Bluetooth
 By: Lisa McDough

The Bluetooth Craze

Bluetooth. Bluetooth. Bluetooth. It seems that every other word out of the technology sector these days is Bluetooth. Bluetooth is a technology that enables devices to communicate wirelessly and while the technology of Bluetooth is not new, the capabilities of the technology have only been truly explored over the past year. The extent of which Bluetooth can be utilized is astonishing; automotive, consumer electronics, computing and telephony could all benefit from Bluetooth technology, and many have already put the technology in place.

The extent that Bluetooth has been able to insert itself into society and at the speed it has become popular is amazing. Most laptops sold now are Bluetooth capable, allowing them to communicate with any number of other devices, ranging from cell phones to PDAs. Many car manufactures are making it an option, if not standard, for the cars to be Bluetooth capable so the driver can use their cell phones over the vehicle’s stereo system. There are a plethora of ear buds offered that link up to cell phones for hands-free, wireless communication. The popularity of Bluetooth reached five million Bluetooth units shipped per week in May.

Although Bluetooth has already made so many advances, there are still more to come. 20^th Century Fox announced in July that they will be providing movie trailers and more through Bluetooth kiosks in Loews theaters, downloadable to Bluetooth phones. Logitech will be providing Bluetooth iPod headphones, for wireless music appreciation. Among the more out there applications of Bluetooth, there is a human version of Pacman being developed that would use Bluetooth and other technology to bring the classic game to life.

The already readily available Bluetooth technology and the up coming Bluetooth solutions are just the beginning. The variety of applications that Bluetooth technology is capable of is seemingly endless. If it seems like Bluetooth has people talking now, just wait, Bluetooth is not going anywhere for a long time, and neither are those who wish to discuss it and its contributions to technology and society.