What do we think about Wi-Fi technology?

I’m pretty sure most of you have heard about this tech that’s still being cooked up in the labs. You probably already know the upsides, but more importantly, you know where it falls short compared to our current Wi-Fi setups. It got me thinking, though—once the idea finally clicked that we could actually transmit data using light, why aren't people working on ditching that clunky, outdated Bluetooth in our smartphones and just replacing it with Wi-Fi technology?
The thought hit me when I was stuck trying to send a 100MB video from a buddy's phone over to mine. Most people would probably ask, "Why didn't you just plug it into a laptop via USB and move it from there?" Well, in that specific moment, there was no laptop, no cables, nothing. Just us. Now, imagine if we had a dedicated Wi-Fi module you could plug into a USB 3.0 or a newer 3.1 port; you could just tap your phone against it and boom—your files transfer to the computer instantly.

The tech itself was first introduced back in 2011, and it only just crawled out of the labs into the real world late last year. Honestly, it's way too early to talk about practical applications. It might happen eventually—it all comes down to cost—but there’s another massive hurdle: what are we even going to do with those kinds of speeds?

Are you talking about mobile-to-mobile communication? Sure, the speed looks incredible on paper, but now we have to figure out how to build memory and hardware capable of reading and sending data at those rates while simultaneously receiving and storing it. That sounds like a tricky, expensive mess. If this stuff were cheap, reliable, and easy to implement, we would've had it built into our devices ages ago... 😬 probably...

Of course, it also depends on which massive corporations or industry groups see a profit margin and decide to push Wi-Fi as the standard. If there isn't a major player powerful enough to shove it past USB or Thunderbolt, or if the big-name smartphone manufacturers don't care, this could easily end up as nothing more than a footnote. It wouldn't be the first time a "revolutionary" tech just died on the vine...

There are plenty of apps out there designed to shuttle files across a Wi-Fi network, which is obviously leagues faster than fumbling around with Bluetooth. I’d imagine it’s as simple as having one phone act as a mobile hotspot to get the whole thing moving.