MAKE THE WIRES GO AWAY
I hate wires. Besides taking up space and getting tangled while
trying to go from point A to point B, they have the knack of turning
beautiful, expensive equipment into looking like a rat's nest. Ask
anyone who owns a decent stereo or video system about the wires and
watch them roll their eyes. Consumer electronic devices such as our
cell phones make life so much more enjoyable. In fact, cordless phones
are right up there on the enjoyable list. And what makes them so,
well, enjoyable is the absence of the cord. That goes for computer
devices as well. The lack of wires is a wonderful thing. In fact, I'd
be happy if I never saw another wire again in my entire lifetime. With
wireless network standards such as 802.11b and Bluetooth, we now have
cordless mice, keyboards and printers. Hopefully we'll continue to see
the development of many other cordless devices such as microphones,
speakers, scanners, and even video displays.
 In
support of that effort, Actiontec has come up with their USB Bluetooth
Adapter. This tiny Plug and Play accessory enables any PC or notebook
computer with a USB port to communicate wirelessly with any Bluetooth
v1.1 compatible device, including printers, PDAs, mobile phones,
keyboards and mice. The adapter is around the size of a small
highlighter and comes with a shirt-pocket clip. Just plug it into any
available USB port and it will let your computer communicate with up
to seven Bluetooth devices up to 33 feet away.
Bluetooth is a wireless standard designed for reliable short
distance communication where a cord would normally be used. For
example, many new cell phones incorporate Bluetooth. Such phones allow
their users to wear a wireless earpiece, replacing the one with that
annoying dangling wire. On computers, several printers have appeared
on the market that have built-in Bluetooth so that you need not have
to wire the printer to your computer. But in order to use these
Bluetooth peripherals, your computer must either have Bluetooth built
in. If not, you can still get the add-on Bluetooth device such as the
one from Actiontec.
Once installed, you can control most any Bluetooth enabled device.
With your Bluetooth enabled cell phone for example, you can use it as
a high-speed modem for on-the-go wireless data communications. You can
also transfer the phone's address book back and forth between the
computer and the phone. Of course, your cell phone provider must offer
the data service, and you must have the proper software to transfer
the address book. Bluetooth simply provides the cordless connection
between the phone and your laptop.
The Actiontec adapter lets multiple users to share computer
resources. Any computer equipped with the adapter can use the same
Bluetooth-enabled printer. Documents, MP3 files and other data can be
swapped between computers and PDAs, or between any two computers using
the adapter.
And if you're concerned about security using the adapter, the
Actiontec USB Bluetooth Adapter protects your data from intruders by
using native 40- and 128-bit WEP encryption.
The Actiontec USB Bluetooth Adapter sells for $39.95 and works with
Windows 98SE, ME, 2000 and XP. The unfortunate fact about wires is
that they will probably never completely go away. But with the growing
acceptance of the current wireless standards along with the appearance
of more and more cordless devices, perhaps our children's children
will never know what a knot is.
www.actiontec.com |
