The Doom of Wired Peripherals

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."

Not quite

[Overzeetop (214511)]

I'll jump on the bandwagon when we can get rid of the power cable. When is power over wireless coming to computer peripherals?

Re:Not quite

[Random Destruction (866027)]

Indeed, my electric toothbrush has used this technology for years.
Get with the times, Apple and others.

Re:Not quite

[Andy Dodd (701)]

It's not exactly wireless... Yes, the toothbrush and the power supply ARE physically isolated, but essentially it is done by making the toothbrush and its power supply each half of a standard transformer.

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

[discord5 (798235)]

I can see the headlines already: Mankind Harnasses Power of Lightning Operating computers may be dangerous to your health

Re:Not quite

[andrewman327 (635952)]

Remember, your computer must be traveling at exactly 88 miles per hour for it to work!

Re:Not quite

[Cyphax (262239)]

I can't wait until all my electrical devices can be powered via wireless electricity. It'll just suck if you accidentally get in the way of the electricity. The TV will go black, and you'll get electrocuted. Possibly the rest of your household will find the latter more entertaining, and it also works great against burglars if your setup is any strategical (TV by one window, stereo by another, and so on). There, the drawbacks already negated.

Re:Not quite

[russ1337 (938915)]

I too, look foward to the gigantic electric and magnetic induction fields.... while damage to cells from mobile-phones is 'inconclusive', the large electric and magnetic fields required to wirelessly transmit 500 watts to your alienware might cause that mutation i'm after...

Re:Not quite

[Loconut1389 (455297)]

brings new meaning to "Alienware", doesn't it?

Re:Not quite

[og-emmet (994099)]

I'll jump on the bandwagon when we can get rid of the power cable.

Douglas Adams (yes, that Douglas Admas) wrote a piece called "Dongly Things" [douglasadams.com] (it's a bit dated). He agrees with you.

Re:Not quite

[mcsynk (896173)]

Tesla had a plan to broadcast electricity [wikipedia.org] a hundred years ago!

peace
Synk

Re:Not quite

[ConceptJunkie (24823)]

Ah yes, I will always love Mr. Tesla's comment to another much more famous inventor, which I'm paraphrasing.

If Mr. Edison thought a little harder, maybe he wouldn't perspire so much.

Tesla never got the credit he deserved... sometimes the world needs wild-eyed visionaries.

Re:Not quite

[elrous0 (869638)]

Why it's already here [thinkgeek.com], of course.

-Eric

Any site named "thinkgeek" must be accurate, right?

Re:Not quite

[Shadowmist (57488)]

I think the major problem would be the bloody inefficiency. In a world with shrinking oil supplies and surging energy prices do we need something that would be at beast about 10 percent efficient in transmitting electricity?

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:Not quite

[Overd0g (232552)]

You should check out a new cutting edge technology called "rechargeable batteries".

Had a wireless mouse...

[geeber (520231)]

and then I got rid of it.

Fricken' batteries dieing all the time. Who needs it?

Re:Had a wireless mouse...

[MindStalker (22827)]

Get one that includes a base charger, you just stick it on the base at night.
Also some of the new wireless none charging mice last months on a set of batteries. You can generally see the charge stats on the product description page.
Watch out for wireless keyboards as well, some of em last months one I recently accidently bought for the office last less than a week.

Re:Had a wireless mouse...

[Amouth (879122)]

i got the Logitech diNovo - great mouse/keyboard set - it isn't the blue tooth version and i get about 6 months on the keyboard and about 1 1/2 months on the mouse.. and i use it 8 hours a day 6 days a week. (note that i use monster 2150 mAh rechargable battries.. normaly ones suck)

Re:Had a wireless mouse...

[Amouth (879122)]

NiMH do have a 1% per day natural discharge.. but that is proportional to the current charge..

so 100%-1% 99%-.99% 98.01%-.9801% 97.0299%-.970299% ....

it is like the problem of getting half way to a point every day - you never get there.. sure the batteries will get to a zero state but it will take a lot longer than you think.. It isn't voodoo magic it is just real life. and the quality of the battery really makes a difference

Re:Had a wireless mouse...

[osgeek (239988)]

That's the key that I've only seen Logitech truly grasp at this point, the recharging base. You need a nice small convenient one for every device you have, including your keyboard.

Built-in bluetooth in your laptop and all peripherals, then easy recharging bases with quality batteries. Manufacturers who get all three of those points will have my business.

Re:Had a wireless mouse...

