Bluetooth Ready for Its Close-Up

Bluetooth, the beleaguered wireless protocol promising to revolutionize gadgetry, is finally making its mainstream debut. At a December conference in Santa Clara, Palm debuted a Bluetooth connection for its Palm V line of PDAs. The new Palm line (the m500 and m505) will include a slot through which Bluetooth hardware will connect. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, a consortium of technology companies founded to foster relationships between devices that will enable Bluetooth to spread, has languished in development of the standard since 1998. Consequently, Palm says it was waiting for Bluetooth to be "ready for prime time," according to VP Byron Connell. "Having the Bluetooth 1.1 standard ratified was hugely important for interoperability," says Lars Rehder, Palm's product manager for Bluetooth. The new products should be on shelves by the time you read this update.

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Ziff Davis Smart Business.