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NEWS FLASH
2000 - 46 (Dec. 2000) TECHNOLOGY Bluetooth on the Move After a two-year incubation period, Bluetooth has been attracting a great deal of interest. At last month’s Comdex/Fall 2000, at the recent Bluetooth Developers Conference, and then at last week’s PalmSource 2000 conference, Bluetooth technology generated a good deal of discussion and raised a lot of hopes. Reporting on the Bluetooth Developers Conference, ComWeb.com writer Joanne Elachi was struck by a special Bluetooth pen and paper. Hand-written notes are transferred in seconds to a laptop or PDA. According to Elachi, what appears on the screen is the exact replica of the marks on the paper. The pen holds minuscule camera that graphs the marks on a xy axis and transmits those co-ordinates to the screen. She also noted that the shows’ security badges were embedded with a chip which had information about the computers and files the wearer had privileged access to. For example, she described how her security card when placed in close proximity to a computer screen would open up those files she had been given access to. Remove the card, the files close. Besides a launching pad for Palm, Inc.’s future plans, the PalmSource 2000 was a venue for vendors to announce and demonstrate their Bluetooth technology for the Palm operating system. One such company was WIDCOMM, Inc., a designer of wireless software and products. The company announced the availability of its BlueConnect Developer’s Kit (DK) for the Handspring Visor handheld family. The BlueConnect DK allows independent developers to build compelling Bluetooth applications for the standard Palm OS. In addition, the product can be used in either client or server mode, allowing developers to connect and synchronize data among many Bluetooth-enabled devices. The DK was built using WIDOMM’s Bluetooth Protocol Stack, guaranteeing the Bluetooth 1.0b specification. The product includes a hardware portion consisting of a Springboard™ Bluetooth radio module. The BlueConnect Developer’s Kit is currently available as a beta product, with the final product to be shipped in January 2001. Even though there is much interest and excitement about Bluetooth, the reality of seeing a host of Bluetooth-enabled products on store shelves or in corporate offices is still in the future. Those on the market are quite costly and unreliable. With over 2000 companies working with the technology, the wait shouldn’t be too much longer. For information: Mobileinfo Comments and Advisory: Bluetooth has a good future but the hype is greater than reality At these conferences, we have heard some marketing type executives make some unrealistic projections and extensions without understanding the distance limitations, speed constraints and number of units you can support in a given area. We should remind users to learn lessons from wireless LANs and relevant systems engineering factors that must be considered in evaluating Bluetooth configurations.. Remember, we are just at the verge of taking this technology from specifications stage to prototype products. Very few business development VPs understand or want to understand systems engineering principles. Note: This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Readers should take appropriate caution in developing plans utilizing these products, services and technology architectures. All trademarks used in this summary are the property of their respective owners. NEWS
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