The ultrawideband (UWB) trade organization, WiMedia Alliance, has announced that it will cease operations. The group will transfer its specification ownership and technology to the USB Implementers Forum (IF), Wireless USB Promoter Group and Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) for further development. The recipients can now continue progress and apply for standardization and certification.
Japan's Ratoc Systems has recently shown off its certified wireless USB starter kit, the REX-WUSB1. The system is designed for use with notebooks equipped with a PC Card slot and includes a three-port wireless USB hub that can also be wired. The kit is compatible with Windows XP or Vista PCs after the included drivers are installed.
Intel has dropped its internal development of ultra-wideband (UWB), the company has revealed. The semiconductor firm decided to end the five-year-old project a month ago in a low-key move that is only now coming to light. The call doesn't mark the end of UWB at Intel but was made as the company decided it would be less expensive to source components from outside when necessary than to develop its own.
DisplayLink says it has released the completed Mac OS X driver for its display technology. Monitors and projectors that support DisplayLink are able to receive input from a computer's wired or wireless USB ports; up to four displays are supported simultaneously, and some manufacturers of compatible products include LG, Samsung and ASUS. The technology is also present in various docks and adapters.
Imation started its Thursday with a new set of Apollo hard drives that includes one of the first Wireless USB disks. Called the Apollo Pro WX, the device uses the near-wired speed of the ultra-wideband signal to duplicate the features of a normal USB hard drive without the need to string a cable for the roughly 30-foot range of the standard. The storage is as secure as physical USB, the company claims, and comes with a reportedly unique automatic backup utility that exploits the drive's ability to stay connected without necessarily using an extra USB port.
A new wireless technology has been developed that should serve as an extremely fast replacement for technologies such as Bluetooth and ultra-wideband (UWB), says Australian research group NICTA. Nicknamed GiFi, the process would use a chip (not pictured) that transmits at an extremely high 60GHz frequency versus the 5GHz used for the fastest forms of Wi-Fi. The sheer density of the signal would allow a chip to send as much as five gigabits per second. While the spectrum would limit the device to the same 33-foot range as Bluetooth or UWB, it could theoretically transfer an HD movie to a cellphone in seconds, the researchers claim.
Dell today quietly slipped in one of the first widely available Wireless USB options into its portables. Both the Inspiron 1525 as well as the entire XPS gaming notebook line can now fit an internal adapter that supports the new standard. The technology uses ultra wideband to connect a system to a wireless USB hub or directly to the newest mix of external hard drives, printers, and other peripherals. The short-range technology is claimed to be as fast as wired USB 2.0.
Lenovo's heavily rumored ThinkPad X300 is now both confirmed and tentatively available for order, a number of sites have revealed. Though not yet acknowledged by Lenovo itself, pre-order pages from Best Buy and other retailers largely validate leaks. The 13.3-inch system will be one of Lenovo's thinnest and lightest complete units with an LED-backlit display and a 64GB solid-state drive; initial hints pointed to a system weighing just 2.5 pounds. The postings contradict some rumors, however, and suggest Lenovo won't use the MacBook Air CPU, instead opting for a similar but slower 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo using the new small chip package.
