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February 6, 2002

Bluetooth and (not Versus) Wi-Fi

By Glenn Fleishman

I’ve been corresponding the last few days with a fellow author working on breaking down the differences between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi/802.11b, and I think I’ve come up with a clear set of differences on the approach that developers, makers, and backers of the two take to the respective technologies.

Bluetooth proponents picture a world of roaming devices and people: at any point, you might want to sync your Palm to your computer, transfer info between a cell phone and a laptop, print to a nearby printer, retrieve a stock quote, or perform some relatively low-bandwidth task that requires the cooperation of another device. You might also want to be able to create ad hoc workgroups with the people you’re standing or sitting near, exchanging a variety of rich but compact information. The cable replacement notion originally pushed seems less relevant with the improvement in USB hardware and software; rather, it’s the opportunistic quality of Bluetooth that’s appealing. Wherever you are, whenever you need it, you can use resources.

Wi-Fi backers break the world into zones at home, work, and on the road, that offer access to larger networks: Wi-Fi’s current purpose is to create a seamless entity that you can plug into and out of with no wire, no plug, and no configuration. As the mesh of public hot spots grows finer, and as more offices and homes install Wi-Fi networks, a Wi-Fi user should never need to have a particular place to work, or one in which network-style resources (Web, fileservers, corporate network, email, streaming media) shouldn’t be available on demand and with minimal fuss.

Distilled: Wi-Fi solves bandwidth-heavy, network-based (whether intranet or Internet) connectivity; Bluetooth offers ad hoc, resource-based opportunistic availability.

TechTV Features Matt Peterson of BAWUG

Cable channel TechTV’s Chris Pirillo (of LockerGnome fame) featured Matt Peterson in a segment today: Matt is one of the movers behind BAWUG (Bay Area Wireless User’s Group), one of the best sources of information on the practical and fun uses of Wi-Fi out there. Matt is a very well-spoken gent, able to distill his massive technical knowledge into sensible, accurate, understandable explanations. [via Chris Pirillo]

Posted by Glennf at February 6, 2002 1:03 PM

Categories: Unclassified

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