What Is Bluetooth?
You’ve probably heard of Bluetooth by now? You may even own a Bluetooth enabled device… but what exactly is Bluetooth? Bluetooth is a low power, low cost wireless technology designed to rid the world of unncessary cables both in the workplace and the home.
In essence Bluetooth was created and became popular for a number of reasons. Firstly it could replace the use of infra-red devices at home and at work. This was especially true of PDAs and cell phones which needed to transfer data between each other. It also increased the range these devices could communicate with each other over from about 3 inches to 32ft. There was no more pointing a PDA at a printer or looking for yet another cable to connect it. Simply search for the other Bluetooth device, connect and that was it.
Secondly Blueooth offered a global standard so that all Bluetooth devices could communicate with each other. A Bluetooth enabled cell phone could communicate with a Bluetooth printer directly. Bluetooth laptops could share data with Bluetooth PDAs.
Thirdly Blueooth could handle voice and data traffic simultaneously which makes it ideal for PDAs and more complex cellphones where the ability to work with more data is becoming the expected norm.
Bluetooth was also integrated into laptop computers to dramatically extend their connections capabilities.
Bluetooth operates in the 2.4 to 2.485 GHz (gigahertz)using a special type of radio tecnology which prevents interference from other radio signals in the area.
Are there any downsides? Unsecured Bluetooth devices can be accessed quite easily. The famous Paris Hilton “stolen cell phonebook” case highlights this dramatically. Also the rise of Bluetooth specific viruses also gives cause for concern - these viruses can “jump” between any Bluetooth device quite easily. Basically make sure your Bluetooth profile is set to Hidden and that the device itself uses a PIN or password or possibly both.