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Cheap Wireless for Accessories
morcheeba writes "Yet another wireless protocol for personal computers! In addition to existing 802.11 variants, bluetooth, and ultra-low-power newcomer zigbee, Cypress semiconductor is releasing a simple low latency, low cost (<$2), medium speed (200kbit/sec) protocol with USB human interface devices (HID) compatibility. Partners include Saitek (game controllers) and NMB (keyboards & mice). EETimes has an informative article."
Nail in the coffin of Bluetooth. *shrug* I'll believe it when I see it.. *cough*vapor*cough*
I'm a little tea pot.
In other "news".
"Ten years from now, they could do it in a few seconds." -- The Racketeer of the Hellfire Club, 1993, Phrack 42
So you finish browsing slashdot, go to the bathroom and do your business. Your leave your wifi toiletseat up which makes your wifi alarm clock go off which wakes up your wife who gets angry at you and makes you go put the seat down.
Your neighbor aims his pringles can at your home, starts up your electric toothbrush, turns on your living room tv, and starts printing random junk on your printer.
Let's hope alarm system remotes don't include wifi as well!
That's what they said about Bluetooth too.
And how much does a Bluetooth cost nowadays? $100? $200? That's absurd.
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Warning: Slashdot may contain traces of nuts.
Skimming the links i didn't see anything concerning the range of this technology.
If, as the story indicates, this is to connect pc's range is everything!
But all i see is "common" peripherials nowadays connected by USB to be connected by USB without the wire thingy. (thus: add battery)
Will it make a simple network connection to my friend 6 doors away or not? If not, it doesn't add anything to the things available now.
Why are other peoples sig's always more witty ???
You see folks, this is the great thing about standards. There are so many to choose from!
This is all just another way to screw us all. Think about it everything is going to get a computer chip so it can talk with everything else. Look at action figures, they used to be $6 now they got chips in them and cost $10. Soon your new clock costs $5 more and your lamp costs $3 more and your ipod costs $20 more and your toaster costs $10 more and etc. etc. etc. By the end of the year we shelling out thousands of dollars so my electric blanket can know my toast is done.
just because your a schizophrenic doesn't mean people arn't really out to get you
Even a two-dollar protocol like this works at several hundred Kbps, when I have a network of computers at home, with enough MIPS to simulate El Nino, connected to the outside world through a 64k bit of electrical string. When it's dialled up. But that's telcos for you!
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
What a troll, and you actually managed to get moded up for it.
No, bluetooth has not been kiiled off by 802.11... I don't know of 802.11 being used in a single product where bluetooth would otherwise be used.
I have never seen an 802.11 keyboard, mouse, headphones/headset, cellphone, etc. There is plenty of room for bluetooth. It may not be taking off just yet, but it isn't dying, and it remains to be seen IF something else will killi it off eventually.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Reading some of the stuff on the site as I understand it thay are aiming it as much at industrial applications as the kind of wireless netwiorking applications we'd think of. In that context I'd say it would be more analagous to an I2C serial bus for low speed communications than the ethernet you'd use 802.11 for.
You wouldnt use ZigBee(where on earth did they dream that name up?) for a WLAN roll-out but would you use 802.11 for a mouse or an RF keyfob for your car?
Oxford Dictionaries Online
With dirt cheap wireless commo, now they can start coming out with nifty devices like:
Automobile Instant Messaging so I can tell the guy in front of me to get off my road.
PDA Instant Messaging so I can pass notes in class and (anonymously) tell fellow bus riders that they smell like a rotten fish.
Wireless Spam that jumps from device to device. (lovely!)
Watches that receive text messages (like "Your flight is now boarding at gate B24, you have 2:13 minutes until takeoff") and perhaps can send back messages like "I'm running as fast as I can!!"
These are the times that I wish I'd gotten an EE degree instead of CS.
The parent is an obvious troll, but for the clueless: power consumption is the big difference between 802.11 and Bluetooth. Low power 802.11 has been promised, but not yet delivered.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
It is fact that 802.11 chipsets are now cheaper than Bluetooth chipsets (and this event is recent).
802.11 is targeted towards exactly the area which Bluetoth now occupies. All that was holding it back was the price of the chipset. Now that barrier is gone you will see 802.11 replacing Bluetooth in the next generation of products. I'm talking chipsets here, so it will take a short time to flow onto the consumer market.
I've had pretty extensive discussions with one of the guys that invented802 style WLANs. His vision as always been world domination for 802.11: LANs, headsets, remote controls, TVs, light switches, toasters, ... Everything Bluetooth does (and more) is in the sights of 802.11
I am one of the main designers of WirelessUSB LS at Cypress and have been involved with in WirelessUSB R&D for almost a year. Let me clear up a few misconceptions about WirelessUSB LS (LS is the low speed version with data rates maxing at 64 kbps). :-)
It's main competition is 27 MHz proprietary technologies. It only overlaps Bluetooth in areas that Bluetooth is weak in the first place such as HID devices where Bluetooth has power management and latency issues.
Currently WirelessUSB LS will be used in point-to-point connections that do not require standards-based protocols such as wireless mice, keyboards, gamepads, remote controls, garage door openers, etc. Does anyone care if their garage door opener uses an IEEE standard?
If your devices need to interoperate with one another or you need high data rates go with another technology, but if you just need a cheap, easy-to-use low speed, short range (sub 100m), point-to-point reliable wireless connection that will not interfere with Wi-Fi traffic and can handle co-location of hundreds of devices than WirelessUSB LS is the clear winner.
Soon, the development of our ultimate wireless accessory will be complete!
The new Wireless Mate (tm), patent pending, a compact brick-sized device with a 10-pound battery and 1-foot antenna, will support Zigbee, WiFi (a, b and g), Bluetooth and Accessory wireless. Eight expansion slots will enable future wireless standards to be added for seamless integration.
Enable your cellphone, PC and PDA to communicate seamlessly with Wireless Mate (tm), patent pending!
Imagine the possibilities!
Visit to www.products-you-never-knew-you'd-want.com and order now!
Ok, so Cypress is pushing this thing pretty hard. The FAE was here the other day handing out data sheets for this part when he was in for a different reason. But the deal is that the first version is really only 10 meter out of the box, or 100 meter if you add in an amplifier. Data rates on the first series are up to 250 kbit. And so far, this is not actually part of the USB standard, though they are trying to get it included in a future version of the standard. So do we really need another wireless protocol? I don't know. But the main drawback I see here is that the FAE was also talking about putting batteries in these devices. Personally, I'll just stick with the cord until that is not the case. I mean, how many of you want to have to stop using your computer to go find batteries for your keyboard or mouse? Granted some vendors could come up with a decent solution with rechargeables, like some mat you just have to leave things on that I remember seeing an article about a while back here. What would be really nice of course is things like the Wacom mouse that comes with their tablet. No cord and no batteries (but the tablet still has a cord.)