Other Bluetooth Devices

Cell phones and PDAs aren't the only devices that can use Bluetooth. In fact, the value of Bluetooth would be considerably lessened if they were. It's the network effect - the value (to the user) of a networked device that increases exponentially as the number of networked devices increases. To use a common analogy, think about fax machines (if you can remember them - we hardly ever use ours any more). The first guy with a fax machine found it pretty useless, at least until the second person got hers. As more and more folks got faxes, the fax machine became more useful to each one of them simply because they had many more people to send faxes to (or receive them from).

Bluetooth is the same. Just connecting your PDA to your cell phone is kind of cool, in a geek-chic kinda way, but it doesn't set the world on its ear. But when you start considering wireless headsets, printers, PCs, keyboards, and even global positioning system (GPS) receivers - check out Telenav (www.telenav.com) GPS navigation software and receivers from GlobalSat (www.globalsat.com) - the value of Bluetooth becomes much clearer. In this section, we discuss some of these other Bluetooth devices.

Printers

Connecting printers to your wireless LAN, but what if you want to access your printer from all the portable devices that don't have wireless LAN connections built into them? Or, if you don't have your printer connected to the wireless LAN, what do you do when you want to quickly print a document that's on your laptop? Well, why not use Bluetooth?

You can get Bluetooth onto your printer in two ways:

• Buy a printer with built-in Bluetooth. This item is relatively rare as we write, and it looks as though Wi-Fi enabled printers will replace these completely over time. An example comes from HP (www.hp.com), with its DeskJet 450wbt printer ($349 list price). In addition to connecting to laptops, PDAs, and other mobile devices using Bluetooth, this Mac- and Windows-compatible printer can connect to your PC with a standard USB cable. So, you can connect just about any PC or portable device directly to this printer, with wires or wirelessly.
• Buy a Bluetooth adapter for your existing printer. Many printer manufacturers are focusing on building printers with built-in Wi-Fi, but that doesn't have to stop you. Belkin, for example, offers a Bluetooth printer adapter, the F8T031 (about $75), that plugs into the USB port and works with most inkjet printers.