That's plenty far enough, however, for a slew of applications. Your handheld organizer, for one thing, could radio its contents to the PC in your briefcase, updating its address book and appointment calendar. Bluetooth-equipped keyboards, mice, printers and other peripherals would dispense with the need for many of those annoying connection cables. To avoid interference problems, Bluetooth will employ a frequency-hopping technology. Devices in proximity with one another establish an ad hoc network in which the transmission frequency changes 1,600 times a second in a programmed sequence, in effect dodging potential interference.
Analysts say yes if costs are kept low.
Bluetooth is not the only game in town for short-range wireless connections. Infrared links can serve much the same purpose and are being built into a growing number of computers and peripherals. Unlike Bluetooth, however, infrared communication requires that the devices point at each other. Herb Brody is a senior editor at Technology Review.