There is an international telecommunications company, with customers in 80 countries, called Cable & Wireless. For 130 years it has constantly reinvented itself to embrace the latest technological advances to serve its customers’ needs and today is a leading provider of IP (Internet Protocol) voice and data services to business and residential customers.
Speaking of "cable(s) and wireless", there is no end to the creativity of the technology industry. The USB (universal serial bus) cable has the primary goal of creating a more compact, instant, hassle-free way to connect a keyboard, mouse, printer, joystick, scanner, digital speakers, digital camera, PC telephone, and more to your PC. Prior to the sleek and simple USB cables we had big and bulky serial and parallel cables. If you had more than one device, then you needed a special box with multiple cable connectors and a switch know and you ended up with a mess of cables. Adding a non-USB peripheral device to a PC was a non-trivial task that required a lot of technical savvy and a certain amount of luck. First you have to figure out which port to use and then, in most cases, you have to pry open your PC to install an add-in card, set special switches, and figure out various "settings". USB makes adding peripheral devices really easy. USB replaces all the different kinds of serial and parallel port connectors with one standard­ized plug and port combination. With USB-compliant PCs and peripherals, you just plug them in and turn them on. What’s next?
USB has greatly simplified things compared to the bulky cables of the recent past. One company called Zip-linq makes a brand new retractable cable that goes to the next level — simplifying your ability to plug things in at home or on the road. Zip-linq cables are very compact and allow the retractable cable to expand from 4" to up to 48" with a simple pull. Another pull and they auto­matically retract back into the housing. The version of their retractable cable that I like best is the universal wireless phone charger cable which allows you to power up your wireless phone from the USB port on your laptop. Pull out the cable, synchronize your Treo, leave it plugged in overnight, and you end up with a fully charged and synched phone in the morning.
What’s next? The next step is to simplify the electrical connections. We still have the bulky electrical cords and power supplies. Now there is a new standard standard (IEEE 802.3af) called Power over Ethernet. PoE allows for low-voltage direct current (DC) to flow through Ethernet cables along with the data. This will have huge implications for anyone wanting to put a wireless access point in the ceiling or closet. Getting category-5 cable to those spots is fairly easy compared to installing electrical power.Ethernet cabling has eight twisted wires inside and not all of them are needed for data. Wireless access points are not the only target of opportunity. I use Ethernet cable to provide power to various relays in my home automation system.
Now, all we need is a way to get our laptop batteries charged from a WiFi signal!