Traveling? Lighten Your Load Wirelessly

Has this ever happened to you: You're dashing through the airport, a laptop weighing down your shoulder, trail of luggage in-tow. Catching this flight will be a miracle. Finally making it to the gate, you see, "Flight Has Been Delayed," in big red blinking letters.

This is the perfect time to sit down, catch your breath and check your email. Instead of looking around the airport for a Wi-Fi "hot spot" area to connect your laptop wirelessly to the Internet and download your email, you take out your PDA and your cell phone and that's it (no cables required). Guess what -- with Bluetooth, you are your own hot spot.

Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure, Bluetooth helps you lighten your load. Leave that heavy notebook at home and trim down to your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone and PDA.

Bluetooth is a wireless radio technology embedded in products you use every day -- cell phones, headsets, PDAs, laptops, digital cameras, printers, and even your car. The technology allows all of those products to "talk" to each other without wires, eliminating the need to "cradle" or connect wires between your devices to sync information.

In this scenario, Bluetooth technology allows the cell phone to serve as a wireless modem for your PDA. You can connect your PDA to your cell phone wirelessly with Bluetooth, then use the phone to dial into the Internet.

"This way, anywhere you have cell phone service, you can then have Internet service, which means you can check your email and surf the web from just about anywhere," said Mike McCamon, executive director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, the trade association responsible for promoting and regulating the wireless technology.

It's much more convenient than the alternative -- looking for that elusive hot spot when you're out on the road. And of course, this same phone can be used as a modem for your laptop too, should it be equipped with Bluetooth wireless technology. Essentially, you've just become your own hot spot.

So enjoy your trip, and leave the extra weight at home, because you can use Bluetooth anywhere.

Source: Bluetooth SIG