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If you are unfamiliar with the term Personal Area Network, it simply refers to your computer and the devices it is connected to. Normally, this could include devices like a PDA, a cell phone, a digital camera, and maybe a scanner and a printer if you are not connected to a larger network. Your keyboard and your mouse are also on your PAN. Basically, it is everything in and around your desk that you connect to your computer.

Add to this the fact that you may need to add a USB hub into the equation and you are looking at a pretty messy workspace. In fact, it will probably look like a spaghetti junction of wires and cables by the time you get everything connected.

So, if it is all getting too much for you it may be time to think about setting up a Bluetooth Personal Area Network. For a little extra you can buy the equipment you need so that your workspace is completely free of wires and your peripherals connect easily with your computer and with each other without the need to plug anything in.

If you are setting up a Personal Area Network from scratch you may may want to set up a fully Bluetooth-enabled workspace. If you already have a workspace, you probably just want to introduce Bluetooth devices as and when they are needed.

Either way, the first thing you need is a computer with Bluetooth capabilities. By now, most new computers will come with built in Bluetooth so make sure of this if you are buying new. If you have an older computer you may have to invest in a Bluetooth dongle. However, these are available for as little as $20 so it doesn’t cost that much to get started.

Now that you have a Bluetooth-enabled computer, you can start to think about about what Bluetooth peripherals you will want to use on your Personal Area Network.

Keyboard and mouse

The two essentials of any Personal Area Network. Without these you won’t be getting too much done. These will be permanent fixtures on your desk so Bluetooth options mainly offer the advantage of reducing clutter by cutting out cables. Bluetooth keyboards start around the $50 mark while a Bluetooth mouse will cost $30 and up.

If you spend a lot of time on the road these are an excellent option as they can allow you to work quickly and easily on your PDA. You can also get Bluetooth folding keyboards to take with you on the road.

Cell phones and PDAs

For many people, this is where a Bluetooth Personal Area Network will really come into its own. If you work out of the office a lot you will gather contacts, arrange meetings and gather other data on the go. If your network is Bluetooth enabled, you can synch your cell phone or PDA with your computer so that you can update your calendar and address book at the touch of a button, or even automatically. These are just some basic capabilities. New technologies such as the iPhone are taking this to a much higher level.

Headsets

A Bluetooth headset is almost an essential these days, especially if you spend a lot of time in the car. Simply hook it up to your cell phone to keep your hands free. This is also handy if you use VoIP at the office or at home as you can take and make calls and still wander around the room freely. Good Bluetooth headsets are available for about $50.

Other peripherals

There are any number of other gadgets and peripherals you can add to your Bluetooth network. You may want to check out a Bluetooth MP3 player or camera. Although bear in mind that transfer speeds remain limited so you could be waiting a long time for high res photos to transfer from one device to another. However, this is improving.

There are also plenty of weird and wonderful Bluetooth peripherals for you gadget fans. For example, you can get a Bluetooth watch that tells you about incoming calls on your mobile phone when it’s out of reach. Hardly essential, but kind of cool all the same.

So, whether you want to boost your productivity and improve your working environment, or you just want to play with some fun gadgets, Bluetooth is the way to go.

If you are unfamiliar with the term Personal Area Network, it simply refers to your computer and the devices it is connected to. Normally, this could include devices like a PDA, a cell phone, a digital camera, and maybe a scanner and a printer if you are not connected to a larger network. Your keyboard and your mouse are also on your PAN. Basically, it is everything in and around your desk that you connect to your computer.

Add to this the fact that you may need to add a USB hub into the equation and you are looking at a pretty messy workspace. In fact, it will probably look like a spaghetti junction of wires and cables by the time you get everything connected.

So, if it is all getting too much for you it may be time to think about setting up a Bluetooth Personal Area Network. For a little extra you can buy the equipment you need so that your workspace is completely free of wires and your peripherals connect easily with your computer and with each other without the need to plug anything in.

