.KEYWORD bluetooth
.FLYINGHEAD WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY
.TITLE Communicate, collaborate, and connect with the Palm Bluetooth Card
.OTHER
.SUMMARY On March 19, 2002, Palm announced the U.S. availability of the Palm Bluetooth Card. The company also joined Sony Ericsson in a marketing alliance agreement to develop strategic Bluetooth programs to make Bluetooth communication solutions readily accessible and easy-to-use for mobile professionals. Contributing Editor Steve Niles shares the details in this important article.
.AUTHOR Steve Niles
It seems like Bluetooth has been just around the corner for years. We discussed Bluetooth, along with other wireless connectivity options, in the December 2001 issue of PalmPower’s Enterprise Edition at http://www.palmpowerenterprise.com/issues/issue200112/whatis001.html, as well as numerous other times in both PalmPower and PalmPower’s Enterprise Edition, and in our news coverage. Development of Bluetooth is being driven by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), made up of companies in the telecommunications, computing, and network industries, including companies such as 3Com, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Lucent, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, and Toshiba, along with more than 1,800 adopter companies. The idea behind the technology is to allow electronic devices to communicate wirelessly at short distances. For example, a Bluetooth enabled handheld could connect to a Bluetooth enabled cell phone in order to access the Internet.
This is exactly the type of functionality Palm and Sony Ericsson are working to bring you. On March 19, 2002, the two companies announced a marketing alliance agreement to develop strategic Bluetooth programs for carriers and their customers. The goal of this collaboration is to make Bluetooth communication solutions readily accessible and easy to use for mobile professionals across the country.
Palm made its initial steps in this direction with its announcement of the U.S. availability of the Palm Bluetooth Card, pictured in Figure A.
.FIG A The Palm Bluetooth Card fits into the Palm Expansion Card Slot.
The Palm Bluetooth Card is Palm’s first product designed using the open SDIO (Secure Digital Input/Output) specification. The postage stamp size card can be inserted into the Palm Expansion Card Slot now standard in all the latest Palm handhelds, including the Palm m125, m500, m505, and i705 handhelds, as well as the recently introduced Palm m130 and m515 handhelds. Once the software is loaded and the card is inserted, an application will walk you though a process to find and connect with Bluetooth enabled mobile phones, printers, laptops, and other Palm handhelds within 10 meters (about 30 feet), or connect to Bluetooth LAN access points within 100 meters (about 300 feet).
Besides doing away with the clutter of cables when connecting to devices like phones, printers, and laptops individually, it’s also possible for up to eight Palm handhelds to create a PAN (Personal Area Network) to share information and collaborate simultaneously. The Palm Bluetooth Card can now be purchased in the United States online at The Palm Store (at https://store.palm.com/Catalog/productdetails.asp?productnr=P10832US) and at retail stores for an estimated U.S. street price of $129. A multi-language version of the Palm Bluetooth Card is scheduled to be available in mid-April at local retailers in the following countries: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, Venezuela and Singapore.
The Palm Bluetooth Card comes equipped with special software that’s designed to enable you to communicate, collaborate, and connect.
.H1 Communicate
As already mentioned, you can connect your Bluetooth enabled Palm handheld to a Bluetooth enabled mobile phone. From there, you can use the Palm Address Book to automatically dial with a quick tap on a phone number. In addition to the tap dialing function, Palm will offer the Palm dialer application for advanced phone information management capabilities on a Palm handheld. With the Palm dialer application, you can dial any number from a handheld with the touch keypad, set up speed-dial preferences, and review call history. The dialer application is free and will be available in international English. According to Palm, it should be available for download from the Palm Web site by the time you read this article.
The built-in SMS (Short Messaging Service) application allows you to send and receive messages over your mobile phone. Web clipping software and the Palm WAP Browser are also included. The Palm Bluetooth Card supports the Palm MultiMail email client. Also, if a corporate or campus environment has Bluetooth LAN access points up and running, you can use your Palm handheld to gain access, via the Palm Bluetooth Card, to corporate intranet resources and the Internet, including email, anytime you’re on campus and away from your desk.
.H1 Collaborate
You can collaborate by exchanging information between two or more Bluetooth enabled handhelds. There’s a BlueBoard application that allows scribbled notes to be shared and a BlueChat application that allows for private messaging and chats.
.H1 Connect
You can connect with other Bluetooth enabled office devices to send and receive data. From a Bluetooth enabled Windows 2000 system, you can perform a wireless HotSync operation. Included printer software allows users to print Word and Excel documents from a Palm handheld to the recently released HP DeskJet 995c printer over Bluetooth.
.H1 The Sony Ericsson T68 phone
Palm and Sony Ericsson believe their Bluetooth solution will appeal to mobile professionals who appreciate and prefer small, sleek wireless handsets. While the Palm Bluetooth Card is available now, the other piece of the equation, the Sony Ericsson T68 mobile phone, is scheduled to be available online within the next several weeks at http://www.sonyericsson.com and through U.S. carriers that support GSM. As wireless carriers in the United States make Bluetooth enabled phones available on their networks, Palm and Sony Ericsson expect to enable carriers to deliver bundled solutions around the Sony Ericsson T68 phone and Bluetooth enabled Palm handhelds. The paired devices support current and next-generation networks, such as GPRS.
Cingular Wireless has worked closely in the past with Palm on enabling its wireless data devices on Cingular’s nationwide Mobitex network, and with Sony Ericsson as a key handset partner. Cingular expects to offer the Sony Ericsson T68 and the Palm Bluetooth Card as a way to enable customers to access Cingular’s suite of Xpress Mail products, the Cingular My Wireless Window portal, and other enterprise-based data applications.
The Sony Ericsson T68 mobile phone is the first GSM/GPRS phone in the United States to feature a color screen and Bluetooth wireless technology. The tri-band phone works on 900, 1800, and 1900 megahertz GSM networks. The T68’s additional features include joystick navigation, customizable desktop themes, calendar/organizer functions, PC data synchronization, and voice control.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For the article, "Which wireless is which," by Steve Niles in the December 2001 issue of PalmPower’s Enterprise Edition, visit http://www.palmpowerenterprise.com/issues/issue200112/whatis001.html.
For more information on the Palm Bluetooth Card, visit https://store.palm.com/Catalog/productdetails.asp?productnr=P10832US.
For more information on Sony Ericsson, visit http://www.sonyericsson.com.
For more information on Palm handhelds, visit http://www.palm.com.
.H1 Easy, flexible article reprints
ZATZ now offers a quick, easy, flexible and inexpensive way to use article reprints in your marketing and promotion efforts. You can now get article reprints for a one-time fee of only $200. For details, visit http://mediakit.zatz.com/reprints.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@@.ee6fe39
