Section 63. About Bluetooth
63. About Bluetooth 64 Turn Bluetooth On and Off 65 Pair Up with a Bluetooth Headset or Car Kit 66 Tweak Bluetooth Options 67 About Bluetooth Security Bluetooth is a wireless communication standard geared toward removing the wires between computers and their peripherals. For example, you can purchase a Bluetooth keyboard, mouse, and printer to eliminate the wires that typically connect these peripherals to your desktop or notebook PC. Similarly, Bluetooth has become popular in the mobile realm for allowing people to use a mobile headset or hands-free car kit to communicate with a mobile phone. This is the Bluetooth application currently supported in BlackBerry 7100 devices. The name Bluetooth is derived from Harald Bluetooth, who was king of Denmark in the late 900s (that's correct, the tenth century). Along with simply having an unusual and unique name, Bluetooth is named after the Danish king because King Bluetooth is known for unifying the previously warring tribes of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Bluetooth is considered to be somewhat of a unifying technology between devices that otherwise have no means of communicating with each other wirelessly . Bluetooth effectively allows you to operate a wireless personal area network (PAN), which is a series of networked devices limited to a very small area (usually up to 10 meters , or 32 feet) around you. In the case of a BlackBerry device using Bluetooth, the "network" consists of your BlackBerry device and a Bluetooth headset or hands-free car kit. The two Bluetooth devices communicate over a 2.45 gigahertz (GHz) radio connection similar to the one used by baby monitors , garage door openers, and cordless phones. For this reason, it is technically possible to experience interference if you operate a Bluetooth headset with your BlackBerry device in the same area in which you use other wireless equipment. Although interference is certainly possible, the specific design of the Bluetooth communication protocol helps to alleviate the problem. The Bluetooth specification defines three classes of devices, each of which offers a varying level of wireless signal strength and therefore a varying operating distance (see Table 10.1). Table 10.1. Classes of Bluetooth Devices
The BlackBerry 7100 series devices are Class 2 Bluetooth devices, so you can expect a Bluetooth headset to give you a range of around 10 meters, or 32 feet. This is assuming , of course, that the headset is also a Class 2 device. If it is a Class 3 device, expect a reduced range. Keep in mind that I'm talking about the distance between your BlackBerry device and the Bluetooth headsetgenerally speaking, you'll likely keep the two devices in very close proximity to one another, so the 10-meter limit is unlikely to present a serious problem. The only immediate competitor to Bluetooth is Infrared Data Association (IrDA), which is the infrared technology often found on notebook and handheld computers that enables you to communicate wirelessly with another computer or printer. Although IrDA currently enjoys a much larger install base than Bluetooth, the tide is rapidly turning. The major drawback to IrDA is that it requires a clear line of sight and a distance of no greater than about a meter between the two devices that are communicating. Compare this to Bluetooth, which requires no line of sight and a communication distance typically in the 10-meter range. On the very near horizon is a competitor to Bluetooth that could ultimately render Bluetooth obsolete: Wireless USB (WUSB). WUSB is a wireless technology based on the popular USB communication standard. Similar to Bluetooth, WUSB is a short-range wireless technology geared toward connecting devices in close proximity to one another. However, WUSB is much faster than Bluetooth, which could be its killer feature. WUSB is slated to have transfer speeds in the neighborhood of 60MB per second, while Bluetooth supports much slower speeds of 1.5MB per second. Intel is putting a lot of marketing muscle behind WUSB, but it will be tough to shun the wave of new devices that support Bluetooth, including your BlackBerry device. It should be interesting to see how WUSB unfolds and whether Bluetooth can survive against it. Every Bluetooth device is responsible for supporting one or more profiles, which describe the Bluetooth applications available for use with the device. Following are some examples of Bluetooth profiles:
Before you get too excited, allow me to temper your enthusiasm just a bit and explain that BlackBerry 7100 devices support only three of these profiles: Headset Profile, Hands-free Profile, and Serial Port Profile. The idea is that some of the more powerful profiles (LAN Access Profile, for example) introduce an unnecessary security risk for BlackBerry devices when most users simply want to use Bluetooth for the convenience of wireless headsets and hands-free car kits. This idea is certainly valid, but it sure would've been nice to allow BlackBerry devices to communicate with other devices for sharing contacts and synchronizing with desktop PCs. The upside to this limitation is that you don't have to worry about many of the security issues that have been publicized in regard to people hacking into Bluetooth mobile devices and stealing information. See 67 About Bluetooth Security for more information on Bluetooth security issues and why your BlackBerry device is safe and secure. Speaking of Bluetooth limitations on the BlackBerry 7100, I have to point out another incredibly useful Bluetooth device that currently isn't an option for use with your BlackBerry device: Portable Bluetooth keyboards fold open and allow you to type on a full QWERTY keyboard through a wireless Bluetooth connection. Of course, such keyboards require a device that supports the Human Interface Device Profile, which the BlackBerry 7100 unfortunately does not. I'm not pointing out this limitation just to show you what you can't have. There's hope that a BlackBerry operating system upgrade might introduce additional Bluetooth profiles, including the Human Interface Device Profile. Keep your fingers crossed! In 2004, Bluetooth started appearing as standard equipment in some automobiles, which means you can operate your mobile phone hands free while the phone is still tucked away in your pocket or briefcase. A few of the vehicle makes and models that were early adopters of Bluetooth include the BMW 3 Series and 5 Series, Lexus LS 430, Acura TL, and Toyota Prius. Another other important topic worth covering is the version of Bluetooth supported in the BlackBerry 7100 series devices. As you shop for Bluetooth headsets and hands-free car kits, you might run across a version number for their Bluetooth support. Although Bluetooth is currently up to version 2.0, the majority of Bluetooth accessories currently available are designed for Bluetooth version 1.1. Fortunately, BlackBerry 7100 devices are designed around Bluetooth 1.1, so you have a wide range of Bluetooth headsets and hands-free devices from which to choose. Newer versions of Bluetooth include version 1.2 and version 2.0, both of which are backward compatible with version 1.1. So, you shouldn't encounter any compatibility problems when it comes to buying headsets and hands-free devices for your BlackBerry 7100. Bluetooth 1.0 had several design flaws that made it difficult to implement reliably across a variety of devices and accessories. Consequently, Bluetooth 1.1 is generally considered the first stable version of Bluetooth in widespread use. I want to wrap up the Bluetooth discussion by tackling a common source of confusion associated with Bluetooth: how it differs from the popular Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g) wireless networking technologies. First, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are not competing technologies and are designed to solve uniquely different problems. The fundamental goal of both technologies is to eliminate wires between devices, but the scope of the wires they are intended to eliminate differ . Bluetooth focuses on low-power short-range connections between devices, such as the connection between a mouse and a PC. Wi-Fi addresses network connections between computer systems, such as the Ethernet cable between a computer and a router. To some degree, each technology overlaps the other from time to time. As an example, both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth adapters are available for wireless printing. To help understand the relationship between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, think of Bluetooth as the wireless equivalent of USB, while Wi-Fi is the wireless equivalent of Ethernet. This is not an exact analogy, but from a high-level perspective, it is reasonably accurate.  |
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