Stan Beer
Wednesday, 04 October 2006 07:14
Opinion and Analysis
As I sit here typing this article about Nokia's new Wibree specification on my wireless keyboard and using my wireless mouse, I'm increasingly getting a feeling of so what's the big deal?
It's always good to hear of something that can
do the same thing as something else for much less energy expended.
Wibree uses one tenth the power of Bluetooth to perform essentially the
same chore - connecting devices within 10 meters wirelessly.
However, I have changed the batteries in my wireless keyboard just once
in the past year. My wireless mouse is a bit more power hungry but
mainly because of the LED not the Bluetooth connection.
I don't use a Bluetooth headset or Bluetooth mobile phone car kit so
I'm not sure about any issues concerning battery consumption there, but
friends who have these things tell me that they don't have any major
problems with batteries running out. As for the phones themselves, the
Lithium Ion batteries are so powerful now that you can leave them on
for days without a recharge.
So far, the only application that has been suggested for the low power
Wibree has been to connect low power devices like digital wrist watches
to the network - and do what?
There's no doubt that in time someone will come up with a way to
leverage the capabilities of the new Wibree specification. However,
right now it appears that a lot of people are scratching their heads
and thinking that is a new technology without any serious applications.