The Doom of Wired Peripherals 438
techie writes "Is the doom of wired peripherals near? According to an article on CoolTechZone.com, it sure seems that way and Apple is leading the way. Quote: "Device cables are becoming a thing of the past, and that development couldn't come soon enough. We're ready to unplug, and we want to make the most of it. Apple has recognized this desire for consolidation and the benefits of a wireless lifestyle, and they've reacted effectively. When the iMac was first introduced, people went gaga over the fact that the monitor, computer, and speakers were all in one enclosure, thus eliminating the need for two bulky pieces of hardware and multiple cables. Just when you thought that was incredible enough, WiFi comes along and gives us blazingly fast Internet connections through the air, and Bluetooth rises up to allow all of our devices to sync with one another and the operating system without any wires."
The paranoid still want wires. (Score:2, Insightful)
Which is all great... (Score:5, Insightful)
Wireless "everything" is hugely overhyped. Yes, a wireless mouse is nice because it doesn't snag, but why do I need a wireless printer? Or a wireless monitor? Or anything else that's largely static for its lifetime?
Wireless empowerment! (Score:3, Insightful)
USB is great because it's a) universal and b) able to power and charge quite a range of small devices.
Drop your PDA or ipod into a cradle and get a fast connection that's also charging your batteries.
When and if inductive charging (think Braun toothbrushes) becomes widespread, then maybe wireless will become sensible for most devices.
Great so everything can be unreliable (Score:5, Insightful)
I've yet to see any wireless implementation that is reliable as wired. Until that gets fixed wires are here to stay.
No, no wireless for me, thanks. (Score:5, Insightful)
Speed isn't the problem. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Had a wireless mouse... (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, that, and knowing how I am with the TV remote control, I'd end up tearing apart my room trying to find a mouse that most likely found its way to the fridge...
Bandwidth issues (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Had a wireless mouse... (Score:5, Insightful)
The throwaway culture takes another step forward for nothing but sheer and utter laziness of humans.
Hardware mfgs, please don't forget me. (Score:1, Insightful)
I like cables. I don't intend on abandoning them anytime soon. Please continue providing this option.
I don't hate cables. (Score:5, Insightful)
I love having wireless networking, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't run cables through all the walls if I was building myself a house. I mostly use my cordless phone at home, but having one phone always attached to the wall means that I'll always be able to easily find it if I need it. I can't remember the battery on that phone ever dying on me.
We can have the wireless revolution without actually getting rid of all the wires. My printer can keep its wires. I don't move it very often. My iSight camera wire doesn't bother me at all. My USB hub would probably be far less useful if we got rid of all the wires, so let's not worry about that. I can't even remember the last time my keyboard's cable was a problem. My keyboard just sits there, on the keyboard drawer.
Rather than making parts of a non-mobile computer mobile, I'm much more interested in making already mobile computers better. Give us better PDA's, make a tablet computer that is useable and affordable. The cord on my mouse is not that big of a problem.
Stupid idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
Wireless peripherals would have to draw independent power and be "always on" - guaranteeing that even when everything is shut off and you're on vacation in the islands, your home computer gear is still sucking power.
Hah. Let's look at this more closely. (Score:2, Insightful)
"tethered by a cumbersome cord"
"the power cord, which is as unobtrusive as can be"
How can a mouse cord that's 3mm in diameter be "cumbersome", and a powercord that's twice that thickness be "as unobtrusive as can be"?
"thus eliminating the need for two bulky pieces of hardware and multiple cables"
The hardware wasn't eliminated, just consolidated. BTW, the Mac started that consolidation with the Apple Lisa (I had one) and, later, the original Mac (I had one) a long time before iFruit.
"just look at the abundance of cables in your office closet and try not to be intimidated by their menacing appearance"
Are we talking about wireless in the closet or desktop?
"appearance is clean, simple, and elegant, which is more than can be said about that grayish box that you may have"
Fanboy.
"You may wish to continue to plug in a cable and get reliable speed and data transfers that way"
Yep.
"I'll take wireless if at all possible, thank you very much."
