Bluetooth - It's Nothing to Fear

My wife and I now have Bluetooth.  We’re not concerned though, and neither is our dentist.  It has nothing to do with Mrs. M’s penchant for eating frozen blueberries for her night-time snack.  (She says she does it for the anti-oxidants, and knowing her lifelong commitment to healthy eating, she’s probably telling the truth.)

If you have a cable or DSL connection to the web, you are probably familiar with the terms LAN and WAN.  The wire running from the cable/DSL modem plugs into the WAN port on your router.  That’s the Wide Area Network port which links you to the connected outside world.  The cables that run from the router to your PCs, or the wireless signals sent from the router to wireless equipped machines, form the backbone of your very own LAN, or Local Area Network.  Bluetooth is the next step down in the progression.  It is the name given to a radio specification and communications protocol for a low power-consumption, short range wireless Personal Area Network, or PAN.  If you have a wireless keyboard or mouse and a broadband connection, you’ve likely got connections to a WAN, LAN, and PAN in your den.

My wife and I came down with Bluetooth when we bought our new cell phones.  Actually, our year-old laptop also is Bluetooth capable, but up till now we’ve not had anything for it to communicate with, poor thing.  Whereas wireless internet communications (Wi-Fi, for Wired Fidelity) operate on the same radio frequency as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi consumes more power and is able to transmit over a much greater area, generally 50 to 300 feet.  The current implementation of Bluetooth is limited to no more than 10 meters (roughly 30 feet), and usually that is being generous.  Most devices tend to get finicky if they are more than 10 feet apart.

What it is, Bro’

So what is Bluetooth designed for?  According to the free on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia, “Bluetooth provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices such as mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers, digital cameras, and video game consoles over a secure, globally unlicensed short-range radio frequency.”  It’s a wireless way to connect devices that would otherwise be linked via a short cable.

You may have seen those odd looking people walking around, seemingly talking to themselves, with a strange looking metallic locust sort of thing attached to the side of their heads.  For the longest time I just assumed those were people who had been assimilated by The Borg and were left to wander amongst the rest of us.  (If you’re not a Star Trek – The Next Generation fan you won’t have a clue what I’m talking about, but just let me roll with this.)  Now that I own a Bluetooth capable phone, I realize that those locusts are actually Bluetooth wireless headsets that allow the folks to talk on their cell phones with the phones tucked into their pockets or purses so they won’t microwave their brains.  And speaking of microwaves, people with pacemakers would be well advised to talk with their doctors before using a Bluetooth device. 

So why the odd name?

So why the very odd name Bluetooth?  The technology was originally developed by the Swedish telecommunications firm Ericsson back in the mid-90s.  Since then there have been more than 6,000 companies join together worldwide to form the Bluetooth Special Interest Group which sets global standards for the technology to insure all Bluetooth devices can talk to each other.  Bluetooth was the code-name given by engineers from Ericsson to honor 10^th century Viking king Harald Blatand – roughly translated into English as ‘Harold Bluetooth’ - who was credited with uniting warring factions in what is now Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.  So too would their wireless technology unite devices between differing industries such as computing, mobile communications, and automotive.  The code name stuck.

Do you need a Bluetooth enabled phone? Not like you need air or water, no. But it might be nice to have if you’ve taken photos with your phone’s camera and want an easy way to transfer them to your computer, or if you’ve created your own ‘wallpaper’ or ‘ringtones’ on your computer and want an easy way to send them to your phone.  If your PC is not Bluetooth equipped, that’s easily remedied.  For about $20 you can buy a device that looks like a USB thumb drive but is actually a Bluetooth adapter that plugs into any USB port.  As for those weird looking Bluetooth headsets, they come in many shapes and sizes, and will generally set you back anywhere from $20 to $120.  Just be sure to try one on before buying it to make sure it fits comfortably.