As the saying goes, the great thing about standards is that we have so many to choose from. Enter TransferJet, as much as we'd like to ignore it, it won't go away. In fact, today the nascent close (real close, as in 3-cm or less) proximity wireless technology just snowballed itself into a proper consortium which lists a who's who of consumer electronics and camera manufacturers including Sony, Canon, Panasonic, Nikon, Samsung, Kodak, and interestingly enough, Sony Ericsson. Sony will lead the effort to develop the specs, guidelines, and licensing schemes required to interconnect TransferJet-compliant products offering a 375Mbps data transfer rate (560Mbps theoretical) without requiring any complex setup (just touch the devices together). Right, they're looking directly at your NFC and Wibree shortcomings Bluetooth SIG. Full list of TransferJet members after the break.

It doesn't take a whole lot of empirical observation to figure out that Sony just loves to go proprietary, even in the face of wide industry acceptance of an alternative standard. While the company has recently flexed on things like audio codecs, other stalwarts include Sony's Memory Stick, and naturally Blu-ray isn't going anywhere. This time Sony is charging after W-USB and Bluetooth 3.0 with its recently-announced TransferJet technology. There are certainly some differences between the technologies, and advantages on both sides. W-USB and Bluetooth 3.0 are based on WiMedia wireless tech, and have theoretical speeds of 480Mbps, with a range of about three meters. Compare that to TransferJet, which has a range of three centimeters, but a theoretical max 560Mbps. The reason behind the close proximity is the induction field coupler tech used -- which may or may not mean Sony's tech can charge the device as well -- but Sony's also playing it as a usability thing: unless devices are specifically registered and told not to, they'll automatically swap files when placed next to each other, requiring no further user complications. We're going to need more info out of Sony and other manufacturers to see how exactly this new tech will play out in the industry at large, but at the moment it looks like another proprietary standard that'll confuse consumers and segment the market -- let's hope Sony proves us wrong.

[Via Slashdot]

Read - Ars Technica
Read - Sony PR

Sony invites you to "see it all" at their booth in the Central Hall, but you're hard-pressed to actually do so due to both sheer square footage and the immense volume of bodies jostling each other in between stations. The consumer electronics giant's got no shortage of bedazzling gadgetry out on the floor here, and we braved the teeming hordes to collate the following eye candy for you.

Looking for even more ways to simply your data transfers? If so, you should definitely check out Sony's TransferJet, which enables certain gadgets (i.e. camcorders, etc.) to transfer data sans wires to a PC by simply placing it atop a wireless field unit. Granted, it didn't seem to work so smoothly at Sony's press conference -- surprised? -- but here's to hoping the kinks get ironed out before it goes commercial. You know the drill, click on through and let Mahalo Daily's Veronica Belmont lead the way.