ZigBee Wireless network Ultra Low Power

ZigBee at Metafilter

Really cool idea, a wireless protocol optimized to live on low power, not concerned with speed, the idea of 2 years on battery life is incredible. Prehaps these will be the "God Boxes" everyone is waiting for.

Take off every 'zig'... for great justice! ZigBee is a promising entry into the field of personal area networks (PAN) -- the technology that will soon enable low data rate two-way wireless connectivity for everything in your house (e.g. keyboard, thermostat). For those keeping score, it's exactly '4.4' sweeter than Wi-Fi (ZigBee is aligning with the IEEE802.15.4 standard) and is designed to live up to two years on battery power [...] The protocol supports authentication and public-key encryption, so no "All your toaster are belong to us" or (gasp!) wartoasting.
eddydamascene