Imagine linking up all of your IT devices -- mobile phone, laptop, desktop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA) and printer -- without any cables.
That technology, known as Bluetooth, is capable of doing just that.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
One manufacturer at the five-day Taipei Computer Applications Show has used Bluetooth technology to create a new "wireless" environment.
Hewlett-Packard Taiwan Ltd introduced what they touted as the world's first printer to use Bluetooth technology yesterday. As a result, users can take a photo from a PDA and transmit it wirelessly to the H-P printer.
According to Wu Jiang-hong (
Bluetooth is a radio frequency specification for short-range voice and data transmission.
This technology facilitates wireless communication between devices that formerly had to use a cable to transfer data.
Despite being around since 1998, Bluetooth technology hasn't seen widespread acceptance by consumers because of high module prices.
"The current price of a Bluetooth module is US$20. We believe Bluetooth will become more prevalent when chips prices drop to US$5 each," said Andy Chiang (江憲明), marketing manager of consumer business at H-P Taiwan.
He said that in the short-term, Bluetooth's popularity may grow slowly, but increasing acceptance by manufactures to build Bluetooth modules into devices will become more evident next year.
A high-level executive from Palm Inc -- a pioneer in the manufacture of handheld devices -- said that price is not the only issue.
"Different manufactures' Bluetooth devices cannot communicate well with each other; therefore, a fully open standard is necessary for Bluetooth to gain popularity," said Connie Chiu (
She said that while Palm PDA models such as the M500 and M505 are Bluetooth-ready, the devices will have to wait until the end of the year to be fitted with Bluetooth cards, currently under order from Toshiba.
According to Chiang, H-P's Bluetooth printer can communicate with H-P's Jornada 548 PDA and other brands of PDAs, along with Ericsson's Bluetooth-enabled cellphone, the R520 model.
So why would techies want a cellphone, PDA and printer that can communicate with each other?
It's simple. The the phone dials up the Web at high speed, the PDA acts as a browser screen and the printer prints out material from the Internet.
While Ericsson displayed the R520 at the show, the model is not available in Taiwan; although the company will offer the Bluetooth-enabled T39 to local consumers, which is scheduled to hit stores later this month, according to Peggy Chiang (
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