If you are setting up a Personal Area Network from scratch you may may want to set up a fully Bluetooth-enabled workspace. If you already have a workspace, you probably just want to introduce Bluetooth devices as and when they are needed.

Either way, the first thing you need is a computer with Bluetooth capabilities. By now, most new computers will come with built in Bluetooth so make sure of this if you are buying new. If you have an older computer you may have to invest in a Bluetooth dongle. However, these are available for as little as $20 so it doesn’t cost that much to get started.

Now that you have a Bluetooth-enabled computer, you can start to think about about what Bluetooth peripherals you will want to use on your Personal Area Network.

Keyboard and mouse

The two essentials of any Personal Area Network. Without these you won’t be getting too much done. These will be permanent fixtures on your desk so Bluetooth options mainly offer the advantage of reducing clutter by cutting out cables. Bluetooth keyboards start around the $50 mark while a Bluetooth mouse will cost $30 and up.

If you spend a lot of time on the road these are an excellent option as they can allow you to work quickly and easily on your PDA. You can also get Bluetooth folding keyboards to take with you on the road.

Cell phones and PDAs

For many people, this is where a Bluetooth Personal Area Network will really come into its own. If you work out of the office a lot you will gather contacts, arrange meetings and gather other data on the go. If your network is Bluetooth enabled, you can synch your cell phone or PDA with your computer so that you can update your calendar and address book at the touch of a button, or even automatically. These are just some basic capabilities. New technologies such as the iPhone are taking this to a much higher level.

Headsets

A Bluetooth headset is almost an essential these days, especially if you spend a lot of time in the car. Simply hook it up to your cell phone to keep your hands free. This is also handy if you use VoIP at the office or at home as you can take and make calls and still wander around the room freely. Good Bluetooth headsets are available for about $50.

Other peripherals

There are any number of other gadgets and peripherals you can add to your Bluetooth network. You may want to check out a Bluetooth MP3 player or camera. Although bear in mind that transfer speeds remain limited so you could be waiting a long time for high res photos to transfer from one device to another. However, this is improving.

There are also plenty of weird and wonderful Bluetooth peripherals for you gadget fans. For example, you can get a Bluetooth watch that tells you about incoming calls on your mobile phone when it’s out of reach. Hardly essential, but kind of cool all the same.

So, whether you want to boost your productivity and improve your working environment, or you just want to play with some fun gadgets, Bluetooth is the way to go.

Mouse Hunt Not The Movie (Choosing The Perfect Mouse For Your Computer)

Computer Mouse its something you wouldnt run away from. Instead, it is the one thing you would search for. In fact, every body is in search for a good one. And it has actually become a not-so-easy task to hunt for a good mouse for your pc.

What do you look for, when you say good computer mouse? Often, when you buy a whole pc set, a mouse is already included. But there are others who still search for a good one.

In choosing a mouse, you must consider its compatibility with the pc and of course, with you, the user. As the technology advances, there are many types of mice to choose from ranging from mechanical (the ball-inside-type) to optical (ones that use laser to detect movement). Check the connectivity, as there are different mice with different connectivity ports: RS-232C serial port, PS/2 port and the USB.

The cordless (or wireless) mouse uses infrared and Bluetooth devices to receive and send signals. The advantage of cordless mouse is that the user wouldnt have to deal with messy wires. It is necessary though, for the pc (or laptop notebook) to have a Bluetooth or infrared capabilities. Also, most cordless mouse require batteries to operate.

Use the foot mouse when you do not want your hands to get off the key-board. This unusual idea was prompted by Hunter Digital, for the purpose that both hands can continually work on the keyboard while the foot can simultaneously move the mouse.

The touchpad (or glidepoint) is a usual input device found on laptop notebooks, and portable PCs. This built-in mouse and mouse pad is operated by the fingers gliding along the pad which sends signals to the censors and eventually moves the cursor. Like a normal external mouse, the touchpad also has two buttons which you can click to access icons, buttons and tabs.

