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It's a red, white and Bluetooth wireless revolution

Long Island Business News, Jun 24, 2005 by Claude Solnik

Tyler Roye, the CEO of Invision.com Inc., likes to think his Long Island firm has a fine reputation in the information technology business. But that wasn't what was attracting his fellow tech execs' attention when he strode through the ballroom of the Garden City Hotel.

It was the tech he was wearing.

People were commenting on my flashing blue ear, says Roye, who had shown up sporting a Bluetooth earpiece made by Motorola, linked to a Bluetooth-enabled BlackBerry. Whenever a message came in, Roye stood out in the crowd: It flashes a bright blue. Somebody said I look the Borg from Star [Trek].

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Whenever that blue dot flashed, Roye simply tapped it to listen. Or he responded using the handy microphone hidden in the earpiece. All this attracted a lot of attention from attendees at the annual LISA Awards conclave of the Long Island Software and Technology Network. Bluetooth is far from science fiction, it's just the latest way wireless technology is breaking down barriers in the world and the workplace.

This short-distance technology can link both wireless devices and wired networks allowing you to do things like keep your hands free while talking on the phone and driving. You can even use your Palm without holding it in your palm.

It speeds things up. It's efficient, says Arthur Sanders, a partner at accounting firm Israeloff Trattner & Co. in Hauppauge. His Acura is Bluetooth-enabled, I can pick up the phone without ever touching the phone.

Laws in states including New York that ban hand-held cell phones while driving certainly helped Bluetooth.

It's a nationwide trend, confirms Jeff Kagan, a well-known telecommunications analyst based in Atlanta. We're in the beginning stages of the Bluetooth revolution. Five to 10 years from now, Bluetooth will be available on everything.

As Kagan sees it, Bluetooth may free people from the messy wilderness of all those wires connecting devices to the wall. Sure you'll still have that invisible wired network buried within walls, but he believes Bluetooth's short-distance wireless connections may let us cut the cords that lead to those walls.

Think about your home, the back of your television, all the wires connected to your VCR, cable, high-speed Internet. How many wires do you have behind your desk? Kagan asked. We're living in a wired, chaotic mess. Wireless is going to make our lives more pleasant. You won't have the wires hanging around. You'll have the freedom to move around, take your computer where you want. But you have to be skeptical. Joe Woltering, IT manager for Hamptons Online, a Southampton-based Web site developer and host as well as phone and Internet service provider, believes Bluetooth is mostly used for cell phones and PDAs: I see it more for personal use than business use, using it with phones, he said.

So what then will Bluetooth take a bite out of next?

Laptopping. It's potential for hooking up with the laptop is most intriguing. My laptop is also Bluetooth-enabled, allowing me to transmit data to and from other Bluetooth enabled devices, says Lisa Votino, a partner at the marketing firm Maranwe Communications in Patchogue. She sings the praises of her HP Pavilion laptop with its internal wireless card.

Networking. In addition to LANs (local area networks) and WANs (wide area networks), in which devices are linked, people are talking about PANs, or personal area networks. In PANs, devices on a body are linked via Bluetooth. Nothing would surprise users such as Roye. There's lots of convergence in wireless. I think you'll see more Bluetooth apparatus mounted on people, said Roye. This is just the beginning.

Of course, wider use of Bluetooth technology could lead to thorny issues.

They're less secure than a wire, Kagan reminds us. Security is a feature we have to be concerned about. Then there's the question of whether technology could lead down other avenues that would leave Bluetooth behind in the dust.

It's big in the car, the office, the home, anywhere you have wires and you don't want to, Kagan said. But years from now, is Bluetooth going to be the technology we're going to be using? I don't know. Technology changes.

It's a red, white and Bluetooth wireless revolution

Long Island Business News, Jun 24, 2005 by Claude Solnik

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