Cables Unlimited Wireless USB Reviewed: Glitchy, Slow & Frustrating

Wireless USB got an unpleasant kicking recently, when former number-one WiQuest closed their doors back in November, but they're not the only company looking to replace your cables.  Everything USB have been playing with Cables Unlimited's Wireless USB Adapter Kit, a pair of oversized dongles that promise straightforward, secure connectivity for devices like printers and scanners.  The premise is simple; unfortunately, the reality is otherwise.

Reviewer Kerry Chin found that the pairing procedure – plugging both dongles into the same PC – crashed his computer, that build-quality is about as good as "computer peripherals from 5 years ago", and that once working data transfer speeds weren't all that impressive anyway.  Copying files onto a USB hard-drive took six times longer than with a wired connection, for instance, and iTunes refused to play with an iPod docked wirelessly.

Fundamentally more annoying, perhaps, is the fact that the Cables Unlimited system only supports a single attached device out of the box – if you want more, you need to plug in a hub.  That's likely going to be a powered hub, and together with the wireless dongle's AC adapter and all the required cables, you've basically just relocated any wire mess from one part of the room to another.  In the end, Kerry describes the setup as a "work in progress"; problem is, many users won't both progressing past the initial setup flaws.