Iogear Wireless USB Hub and Xti, Anyone Tired it Yet?

Has anyone tried the new Iogear wireless usb 2.0 hub with an Xti. Wireless USB 2.0 is fairly new (introduced 10/07?) http://www.iogear.com/​main.php?loc=p...tem=G​UWH104KIT. About $160 street price for the hub and one adapter. Transfer speeds are claimed to be 480mbps within 10' of the hub, max distance for transfer is 30'.

Looks like it would be a great set-up for wirelessly sending your pics straight to your hard drive using the EOS utility. I currently do this using a USB cable extension on the USB mini b to USB 2 cable that came with my camera. Obviously, seeing the pics immediately on a full size monitor makes it much easier to judge exposure, focus and lighting, but I hate being tethered by that damn USB cable (with the extension its about 10' long). The Iogear web site claims it will work with digital cameras, but I'm skeptical and would like to hear about anyone's experiences with it before dropping my $160.

Thanks in advance for your reply,


John

This is the first I have heard about wireless USB so I did a quick 5 minute search of Google and what I saw looks promising but you will still have to be tethered to the hub then the hub will transmit to the computer. You won't be doing away with any cables but they will be connected to the hub and not the computer. I also saw where they may be introducing USB 3 this year but available to the public in '09 or '10 and they claim that will be about 10 times faster than USB 2. I have had a bad experience with wired USB hubs, probably because I bought the cheapest I could find, so I am a little skeptical of hubs but wireless may be great. For now why not buy a card reader? They are cheap, download faster, the cable is 2' to 3' long, and you don't have to have your camera sitting near your computer. Then you can wait for some reviews of wireless hubs before you invest in one. However, if you just like new technology and new gadgets go for it and then review it for the rest of us.

Joe,

Actually your connection to the USB hub will indeed be wireless. The only thing attached to your camera will be the small adapter (it looks like a usb flash drive in the pic). The hub itself attaches to you computer via a USB port. My doubts are from not knowing if the Xti can actually power the adapter/transmitter that will attach to the camera. It doesn't appear to be battery powered.


John