Keith Shirley

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Wireless USB seems to be taking a step closer every day to being a useful tool for those of us in Europe. It’s already for sale in the states but we have to wait for various permits etc.  I love the simplicity of regular USB and except for the risks of data loss with USB storage devices- it’s pretty foolproof. The hubs for USB do a lot to reduce the number of cables but my desk is still a spaghetti junction.

Wireless USB is supposed to get rid of the standard USB interface. The standard is supposed to have quite a high transfer rate – somewhere between Bluetooth and WLAN. It uses near-field radio technology as the basis for transmission. You don’t really need to know what radio system it uses – just that it’s not designed for long distances. If you can do it now with a cable – you’ll get a little more with wireless.

The official transfer rate is 480 Mbit per second but in the real world you’ll probably get about one quarter of that. Which is fine. It’s more than enough to do most of the things I’m personally hoping for.

The extra functionality that a proper working wireless USB system would allow should be quite fun. We can get rid of a lot of cables for a start. We should be able to transmit from video players (eg Phones) direct to the TV. We’ll be able to have digital photo frames that pick up the pictures from your PC. We’ll be able to share devices much more easily. We’ll probably have some innovative new hacking techniques.

Wireless USB is supposed to have some intelligent power handling. The devices will talk to each other and form a kind of network. One member of the group will “stay awake” while the others go into sleep mode. The perfect example of this would be the digital picture frame. It can wake up – pick up a photo and then go back into sleep mode. As the other devices will remember who it is – it won’t waste energy reconnecting and setting up a link every time it needs a new photo. Like most things however – I doubt the initial devices will do it properly.

As usual – Sony are coming out with a competing technology. It’s too early for me to make any comments on it.

If you’re looking for detailed information then check out http://www.usb.org/developers/wusb

If you’re a manufacturer and you need someone to test cool gadgets – I’m willing to be a lab rat.

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I always get asked which broadband connection is the best – and I always answer I don’t know. I don’t use them all. The only thing I can do is offer some advise on what to look out for. I keep meaning to write them down but now Maeve Kneafsey has written a post Don’t get broadsided by broadband – quick guide which means I don’t have to.

A couple of points I would add

- If you are planning to play games online – the time delays when sending & receiving commands via a satellite Internet link could cause you trouble.

- If you are getting ADSL installed there is a limit on how far away from the telephone exchange that you can be. Even if you are within range the line has to pass a quality test. Multiples connections (eg the extra phone in the bedroom) as well as devices such as fax machines or your sky box can disturb the line. Sometimes it’s worth cleaning things up before they run the test.

- The speed that you can send things to the Internet is much slower than the receive (download) speed with ADSL. If you are going to be sending lots of big mails or videos then you may be better off with the wireless options which often have the same speed in both directions. Most “normal” people are perfectly happy with the slower upload speed as normal web surfing involves data coming in the other direction.

- If you are having stability problems with a fast link – try slowing it down. It often ends up consistently faster.

I’m sure I’ll thing of more.