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Wireless Firewire

Great!
I've always wanted to remove as many cables as possible from my powerbook. So now.. lets see what we can get rid off with that WirelessFW..

Starting with AC-adaptor, still there, just as the earphones-cable.

On the other side, the ethernet cable is gone thanks to Wi-Fi - Check.
The FW800 cable connecting the lacie-drive will be gone - Check.
The iPod dock can act standalone, just like the above - Check.
No more monitor cable - Check.
Having a BT-mouse keeps the USB slot empty - Check.

I must say I like the idea! Now, if we only could get over some amperes wirelessly =D

/ filipp
 
ClimbingTheLog said:
Whether it makes sense or not, the consumer mentality is that power cords are easy, anything else is hard.

We know that bus-powered firewire devices are as easy as you can get, but firewireless will appeal to the mass market.

Besides, if the range is good you might get to go further than 1394, and most people aren't up to stringing 1394b optical cable around the house.
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yeah but its still not going to make anythin trely wirless ie speakers ect they will need to have batts or powercords....but its still great i agree because as soon as we get wirless power of somekind then bombs away,
 
Pedro Estarque said:
I thought Apple was the original developer and not a first adopter 😕
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They did invent it. It was originally designed to replace SCSI. They even won an Emmy award for it. IEEE simply adopted it as a standard later on.

For a name, to me the obvious is WiFiWi.

ps. I know it is off topic but it is good to see people giving Tesla his due. I once sent an angry letter to "Beakman's World" for mis-stating that Marconi invented the radio. I like to think that if he were alive today, Tesla would be using a Dual G5.
(Tesla:Apple as Edison:MicroSoft)
 
Apple invented FireWire

As many others have said, Apple weren't early adopters. They invented FireWire.

From 1394 Trade Association:

"The 1394 digital link standard was conceived in 1986 by technologists at Apple Computer, who chose the trademark 'FireWire', in reference to its speeds of operation. The first specification for this link was completed in 1987. It was adopted in 1995 as the IEEE 1394 standard. A number of IEEE 1394 products are now available including digital camcorders with the IEEE 1394 link, IEEE 1394 digital video editing equipment, digital VCRs, digital cameras, digital audio players, 1394 IC's and a wealth of other infrastructure products such as connectors, cables, test equipment, software toolkits, and emulation models.

"The 1394 Trade Association was founded in 1994 to support the development of computer and consumer electronics systems that can be easily connected with each other via a single serial multimedia link. The IEEE 1394 multimedia connection enables simple, low cost, high bandwidth isochronous (real time) data interfacing between computers, peripherals, and consumer electronics products such as camcorders, VCRs, printers, PCs, TVs, and digital cameras. With IEEE 1394 compatible products and systems, users can transfer video or still images from a camera or camcorder to a printer, PC, or television, with no image degradation. The 1394 Trade Association includes more than 170 companies and continues to grow."
 
Am I missing something here? What's the point of doing firewire over a wireless network if the network maxes out at 11 Mbps??? What's this 802.15.3 standard about? Don't products like digital cameras (high-end) and TiVos already do wireless transmission of data via 802.11g?

This fi-wi-fi-seems impractical until the wireless network standard changes...
 
dongmin said:
Am I missing something here? What's the point of doing firewire over a wireless network if the network maxes out at 11 Mbps??? What's this 802.15.3 standard about? Don't products like digital cameras (high-end) and TiVos already do wireless transmission of data via 802.11g?

This fi-wi-fi-seems impractical until the wireless network standard changes...
Click to expand...

Maybe it will change was the wireless network standard is. There is room for more than one wireless protocol in the word. One would hope that eventually one would win out, but look at how many ways there still are to connect a hard drive (SCSI, ATA, SATA, etc.)

My guess is that the goal of this is to have faster wireless transmission of data while following the 1394 protocol.
 
dongmin said:
Am I missing something here? What's the point of doing firewire over a wireless network if the network maxes out at 11 Mbps??? changes...
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802.15 is a UWB standard. Same idea (Ultra Wide Band) is used for Wireless USB by the way. The speeds will start with 100Mbit and be able to go to 200 and 400 quite easily. It works over much shorter distances (10 feet max), since UWB is not radio in classic sense, it's alot of noise, so FCC had to limit the power output of those devices alot.
 
dongmin said:
Am I missing something here? What's the point of doing firewire over a wireless network if the network maxes out at 11 Mbps??? What's this 802.15.3 standard about? Don't products like digital cameras (high-end) and TiVos already do wireless transmission of data via 802.11g?

This fi-wi-fi-seems impractical until the wireless network standard changes...
Click to expand...

Who said the network maxed out at 11Mbps? This is NOT 802.11ANYTHING. It is just a way to use the 1394 protocol without wires. You would be more likely to get 400Mbps, not 11 🙂

This has quite a different purpose then the 802.11 standard. Instead of connecting tivos or computers together, this will likely be used to add storage to them individually.

Sure 802.11g is faster then b, but its by no means fast. Despite that the bandwidth for 802.11g was said to be 54, it is really more around the twenties. 20 Mbps can get gobled up pretty quick.


BTW, i would like to take credit for sending this to arn over aim last night 🙂
 
dongmin said:
Am I missing something here? What's the point of doing firewire over a wireless network if the network maxes out at 11 Mbps??? What's this 802.15.3 standard about? Don't products like digital cameras (high-end) and TiVos already do wireless transmission of data via 802.11g?

