On Wed, 16 Jan 2008, Brian Wall wrote: > On Jan 15, 2008 6:53 PM, Mike Miller <mbmiller at taxa.epi.umn.edu> wrote: > >> Another good thing about those XO laptops is that they have very strong >> WiFi built in. Apparently much stronger than ordinary laptops (the >> secret is in the "ears," I'm told). > > Laptops sold in the US are limited in their antenna design by the FCC. > So many mW of radiated power at x meters and so on. I wonder if the XO > team fudged their wifi antennas, since these were not originally > designed for sale in the US.. :-) I doubt the FCC would allow that. I would think that the laptops sold in the US would have to meet FCC requirements even if they were designed for other countries -- so they'd have to partially disable laptops for US sales. On the other hand, maybe they are within US FCC limits and most competitors' laptops just aren't close to pushing up against the FCC limit. The XO makers say that the antennae are the key -- most laptops don't have antennae. Mike