You're welcome. Hope that works for your when your mouse batteries die, and you don't have a spare, right in the middle of working on a presentation, report, or WoW.
Re:Bandwidth issues (Score:3, Insightful)
The summary makes the point that Apple have managed to solve this problem by building the monitor and speakers into the computer. They even have the airport express solution if you want wireless hi-fi sound.
The monster laptops that are being produced are testament to this: some people don't care about ultimate portability, they just like the monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse and (temporary) power supply to be build into the computer, which avoids lots of wires.
No No No No No, NO! (Score:2, Insightful)
It's quite embarrassing, you got it all wrong.
Please consume.
Re:"blazingly fast" (Score:3, Insightful)
12mbps-54mps
(When the nieghboors craps is not interfering with it and my roommate stops setting the cordless phone down right next to the router on the entertainment center.) The speed between the other two wired computers in the house.
1000mbps
Think that's unimportant, then you've never tried moving large amounts of files around or streaming movies while multiple wireless conections are active or being interefered with.
For easy small stuff, wireless is wonderful, for anything else it is overrated.
Re:Which is all great... (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, I like the idea of a wireless printer. Or keyboard. Or speakers. Or everything else, for that matter.
What I don't like is the complexity and security involved with all this wireless. If I could build myself an antenna next door and sniff your key strokes, or your mouse movements, or what you've printed, or even what's on your monitor, I would call this a bad idea. Therefore, you'd need security. Likely culprit would be wpa or some variation of said protocol.
Now add into this the fact that I have several systems operating in close proximity; Assuming the devices are intelligent enough to pick their own channels, I would still run the risk of overloading the "channel" with my multiple keyboards and mouses, oh and pritners and monitors.
So while it sounds good on paper, the practicality of wireless is still missing from the equation.
Re:Which is all great... (Score:5, Insightful)
About 5 years ago when I was a lowly A+ certified computer shop tech, people would pay me crap loads of money to come out to their house and setup their already preconfigured computer. This usually involved me crawling under the desk and plugging color coordinated colors into their rights spots and then adjusting the cables so they look clean and then booting up the computer and then leaving.
Had our customers took about 90 seconds to look at the instructions and plugged the cables into the right hole (including the usb and parallel printer cables) they would have saved themselves quite a bit of money.
But... The average consumer has a real big aversion to plugging in cables even if there is no possible way to get the configuration wrong (well... I don't know how many times I've gotten calls about people getting the keyboard and mouse mixed up when they used the PS2 connectors)
So for the average user, being able to open the box and not plug in any wires (except maybe power) is a god send.
Re:Security (Score:3, Insightful)
This comment shows where exactly your understanding of bandwidth measurements falls (hint: it's low on the scale). Please explain how 7Mbps is "way faster" than even the paltry 11Mbps that 802.11b offers? (And yes, I'm aware that these are the theoretical peaks for both, and that there is overhead in the various protocols and encryption schemes).
Re:Hah. Let's look at this more closely. (Score:3, Insightful)
Eivind.
Wireless ____ sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
(Non-technical) people keep suggesting that the college I work for "go wireless" for our networking... not grasping that we'd be replacing a switched 100Mbps line to every computer (with 1Gbps only a wiring-closet upgrade away) with shared wireless spectrum that tops out at 54Mbps and requires encryption, access limits, etc. People ask why I never call anyone from my mobile phone, and instead go find a landline instead... it's because I want to be able to hear and be heard. Why do you think most of the civilized world switched from wireless television to cable?
Buy a clue people: in almost any category of technology, wireless sucks compared to wired. And getting rid of a slender cable from my mouse or keyboard to my monitor is not worth it.
Yeah, right - NOT! (Score:1, Insightful)
Just because a peripheral goes "wireless" to the CPU doesn't mean that the device lacks wires and cables. Furthermore, key devices, such as external drives (and monitors, unless you are talking iMacs) are not going to be able to go wireless without really great leaps in both data transfer and power supply technology.
