Sure, many of us can probably set up a home wireless network in our sleep. But there are more than a few folks out there for whom wireless networking is as mysterious a process as setting that blinking clock on the VCR. Ever a champion of user-friendly technology, Apple has filed a patent that seems to suggest that easy to configure home networking products are in the works. According to the patent filing, Apple wireless base stations would be outfitted with RFID tags that would contain the network's configuration information. The user would then connect a RFID tag to the devices that they wanted to use on the network, which could be correctly configured by simply being in the proximity of the base station. This makes a lot of sense for a company with a closed ecosystem like Apple: AirPorts, MacBooks and iPhones alike could be fitted with the tags, making home networking a snap. While this is just a patent filing, I wouldn't be too surprised if such a system was, indeed, in the works.

For more on the patent filing:
- see this Gizmodo article