There's always been a lot of yakking about Bluetooth, the short-range wireless networking technology built into the very laptop computer I'm using; into millions of cell phones, PDAs and other info-gadgets but you know what? I've never known anyone -- myself included -- to actually transfer any data over a Bluetooth network! So I wasn't much surprised to read that Swedish phone giant, Ericsson -- which helped invent Bluetooth -- is shutting down the unit that was developing Bluetooth.
I'm sure someone somewhere was using Bluetooth and, lord knows, every Macintosh tip, and trick book I pick up talks about endless hacks you can do with your Bluetooth-enabled Mac. I'd always thought I was missing something but maybe I'm not. Do you use Bluetooth? Why? What for? Could you get by without it?
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Gemini Award-winning reporter David Akin is the National Affairs Correspondent for Canwest News Service and is based at the CNS Parliamentary Bureau in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
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Who pays for this blog? I receive no fees, considerations, etc. etc. for the posts on this blog nor do I have any plans to accept any. My salary is paid by Canwest Global Communications Corp. I work for that company as the Ottawa-based National Affairs Correspondent for Canwest News Service. The blog publishing platform used here is called Blogware and it's developed by Tucows Inc. of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Blogware users typically pay a monthly fee for using this platform but I do not as Tucows has kindly provided me with this platform. I may report on Tucows, its associated operations and executives, and on industry issues that may affect Tucows. I am grateful for Tucows' assistance but that's it. No favours were promised for their generosity nor do Tucows executives expect any. I hold no direct equity or stock in any company, Tucows included. If you think other disclosures are appropriate in this space, I'd like to hear from you. All of my contact details are always at www.davidakin.com You can read more about this section Login
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Does anyone anywhere actually use Bluetooth?
Comments
Re: Does anyone anywhere actually use Bluetooth?
by
Anonymous
on Sat 28 Aug 2004 02:45 AM EDT | Permanent Link
Yeah, absolutely.
I have a bluetooth equipped phone and I leave the bluetooth on all the time these days. I mostly use it to connect my laptop to the Net (a bluetooth modem, in essence) when a wireless node or ethernet drop isn't handy. I also use it to load my contact list into the phone without lots of tedious text entry on the phone keypad. I also use it to grab the photos off the phone. So at the moment I use bluetooth solely to communicate between my phone and my laptop. But I would happily welcome more bluetooth devices. The irony for me came when I went to Motorola's site. I have always preferred Motorola's cell phones and I wanted one with bluetooth. They made a big deal about how exciting and wonderful bluetooth is, but then when you looked through their list of phones, almost none of them were bluetooth enabled. If bluetooth disappears from cell phones it will leave a big hole in how I use my phone and computer. Re: Does anyone anywhere actually use Bluetooth?
by
Tim A
on Mon 30 Aug 2004 12:02 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link
I'm an extremely tech savvy guy if I may say so myself and I've never ever had a use for Bluetooth. Thats not to say it isn't useful but there isn't a single person I know that has ever been excited by (or bothered to use) Bluetooth.
Re: Does anyone anywhere actually use Bluetooth?
by
Sandy McMurray
on Thu 02 Sep 2004 02:40 AM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link
Bluetooth is dying because there are so many driver issues.
Part of the glorious vision of Bluetooth involved being able to walk into a room with a laptop or PDA and instantly connect with any other device (e.g. printer, scanner, camera, etc.). The reality of Bluetooth is more like this: "Windows has detected new hardware. Would you like to add this device?" followed by "Whoops, you don't have the driver CD-ROM with you, do you?" Bluetooth does better among Mac users because there are fewer driver issues. I had the use of a Sony Ericsson phone for a couple of weeks and loved the convenience of syncing the contact list from my Mac to the phone. It gave me one less address book to update, and one less cable to carry. So far, I haven't found any "essential" uses for Bluetooth. It's essentially a wireless cable replacement that costs more than the cables it replaces. That's a pretty hard sell. |
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