Princeton's itty bitty USB Bluetooth 2.0+EDR module
Remember that crazy small, RF receiver used with Logitech's VX Nano? Meet the Bluetooth 2.0+EDR equiv, the Princeton's PTM-UBT3S which measures just 19-mm (0.75-inches) long. So yeah, it's small, in fact, it's claimed …
Context & Ripple Effects
Princeton's [[a:none|PTM-UBT3S]] rides a miniaturization race that Plextor joined a year earlier with its claim to the 'world's smallest external DVD burner' — 'smallest ever' has become standard marketing grammar for USB peripherals.
The reference point is Logitech, which confirmed itself in July 2007 as the world's leading mouse maker and had just shipped the VX Nano with a receiver small enough to stay plugged into a notebook, alongside its gesture-driven MX Air cordless mouse. Tiny radios are no longer a novelty; they are table stakes for the wireless-notebook accessory market Logitech dominates.
First-order effects
- Notebook users gain full Bluetooth 2.0+EDR from a 19-mm stub that can live in a USB port without snagging — directly addressing the protruding-dongle problem that Logitech's VX Nano receiver already proved buyers care about.
- Princeton puts itself in competition with laptop vendors' built-in Bluetooth and larger aftermarket adapters on footprint rather than price.
Second-order effects
- Peripheral makers like Logitech, whose wireless mice depend on small receivers, face a market where third parties can match their radio packaging — shrinking hardware becomes a baseline spec, not a differentiator.
- 'World's smallest' claims proliferate across USB device categories (following Plextor's burner), pushing reviewers and buyers to discount superlative marketing.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, plug-in radio modules become transitional hardware: as miniaturization continues, Bluetooth and other short-range radios migrate from visible dongles toward integration inside notebooks and devices themselves.
- The USB port consolidates its role as the universal expansion slot for functions — storage, optical, networking — that were previously separate products, setting up the module-level integration race later seen across consumer electronics.
The trend: Short-range wireless hardware is racing down the miniaturization curve, moving from bulky add-on adapters toward receivers small enough to disappear into a laptop's ports and eventually into the devices themselves.