What Is Bluetooth?
It’s built into everything from cell phone earpieces to car stereos, but what exactly is Bluetooth? Well, Bluetooth is a short-range wireless protocol that faciliates data transfer and communication between both portable and fixed-position devices. In simpler terms, Bluetooth is wireless replacement for cables: it lets your devices and appliances talk to each other without a physical connection. Using a technology called frequency-hopping spread spectrum, the Bluetooth system breaks up data into frames before broadcasting it in an licence-free frequency band (2.4Ghz to 2.48Ghz ISM), allowing it to rapidly transfer data without using up lots of power.
Bluetooth technology was originally released in 1999 by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), now a consortium of over 12 thousand companies. Over the next few years, Bluetooth was tested in cell phones, PCs and hands-free kits for cars and phones, with low cost and robustness proving key factors in its growing popularity. Bluetooth transmitters are now commonplace in a huge range of consumer devices, including TV sets, watches and even virtual picture-frames. The strong security of Bluetooth is a factor often touted by its proponents: the main security protocol behind Bluetooth involves both users needing to agree on a “key” (usually a word or number) in order to connect their devices. However, certain hacking and spamming techniques continue to exploit Bluetooth vulnerabilities, the most famous of which is “bluejacking” (in which messages can be sent to users without their authorization).
The name Bluetooth is a reference to 10th-century Danish King Harald Blatland (or Harold Bluetooth in English). Blatland was famous for uniting a number of warring factions in Scandinavia, while the developers of Bluetooth hoped to unite often-incompatible technological devices. The Bluetooth logo is itself a combination of two Germanic runes.
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Tags: blue tooth, bluejacking, Bluetooth, bluetooth handsfree, bluetooth radio, cell phone, cell phone bluetooth