The intellimouse, which is also known as the scroll mouse has become the standard mouse that comes along with the PC set. It has a wheel in between the two buttons that can be used to scroll up and down on the window. You dont have to point and drag on the vertical scroll bar which is usually at the side of the window. On some programs, the wheel can be used to open a link in tab.

Normally, the ball of the mouse is found inside the mouse. However, the trackball mouse has the ball on top of the gadget. This reduces the movement of the wrist of the user. The fingers or the thumb are used to move the ball that prompts the cursor to point at an object in the screen.

The trackpoint is another built-in device found inmost laptop notebooks and portable pc. It is a subtle, almost like a pencil eraser isometric joystick located between the letters GH and B. It enables the user to navigate the cursor without removing his hands on the keyboard. The two buttons of this joystick are found under the spacebar.

You must choose a mouse in which you, the user, will comfortable using. It would be best to check for the following in choosing a mouse:

Find a mouse that is as flat as possible and that would fit just right in your palm. This would reduce wrist extension.

Find a mouse that would easily glide as you prompt it. This way, you can reduce tension in your wrist and you can prevent restrictions in the circulation of blood. Remember, it is in your wrist where your pulse is–it should have a relaxed and free flow of blood to avoid injuries.

It is also beneficial to find a mouse that easily be configures to a left or right hand usage. This way, should your other hand be tired, you can shift the work to the other and give the former hand a little rest.

In the United States, Bluetooth gets absolutely no
respect. It is however, becoming more and more
common in notebooks, PDAs, and especially cell
phones. Bluetooth will provide wireless users a
way to transmit small amounts of data over short
distances.

Now, Bluetooth is facing stiff competition from
new wireless technology. Referred to as UWB or
Ultra Wideband, it promises data transfer of up
to 480 MB a second – while most current Bluetooth
devices transfer data up to 721 KB a second.

For the time being, Bluetooth devices are surely
cropping up. Below, we will look at some of
the accessories offered with Bluetooth technology.

Talking to the dashboard
When pairing it with a cell phone, the CCM Blue
Warrior car kit becomes a great speaker phone that
plugs into the power adapter of your vehicle. The
noise cancelling microphone will reduce background
noise efficiently, with the large buttons making
adjusting the speaker volume a snap. Although
the Blue Warrior is far from sexy or sleek, it’s
very practical.

Tiny tuning box
Part MP3 player and part hands free phone, the
compact and lightweight Sony HBM-30 is an attractive
gadget that lets you accept calls with minimal
interruption of your tunes. When you get an incoming
call it will automatically pause your music, then
you speak into the built in microphone that you
can wear around your neck or clip to your clothes.

The pen
With Nokia’s SU-1B digital pen, you can doodle and
make hand written notes in ink on a special pad
then transmit them from the pad to your Bluetooth
phone. Being an alternative to typing on a cell
phone keypad, the pen is very handy, although a
pricey tool from MMS fans.

Snapshots
If you want to make slide shows with your camera
photos, the Nokia SU-2 image viewer will let you
disply your pictures on a TV or projector. Simply
hook this square gray device to your TV’s input
with the built in cable, then beam the pictures
to the SU-2 from your Bluetooth enabled phone and
the photo fest will begin.

This device is a snap to set up and use, although
it displays resolutions of up to 640 by 480. If
you have a newer phone that takes high resolution
photos, you won’t be able to use the Nokia SU-2
image viewer.

Keep in mind, the 640 by 480 pixel photos will
appear blocky on TV screens, no matter what you
do. If your phone can send batches of photos, you
can create a slide show – although Nokia claims
you can use sequentially beamed shots as well.

Below, are 10 benefits and reasons to use Bluetooth
technology.

