A new technology called Bluetooth is cutting the number of wires that connect computing accessories while boosting their ability to talk to each other.
Big names in technology banded together to demonstrate Bluetooth's capabilities at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Players in the consortium, begun by Intel and Microsoft, include IBM, Toshiba, Nokia, Ericsson and Puma Technology.Bluetooth is the code name for small, low-cost, short-range radio links between mobile PCs, wireless phones and other portable devices.
The emphasis is on short-range. "It brings innovation in connectivity to a very personal level," said COMDEX speaker Tom Henderson, principal researcher for ExtremeLabs Inc.
Its developers say consumers could use Bluetooth to automatically transfer a picture taken on a digital camera to a laptop or to e-mail, or to automatically synchronize communication between a handheld PC or a Palm Pilot-type device and a desktop PC.
Developers say that unlike infrared wireless transfer ports common in some computing devices, Bluetooth offers better security and more seamless information transfers. Infrared receptors also have to be more precisely lined up with each other, and their range is limited to about 10 feet.
A goal of the consortium is to give all Bluetooth-enabled devices the ability to talk to each other.
Motorola, a leader in wireless communications, demonstrated several Bluetooth devices at COMDEX: a PC card compatible with laptops having PCMCIA slots (and most do) synchronizes with a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone. When the two devices are within 30 feet of each other, they can automatically synchronize the mobile phone's phone book and be ready to accept data calls or commands from the PC, functioning as a wireless modem.
In Motorola's demonstration, the same mobile phone communicates directly with a Bluetooth-enabled handheld computer, again synchronizing phone-book listings and giving the Palm-style computer direct access to e-mail or the Web.
Both Motorola and Ericsson have plans for a Bluetooth-enabled wireless headset, allowing hands-free, wireless links to a wireless phone or PC.
TDK's concepts include a Bluetooth PC card, USB adaptor, and LAN and modem combination. About 1,200 companies are considering Bluetooth with the first products expected to hit the store shelves in mid-2000. Bluetooth capability is expected to add $40 to the price tag of devices using the technology at first, with the cost dropping as the volume of sales picks up. The range is currently too short to network devices throughout the home, but Bluetooth's operating range is expected to increase with future development.
Technology exists to build a wireless phone directly into a mobile PC, but giving separate phone and computer devices Bluetooth capability is a much cheaper and more flexible option, allowing the end user to retrofit existing equipment using the PC card and USB add-ons.
Some of the early Bluetooth hardware concepts focus on Bluetooth add-ons, like the PC card and USB plug-in. Additional development is aimed toward giving wireless interaction to computer peripherals now tethered together by wires, like the CPU, mouse and keyboard.
Specialty applications are also in the works. Ericsson and Visa International have signed a deal to develop secure payment methods over the Internet via a mobile, Bluetooth-enabled terminal.
And the name? Breaking with the industry tradition of making up new jargon, the consortium chose a real-life simile by naming the technology after the 10th-century king who unified Denmark.