Friday, January 11, 2008

WUSB and Transferjet

Sometimes I think that a universal adopting of BetaMax would have been a good thing. Sure, for home video use BetaMax is far worse than VHS. But perhaps if the world had adopted BetaMax then Sony would not have developed their asinine inferiority complex which makes them constantly release new proprietary systems to replace technology we already have.

This is what happened. Agere Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft, NEC Corporation, Philips and Samsung got together to develop WUSB, a new wireless USB standard to solve the "problem" of using wires to connect things. So, guess what Sony did. I'll give you a hint: Sony Developed their own wireless USB system.

Rather than tell you, my faithful readers, what is wrong with this I'll simply post the stats for these systems.

Wireless USB
Frequency Band: 3.1 GHz~10.6 GHz
Transfer Speed per distance: 480 Mbit/s (3 m) / 110 Mbit/s (10 m)

TransferJet
Frequency: 4.48GHz
Transfer Speed per distance: 560Mbps (max)/ 375Mbps (effective) (3 cm)

Note: "Mbit/s" and "Mbps" mean the same thing. "m" and "cm" do not mean the same thing.

Did you see the problem? Wireless UBS works over distances of 10 meters. TransferJet works over distances of 3 centimeters. And if we level the proverbial playing field and use each from a distance of 3 centimeters? Well, TranferJet will transfer at 375 Mbps (or 560. I'm not sure what "max" and "effective" are supposed to denote) and Wireless USB will transfer at 480 Mbps, if not faster.

If the tech specs alone were not funny enough we then get to read Sony's Press Release.

"Just touch two electronic products together and files are transferred automatically."

Wow! Rather than connect two devices together via a wire I instead get to touch them to one another?! I don't know if my heart can take such a gigantic technological leap forward!

"TransferJet eliminates the complex setup procedures required by existing wireless systems, and no access point is necessary."

I plug my digital camera into my laptop and Windows automatically loads the drivers and allows me to browse the camera as an external drive. To whom is this process complex?

"Furthermore, users are also able to register their electronic products to enable TransferJet to recognize specific products. For example, by registering only the devices within their household, users can prevent external data leakage."

So, wait. You've replaced Windows automatically loading drivers, which was apparently complex, with a new Sony Registration system? Oh boy!

"Operation is also very intuitive"

When Sony says something is "intuitive" what they mean is that it is intuitive for a Sony employee. So you have to remember that when presented with WUSB Sony's intuitive response was to develop their own system.

Hopefully one of these days Sony will release a new proprietary type of oxygen to compete with our mundane, functional variety of oxygen. Then they can require their employees to utilize the new Sony brand oxygen, they all die of asphyxiation, and we won't have to deal with them fucking things up anymore.

4 comments:

MA17 said...

I find it tempting to applaud Sony for providing alternatives to what would otherwise be alternative-less products, but I have to admit that they seem to succeed only in complicating things.

This WUSB thing is particularly awesome, I think, because it goes beyond the fairly typical "We're Sony, so we get our own piece of the pie" mentality and jumps into some kind of "Pie? Fuck your pie, we've got our own, shittier pie and it's all ours!

_J_ said...

I'm fine with having multiple brands of cereal to choose from. I by no means endorse a world view in which I have a choice of one cereal or no cereal.

I like technological standards, though. I want to be able to use one ethernet cable for all my ethernet cable needs. The same applies to USB. If they provide one means by which I can achieve an end and that means functions? Huzzah.

Sony offering a proprietary wireless connection that works from 3 centimeters away which is to compete with WUSB which works from 10 meters away?

ha.
haha.
ha.

Mike Lewis said...

isnt blue tooth wireless usb?

i mean - i am pro a wireless standard, as long as it is open and non propritary.

that being said - blu ray seems to be winning. and that makes me sad

_J_ said...

That's a good question...