Make Your Life Easier With Bluetooth

There's is a simple, convenient and inexpensive way to connect computers, cellphones, speakers, printers, and more and its called Bluetooth.

Bluetooth 2.0 is a wireless technology that uses low power radio waves to communicate. For example you can plug a Bluetooth dongle into your USB port on your computer, install the software (if necessary) from the CD (If a novice, avoid D-Link dongles as they are a bit harder to install properly).

To talk to a remote Bluetooth device (cellphone, printer, speaker, keyboard, mouse, hearing aid, heart monitor, car radio, headset, ipod, mp3 player, home entertainment center, etc.), you need to either pair the device (use a code for a password) or enter the provided code (for example a Bluetooth dongle for a printer will tell you the code to enter to connect to the printer). Normally you only have to pair a given device only once for securtiy.

Most Bluetooth software lets you control how secure you want the device to be.
With Bluetooth and the proper software you can now transfer files from your computer to your Bluetooth enabled cellphone (buy your next cellphone with Bluetooth as its impractical to add it to an existing cellphone - but there are devices that claim to do it for some cellphones).

And of course you can transfer pics, videos, address books from your cell phone to your computer or from your cell phone directly to your printer or speaker (you have to have a Bluetooth enabled speaker to go direct) or to listen to the recordings on your phone or music you connect the sound of your phone to your computer and play the music through your computers speakers.

You can find a Bluetooth dongle at most computer stores for about $29 to $50 depending on the quality of the dongle, brand name etc. Same with other Bluetooth accessories.
With Bluetooth your cellphone becomes easier to use as you can listen (talk if you have a Bluetooth microphone) through a Bluetooth earphone or headset or via your car's Bluetooth system. New Ford's and some other brand cars are now coming either with Bluetooth already built in or as an available option.

Bluetooth even lets you do limited networking although the speeds, while practical, aren't the greatest.

Newer versions of Bluetooth (2.0) do go faster though, it it may continue to improve.
Bluetooth 2.0 also offers stereo, but the dongle on your computer needs to be Bluetooth 2, not Bluetooth 1 which is monural only.

After I plugged in a USB port Bluetooth dongle on my notebook, I noticed Excel and several other programs now had a bluetooth Icon to import directly from whatever external Bluetooth device (such as my cellphone) had files on it.  And sure enough the pictures etc on my phone were quickly imported. 

If buying a new notebook, consider one with Bluetooth built in as while a dongle works fine, it sticks out a bit from most USB ports.

For more information, visit www.bluetooth.com or www.bluetooth.org.
To check our our current online (available to ship) bluetooth inventory, go here or if you live near our stores, go here to check current in store inventory.