Tavis CoburnCurrent Macs have USB 2.0 ( for wired peripherals ) , FireWire 800 ( ditto mark ) , Bluetooth 2.1+EDR ( for short - range wireless connections ) , 802.11n Wi - Fi ( for local - region wireless networking ) , and gigabit ethernet ( for wired meshwork ) . With the exclusion of that last one , all of those criterion are slate to switch over the next two years . It seems reasonable to expect that Apple will do as it ’s done in the past and take over those changes cursorily .
USB
USB 2.0has been stretched to its limits in both swiftness and power . While its 480 megabits per second ( mbps ) of raw bandwidth once seemed like plenty , that was before we routinely transferred multiple gigabytes of video time , photograph archive , and blueprint file .
And while USB 2.0 was n’t initially designed to be a universal standard for charging peregrine gadget , that ’s exactly what it ’s become : In a few years , most every mobile phone phone handset will likely have a USB jack . Unfortunately , USB 2.0 ca n’t necessarily fork over the juice . USB 2.0 can deliver up to 0.5 watt ( passively charge ) or up to 2.5 Watt ( actively communicate with a host number one wood ) to gadget plugged into a embrasure . Apple ’s proprietary high - power USB ports on some Macs can push out 5.5 watts , but that ’s only with Apple gearing , like the iPad .
TheUSB 3.0 revisionshould solve both the speed and the power trouble . The spec call for 4.8 gbps of in the buff data point transfer—10 times faster than 2.0 . ( Both standard give up about half that in actual throughput . ) Along with the increase f number number increased power . The USB 3.0 specification give up just under a W of power for unconfigured devices , and up to 4.5 watts after a gadget acquaint itself .
Tavis Coburn
At the same fourth dimension , USB 3.0 will remain compatible with USB 2.0 ( but not 1.1 ) . All USB 3.0 devices will have separate 2.0 hardware inside . Plug 2.0 or 3.0 cable into a computer with a USB 3.0 port wine , and it ’ll blab out at the correct speed to whatever equipment is on the other end . USB 3.0 is worse than 2.0 in one fashion : The maximum cable length is reduced from 5 meter to 3 metre .
Despite its proficient advantages , USB 3.0 has look in only a few peripherals so far ; for example , LaCie recently released someUSB 3.0 grueling drives . Printers , scanner , and camera do n’t necessitate 3.0 speed ; hard drive do .
Apple has yet to make a public committal to USB 3.0 . In fact , a report recently mobilize that Steve Jobs had egress one of his sporadic atomic number 99 - post reply to a user , saying that Apple had no plans to sweep up USB 3.0 . As common , Apple would n’t corroborate the veracity of that report .
In any case , USB 3.0 is unlikely to appear beforeOS X 10.7 ( Lion)ships next yr — if Apple decides to assume the engineering at all .
( One more bill : You might have hear aboutWireless USBover the last several years . That engineering science never took off ; you could find the ultrawideband - based standard in only a handful of laptops and other devices . While Wireless USB took a slow route to securities industry , Wi - Fi sped up and became cheap and could cover much greater distances than Wireless USB . )
FireWire
Even though Apple now admit FireWire 800 in some Macs ( allthreedesktopsand theMacBook Pro ) , I do n’t call up FireWire has much of a future .
FireWire earlier appeared at a fourth dimension when USB 1.1 was dotty boring and Ethernet was stuck at 100 Mbps . Sony and a few other vendors include FireWire in their products ( as i. Link or IEEE 1394 ) . But USB 2.0 still found broad acceptance , in part because peripherals that used it were less expensive and come in to market in vastly great numbers .
So even though FireWire has always put up more - reliable , higher - powered , and higher - fastness communicating than USB , it ’s no longer run into as a real competitor . Two faster FireWire tone ( 1600 and 3200 ) have been available for eld , but never widely deploy .
I ’d carry FireWire to persist until 2011 , but then restfully vanish as USB 3.0 take over . Tower Mac user will still be able to buy plug - in FireWire bill of fare .
Light Peak
If Apple does n’t adopt USB 3.0 , and it lets FireWire die , how will we connect gamy - fastness peripheral like external unvoiced drive ? If you ask storage vendors that dubiousness , some of them may go off the record and rustle about something called Light Peak .
Light Peakis a new optical - cable engineering that Intel is acquire as a replacement for USB , FireWire , and even eSATA . It would permit you to join devices in a peripheral omnibus with a bandwidth of 10 gbps . Even more impressive : The same introductory technology , with unexampled hardware , could stumble 100 gbps .
Intel has demonstrated the technology to member of the press and to sure developer , but it ’s still some years away from securities industry . The question wo n’t just be how promptly Intel can modernize it , but also whether or not Apple will be willing to carry out it .
Bluetooth
Bluetooth has become a coarse connecter for keyboard , mice , headphones , and other devices . Its big vantage for close - range wireless connections — compared to , say , Wi - Fi — is that Bluetooth devices can fix up data transfer with each other without requiring any networking infrastructure .
In its initial form , Bluetooth transport information at 1 mbps ; that was n’t fast enough to support multiple datum watercourse or high-pitched - lineament wireless stereo audio . The 2.0+Enhanced Data Rate ( EDR ) feel supported 3 - mbps traffic upper ; the current lineups of Macs issue forth with 2.1+EDR .
The3.0+High Speed ( HS ) standardis presently useable in a limited selection of hardware . It boosts single file transfers to about 25 mbps , while regular usage preserves power and stays at the 3 mpbs pep pill . But Apple may not have a compelling reason to admit it in Macs in 2011 unless it ’s added to young iPhone and iPad model .
Networking
Current Apple hardware utilize the 802.11n Wi - Fi standard . But two new wireless monetary standard are coming , both of which will support much higher speeds .
Right now , 802.11n allows devices to channel datum in two spectrum bands : 2.4GHz or 5GHz . The maximum capacity for the 5GHz band is 600 mbps , but no gear works that fast yet . Apple ’s current AirPort Extreme theme station and Time Capsule can deliver up to 450 mbps of sensitive bandwidth in the 5GHz ring ; as far as we can tell , Macs put up just 300 mbps at 5GHz and 150 mbps in 2.4GHz .
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE ) is working on a revision that would boost 802.11n speeds in the 5GHz lot to more than 1 gbps ( that revisal is 802.11ac ) . The802.11ac specis due for mop up in 2012 , but you could expect to see gear supporting it ship a class or more before that .
The IEEE is also ferment on a complementary criterion in 60GHz—802.11ad — that will offer pep pill improvements of several Gbit per 2d beyond 802.11n . But there will be a stop : 802.11ad will likely work only within a unmarried elbow room . That means 802.11ad could compete with USB 3.0 for link hard drives and other devices . It would be particularly handy for computer - to - reckoner transference .
Another diligence radical , theWireless Gigabit Alliance ( WiGig)has been play on its own 60GHz criterion ; it now appear that the WiGig measure will converge with 802.11ad to spring a single specification .
A separate criterion for streaming eminent - definition video recording in the 60GHz dance band — WirelessHD — is under growing , too . It ’s almost certain that this banner will coexist with WiGig , but it ’s indecipherable whether both streaming HD and regular information networking will scent up comprise into one web flavor .
802.11ac wo n’t be quick for deployment until 2012 . WiGig and 802.11ad are unlikely to hit the market before 2013 in any far-flung way .
Glenn Fleishman contributes regularly to The Economist , the Seattle Times , and Ars Technica , and appears regularly in Macworld . His previous book isFive - Star Apps ( Peachpit Press , 2010 ) .
