The A to Z of wireless

B is for Bluetooth

Bluetooth is the wireless standard used for mobile devices to communicate information over short distances using low bandwidth. It's found in a variety of consumer electronics, from mobile phones to laptops and hands-free headsets, with around 500 million Bluetooth-enabled devices shipped by the end of 2005.

Current Bluetooth devices can only transmit data at speeds of up to 3Mbps and over distances from 10 to 100 metres, but ultra wide band (UWB) enhanced Bluetooth is expected to reach transfer rates of up to 200Mbps.

The list from A to Z

Click on the links below to find out more on each of the entries in the list.

A is for Antivirus
B is for Bluetooth
C is for The Cloud
D is for dotMobi
E is for Email
F is for FMC
G is for GPS
H is for HSDPA
I is for i-mode
J is for Japan Air
K is for Korea
L is for LBS
M is for M2M
N is for NFC
O is for Operating systems
P is for Pubs
Q is for QoS
R is for Roaming
S is for Satellite
T is for TV
U is for UMTS
V is for Virgin
W is for WiMax
X is for XDA
Y is for Yucca
Z is for Zigbee

It's a pretty short-range option compared to wi-fi, but does have the advantage of requiring minimal configuration: it doesn't need to acquire a network address, making it easy and simple to transfer information.

Its open nature has led to concerns about threats such as bluesnarfing, where phones are hacked into and details copied. Other ways in which Bluetooth has been exploited include bluejacking, where people receive bluespam, advertising a particular service as they pass by an outlet.

This has also developed into the legendary 'toothing', where strangers exchange texts over Bluetooth to arrange romantic liasons. Toothing started off in 2004 as a hoax, but more recently there has been some evidence that it's made its way into the real world.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) was set up to drive the development and marketing of the technology. The organisation has more than 6,000 members ranging across the telecommunications, computer and automotive industries. Member companies include Ericsson, Microsoft and Intel.