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Bluetooth offers wireless connections
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FOR over a year, member companies of the Bluetooth Consortium have been telling us how the Bluetooth's fast, easy wireless connection capabilities will change the world of portable computing.
Bluetooth (named for a tenth-century Danish king) is an ambitious wireless communication specification developed by a consortium of companies including Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Lucent, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, 3Com and Toshiba. Over 1,300 additional companies have signed up to develop products based on Bluetooth technology.
Bluetooth defines a specification for a small-form-factor, low-cost radio link between portable PCs, wireless phones and portable devices such as PDAs, MP3 players and digital cameras. The card is not computer-centric; it can be implemented in a wide range of devices from cordless phones to notebook computers to wireless headsets. The Bluetooth is a juggling act of sorts; the balls in the air include performance, power consumption, hardware cost and reliability.
Bluetooth uses microwave radio to transmit data over short distances -- about 33 feet -- at up to 721 Kbps. It isn't being touted as a replacement for high-speed wired connections but rather as a technology of convenience. If everything goes according to plan, Bluetooth devices will be able to recognize one another and create connections with no user intervention or cables. And each device contains one or more profiles that tell the other devices what it is and what it can do. This means that your Bluetooth phone would automatically create a link to your Bluetooth-enabled PC and Bluetooth wireless earphone. You could then use the earphone to talk on the phone or use your PC to connect to the Internet through the digital phone -- without wires, setup, or effort.
Bluetooth provides low-level hardware drivers and a Windows Explorer extension called Bluetooth Neighbourhood. Similar to the Windows Network Neighbourhood, the Bluetooth Neighbourhood shows all the Bluetooth devices within range, along with a list of services available from the remote devices.
To create a connection between two Bluetooth PCs, you drag a service icon onto the remote computer's icon. Services include dial-up networking and faxing. If the remote computer provides the requested service, you're connected and ready to go. The Bluetooth Neighbourhood also provides a quick-and-dirty file-transfer method: Users simply drag and drop files from one machine to another within the Bluetooth Neighbourhood.
The wired world will be watching closely to see how Bluetooth cards work in conjunction with other Bluetooth devices such as phones, printers, print servers, and LAN access points -- as soon as we see some. At the recent Comdex show in Las Vegas, the Bluetooth pavilion was loaded up with member companies showing Bluetooth devices, but most of them muttered a noncommittal "next year" when pressed for a delivery date.
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