News Wisair plans wireless USB dongles

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2009/03/03/wisair-plans-wireless-usb-dongles/1

Ultra-wideband specialist Wisair has crowed that its single-chip wireless USB implementation has been picked by Fujitsu and Olidata for adaptor dongles.

 

I can see it being popular, and having a strong user base. Sure, it will be outdated very quickly, but mainstream is never at the cutting edge. Devices will have to catch up to USB3 speeds anyway (hell, a lot don't even max out USB2), so I see plenty of life for wireless USB2.

 

Wireless USB (or one of its alternatives) definitely will have a place - as Skiddywinks says, not all USB devices need the huge bandwidth that USB 3 will offer - things like keyboards, mice, even printers don't need it. I think it would be great to have a wireless keyboard and mouse with no need for a USB dongle, a wireless printer, wireless synchronisation of portable devices (mp3 player, phone, digital camera etc.) with no need for a Bluetooth dongle (and at much higher speeds than Bluetooth can manage!). Then you would just use the USB ports for legacy support, charging portable devices (those that charge over USB, which *should* be all of them, but that's another issue) and for high bandwidth devices like portable HDDs, flash drives (could work wirelessly but would need a battery so probably not worthwhile for most people), big transfers from cameras and camcorders.

 

Here sits me with my skeptical hat on - everything needs a wire anyway for power so what is the problem having another one for data? What would be more interested in is powerline USB, like the powerline networking you can get. It would seem to be more practical to me and certainly gets over the main range limitation.

With regards to phone syncing over Wireless USB, there is little to no point, as phones need to be plugged in anyway and can already sync over bluetooth and wifi and you rarely need super high speeds anyway.

 

I can see single USB units been popular for devices such as USB printers, external hard drives, USB webcams, etc. This is a good idea which has been out there a long time, about time there was some decent implementation.

 

Given how many phones already have wifi in, and how little the wireless dongle for my mouse/keyboard bother me, I'm in the nonplussed camp... if anything, having my wireless mouse dongle is handy, it means I can keep it attached to the hub on the desk getting a better signal than being in the PC, which is far away through several sheets of MDF and plywood.

My phone transfers over datacable anyway - i have bluetooth & so-on, but the cable charges it at the same time, so... it wins. Plugging in is actually less hassle to me than entering a 4-digit pin or whatever to allow syncing. Hardwire connections still have a place for me, as soon as USB storage goes wireless I just have ANOTHER pin to worry about. Knowing that my data's secure just be being able to see the actual location of the device is an underrated comfort.

Printers and so-on... ok, sure, that's handy enough. Storage, mice & keyboards are already adequately connected for my purposes.

 

bluetooth has already consumed that market slice.