1. Wireless
As you probably already know, there are many benefits
and advantages to using wireless devices. Along with
improving safety as a result of eliminating wires
you don’t need, wireless also offers you plenty of
other advantages. When traveling with your laptop
or other wireless devices, you’ll no longer have to
worry about bringing connection cables.

2. Bluetooth is actually inexpensive
The technology of Bluetooth is cheap for companies
to implement, which results in lower costs for the
company. These savings are then passed from the
company on to you.

3. Bluetooth is automatic
Bluetooth doesn’t have you set up a connection or
push any buttons. When two or more devices enter
a range of up to 30 feet of each other, they will
automatically begin to communicate without you
having to do anything.

4. Standardized protocol
Bluetooth is standardized wireless, meaning that
a high level of compatibility among devices is
guaranteed. Bluetooth will connect devices to
each other, even if they aren’t the same model.

5. Low interference
Bluetooth devices almost always avoid interference
from other wireless devices. Bluetooth uses a
technique known as frequency hopping, and also
low power wireless signals.

6. Low energy consumption
As a result of Bluetooth using low power signals,
the technology requires very little energy and will
use less battery or electrical power as a result.
This is an excellent benefit for mobile devices,
as Bluetooth won’t drain the battery.

7. Sharing voice and data
The standard for Bluetooth will allow compatible
devices to share data and voice communications.
This is great for mobile phones and headsets, as
Bluetooth simplifies driving and talking on your
cell phone.

8. Instant PAN (Personal Area Network)
You can connect up to seven Bluetooth devices to
each other within a range of up to 30 feet, forming
a piconet or PAN. For a single room, you can
also set up multiple piconets.

9. Upgradeable
Upgradeable is the standard for Bluetooth. There
are newer versions of Bluetooth in the works,
which offer many new advantages and backward
compatible with older versions.

10. The technology stays
Bluetooth technology is a world wide, universal
wireless standard. With it being as popular as
it is, you can count on it being around for years
to come. As more and more devices start to use
Bluetooth technology, more manufacturers will be
eager to make their products compatible. A chain
reaction will occur, making Bluetooth the standard
for cutting edge wireless.

Because it meets the basic needs of connectivity in
close range, Bluetooth has a very bright future
ahead of it. Bluetooth is actually the result of
initiatives from nine leading communications and
computer industry giants, including 3-COM, Sony,
Lucent, IBM, Nokia, Microsoft, etc.

Since the forming of the original group, more than
1,800 manufacturers around the world have joined
the initiative. According to reports, the Bluetooth
technology is expected to be built into more than
100 million devices, with over 670 million enabled
Bluetooth devices.

Resulting from the amazing success of WAP (Wireless
Application Protocol), the adoption of smart phones
and hand held devices, Bluetooth can easily have
an amazing impact on your day to day life. Bluetooth
is one of the key technologies that can help to
make the mobile information society happen, by
blurring the possibilities between home, the office,
and the outside world.

The seamless integration and connectivity that
Bluetooth promises will make it possible to explore
a wide range of interactive and highly transparent
personalized services which were actually quite
difficult to dream of simply because of the
complexity involved with making such devices
communicate with each other.

Many Bluetooth pilot products have already been
rolled into the market and backed by big vendors,
which is a healthy sign for the overall acceptance
of the technology. The support for Bluetooth isn’t
limited to companies that develop only Bluetooth
enabled products.

The applications for Bluetooth can have great
impacts on other industries as well. The adoption
of Bluetooth technology is expected to spread
throughout the industry of computers.

Unlike infrared technology, Bluetooth is used by
many different wireless devices. Bluetooth offers
exceptional quality for short range wireless, even
going through walls and obstructions. While
infrared is the biggest competitor at this time,
Bluetooth far surpasses it, proving to millions that
it is the wireless communication technology of the
present day and age.

In the beginning, Bluetooth started with version 1.0,
then gradually moved from there. The current
version is 2.0+EDR, with another version currently
in development. The technology behind the Bluetooth
specification always getting better and better,
which is why it’s so popular.

