Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, talks about the thinness of the new iMac in San Jose, California. AP Photo
According to The Next Web, Apple has partnered with chip manufacturer Broadcom to create 802.11ac chips for its
2013 PC range. Although a wireless networking standard still officially in the development stage, 802.11ac can provide throughput rates of up to 1 gigabit per second -- as good as or better than a wired Ethernet connection -- and is expected to become the standard wi-fi protocol by 2015. While it is already being tested in smartphones, tablets and internet routers, along with PC manufacturer Asus, Apple would be one of the first to bring the technology to its notebooks and desktops.
In an increasingly connected world where online services are slowly becoming commonplace -- whether it be wireless back-up, cloud computing or use of online applications -- the benefits of bringing an essentially turbocharged wi-fi connection to PCs is clear.