Wireless USB finally ready, but no support from Microsoft

Products using the new wireless USB standard should finally be available to buy from the back end of this year, but they won’t have native Windows driver support. 

Plenty of products are on show at the Intel Developer Forum, ranging from digital cameras and printers to humble four USB ports. The standard allows products to transfer data wirelessly, rather than need to plug in a USB cable between a device and a computer.

However, their attraction could be dented by the lack of driver support in XP and from next year Vista. Microsoft has already said that the wireless USB standard won’t be supported in the first release of Vista, but will be added in a later update. USB 1.1 had a similar problem when released, and this will not help the reputation of a standard already tarnished by delays to its release.

A spokesman for Intel commented: “By the end of this year we will see early shipments of wireless USB products. It will go mainstream next year and by that time drivers will be in place.”

Until then, early adopters will need to install software supplied by the manufacturers. These early products will also require a USB dongle plugged into the host computer, expected to cost between $50 and $75 – although only one will be needed for multiple devices.

Within a couple of years though, it is expected that the receiver will be integrated into computers, eliminating the need for a dongle.

Alereon, which makes silicon chips used in wireless USB cards, has been demonstrating wireless USB in action at a technology showcase during IDF, moving pictures taken on an adapted Kodak Easyshare V610 camera to a display, with the images appearing instantly.

NEC has a four port USB hub on show, giving owners the ability to place it close to the devices that are connected to it via a wired USB cable (such as printers or scanners), which then wirelessly talks to a PC via the USB key plugged into the main computer. The port will cost around $30, NEC said. But first time wireless USB owners would also need to buy the dongle as well.

Also on display was a wireless USB enabled external hard disk drive, meaning it could be placed in another room and back up data from one or more computers around the house.