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‘Understanding the Importance of Precision’
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Are you Wired?
LAS VEGAS - The dream of eliminating the rat’s nest of wires connecting your computer to your printer and other peripherals could be turning into a nightmare.
Even as the first wireless USB systems are reaching the market, drawing a lot of attention at the International Consumer Electronics Show this week, Sony Corp. has thrown a wrench into the works by unexpectedly announcing what looks very much like a competing, incompatible standard.
The prospects for eliminating that spaghetti mix of wires connecting your computer to your peripherals could be turning into another battle of the giant corporates.
As the first wireless USB systems reach the market, drawing a lot of attention at the International Consumer Electronics Show at Las Vegas, Sony has thrown a spanner into the works by announcing an apparently incompatible standard.
After a long struggle to come up with a single standard, the USB Implementers Forum, who created the USB, is now pushing Wireless USB, which is exactly what it sounds like — a USB connection without a cable. Backed by many of the big names, including Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Microsoft, WUSB has the whiff of the future about it.
But then, just when you thought it was safe to ditch that tangle of cables, along comes Sony. The Sony Corporation is infamous for tying customers to interfaces that they can buy only from Sony.
The question is whether Sony’s TransferJet can mount a viable challenge to WUSB.
Both systems let you wirelessly transfer data from device to device securely and at high speed. But while WUSB operates over many feet, TransferJet has a range of only 3 centimetres. You have to wave one device directly over the other to make it work.
So is this Betamax/VHS and HD-DVD/Blu-ray all over again?
The Forum seems confident that WUSB will win any battle for acceptance; Sony on the other hand, still no doubt with lingering memories of the Betamax fiasco, will be determined to see their product leading the field.
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