So, for an interesting exercise - let's just tally up how many cables I have running:
To the Mac:
Cinema Display with ADV supplying both power and video (1)
USB hub (1)+ Laser Printer to Hub (1) + Photo inkjet Printer to Hub (1) + Scanner to Hub (1) + Mouse 1 to Hub (1) (wireless mouse) + Mouse 2 to Hub (1) (wireless mouse) + PDA Cradle to Hub (1)
External Drive 1 to USB 2.0 card (1)
External Drive 2 to USB 2.0 card (1)
External Drive 3 to USB 2.0 card (1)
UPS connection to built in USB port (1)
Ethernet cable (1)
Speaker system (1)
Firewire 400 from external DVD burner (1)
Interconnected Peripherals:
Mattias Keyboard USB to Cinema Display (1)
Griffin aluminum knob things with pretty blue light to Cinema Display (1)
Firewire 400 External Drive 1 daisy chain (1)
Firewire 400 External Drive 2 daisy chain (1)
Sound System Connections:
Speaker (subwoofer unit) system to CPU (1) + Right Channel to Subwoofer unit (1) + Left Channel to Subwoofer unit (1) + Desktop control module to Subwoofer unit (1)
Network Connections:
Co-axial cable to modem (1) + Ethernet cable to router (1) + Ethernet cable to wireless hub (1)
TOTAL DATA CONNECTIONS - 25
Power Supply Connections:
CPU (1) + USB hub (1) + Laser Printer(1) + Photo inkjet Printer to Hub (1) + Scanner (1)
Mouse 1 (1) (wireless mouse) + Mouse 2 (1) (wireless mouse) + PDA Cradle (1) + External Drive 1 (1) + External Drive 2 (1) + External Drive 3 (1) + External Drive 4 (1) + External Drive 5 (1) + UPS (1) + Speaker system (1) + External DVD burner (1) + Modem (1) + Router (1) + Wireless Hub (1)
TOTAL POWER SUPPLY CONNECTIONS - 19
That's 44 wires, excluding the power supply and telephone cord for my telephone, the power cords for the desk lamp and for the box fan I had to put under the desk to circulate air to the CPU, since all of the cords connecting the peripherals were filling the access holes in the top and side of the desk, and the various USB peripherals that I don't keep connected, such as card readers, a WACOM tablet, an iSight camera, the iPod dock.
Of all of these peripherals, the only one that can truly eliminate any cords is the keyboard. I had been using the Apple blue-tooth keyboard for a while, but didn't care for it, and substituted the Mattias with a true mechanical throw. Also, I really don't need two mice, but since I often forget to re-cradle the Logitech, I keep a second one handy, just in case. Okay - so that's three cables out of 44. Big freakin' whoop.
And since Apple's long since abandoned their proprietary data/power connection for their Cinema Displays, when I upgrade to the 30" this fall, that's another cable added to the mess.
Hate the cables. Hate the cables. Hate the cables. (Score:2, Insightful)
The problem is not cabling per se, but unstructured cabling. Let me explain.
I have a fileserver, a desktop machine, a laptop router/firewall, a DSL modem/wifi router, a laptop, a printer, a UPS, switch, patch panel, 5.1 speaker system, 2 monitors, scanner, keyboard and mouse. Plus other peripherals I forgot about. All the big devices need mains power. That's roughly 9 mains connections. That means a mess of power boards plugged into the wall sockets and a mess of 9 mains cables running in all different directions. None of the devices provides a means to daisy-chain nearby devices. For example my two monitors could get by with only one mains cable, if the second monitor could plug into the first.
The scanner uses DC power so there's a power supply sitting on the floor which is plugged into the mains. The laptop also uses DC power, so it has its own separated power supply box. Although the scanner is plugged into the fileserver, it is physically located on the speaker system. So I have a USB cable running to the scanner.
My VOIP phones (forgot those!) get power from the mains but via a rectifier built into the mains plug. However the rectifier sits sideways not vertical, so the plug essentially takes up 2 sockets on the powerboard. Their power comes from the left, but their ethernet connection comes from the right, at the switch. Why can't we combine the cabling for the power and the ethernet so the phones only have one cable to plug in?
