WiFi is something that on paper is fantastic, but in practice is less fun then being hit around with a hammer. It is slow as all hell, it gets interference from my underpants in the right weather conditions, and beats my phone battery like it had a bad childhood. As usual the Australian are here to rescue us from our wireless nightmares with a technology they call GiFi.
The promise of GiFi is high, with it offering data speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second over a 10 meter distance. It does all that and still manages to use only 2 watts of electricity. It isn’t expensive either, with the researchers at Melbourne University believing it will cost as little as $10 to add the component to your device. The price is kept down due to the chip being designed using existing complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology, and measuring 5mm (add 1mm for the antenna). Ohh, did I mention it used the 60Ghz range, which just so happens no other device uses.
The technology won’t be ready for consumers till 2009, and could exist in any magnitude of consumer device, from cell phone to television. 2009 is going to be the big year for wireless USB, but with a little help from the aussies, we may see a new format war starting.

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