Bluetooth Question...

[Stiletto]

Does anybody here know about the capabilities of Bluetooth and what sort of devices use this feature? My PDA's only wireless feature is Bluetooth and I have yet to know what exactly to use it for.

[Mr. Rogers]

http://www.howstuffworks.com/bluetooth.htm


read through this ^__^

[Stiletto]

Thanks. I guess I was really asking for personal experiences/opinions on Bluetooth.

[Raiden no Kishi]

Well, my laptop and cell phone both have Bluetooth. That allows me to transfer files between the two, which is cool.

.rai//

[kryptech]

I use Bluetooth at the office were I work to synchronize the address books and calendars of Palm Treos with a desktop. It works quite nicely. My boss has a Bluetooth headset that sits over his ear and communicate wirelessly with his handheld, which is very convenient.

[Kaligraphic]

I have a Motorola Q. I ought to be able to connect with it as a data device (EVDO modem) over bluetooth, letting me get on the Internet without having to plug in the cable. Unfortunately, the Q isn't that good for battery life, so I don't do that.

I can also use bluetooth for a quick ad-hoc network link between laptops. (Also, iMacs have built-in bluetooth.)

[Mithrandir]

Bluetooth is, essentially, personal area networking. You've heard of LAN (local area network) and WAN (wide area networking) probably. This is the next step. Bluetooth was designed to allow devices that are relatively close to each other to be able to communicate. You wouldn't, for example, browse the web in a coffee shop with it - but you WOULD use it to have a wireless headset talk to a cell phone, or a wireless keyboard talk to ta PDA. You can also allow anything with an address book to talk to a desktop computer and swap data back and forth.

HIH!

[Stiletto]

Interesting. Since it's more for personal/synchronizing use, I should probably think about trying the feature out. Sadly I don't have a bluetooth cell phone or other computer where I'd find a really good use for it with my PDA, but I've seen wireless bluetooth headphones that would make interesting music listening.

Now is there anything wrong or illegal with detecting other Bluetooth devices in public? Today, curiosity led me to use the "detect other Bluetooth devices" feature on my PDA and it actually was able to detect other BT users (though it required the other person's password to access input).

[Mithrandir]

Well, you probably don't wanna try and hack someone else's device, but just trying to see what's out there isn't illegal, from what I know. IANAL.