In the future, you can expect the technology
behind Bluetooth to get better. Bluetooth has
proven to be the wireless standard of the future,
offering you wireless connectability for hundreds
of different devices. For cell phones or other forms
of wireless connections, Bluetooth is the one
technology that you don’t want to find yourself
without.

Bluetooth is easily the best in wireless handheld
technology. When it comes to learning, Bluetooth
can get quite complicated. To help you, you’ll find
the key learning points of Bluetooth below:

1. Bluetooth is an energy efficient, low
overhead communication protocol that’s ideal for
interdevice communications.
2. Unlike infrared, Bluetooth doesn’t require
a line of sight.
3. Depending on the implementation, Bluetooth
can have a range of up to 100 meters.
4. The specification of Bluetooth consists of
a Foundation Profile Document and a Foundation Core
Document.
5. The protocol stack for Bluetooth consists
of core protocols, cable protocols, and even adapted
protocols.
6. The transmitter operates around the 2.4
GHz frequency band.
7. The data channel will change frequency, or
hops, 1,600 times in a second, between the 79 allocated
channels in the ISM band.
8. Bluetooth utilizes a spread spectrum
frequency hopping RF characteristic to ensure that
independant networking operates when the other
devices are in range.
9. A piconet is formed when one or more
devices open up a channel of communication.
10. A piconet can have a master and up to
seven slaves.
11. Communication of the interdevice is
based on the concepts of channels.
12. All Bluetooth devices are capable of
transmitting voice.
13. The channel has a total capacity of
1 MB per second.
14. There are two types of channels with
Bluetooth – SCO (Synchronous Connection Oriented) and
ACL (Asynchronous Connectionless).
15. The SCO channels are time oriented, and
are therefore primarily used for transferring time
critical data such as voice.
16. ACL channels are normally used for
communicating data.
17. Data contained in a packet can be up to
2,745 bits in length.
18. In a single piconet, there can be up
to three SCO links containing 64,000 bits a second
each.
19. To avoid collision and timing problems,
SCO links are reserved slots that are set up by
the master.
20. The masters can support up to three
SCO links with either one, two, or three slaves.
21. The slots that aren’t reserved for SCO
links can be used as ACL links.
22. The LMP (Link Management Protocol)
will handle link level security, error corrections,
and the establishment of communications links.
23. The LMP packets will have priority
over user packets that originate and form the
L2CAP layer.
24. The L2CAP layer will ensure an
acceptable quality of service.
25. No more than one ACL link can exist
at the L2CAP layer.

Bluetooth devices will normally operate at 2.4 GHZ
in the license free, globally available ISM radio
band. The advantage to this band includes worldwide
availability and compatibility. A disadvantage to
this however, is that the devices must share this
band with other RF emitters. This includes
automobile security systems, other wireless devices,
and other noise sources, such as microwaves.

To overcome this challenge, Bluetooth employs a
fast frequency hopping scheme and therefore uses
shorter packets than other standards within the
ISM band. This scheme helps to make Bluetooth
communication more robust and more secure.

Frequency hopping
Frequency hopping is basically jumping from frequency
to frequency within the ISM radio band. After a
bluetooth device sends or receives a packet, it
and the device (or devices) it’s communicating with
hop to another frequency before the next packet is
sent. This scheme offers three advantages:
1. Allows Bluetooth devices to use the
entirety of the available ISM band, while never
transmitting from a fixed frequency for more than a
short period of time. This helps insure that
Bluetooth conforms to the ISM restrictions on the
transmission quantity per frequency.
2. Ensures that any interference won’t
last long. Any packet that doesn’t arrive safely
to its destination can be resent to the next
frequency.
3. Provides a base level of security as
it’s very hard for an eavesdropping device to predict
which frequency the Bluetooth devices will use
next.

