14 DAY TRIAL // Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are all well and good, but they aren't the fastest interfaces on the block, and it's often tedious to use them, especially if you want to move more than one or two files between devices. Cue TransferJet dongles.
Toshiba has just introduced a set of TransferJet wireless data transfer USB sticks, which allow a PC and a tablet or smartphone to send and receive data at up to 375 Mbps.
One dongle has a full USB 2.0 port and is meant to connect to your computer (desktop, laptops, whatever the type).
The other has a micro-USB connector and, obviously, goes into your mobile device.
Sadly, the high transfer speed comes with a catch: short range. Unlike for Bluetooth or Wi-Fi (which can work even across whole apartments and at distances of several dozen feet), TransferJet needs proximity.
Very close proximity as it happens. The dongles have to literally be within an inch or two of each other.
There's another limitation here, that of operating system support. The PC needs to run Windows 7 or 8, while the phone or tablet needs Android. And not just any Android, but Android 4.0 to 4.2.
The name of the Toshiba TransferJet dongle set is TG-UA00A and sales are only underway in Japan for now, at a price equivalent to $38 / €28.
Now we just have to sit back and watch how it all goes. The sticks are bound to attract some customers, but there is a high chance that the Toshiba TG-UA00A won't go far in terms of marketing experiments.
After all, a USB data cable is just as, if not more, straightforward to use, and it can move files just as fast, if not faster (especially if USB 3.0 is used instead of 2.0). And pretty much every tablet and smartphone out there ships with one.