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. , growingrapidJIy,butnew chatlenges 100mBy Alex L. GoldfaynSpecial to the Tribune

Inside his 1999Subaru Lega-cy,Brad O'Connor can answer

.1his cell phone even if it's bur-ied in his backpack on theback seat.

That's because 'his Sonyphone and 'hands-free caradapter kit communicate with.each other wirelessly voia a.. -- - -- -

Gutting the' cordsThe nurrlber oflproductsthat use Bluetooth tecl:mology, wl:1ichenables electronic devices to ex-change data without IiIsing wires, is growing rapidly. Here are some:

MkrosoftOptical' Desktop~litefor 'Bluetootl1www.motorola.com; abouti$150'This hard-wired kit

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ide his 1999Subaru Lega-rad O'Connor can answercell phone even if it's bur-in his backpack on the

k seat.lat's because his Sony

lone and hands-free carapter kit communicate with[ch other wirelessly via a,bhnology called oBlttetooth,:,

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to receive a wirelessi al frOInaGPS receiver in .

ecar."My favorite thing is you

lon't see anything in the car,"aid O'Connor, a 22-year-oldenior at Winona State Uni-rersity in Minnesota. "Every-

oneI talk to hears Ine loud andclear, and there's no wireshanging in the car."

Bluetooth allows electronicdevices to exchange data with-out wires. A device that's la-beled "Bluetooth-enabled"can communicate with otherBluetooth-enabled devicesover distances of about 30feet,though new products COIningon the market can reach 10times as far.

During Inost of the fiveyears since its arrival, Inanu-facturers have hyped-soInesay overhyped-the cable-re-placeInent technology to apublic generally unaware ofBluetooth's benefits. But asweet spot has eInerged, crys-

ItsCuttingthecordsThe number of products that use Bluetooth technology, which enables electronic devices to ex-change data without using wires, is growing rapidly. Here are some:

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Thiswireless-keyboard-and-mouseset fromMicrosoftincludesa USB- i hands-freemobile tential mbased Bluetooth adapter for the PCand is compatible with newer, Win- ; phone environment. . that Inay:dows-basedPCs.Theseperipherals,likeallBluetoothproducts, run on ! It}includesa'speak- ductions;'batteries, meaning that you are basically trading cables for batteries. ~ er,microphone, bills or aJ

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Nike-PhilipsMP3Runwww.nike.comor www.philips.com; about $300This 256 megabyte flash-memory MP3 player isscheduled for a June release. It uses Bluetoothingeniously: A wireless speed-and-distance sen-sor ties into your shoelaces and communicatesyour exercise distance to the MP3 player, whichreports it back to the user.

tallizing Bluetooth's imInedi-ate value around connectingcell phones to products likewireless headsets, PDAs, lap-tops and, even, cars.

Even so, with the number ofBluetooth-enabled productsgrowing rapidly, the technolo-gy faces a host of challenges,not the least of which is tryingto live up-to its own proInise.

"FrOIna consumer perspec-tive, Bluetooth is still SOIne-

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what of a strange concept,"said Alex Slawsby,senior ana-lyst at Framingham, Mass.-based IDC. "More people haveheard of it today than a yearago, but, for the most part, it'sstill an unknown, strangething. "

The industry is workinghard to change that, and salesfigures show they're Inakingprogress.

Sales of Bluetooth chips in-

creased by 34percent last year,to $490Inillion worldwide, andare expected to nearly doublethis year, to $800million, ac-cording to IDC.

And the number of Blue-tooth-enabled cell phonesshipped last year grew to 87million, or about 13percent ofall cell phones sold worldwide,from 43 million in 2003.That

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number wilHbaJIoon,to 180mil~. lion this year, IDC said.

"Bluetooth has made a greatdeal of progress," said Rob En-derle, principal analyst ,fer theEnderle Group, based in SanJose, Calif."Things are werkingmuch better now than Ibistori-cally."

After cell phones, computerperdpherals are a!fast-growingBlQetoathapplication, wireless-ly connectingkeytioards, miceand"headphones to desktops andlaptops.

But the technology has yet tolive up to the promises madeduring its debutillithe late 199Os.

"I would say that some of theinitial claims were a bit far-fetched," said Mike 'Foley,exec-utivedirector ofOverland'Fark,Kan.-based\Bluetooth SIGInc., acoalition of 3,400 technologycompanies that work on theB1ueto~4.;"-

"People were saying it wouldbe a personal network," wire-lessly connecting computers toprinters, televisions and ster-eos,he said.

