Bluetooth Technology Outpaces the Market

Eric Benderoff of the Chicago Tribune has noticed that while the future is now in wireless communication technology, the present still isn't ready for it ...

The short-range wireless technology called Bluetooth will hit an impressive milestone later this year, when the billionth product that uses the technology will be shipped.

But it would be nice if all those gadgets could talk to each other as we have been led to believe.

In a nutshell, Bluetooth technology connects devices, allowing a mobile phone to bond with a wireless earpiece for hands-free driving. Or to connect a keyboard and mouse to a PC without wires.

Numerous product manufacturers build Bluetooth capabilities into their gadgets, and now it's being included on digital cameras, photo printers and nearly all mobile phones.

It's very convenient. But in my tests with Bluetooth products, some work fine while others don't work at all.

When I reviewed Bluetooth headsets, a Logitech pair worked wonderfully with an iPod and a computer, but a pair from Jabra worked with a laptop only after hours of tinkering. Yet those Jabra headsets worked seamlessly with a Nokia phone.

Source of frustration

This will-it-or-won't-it-work with Bluetooth is an endless source of frustration -- and I really like the technology.

So what's the problem?

How about 20 different Bluetooth profiles? More than one profile is often bundled into a particular product, but if one profile is missing from the other product, the devices don't talk to each other.

Compare this approach to that of Wi-Fi, the brawnier wireless technology used to create home Internet networks. There is one protocol for Wi-Fi, and all Wi-Fi devices use this. There are variations of the standard, mostly due to improvements, but even older Wi-Fi gear works with newer equipment.

Imagine if you went to a coffee shop to work on your laptop and you couldn't get on the network because your computer had a different Wi-Fi profile. Would you be annoyed? Of course, but that won't happen.

With Bluetooth, it happens all the time. I can't send a contact from my Sony Ericsson phone to my wife's BlackBerry, for instance, but I can send that info and pictures from my phone to my Apple laptop.

This is because my wife's relatively new BlackBerry has a Bluetooth profile for hands-free talking but not for data transfers. My older phone, on the other hand, has several profiles.

So to help consumers understand what products will work together, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, based in Bellevue, makes products with Bluetooth in them and has launched a new icon program.

Odds are you've seen the existing Bluetooth icon, which is blue and has a stylized B in the center that looks like wires crossing.

Various icons

Now, on product packaging, you could see as many as five different icons alongside the blue one to illustrate what Bluetooth can do. Those logos include a headset, a mouse and two arrows going in opposite directions.

A headset logo means that product's Bluetooth function works for hands-free calling; a mouse means you can input data into a computer or a phone using Bluetooth; and the two arrows imply "transfer" between devices.

Does that make it easier to understand? Motorola is working on the problem.

Here's my recommendation: Tune the profiles to one.

If your phone has Bluetooth, you should be able to use a wireless earpiece to talk. If your phone has a music player, you should be able to use Bluetooth headphones to listen. If your phone has a camera, you should be able to send those images to a digital frame, a printer or a PC.

But until that day comes, if you buy a new Bluetooth product to work with the one you already have, keep the receipt.