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Wi-Fi Direct Gets Real With Product Certification

Posted by Soulskill on from the unleash-the-marketing-hounds dept.

CWmike writes "Wi-Fi Direct officially became a concrete technology today, with several new laptop components certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance. That threshold was reached before most people even understand what Wi-Fi Direct is, reports Matt Hamblen. Wi-Fi Direct is a new technology designed to allow peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connections between devices like smartphones and cameras without a traditional Wi-Fi network or the need for Wi-Fi access points. This means that a camera with Wi-Fi Direct installed could communicate via Wi-Fi to a digital picture frame or printer, uploading picture data over the same range of existing Wi-Fi, about 200 yards at speeds of up to 250Mbit/sec, said Wi-Fi Alliance CEO Edgar Figueroa. 'Imagine if two people were on a train and wanted to play a game in real time on their separate handhelds but had no cellular or Wi-Fi hot spot. They still could play with Wi-Fi Direct,' he said."

6 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Rob Enderle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The article quotes Enderle. It's validity as journalism just got -3 mod points. As Enderle only makes stupid and pointless commentary about wi-fi tethering, it avoids the full -5 mod pomt deduction it could have suffered if the main point of the article was based on something he said.

  2. Re:Bluetooth is gone eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Have you not seen all the bluetooth mice and headsets for computers that are available now..?

    bluetooth still has it's applications... low power usage mainly.

  3. So.. by rainmayun · · Score: 2, Insightful

    All of the same benefits of Bluetooth, plus the WiFi congestion and interference headaches we already enjoy just to get Internet access???

    Where do I sign up???

    *rant off*

  4. Re:How is this different than an ad-hoc wireless L by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because you didn't have to pay for the privilege of using ad-hoc

  5. So? by Rix · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is just a brand name for ad-hoc networking, then?

  6. Re:How is this different than an ad-hoc wireless L by Osgeld · · Score: 5, Insightful

    then goes on to give an example of 2 people playing a game, which has been done on the psp and the DS for getting close to a decade

    its just brand naming ad-hoc and does not show or explain how it is different