one album in 10s -> about 100MB (256kbps) in 10s = about 10MB/s
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Peak Towers Condominium Pattaya

ohhh we need this in our stores in the uk, now, we need it now

To pair would be highly inconvenient and unlikely for the kind of pay-service they demonstrated.

The article refers to RFID technology and 10cm range. As far as RFID is concerned it's been demonstrated again and again that it's totally feasible to access devices from a much larger distance, with the right equipment.

So this doesn't sound particularly safe. It's difficult to combine convenience and security.

I don't think this is a big mystery wireless technology.. I assume what they did is tweaking the 802.11 MAC-layer, so it may actually use the same hardware as in the N900. The reasons for my assumption are the following:

a) They almost certainly use the 2.4GHz band (same as 2.4GHz 802.11 and bluetooth), anything else doesn't make sense if you want to sell your technology worldwide.

b) The 802.11 MAC layer has quite a bit of overhead from ACK messages etc. For this application the sender and transmitter are very close, so you have a high SNR and low bit error rate, i.e., few lost packets and therefore few retransmissions. Being close also allows you to tweak the timeouts in the 802.11 MAC layer (they are designed for a range of 100m or something). They could also make more fundamental changes, such as adding some kind of streaming transfer mode, which would further increase the throughput for applications like the one shown.

These are just my 2 cents.. as usual Engadget doesn't really have a clue about the technology they are writing about.

It's right there in the text below the video:
"this new radio tech forms a short-range connection between the writer and the device, and doesn’t use any other radio networks – the writer is immediately paired with and recognizes your handset"

In other words as pointed out by qwazix it's just an uber-short range wireless solution; the lack of range means "any signal can be trusted" as you'd have to be close enough to the thing to know that you're communicating with it (theory goes... reality could be a different story). I'm guessing there's also in the end going to be some interactivity on your phone/device that says "enable/confirm transfer"... I don't see that being a huge hinderance or anything considering your device has to be out sitting on the "Box" anyways... just hit OK on your device and let things go... that way if somebody tries to carry one of these boxes around in their pockets and get too close/give you a hug or something to try and load your device with junk nothing would happen since there wouldn't be a confirmation...

I think the most interesting fact about that video is, that it was filmed somewhere between May - July 2009, since there's no snow outside.

We've had quite a good winter this year in Finland, and the street is sunny and clear outside.

So they had the N900 + this wonder tech in there already 6 months ago!

EDIT: That was filmed in the Helsinki Flagship store.

Bolded part should be November.

I think it's fair to give credit where it's due.

Engadget reaches far more audience than conversations.nokia.com, and having them 'broadcast' the news is beneficial to Nokia.

@Bratag: thanks for the head's up.

I think they managed to make the hardware Bluetooth-3-aware. That's all. And it's good news for N900 owners.
http://www.bluetooth.com/Bluetooth/P...ETOOTHi_30.htm