Belkin Cable-Free USB Hub - Available Soon!

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.belkin.com/pressroom/releases/uploads/12_04_06CFUSB_Hub.html' target='_blank'>http://www.belkin.com/pressroom/rel...6CFUSB_Hub.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The Belkin Cable-Free USB Hub, the industry's first USB Hub that does not require a cable to connect to the computer, will be available for purchase in mid-December. Utilizing Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology with the Wisair chipset, this Hub allows you to place your laptop anywhere in the room so you can print, play music, scan, download photos, and burn CDs from anywhere in the room."</i><br /><br /><img src=http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/westfall-F5U301_04.jpg><br /><br />Finally this interesting piece of hardware looks poised to be released to the market. It's a neat idea, but at $199.00, I think I'll deal with cables a bit longer. Although I can imagine some good uses for this - anyone have a use that they're dying to grab one of these for?

[Darius Wey]

Engadget has a nice hands-on here (http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/05/hands-on-with-belkins-cable-free-usb-hub/).

[btrcp2000]

I'm not spending $200 on it, but I would love to have one for this reason. My ongoing project has been an HTPC that is housed in the basement, because I found out that while it is fun to mess with functionality, it is absolutely boring to fight with airflow, heat, temps and noise. I now have a very functional pc in the basement that sounds like a weedwacker, but is rock steady. I ran cables to a kitchen cabinet (vga over cat5, some av cables for speakers, and active usb extension cables) so we have a drop down lcd touchscreen right on the counter. My problem has been reliability of the usb cables for data transfers, probably because there are three 16 footers daisy chained up through my drywall. Works okay, but sometimes the digicams, mp3 players, and dvd burners that all live in the kitchen cabinet have hiccups, for which I can only blame the distance. If wireless fixes that, great (but not for $200...)

my two bits

[dgoldring]

This looks really cool, but not $200 cool. I'm not clear, however, how it connects to your computer. Is there a USB adaptor or a PCMCIA card? If there is still something to plug in then it kind of defeats the purpose.

Doug

[ppcinfo]

I also wouldn't pay $200 US for this device. Maybe $40 max. I could certainly use it in my wife's home office, where she wants to position her printer and scanner in a location in the room where it would be cumbersome to have cables running to them from her computer.

ppcinfo

[Paragon]

This sounds pretty cool, but for 200 bucks I think it looses a lot of appeal. When you really think about it, how many accessories do you have that absolutely need USB cable? Most accessories for PCs are already wireless or can run off WiFi, so it ends up having limited need anyway.

Dave

[powercx]

I wonder if this is compatible with Web cam that requires data to be sent constantly, Asynchronous Data. IF that works, you can make your wired camera to wireless. Hmmmm....