We originally thought Apple’s 802.11n would cost $5 but Apple will now only charge $1.99 to pop in a little patch to enable 802.11n in current AirPort cards and routers. Purchasers of the $179 Airport Extreme Base Station ,AKA the thing that looks like Apple TV, get the patch for free.

Why are they charging anything at all? So they can can keep up with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, silly!

“The nominal distribution fee for the 802.11n software is required in order for Apple to comply with generally accepted accounting principles for revenue recognition, which generally require that we charge for significant feature enhancements, such as 802.11n, when added to previously purchased products,” Fox said in a statement.

But don’t pull out that wallet just yet. With all certainty we can expect a nugget of downloadable 802.11n-unlocking code to appear on the torrents approximately 5 seconds after the patch is released. That’s in accordance with generally accepted Internet haxor principles.

Apple to charge for faster Wi-Fi [News.com.com.com]