[Excors (807434)]

I've got an MX1000 (which is really quite nice, and I even use it left-handed) which recharges when you stick it in the base station. The only problem is that I now have two cables, where a wired mouse would have one – there's the USB from the base station to the computer, plus a power cable from the wall to the base station. It doesn't help the tangled-cables-under-the-desk problem at all. But it's far more practical than a wired mouse for clubbing people on the head.

Re:Had a wireless mouse...

[aonaran (15651)]

I've got a logitech one with a nice little recharging stand. I stick the mouse in the recharging stand whenever I think to do so (it goes about 2 weeks for me without recharging) and the keyboard works on regular AA batteries, which I haven't ever had to change in over a year of use.

Having the convenience of being able to use the keyboard and mouse in more casual positions, like leaning back in the chair with the keyboard in my lap, without worrying about the mess of cables is worth having to remember to st

Re:Had a wireless mouse...

[LocoMan (744414)]

Agree there... we have one wireless mouse at work and we end up changing its batteries a LOT...one more thing to buy batteries for isn't exactly my idea of progress... :)

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... :)

Re:Had a wireless mouse...

[by Anonymous Coward]

Got to agree - I have had a wired optical mouse sitting at this desk for 3 years and I have never had to even bother with it. Changing batteries every month - sod that. And before anyone mentions rechargeable batteries with a dock unit - rechargeable capacities decrease and eventually die.

The throwaway culture takes another step forward for nothing but sheer and utter laziness of humans.

Re:Had a wireless mouse...

[elrous0 (869638)]

I had a wireless mouse

He lived in a wireless house

He had a wireless wife

Who lived a wireless life

He had a wireless son

Who had much wireless fun

He typed 1000 lines

To produce this stupid rhyme

-Eric

Wireless ____ sucks

[tverbeek (457094)]

Batteries are only part of the problem with wirelessness. There's factors like performance and reliability that go to hell when you lose the wires.

(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.

Which is all great...

[Spad (470073)]

Until your batteries die, or your devices start to interfere with eachother, or you realise that your "Blazingly fast" wireless internet is actually pretty slow and becomes very slow as soon as anything gets between you and your access point.

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?

Re:Which is all great...

[grasshoppa (657393)]

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?

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 you

Re:Which is all great...

[vertinox (846076)]

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?

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:Which is all great...

[mrchaotica (681592)]

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?

Maybe the peripherals are static, but the computer itself gets moved around (e.g. because it's a laptop)?

Wireless empowerment!

[ian_mackereth (889101)]

Wireless is handy for a few reasons, but there's still the issue of powering all those wireless devices.

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

[gnasby (264673)]

Everytime I've worked with wireless technology it's been flakey. It's gotten to the point that if friend of mine calls me up and asks for help with their "wireless network", I show up with a roll of Cat5e, RJ45 plugs and a crimper. For 99% of wireless stuff, I just refuse to spend any time trying to get this technology to work. If I want to set somthing up, I want to be able to set it up ONCE and never have to worry about it again.

I've yet to see any wireless implementation that is reliable as wired. Until that gets fixed wires are here to stay.

Re:Great so everything can be unreliable

[gEvil (beta) (945888)]

No kidding. Even if it simply involves disabling and re-enabling the WiFi card every few months to get it to properly connect to the basestation, it's too much. Sure, I'll put up with it, but it's far beyond what I'd expect my grandparents to have to go through to ensure that their WiFi works right.

Re:Great so everything can be unreliable

[mrxak (727974)]

I get some crazy interference from time to time, where even holding a laptop next to the base station doesn't get a signal, but nothing major in terms of settings and stuff. I set it up once, and 99.9% of the time it's just fine. That .1% fixes itself after a minute or two when presumably whatever was causing interference stops. The most I ever actually have to do with it is give somebody the password and name of the network when they want to get on it. Well, that's not totally true because I'm paranoid and

"blazingly fast"

[pr0nbot (313417)]

WiFi comes along and gives us blazingly fast Internet connections

My internet connection over wired ethernet - 512Kbps

My internet connection over WiFi - 512Kbps

Wtf are they talking about?

BTW If you're chortling at my paltry ADSL speed -- which is the most I can get where I live -- do bear in mind that I live in remote, leafy... central London.

Re:"blazingly fast"

[Charcharodon (611187)]

My connection from the computer to the living room to the one in my room over wireless.

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

No, no wireless for me, thanks.

[NineNine (235196)]

No, I'm not interested at all in wireless. I'm wired at home, and wired at my business. Why? I'm a big fan of speed and reliability, both of which are always sacrificed with wireless anything. Wireless may be cute if all you're doing is checking your MySpace account and shopping and doing other such trivial things. Nobody in their right mind who relies on their computers for earning a living would do wireless.

