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The Present and Future of Connectivity

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PCQ Bureau
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Over the past two months, we received about 400 products for testing and evaluation for the NDTV Gadget Guru Awards (because our gadgets portal, LD2.in is the knowledge partner for them). Being a gadget lover, these devices, their variety and capabilities excite me. All technologies and gadgets which used to be a gadget freak's playground for a long time have made way into the professional space as well. Looking at them from a macro perspective, one of the most fascinating aspects seems to be the advancements in connectivity that the gadget world has seen in the last few years. HD has established itself as the de-facto standard in almost all present and future products and 3D is slowly yet surely catching up. The consumer wants better and faster in everything that is out there, which is not possible without significant strides on the connectivity front. Today, we broadly see such advances happening for both wired as well as wireless connectivity.



Wired connectivity



HDMI, USB 3.0 have become the norm for data transfer and streaming. All TVs, projectors, cameras etc now come equipped with HDMI ports. Likewise, USB 3.0 is gradually taking over USB 2.0, because it gives a performance jump of about 300%. One can easily find laptops and ultra-books having both these ports. There's even a newer and improved HDMI standard (v1.4) that has come out, which promises even better transmission rates. On the TV side, HDMI 1.4 improves support for 3D, which is becoming very popular thanks to the influx of 3D animated movies in theatres. HDMI 1.4 supports 3D in all resolutions, whereas its predecessor HDMI 1.3 did allow some sort of 3D but only for the 1080i resolution.

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Wireless connectivity



Wireless connectivity on new age devices has come to reduce the clutter and make them look suave and classy. Reduction in wires translates to reduction in clutter and also reduction in maintenance costs because you won't have to deal with wire faults anymore. Some of the earlier constraints involved lack of high quality media playback capabilities. I am increasingly seeing traction in wireless HD technologies like Wi-HD and Wireless Display (Wi-Di). Wi-HD is the next generation wireless digital network interface for wireless high-definition signal transmission. Currently this data transfer interface is present in some of the new age consumer electronic devices and is sure to infiltrate the professional working environment as well because of the sheer quality of content which one can play wirelessly. Practical data rates of about 4 Gb/s can be achieved through Wi-HD to enable BD players, HD media players etc to play HD content on HD ready TV sets or projectors. A2DP is another standard which is sure to eradicate any wires in mobile devices. A2DP has presented a good case for using wireless headsets for listening to music on the go. Quality of music through the wireless A2DP protocol has improved to reach more than acceptable standards. One can merrily listen to music without worrying about untangling the headphone, earphone wires first. No one needs solve the tangled wire puzzle anymore.



The point I believe everybody will agree to is that the world is moving towards faster data transfer and rendering. Wired connectivity options have evolved to provide the user with faster data transfer rates. However, wireless connectivity options have surpassed all expectations and the world is increasingly moving towards a wireless protocol.

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