What Is Bluetooth?

February 26th, 2008 by admin

While Bluetooth is gaining ground all the time, there are still a number of people who either don’t understand what it is, or aren’t aware of what it can do so I thought a quick overview of Bluetooth would be useful.

Bluetooth is, in short, a wireless connection between two pieces of technology.

To communicate by Bluetooth both pieces of technology need to be Bluetooth-enabled either by having the service built in (as many cell phones and the newer printers do) or by having it added (such as by adding a simple, cheap Bluetooth dongle to an existing computer).

The two Bluetooth devices, once a link is set up, can then communicate with one another without having to plug anything in.

The classic Bluetooth combination is an earpiece for using in the car and a cell phone. The benefit of this arrangement (beside the safety, and in some countries legal, aspects) is the lack of wires. You can leave your cell phone on the passengers seat and when you get out of the car with your headset on the connection will drop. When you get back in, the connection will automatically start again.

But this isn’t the only combination.

Some new cars will have an in-car kit that will communicate with any Bluetooth phone allowing you to talk out loud without a headset and the recipient of your call to hear what you are saying.

You could also print out photographs taken on your cell phone if you are within reach of your Bluetooth-enabled printer. Or back up your contacts to your Bluetooth-enabled computer. Or send ringtones, images, videos and the like to another Bluetooth-enabled phone.

And remember - you don’t pay for the connection or what you send. Like infra-red, it’s “just there”.

So, if you wanted to send a picture to a friend’s handset, you could either pay to send it as a picture message (MMS) or just wait till you and your friend are close (12-15 feet maximum generally) and then just send it free to their phone.

So get wireless and consider Bluetooth options - you won’t look back.

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