If you already have a wireless network for your computers, you may be
very interested in what's coming next. Would you like it if your PDA,
your mobile phone, your mp3 player and almost everything else you
connect to your computer could be wireless too? It's already a
reality...
Personal Area Network.
Using wireless networking with your personal gadgets is often called
PAN, which stands for Personal Area Network. The idea is that, in the
future, we'll all have laptop computers with their batteries charged
and no more need to connect any wires to them at all -- you just place
your Bluetooth device near the computer, and the computer sees it and
can use it straightaway.
Bluetooth has been around and in-use since 1999, and it's only getting
more popular. It was designed to be secure, low cost, and easy to use
from day one.
There are two classes of Bluetooth that are in popular use: class 1 and
class 2. Class 2 is the most common and cheaper standard, allowing you
to use a device that is up to 10 metres (32 feet) away. Class 1 is
rarer, but you can still find devices that use it easily enough, and it
has ten times the range: 100 metres or 320 feet.
How Does It Work?
Bluetooth is more flexible than 802.11 wireless networking, in exchange
for the shorter range. Essentially, a Bluetooth-enabled computer has
one Bluetooth receiver installed in it, and this receiver can then be
used with up to 7 nearby Bluetooth devices. On the other end, wireless
devices do not need to have Bluetooth installed if they support it --
it is already integrated.
Like 802.11, Bluetooth works by using radio signals to create
bandwidth. It is not, though, the same thing as an old-style wireless
mouse or keyboard, which required a receiver to be plugged into one of
your computers' ports, and didn't have range or stability anywhere near
that of Bluetooth.
Many computers now come with built in Bluetooth, especially Apple Macs.
If you want to add Bluetooth to a computer that doesn't come with it
pre-installed, you should probably use a USB to Bluetooth adapter,
although internal Bluetooth devices to install in your computer are
available. If you have a laptop and a spare PCMCIA slot, you can get
Bluetooth cards for that too.
What Can You Do With Bluetooth?
Mobile phones with Bluetooth are very popular, and so are PDAs -- the
instant synchronisation of addresses and calendars to a computer is a
useful feature. Other than that, almost anything that would usually use
USB can be done using Bluetooth, including digital cameras, mp3
players, printers, and even mice and keyboards. If you take a look
through the comprehensive list of Bluetooth 'profiles' (kinds of
devices that could, in theory, be Bluetooth enabled), it includes
cordless phones, faxes, headsets, and even video.
Basically, more than anything, Bluetooth is a replacement for USB: some
say that while 802.11 wireless networking is wireless Ethernet,
Bluetooth is wireless USB.
Not Just for Computers.
Part of the power of Bluetooth is that it isn't just used to connect
things to computers -- it can be used to connect almost anything to
anything else, if both things are Bluetooth-enabled and recognise each
other.
Mobile phones, in particular, take advantage of this. Hands-free
headsets often use Bluetooth to communicate with the phone. Some cars,
for example, now have on-board computers that will connect with a
Bluetooth phone and allow you to make hands-free calls, regardless of
where the phone is in the car (even if you've left it in your bag in
the trunk!)
On top of that, of course, Bluetooth devices can communicate with each
other. This has led to some people sending messages from their
Bluetooth PDAs to others in close range -- not an especially useful
feature, but quite fun. This is called 'bluejacking', and the first
recorded instance of it was a man who sent a Bluetooth message to
another man's Nokia phone while they were in a bank together. What did
the message say? 'Buy Ericsson'.
Since then, it has become possible to send images by bluejacking, and
it is widely believed to be the newest advertising medium -- yes, it
lets billboards send messages to your phone, a practice known as
'bluecasting'. Whether you think that's cool or annoying, of course, is
your choice.