My two screens have, each, a video signal (DVI) and a power cable. So I have 4 cables to deal with. Why can't power and signal be combined into the one cable? If I want to do it myself then I have to ensure the signal is shielded from the power cable - but this engineering problem should have been solved by the monitor designer already.
Basically the cabling is a mess, for even my modest amount of infrastructure. It would help a lot if all the cabling from all the devices could go to a junction box of some kind, and be distributed out from that.
Internally PCs have the same kind of problem. Have you ever put together a PC from scratch? You probably ended up with wires everywhere. Why is there not a single connector to join the front panel (power button, reset button, USB, Firewire, speaker, mic etc) to the motherboard? Why do we have to fiddle with multiple cables, and worry about the polarity of the Power LED? Why does a case which houses multiple disk drives not include a wiring harness for those drives? Why does a case with multiple fans not include a wiring harness in the case design? How come some CD-ROMs have their power socket on the left, and others on the right? This is lowest-common-denominator engineering and I suppose it's one of the things that Apple got right, that all the parts in their PCs fit together well. Compared to the typical PC, where each part appears to have been designed without any consideration to how it will fit within the whole.
Re:Great so everything can be unreliable (Score:3, Insightful)
If you know what you're doing, wireless networks aren't all that hard to set up and don't require much maintainence. I've had more troubles with my ISP than I've had with my wireless network.
Encryption? (Score:1, Insightful)
Yes, the signals are short range. But that all depends on the size of the antenna, don't it.
For anyone paranoid enough to use PGP, sending a passphrase unencrypted over the airwaves is kinda like planting a giant stake in the front yard and calling it a fence.
Centralizing the problem (Score:3, Insightful)
Also, I don't think you've factored in the extra cost in environmental resources and pollution to produce the cord that goes on non-wireless mice, not to mention the additional complexity in packaging that probably has some six your old child winding the cord up to put the twist-tie on for packaging - wireless mice can more effectivley be packaged via automation.
Re:Which is all great... (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe the peripherals are static, but the computer itself gets moved around (e.g. because it's a laptop)?
Re:Not quite (Score:4, Insightful)
Let's just say that as soon as the coils of the transformer are no longer actually *inside* of each other as they are in such electric toothbrushes, efficiency goes way down. Also in the case of those electric toothbrushes, efficiency was way down to begin with. I used to have one of those, it was a perfect example of inductive heating...
Re:Not quite (Score:2, Insightful)
but... Iam mostly water!
Worse ... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Which is all great... (Score:2, Insightful)
But that's not what 99% of wireless devices do - they need some wires configured before you can do anything. Wireless networking needs a wired access point, wireless mouse and keyboard need USB or PS2 wires to the box, and so on.
There are some nice opportunities for infrared and bluetooth devices to communicate with PC's, but this is an unplug-and-pray operation. Some things work together, some things don't.
As far as the assertion that Bluetooth rises up to allow all of our devices to sync with one another and the operating system , allow is the key word in that sentence. The only painless bluetooth operation I've seen is between two cell phones from the same manufacturer. They could share contacts very nicely. But connecting different bluetooth devices, or a bluetooth-enabled device and a Windows or Linux box, is not painless or predictable. Mac's seem to do this a little bit better than Windows/Linux (no big surprise there).
Re:Not quite (Score:5, Insightful)
I've passed on wireless keyboards and mice mainly because I don't want to generate more battery waste which ranks up there as among the most offensive types of garbage we accumulate.
Re:Which is all great... (Score:2, Insightful)
1) plug purple keyboard cable into purple socket on the back of the computer, making sure the little coloured lug inside the plug is aligned with the matching hole in the socket.
vs
1) find decent batteries (not the no-name trash normally bundled)
2) plug wireless basestation in usb
3) load drivers
4) click next until it goes away (possibly waiting for system restore points and driver warnings)
5) press the connect buttons on both the base station and keyboard
6) find out why mouse has dropped off
Re:Not quite (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Not quite (Score:2, Insightful)