The connected devices however, must agree upon the
frequency they will use next. The specification
in Bluetooth ensures this in two ways. First, it
defines a master and slave type relationship between
bluetooth devices. Next, it specifies an algorithm
that uses device specific information when
calculating the frequency hop sequences.

A Bluetooth device that operates in master mode can
communicate with up to seven devices that are set in
slave mode. To each of the slaves, the master
Bluetooth device will send its own unique address
and the value of its own internal clock. The
information sent is then used to calculate the
frequency hop sequences.

Because the master device and each of the slave
devices use the same algorithm with the same initial
input, the connected devices will always arrive
together at the next frequency that they have agreed
upon.

As a replacement for cable technology, it’s no
wonder that Bluetooth devices are usually battery
powered, such as wireless mice and battery powered
cell phones. To conserve the power, most devices
operate in low power. This helps to give Bluetooth
devices a range of around 5 – 10 meters.

This range is far enough for wireless communication
but close enough to avoid drawing too much power
from the power source of the device.

Bluetooth technology offers three different types
of defined ranges, based on output ranges. Class
1 devices are the most powerful, as they can have
up to 100 mW of power, with a regular antenna
giving them a range of around 130 – 330 feet.

The class 2 devices are lower power, offering up
to 2.5 mW of power. A regular antenna will give
them a range of around 50 – 100 feet. Class 3
devices use even less power, up to 1 mW of power
to be exact. With a regular antenna, they will
have a range of around 16 – 33 feet.

Even though you may not realize it, Bluetooth
wireless technology has never been intended for
anything other than short distance types of
communication. With Bluetooth wireless, the short
range is actually a benefit.

For one, the short range will reduce the change of
interference between your devices and those that
belong to others who are nearby. Overall, this
is a basic type of security, designed to protect
you and your devices.

Secondly, the lower power used for short range
means a longer battery life. Most Bluetooth
devices will get their power from a battery,
meaning that anything you can do to lengthen the
battery life is very important.

The wireless networking offered by Bluetooth is
actually among the best, even though it uses
short range communication. Bluetooth is used
with wireless controllers, the internet, and
even wireless headsets.

For the best in short range technology, Bluetooth
is extremely hard to beat. If you’ve never tried
Bluetooth before, now is the time. It’s the best
with wireless networking, especially for those
who enjoy hands free talking on their cell phone.

Version 1.1 and earlier
Since the technology of Bluetooth was introduced in
1998, several specification versions have been
released. Versions 1.0 and 1.0B had too many issues
and problems for manufacturers to develop devices
for Bluetooth. The main issue was the lack of
communication among the devices.

The core specification version 1.1 is the first
successful operating version of Bluetooth. Version
1.1 corrected a majority of the bugs and problems
found in earlier versions.

Version 1.2
Many of the newer Bluetooth devices, such as the
newer cell phones are being sold with the newer
Bluetooth version 1.2. This version offers backward
compatability with Bluetooth 1.1, faster transmission
speeds, received signal strength, and a host
controller interface (HCI) support for 3 wire UART.

Bluetooth version 2.0
It’s true that there may be multiple communication
technologies, although they all share one common
trait – faster is better. Bluetooth specialists
realized this, and therefore worked on improving
the speeds of version 1.2. The newest version,
version 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) was
accounced in 2004 and became available in late
2005.

Version 2.0 delivers data transfer rates of up
to three times that of the original version of
Bluetooth. Version 2.0 also provides enhanced
connectivity. With Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, you’ll
be able to run more devices at the same time -
with more efficiency.

Computers and even computer related devices are
expected to be some of the first devices to
encorporate Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, followed of
course by audio and imaging devices.

Version 2.0 is backward compatible with previous
versions, three times faster, and offers an
enhanced data rate of 2.1 MB a second. It also
offers broadcast and multicast support, along
with a further enhanced bit error rate
performance, making it the best Bluetooth has
ever seen.