Tony Fadell-backed Keyssa partners with Foxconn, Samsung on fast new wireless data tech
A startup backed by iPod creator and Nest founder Tony Fadell is reportedly partnering with Samsung Electronics, Apple manufacturer Hon Hai/Foxconn, and other firms on a new short-range wireless data standard that could in some cases bypass the need for Wi-Fi or USB.
Keyssa's technology -- known as Kiss -- could allow transfers of large files like movies in a matter of seconds, simply by holding compatible devices next to each other, Reuters said. CEO Eric Almgren noted that the company has already raised over $100 million from Fadell, Samsung, Intel, and several other parties.
Keyssa and Intel first teased the technology last October, but the Samsung and Foxconn partnerships are new and said to be geared towards smartphones, rather than the convertible tablet PCs initially talked about.
Some members of the Keyssa team previously helped develop the HDMI standard now common on TVs, monitors, and projectors.
Despite Foxconn's Apple connections, Keyssa's technology is unlikely to appear on iPhones in the near future. It has yet to become a commercial standard, and Apple will sometimes opt for proprietary formats anyway, such as Lightning. Apple has moreover been eager to distance itself from Samsung, its main competitor in the smartphone market.
It may also be somewhat redundant on Apple devices -- which use AirDrop to establish peer-to-peer Wi-Fi links -- and could raise security concerns. Apple could get around the latter by offering software restrictions.
Keyssa's technology -- known as Kiss -- could allow transfers of large files like movies in a matter of seconds, simply by holding compatible devices next to each other, Reuters said. CEO Eric Almgren noted that the company has already raised over $100 million from Fadell, Samsung, Intel, and several other parties.
Keyssa and Intel first teased the technology last October, but the Samsung and Foxconn partnerships are new and said to be geared towards smartphones, rather than the convertible tablet PCs initially talked about.
Some members of the Keyssa team previously helped develop the HDMI standard now common on TVs, monitors, and projectors.
Despite Foxconn's Apple connections, Keyssa's technology is unlikely to appear on iPhones in the near future. It has yet to become a commercial standard, and Apple will sometimes opt for proprietary formats anyway, such as Lightning. Apple has moreover been eager to distance itself from Samsung, its main competitor in the smartphone market.
It may also be somewhat redundant on Apple devices -- which use AirDrop to establish peer-to-peer Wi-Fi links -- and could raise security concerns. Apple could get around the latter by offering software restrictions.
Comments
Who controls all the Patents then?
How many arms and legs will they charge Apple to use it?
How many times more than other makers will this be?
$$$$ is what is all about isn't it?
Im sure you're familiar with this, but it's one of my favorite Steve moments. Starting at 50:58:
Anyway, researching that I forgot to add - I can't figure out how this is any different/better than airdrop. Other than maybe being faster? I'm guessing the droid-tel world is getting a little jelly of that tech & trying to figure out a competing solution.
http://www.keyssa.com
http://www.keyssa.com/technology/
It can be used to transfer large photos/videos between mobile devices, from devices to TVs, from cameras to mobile devices, from PCs to storage drives but this is already true for wifi direct and wifi is long range.
802.11ac currently doesn't reach gigabit speed, real world is around 400-600Mbps (50-75MB/s). This is about the same as a SATA hard drive.
802.11ad is a new lower range (same room) wifi coming out that will offer up to around 6Gbit/s, there's a test here showing 2.5Gbps (300MB/s, roughly SATA SSD speed) real-world:
Keyssa's tech was shown off in 2015:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8858/a-quick-look-at-keyssa-contactless-usb-30
A few cm range, low power usage, fast transfer. Even if it's faster than Wifi Direct, the extra range of wifi makes it much more practical. You can have wifi backup drives plugged into power and backup without connecting the data cable and stream data from them to mobile devices or TVs across a room.
If it's an inexpensive chip that doesn't use a lot of space internally then a manufacturer like Samsung who has a range of products might find some use out of it but even then, the short range makes for so few real world use cases. They'd likely just use it to speed up their S Beam, which uses Wifi Direct:
https://mostly-tech.com/2012/10/08/what-samsung-google-dont-tell-you-about-beaming/
Android doesn't have an AirDrop equivalent built in. They just have 3rd party apps, which everyone has to install manually. Google made an API:
http://www.greenbot.com/article/3078180/android/how-google-nearby-works-and-how-you-can-take-advantage-of-it.html
Maybe they can't get it to work across devices reliably/securely enough to put the functionality at the OS level.
A