The Wi-Fi Alliance has started interoperability testing of 802.11n Draft 2.0 products. That means "WiFi Certified" products should hit for retail before summer is out.

While cross-platform certification testing of a draft spec is unusual and likely won’t guarantee 100% compatibility, and the final IEEE spec is expected  September 2008, I already have my N Router.

The Wibree specification will be merged with the Bluetooth SIG as an ultra low power Bluetooth technology. Wibree has a niche in the mobile phone and PC areas to provide wireless connectivity for smaller devices, such as watches and toys, as well as sports & wellness, healthcare and entertainment devices.

Wibree consumes only a fraction of the power of classic Bluetooth radios and it would be possible to operate these devices for more than a year without recharging.

"The development work for Wibree began when we discovered a series of interesting new use scenarios that no current local connectivity solution was addressing. Now we are happy to see Wibree become part of the open Bluetooth standard, opening new market opportunities and space to innovate for the industry," said Jarkko Sairanen, Vice President of Corporate Strategy for Nokia. "Including Wibree within an existing forum will ensure interoperability and its wide and fast adoption. The Bluetooth SIG is the optimal new home for Wibree."

No, the laptop industry hasn’t bypassed the idea of quad-core laptops in favor of octo-core machines, since NextComputing’s 8-core flextops are machines you wouldn’t want anywhere near your lap. Based as they are around the Intel Xeon 5300 processor, the NextDimension Pro and Evo can take advantage of the relatively low power requirements of 100W for two quad-core CPUs (down from 160 Watts for its power hungrier desktop equivalent). For a sense of just how expandable the NextDimension machines are, consider that they can hold up to twelve 160GB 2.5-inch 7200RPM hard disk drives. They also manage to pack in four PCI / PCI-e slots in the Evo model, and Firewire, Gigabit Ethernet, and support for 24GB of memory through four DMA channels on both models. These 20-pound desktop machines with a handle will be shown off at Interop Las Vegas later this month, but beyond that we’re not sure when or for how much you’ll be able to lug one away.