Bluetooth and NFC together to make the most of the two?

The NFC Forum and the Bluetooth Sig join forces to propose a simplification of the peer to peer data transfer.

To send contacts, short information and links, there are lots of opportunities. Everything from the simple e-mail, up to the NFC by Bluetooth.

In the first case, simply just, since his mobile that supports this type of function, insert the contact card in the mail and send it. The problem, it is that it takes time with two correspondents network coverage and that it draws a little in packages data.

When one is nearby, you can switch the Bluetooth should enable, select the contact card and send it, while in the face, must be an acceptance of the connection, enter a pairing code and validate the transfer. Complicated? Not so much that it's, but it can quickly become tedious if two mobile devices do not speak the same "language" and therefore add additional steps which discourage quickly... To give interested in iron at the stage of good old paper-pencil to share a number.

Otherwise, there is the NFC (Near Field Communication). On paper, it is promising, it is sufficient just to select the contact card, the share via NFC and of "bumper" its mobile with that of its neighbour that sharing operates. In reality, this does not always work very well. If two mobile devices are not identical or use different systems, it resumes again on the problems of compatibility.

To simplify this, the NFC Forum and the Bluetooth Sig, two institutions of many companies for the development of these technologies, will now work together to provide solutions to these problems. Major, in the sense that customers do not use them and thus manufacturers are likely to deadlock on them for not burdening the invoice of the smartphone which is already expensive to produce.

A first solution would be the addition of a new bluetooth profile called Secure Simple Pairing, using the NFC to negotiate security between the two keys. With this new profile SSP, it is sufficient just to approach a pedometer or a helmet for the bluetooth liasion to be effective, a good thing in the end.

One could even imagine the transfer of data such as photos, first initiated in NFC and then passing on the Bluetooth 4.0 which itself uses a high-speed transfer and easy WiFi. Finally, we will wait until this happens, because the promises only bind those who hold.

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Nostalgeek 2001 (6) : Mobility Radeon, Bluetooth, MRAM

This summer, we offer you the return of a topic, Nostalgeek. And we decided to dwell on a specific year: 2001. Distant and close both the year 2001 is interesting to analyze, to show developments in the high-tech in 10 years. Every day, during the holidays, we will offer you a retrospective of a week of 2001, with the news of the day and a small analysis on what there is in 2011.

In February 2001, what happens?

In 2001, if the "dual core" are still as sweet dreams in the general public, it is possible to work with two processors. And AMD will propose a solution of this type with the 760MP chipset, which allows two Athlon Socket A parallel. And in the world of memory, IBM shows its MRAM prototypes, a memory intended to replace the DRAM and flash.

In 2011, the "bi - CPU" public platforms are rare, current processors for more SMP without server versions, but processors were in the vast majority of cases at least two cores. In the world of memory, the MRAM is a sweet dream and flash and DRAM are always very used. The next Holy Grail, this is the PRAM, which combines... benefits of DRAM and flash.

In the small world of the GPU, GeForce 2 MX 64 MB announcements are multiplying and the first rumours on the NV20 spread: NVIDIA should call the GeForce 3 map. In laptops, ATi finally enters the dance of the "GPU" with a Radeon Mobility. The map consumes little (0.5 W in some cases) but misunderstands the T & L engine. The maximum memory is 16 MB and DirectX 7 is part.

In 2011, entry-level cards were sometimes 2 GB of RAM and the information on the next NVIDIA chip, Kepler, multiply. It is (simplifying) the fifteenth generation of GeForce. In cards GPU mobile, Radeon 6970M, the current top of range, can handle 2 GB of RAM and is compatible with DirectX 11.

In mobility, the first Bluetooth cards arrive: format Compact Flash, they are worth about €250. In laptops, IBM announced that the Thinkpad will be delivered with Linux preinstalled (TurboLinux) because there is a demand. But Windows Me will remain in part on the side of the system open source. Finally, Plextor Announces the decision of its line of SCSI CD drives and CD burners.

In 2011, the Bluetooth is standard in lots of machines and chips are worth only a few dollars. For laptops, some try to still offer of Linux as the operating system (there is a demand) but it is still (too) rare. If Linux is not imposed in 10 years in the public computer, it is still widely used in many areas, smartphones for example. Finally, in the small world of optical drives, the SCSI is, like the PATA. And if the SATA is omnipresent, the future of the same optical drives is dark: they are less and less used.

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