Chapter 1
Palm™ Bluetooth Card Overview
2
Bluetooth technology
Bluetooth technology is the enabling technology of the Palm Bluetooth Card.
Bluetooth technology provides flexible, inexpensive, easy-to-use wireless
connectivity between devices. This technology offers several key benefits to the
user, including the following:
■
Wireless connectivity
■
A bridge to the Internet
■
Connectivity at close range
Wireless connectivity
The Bluetooth wireless technology was originally developed to solve the cable
clutter problems consumers faced when connecting multiple devices. For example,
by using Bluetooth technology, a Palm handheld can now interface with a mobile
phone equipped with Bluetooth technology without requiring physical cable
connections or IR (infrared) line-of-sight connections.
The types of connections for which cable clutter can be eliminated with Bluetooth
technology include the following:
■
Palm handheld to mobile phone
■
Palm handheld to wireless LAN access point
■
Palm handheld to laptop computer
■
Palm handheld to printer
The Internet bridge
There are two ways that Bluetooth technology enables you to build a wireless
bridge to established networks like the Internet or campus/corporate intranets:
Dial-up networking
This form of the Internet bridge is no different from the
method many people use to access the Internet today. It
entails dialing into the Internet through a modem and an
ISP (Internet Service Provider). In this case, the user’s
mobile phone serves as the modem. Bluetooth technology
eliminates the need for a physical cable connection in this
scenario.
NOTE
In order to connect to the Internet using a mobile
phone, you must have both a wireless operator that
supports data services and an ISP account.
