Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Wireless USB Coming Soon
Posted by Chris Gohlke in "HARDWARE" @ 12:00 PM
"Last week, Belkin announced a Wireless USB hub, and Lenovo debuted its T61p notebook, which will support Wireless USB as an option. This week, a raft of other PC and peripheral makers are expected to announce their products. And not a moment too soon: Wireless USB (Universal Serial Bus) is arriving about a year later than promised. And other wireless communication standards, Bluetooth and 802.11 Wi-Fi networking, are established already. Much of Wireless USB will work like today's USB, only without the cables. But Mike Krell, Alereon's director of communications and business development, likes to paint pictures of new possibilities as well. For example, a digital camera user could store photos to a separate portable hard drive with much more capacity than a flash memory card, or download them to a photo-printing kiosk without worrying about having the right cable or memory card support. The user could also display the pictures on a big-screen TV on the other side of a room."
I don't see this as doing much that Bluetooth could not do. If it truly works like USB, only without the cables, it will certainly be simpler than Bluetooth pairing. My biggest concern would be the type of security over the wireless and what control you have to prevent rouge USB devices from being connected.
I don't see this as doing much that Bluetooth could not do. If it truly works like USB, only without the cables, it will certainly be simpler than Bluetooth pairing. My biggest concern would be the type of security over the wireless and what control you have to prevent rouge USB devices from being connected.
