File this under "George Jetson" -- Broadcom announced today that it has developed the world's first Wi-Fi video phone chipset for both wireless handsets and desktop IP phones. As the Orange County Register points out, the logical question to ask in response is... why? Are video phones really hot enough to justify adding Wi-Fi and VoIP to the mix?

Broadcom certainly thinks so: their press release assures us that the new chipset "will change voice communications into a completely new form that is practical and fun."

I'm not quite that optimistic about the market need for the technology -- but hey, it's always good to push the envelope -- and sometime down the road, I'm sure we'll all be wondering how we ever lived without real time video everywhere we go.