Speed isn't the problem.

[pilkul (667659)]

Reliability is. Most of the wireless networks and peripherals I've seen have been randomly unreliable at some point or at least more difficult to configure such that they work reliably. Much of this is due to the immaturity of the technology, but the bottom line is that wireless connections are intrinsically more flakiness-prone than wired ones.

Security

[MrShaggy (683273)]

I like the fact that you can go wireless. Great, however, nothing beats a wire for security. Not too say that I don't use my wireless laptop, however sometimes having a wire upstairs makes sense. The other part is that my cable provider has upped our standard to at least 7megs/700k. Thats way faster then my wireless can handle. But being able to print anywhere in the house... yay!!!!!!!!!

I think that is the reason for cables. I would love to be able to keep up, but when the cheap fibre to the house thing happens, my poor ole wireless wont keep up. The upgrade path is too steep. Maybe ain a few more months I will upgrade to something quicker.

Re:Security

[gEvil (beta) (945888)]

The other part is that my cable provider has upped our standard to at least 7megs/700k. Thats way faster then my wireless can handle.

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).

Bandwidth issues

[PIPBoy3000 (619296)]

When I start thinking about the data sent to things like my monitor and speakers, I'd think you'd quickly run into bandwidth issues.

Re:Bandwidth issues

[jos3000 (202805)]

When I start thinking about the data sent to things like my monitor and speakers, I'd think you'd quickly run into bandwidth issues.

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 a

I don't hate cables.

[cowscows (103644)]

You see, the neat thing about the world is that we don't have to completely get rid of something just because a newer way of doing it comes along.

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.

[porkchop_d_clown (39923)]

Yeah, cabling is a pain, but we should be looking at ways to reduce the power consumption of our electronics, not boost it.

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.

Does this mean...

[by Anonymous Coward]

...that Wired magazine will become obsolete?

is it really progress

[Chris whatever (980992)]

I'm wondering if it's really progress if everything we own are wireless, doesn't anybody think about the load of batteries it will take to make this equipment work?

Even if you use rechargeable batteries, i'm pretty sure a company that has over a 1000 employees will be very pleased to buy a pack of 4 AA batteries at 20$ plus another 25$ for the charger + the time for the I.T to go around spendind their time changing batteries instead of actual work.

I mean seriously, it may be practical but it is not cost effective or even realistic to imagine keyboard/mouse.

How many batteries does a keyboard take and a mouse? you'll ahve to spend 40$ every 3 months for each user so they dont have wires on their desktop?

i think not

No wireless keyboards for gamers

[1800maxim (702377)]

I just acquired Logitech S510 wireless desktop. It looks fantastic, the keyboard has a fantastic key feel, but the problem is that because it's wireless, it's a fraction of a second delayed compared to wired keyboard.

When playing a videogame (NFS: Underground 2 for example) there is a delay between when the key is pressed and when the game reacts.

This is still quite unacceptable, and regrettably, i will be returning my beautiful keyboard :(

if energy was only free

[amichalo (132545)]

If energy was free and didn't have to come from some power plant that poluted the environment, then yeah, wireless me up. Problem is that yoru wireless keyboard takes AA batteries that have to be manufactured, charged, and disposed of. What, so you don't have to look at a thin cable running to the edge of your desk? My keyboard cable doesn't kill me.

Yeah, I see WIFI in notebooks as making sense...but on a desktop? I don't move my desktop...I ran CAT5 to my office and I get faster performance and don't waste electricity on the WAP or my box.

Same goes for peripherals like wireless printers...HUH? Is this a real problem?

Centralizing the problem

[SuperKendall (25149)]

Relying on power though centralizes the problem. And why dispose of batteries every time, only to buy new ones, when you can just use a rechargable and have the whole system last essentially forever? Even with heavy use a bluetooth mouse can last for a month or more, then it's fifteen minutes in the charger and you're ready to go again.

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 additi

Re:The paranoid still want wires.

[discord5 (798235)]

Besides, if I want wireless, there are 5-6 of the free linksys ssid's near by.

Oh hi neighbour... I was checking my network traffic yesterday, and I just want to ask you one thing: sexyponies.com ?

Re:Hah. Let's look at this more closely.

[Eivind Eklund (5161)]

The power cord goes to a piece of equipment that's mostly stationary. The mouse (or at least my mouse) isn't anywhere near as stationary. So, in my setup at work, my mouse is cordless and the rest uses cables - as the mouse is the only part of the setup where the cables has gotten in my way.

Eivind.