USB is everywhere. Those tried and tested cables connect anything from iPods and Keyboards, to Coffee Hotplates and Lava Lamps. Wires, wires, and wires everywhere. By the end of this year though, people could come up to help you rid that clutter of wires weaving around your desktop.

The WiMedia Alliance is planing to make the technology known as "ultrawideband," or UWB, work for a wide variety of consumer electronics devices from PCs and printers to external hard drives and MP3 players.

Basically, the USB Implementers Forum, the 1394 Trade Association and the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) have chosen the WiMedia Alliance's version of UWB technology as the foundation for their next networking technology.

UWB technology can deliver data rates at up to 480 megabits per second at around 3 meters, with speeds dropping off as the range grows to a limit of about 10 meters. Real-world speeds will probably be a little slower, but this is as fast as the wired version of USB 2.0 and much faster than current Wi-Fi networks are capable of transmitting data.

Okay, so back then there was a "paperless office" movement, now it's "wireless office." Yeah, we know, it's the march of the machines. One of the selling points of USB though is that it can "power" the many devices that it also serves as a data connection medium too. How will they do that wireless? When they figure that out, they better make that work with the PS3 controller's USB connector... or something.