360 Wireless Clashing With Wal-Mart Tech

vladcole writes "Xbox 360 kiosks are getting shut down by some Wal-Mart employees sick of having their handheld inventory devices and printers malfunction, according to this compilation of Joystiq reader reports." From the article: "There's no reason to get worried about the Xbox 360 launch date (there, we recognized the elephant in the room), but the breadth and frequency of these reports point to a compatibility issue between the Xbox 360 and Wal-Mart, at least." Next Generation confirms that Wal-Mart is having issues with the 360 pods.

Comments

Got FCC?

[rush3k]

I believe electronic devices have to comply with relevant FCC specifications before they are released into the market.

Re:Got FCC?

[MBCook]

2.4 GHz is unlicensed, like 900 MHz and a few others (27 and 49 MHz are also, I think). As such, they only need to comply with part 15 (can't knowingly cause interference, and this device may cause unwanted interference), and I believe that there are other rules (I'm guessing can't use more than 500 mW of power, etc.).

In the same way that a cordless telephone may interfere with your WiFi, this is allowed to happen. When anyone is free to make anything use that band, stuff like this is bound to happen. It really isn't that bad. This is one reason why it is nice to have licensed frequencies where people can't go messing around (ex: FM and AM don't have that problem because they are protected).

In short, yes they are allowed to do that. Now I find it STUPID that this system wasn't tested before rolling out. I can't believe that if it was tested that they would miss such a problem.

Now if they used wired controllers (they are permanently attached so that shouldn't be a problem) then I would think that would solve it (WiFi is optional on the 360, IIRC). Now if doing that they STILL had problems, then I would start looking into if they really comply with Part 15.

Re:Wal-Mart's Tech Skills

[MBCook]

And that makes perfect sense. You can't get to be Wal-Mart's size and keep prices so low without some SERIOUS IT infrastructure to keep things going. They have just-in-time inventory, if I remember, among other things. They are one of the big pushers for RFID because it will help them so much.

Wal-Mart is way up front in technology for major retails in the US (and I would expect the world).

Re:issues smissues

[Electrum]

And 3 years from now, your PC will not only play Call of Duty 2 at ultra high, but whatever other games you want which look even better.

Assuming your CPU is still fast enough and you spend another $300 on a new graphics card.

360 will be stuck with whatever it could play when it came out.

And your computer will magically get faster over the next three years? Games on consoles do tend to get better over the life of the console as developers gain experience with the console. It is much easier to optimize for a fixed platform.