This fi-wi-fi-seems impractical until the wireless network standard changes...
Click to expand...

i think people mentioning "wi-fi" have confused you. if i'm reading this correctly, wi-fi (as we know it currently) is not in the picture. this is a wireless transmission of data itself, not relying on 802.11. this would be 802.15.3, an all new standard.

i don't care if my monitor has a cable hanging off the back of it, but give me a streaming media server btw my Mac, Tivo, tv, iPod, etc. and you've got me salivating...
 
Steven1621 said:
wireless ipod here we come!
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Apple have been hiring people to work on this (and Internet access for the iPod) for a while. It's coming with 100% certainty. I think it might get WiFi or similar before wireless FW though.
 
Ok, 802.15.3 and 802.11 are wireless protocols. 802.15.3 likely works on a different frequency and bandwidth rate than 802.11. That's why they're named differently. 802.15.3 would likely have much more capability since it is being suggested for WI--FI.

Firewire (IEEE 1394) is a communications protocol. It defines how a communication is to be sent and recieved so that a signal, transmitted through whatever medium, is given a meaning or significance other than being some electromagnetic series of pulses.

So firewire can be implemented through various media, wireless or wired. It is essentially a wrapper for a raw transmittal protocol that provides a level of abstraction with which software can communicate. This means that applications that communicate with firewire should be able to use wired or wireless versions without any change to application code.
 
anyone else here remember a year or two ago when those weird box shots popped up for something called "Pal"? well, this is called PAL. remember, green lightbulb on the box? maybe this is it.
 
Wash!! said:
Called the 'Magnifying Transmitter', it was capable of generating some 300,000 watts of power, and (reportedly) could produce a bolt of lightning 130 feet long.
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I think I prefer the power cable than getting zapped by one of these. Probably help with mosquitoes though.
 
Sounds cool, we'll have to wait and see if/how they decide to implement this new technology. One thing for sure, Apple's about the only company out there with enough imagination to come up with a product that would benefit from this.
 
nagromme said:
Wireless power transmission sounds neat. Just don't expect me to stand in the middle!
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Ditto. 😱 Then again maybe this will be the next evolution to the coffee warmer. You know. Those little electric plates some people have to put on their desk at work. Instead just put your coffee between your laptop and your mouse and bam. Instant hot coffee. Lunch? Not a problem. Drop a Stovetop meal between your laptop and your external hard drive. 5 minutes and you've got lunch. Apple innovation at its finest. 🙂

Seriously though. A few years back I read on news.com of a tech that allows electricity to flow through surface contact. So say your entire desktop is one big recharger. You wouldn't need wires. The kicker? Touching the surface won't electrocute you. Something with the materials used. I think it’s the same principle used for those Sonic care toothbrushes. Couple that with wireless Firewire and you get some very cool options. Drop your PDA, iPod, camera, external hard drive on your desk and they all start charging and all automatically link to your puter via wireless Firewire. Coolness. 😎
 
Wash!! said:
Transmitting power over the air is been around since the late 1800's Nikola Tesla discovered and it was one of his inventions a wireless electric generator all you have to do was put out an antenna and you got power, he die before e could finished.
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but, every speaker in your house would make an insane amount of noise, every CRT on the block would be useless, and you'd give your neighborhood cancer.
 
Kyle? said:
Ok, 802.15.3 and 802.11 are wireless protocols. 802.15.3 likely works on a different frequency and bandwidth rate than 802.11.
Click to expand...

They just cannot pick their spectrum, they either have to buy it or use one of the unlicensed spectrums, which are 900Mhz, 2.4GHz and 5GHz. 802.11b/g and Bluetooth are all on 2.4GHz. 802.11a is on 5.7GHz, cordless phone are at 900MHz, 2.4 and 5.8GHz.
 
all we really need is a wireless (secure) super high quality video transmission equal or close to dvi, so we could have a wireless monitor.

but taking that idea further, apple could remove the guts out of a power book, insert a huge battery, and include wireless devices (that wont interfere with the video feed) and have the thing linked to your PowerMac "base station".

what you get is a laptop with the full power of the G5, with nothing to run but an lcd and a wireless receiver.. the battery would take up the space, and weight, of the traditional laptop guts, and would use very little power since the powermac on the desk would be doing all the processing and disk spinning... the only real drawback is that youd have to be near the power mac (in the same building/house) until we get a wireless network capable of transmitting all these signals across the country so you can get to your powermac from wherever.

perhaps it could even include a wireless optical drive since you would need access to that from the laptop, but that could cause issues with signal usage and might require its own receiver and transmitter from laptop to powermac..

i dont know, if apple had this idea, im sure the could make it work, and work well. i just think tablet pcs are a dumb idea, and this would be a much wiser solution. the same could go for pdas. super pdas with computer back ends doing all the work so they are thinner than ever.. wow i could just keep ranting but ill stop here. sorry 🙄
 
well, I'm surrounded by my Airport, Cell Phone, Bluetooth, Firewireless Hard drives, and my Wireless Power supply... anyone else notice the giant tumor growing on my back? and... why is my cat having a seizure?


[/sarcasm]
 
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