"E:x:pectations were extraor-dinarily"high when the technol-ogy arrived," said Slawsby."It.was seen as .the solution to elim-inate 'the spaghetti' of cablesaround your computer. Thehype was so great that there wasno wayfor the solution to live upto it."

But progress is being made.And the latest version of Blue-tooth can transmit informationas far as 300feet.

In addition to cell phone andcomputer peripheral connectiv-ity, Bluetooth is being adaptedto music technology, streamingMP3 fIles >from computers towireless headphones and to liv-ing-room stereo systems.

"We're looking at Bluetoothas a way to stream CD-qualitymu'sicfrom a phone, MF3player,PC or stereo system to a wire-less headset," said SteveDeutscher, senior director ofproduct management forSchaumburg.:.based MotorolaInc. "What Bluetooth does bestis short-range, secure, relative-ly low-power wireless commu-nication."

And in an example of what'sto come, "Bluetooth-enabled re-mote controls will automatical-ly be able to command your en-tertainment center compo-nents" without programming;said Foley. Which means thatone day your cell phone or PBAwill be able to control your TV,stereo receiver and DVDplayerwith little setup. .

Now that it.is imally 'begin-ning to live up to its earlyexpec-tations, Bluetooth faces a prob-lem common to all fast-emerg-ing communications technolo-gies: security.

Scar:y sounding threats 1ike"bluesnarfmg" and~,i:bluejack-ing" have emerged, signifyingunwantedlaccess to a Bluetoothdevice. And more than one \rt-.rus has been spread via Blue-tooth wireless access.

"Education has to be the onlysolution to security issues,"said Slawsby, adding that con-sumers learned quickly that afIrewall is required to protect awireless home network.

Indeed, protecting a Blue->toothdevice is simple: Just turn,off Bluetooth functionality-its"diiscoverability"-when you'J;enot using the gadget. Akin todisconnecting a computer froma network, this action closesoutside access to a device.

A new wrinkle, too, is inter-.ference...As.the,mmiber,,(;)1i>tJ.sersgroW;interference between mul-tiple Bluetooth-enabled deviceshas emerged, especially when 10or more users are in close prox-imity, Foley said.

Also, two competing w~elesstechnologies---Ultrawidebandan(FZigbee-are expected to hitthe market this year.

ID1Tawideband, dubbed thewireless USBtechnology,willibeable to transfer large fIles likemovies over short distances.

The Zigbee standard, likeBluetooth, will connect devicesto each other but at a longerrange and with significantlylower power consumption.

So it should come as no sur-prise that advances being madein Blaetooth technology in-clude increased bandwidth anddecreased power consumption.Bluetooth-enabled devices,such as cell phones, drain bat-teIrYpower faster than normal.

But despite the emergingcompetition, Bluetooth's gripon the market is getting firmer.

"People will discover moreand more conveniences withBluetooth," said Richard Do-herty, research<director at Sea-ford, N.Y-based.EnvisioneeringGroup. "What started as a cellphone-centric technology ,israpidly expanding beyond."

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PlantronicsM2500,BluetfiotihMdbile,Headsetwww.plantronics.com; about $90This wirelessheadset is an example of thewide rangeof choicesinthis category.Itprovidesfive hours of talk time on a singlebatteryanddets users wander up to 30

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Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc., q Cl;said-42,perce:n1mfcustomers are te~buying the option. blE

"That's a 'high, installation, .COFate," he said. " ga:

The Rrius automatically pairs in!the phone to ,its internal system haeach time a ,user gets in, allow- living drivers total 'hands-free ac-cess to their ,phone. The "talk" Ill~and "end?' buttons are on the WIsteering wheel, along with a 500- henumber phone book, which is intransferred to'othecar's comput- I

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Automakersletdriverskeep.gripon,phonecalls

Many cars have stereo con-trols mounted on the steeringwheel. But steering whe~l-mounted cell phone controls?'

11hiDtyautomobile models of-fer Bluetooth-based cell,phonefunctionality .this year, up ITolmseven last year.

From Fords to Riats, Chrys-leI's to Cadillacs,.Bluetooth is anoption-standard in some mod-els---that many automakers areoffering.

One example is 'the ToyotaPrius hybrid car, which lis ex-pected to sell about 100;000unitsthis year.

Bluetooth.phone conpectivityis part of an $1,800'navigationsystemoption.in the Prius. PaW.DaVerio, Prius productmanag-er .for Torrance, CaHf.-based