Bluetooth
“What exactly is Blue Tooth technology? How does it work? What devices use it?” -Fantabular
Bluetooth has become a part of daily life for millions of people around the world. When you hear Bluetooth, you usually think first about cellular phones and wireless headsets. While this is one of the most popular ways that Bluetooth is used, it’s definitely not the only way that people use it.
Keep in mind that Bluetooth was designed as a short range wireless technology that would be very easy to set up, yet secure and safe at the same time. When you think ‘wireless’, the first thing that comes to mind is the common household router used to let us roam around the home with a laptop. If you’ve ever enabled your wireless connection, you know that it can be a hassle and unsecured unless you take proper precautions to secure your connection from neighborly signal leeching. Bluetooth is a wireless connection that is already secured and ready for immediate use without extra security precautions. The signal ranges are divided into three categories with the majority of devices benefiting from Class 2 signal strength which usually gives you about 30 feet of space to work with. It operates on a 2.4 GHz band just like most wireless signals but with the added benefit of signal hopping meaning that it doesn’t interrupt other signals, nor does it suffer from signal interruption from outside sources.
Bluetooth is also heavily used in laptops. The technology has made its way into keyboards, mice, headphones and even printers. Besides cellular phones, PDA’s have benefited from the technology as well. It’s much easier to synchronize your PDA with your laptop via Bluetooth than it is to deal with the hassle of connecting wires.
As of November 2004, all Bluetooth devices were made to transfer data at a rate of 3Mbps rather than the 1.2Mbps previously used.
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