Bluetooth, WAP and 3G

What is this Bluetooth thing?

Bluetooth is a new technology designed to allow easy communications between nearby yuppy gadgets such as mobile phones, handheld computers, printers, laptops, workstations and electric toothbrushes. (The last one may not be serious)

It communicates by radio (similar to wireless networking) in a 10 metre radius. It lets you do neat things like have your laptop communicate with the mobile phone in your briefcase and connect to the internet or collect your email.

I suppose that before long, we'll all have Bluetooth-like devices in our wristwatches so we can connect to Britney Spears websites while travelling on the bus. Can't wait.

WAP?

WAP, or Wireless Application Protocol, is a communications language that lets mobile phones and handheld computers connect to the (specially designed) web pages on the Internet. Of course the screens are tiny, and have low resolution and few colours, but if you're travelling and need Tibet's weather forecast for the next day it may be handy.

Some WAP devices in 2002

And 3G?

"Third Generation" mobile phone technology aims to increase the speed at which WAP-enabled devices can communicate with the Internet. Current speeds are pretty low - e.g. 33Kbps (about 33,000 bits per second or about 4200 bytes per second) - but 3G promises to get this up to between 150Kbps and 2000Kbps. This will allow videoconferencing in taxis, watching TV on the toilet, downloading Britney Spears movie clips during board meetings - and other vital, life-fulfilling functions :-)

And the Shoe Phone?

Fans of Maxwell Smart, Secret Agent 86, might fondly remember the first mobile phone...

Spy phone built into secret agent Maxwell Smart's left shoe on the espionage comedy GET SMART (1965-70). His shoe phone number was 306. When he dialed the number 117, his shoe would convert into a gun. Max's shoes also contained deadly weaponry. Housed in a small compartment of his left heel were two pellets-the small one explodes when thrown or heated; the larger one was a suicide pill which killed painlessly in twenty seconds when swallowed. In the movie spin-off 'The Nude Bomb', a.k.a. 'The Return of Maxwell Smart' (1980), the shoe phones were updated to include touch-tone dialing and an answering machine.

Note: this information is not likely to be needed to attempt the 2003 exam.