Valiantly pissing into the wind

Sometimes, you just have to wonder what is in the water at the Sony R&D labs... Every so often, they come out with a new "standard" as an alternative to an existing open standard. There may not be any technologically compelling reason to support the new Sony standard but by gum, they are running with it... Case in point - from Ars Technica:

Sony's "TransferJet" to take on Bluetooth 3.0
Never one to settle for an open standard when the opportunity to push a proprietary alternative presents itself, Sony has announced that it will wade into the next-generation short-range interconnect wars with a proprietary new wireless spec called "TransferJet." Sony's proposed TransferJet spec has a physical peak transmission rate of 560Mbps and would appear to compete directly with short- and medium-range ultrawideband-based offerings like wireless USB (W-USB) and the next generation of Bluetooth technology. But in spite of any similarities to either W-USB or Bluetooth 3.0, both of which are based on the same WiMedia radio technology and promise transfer speeds in the 480Mbps range, Sony's TransferJet has some distinguishing characteristics that set it apart from the pack.

In Sony's vision of the future, any two consumer devices will be able to exchange data wirelessly with one another simply by holding them close together. The system is designed for maximum ease of use, which means limited options for controlling the transfers; devices will transfer their contents automatically to another device within range. Users can "register" devices within the home to keep them from transmitting to "unregistered" devices, which should keep Uncle Dave from beaming his "art photos" onto your TV set without permission. Other than that, everything else appears to be automatic and button-free.

The killer in my book -- TransferJet has a range of 3cm, the units have to be touching. Bluetooth works fine, version 3.0 looks great and it works over a 3 Meter distance. Time to put down that crack-pipe guys...