enter low-power mode faster, which results in significant power consumption advantages,” Broadcom said on January 5, 2012.

All 5G Wi-Fi solutions from Broadcom support 80 MHz channel bandwidth (which is two times wider than current 802.11n solutions), 256-QAM (a higher modulation scheme that increases data transfer efficiency), the ability to send and receive beamforming, Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) Codes, and Space-Time Block Codes (STBC).

Apple has been rumored to release new MacBook computers in Q2 2013, which means the first 5G Wi-Fi Macs might be just around the corner.