Chapter 6. Bluetooth

Named after the Danish King Harald Bluetooth (who ruled approximately from A.D. 940 to 985, and who is reported to have united Denmark and Norway), Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology with an operating range of 30 feet (10 meters) and a maximum transmission rate of a mere 1 Mbps. Bluetooth is widely touted as a "cable replacement" solution. In the near future, you may not need any cables to connect your keyboard and mouse to the PC, and you may even download your favorite music to your MP3 player wirelessly. In fact, such things are possible today.

Behind the Bluetooth technology is a set of specifications, now under the purview of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The Bluetooth SIG (http://www.bluetooth.com/) was spearheaded by Ericsson (the inventor of Bluetooth) and formed in February 2001. The Bluetooth SIG has since grown to have more than 2000 members, comprised of companies such as Ericsson, Nokia, 3Com, Intel, Motorola, Microsoft, and many more.